Untitled. [Cartoon depicting Joe McCarthy challenging Robert La Follette]

This cartoon depicts the end of the forty-year La Follette dynasty, as Joseph R. McCarthy beat three-term incumbent Robert M. La Follette, Jr., in the 1946 Repbulican primary in Wisconsin. The Legislative reorganization Act of 1946 (PL 79-601) established a Joint Committee on the Organization of the Congress in February 1945, in an effort to improve Congressional organization and processes. The Joint Committee was led by La Follette as chairman. La Follette had devoted nearly all of his time to that committee instead of his senatorial campaign, allowing McCarthy to win. The cartoon alludes to McCarthy’s campaign claims of heroic war exploits.