opening up data, encouraging collaborative work, issuing challenges. that means that the opportunity to have a more open government starts with a bipartisan commitment to lay that foundation. but what is critical is you ra e are handing off to the american people to take that raw more interesting products and services print >> monday night on "the communicators" on c-span 2. throughout campaign 2014, c-span has brought you more than 130 debates from across the country in races that will determine control of the next congress. this tuesday night, watch c-span's live election night coverage to see who wins, who loses, and which party will control the house and senate. our coverage begins at 8:00 p.m. eastern with results and analysis.

you will see candidate victory and concession speeches and some of the most closely watched senate races. throughout the night and into the morning, we want to hear from you with your calls, facebook comments, and tweets. campaign 2014 election night coverage on c-span. , the russell9 senate office building's caucus room has witnessed many senate investigation. in the second of a two-part program, don ritchie tells us about hearings held from the 1940's to the present day, including the 1950 four army mccarthy hearings and the watergate investigation. roomople come into this all the time, and it is used for lunches. it is used for receptions. it is used for lectures, meetings, awards ceremonies, announcements. all sorts of things happen here. it is a grand room. it is just a wonderful setting,

and immediately people are impressed by the dimensions of the room, by the wonderful carvings and the fixtures and chandeliers. there is even a plaque on the wall that lists the famous events that took place in this room. asked by a radio corresponded to describe this room to a radio audience that could not see it. room reminds me of grand opera because it is a magnificent setting. when there's an investigation, it usually has a large cast of characters and a convoluted plot, and everyone sits around waiting for the witness to sing. 1947.sion came along in the first televised hearing was general george marshall testifying. th american foreign-policy. he was secretary of state. the marshall plan was one of the big issues of the day. still emerging from the devastation of the most destructive war in history.

within its own resources, europe cannot achieve within a reasonable time economic stability. the solution would be much easier, of course, if all the nations of europe or cooperating but they are not. >> the real excitement of ings didon covering hear not happen until 1951 a freshman democratic senator from tennessee began a special investigation into organized crime, the mafia or crime in cities. and he started going around with cities,.ee to the rather than having everybody come to washington the committee went to new orleans, st. louis, kansas city, detroit, chicago new york and made the circuit. when it got to new orleans, the local tv station preempted put theoody" and

hearings on. that got a lot of attention in new orleans. is, people were glued to th because this was senators and monsters. it was a great combination and investigation. -- senators and monsters. -- and mobsters. as the committee travel, local tv started picking up on this. by the time it got to new york, it was like a broadway show doing is try out and getting to itthe great white way. it was not just local television anymore. one of the witnesses was frank costello who was a mobster in new york. tocourse, they came washington, and tv came to washington to cover this. parties,s were holding inviting their friends over to watch this because it was the best daytime television ever. into and keferver

unlikely presidential candidate. he ran in the primary. did not get the nomination, but in 1956, he ran for vice president. and so a lot of other senators obviously noted that television could really identify them as a major player and could elevate their stature and turn them into presidential candidates. 953, senator joseph mccarthy of wisconsin became the anairman of the old trum committee, the permit subcommittee on investigations. mccarthy had been a senator since 1947. he'd gotten into the anti-communist business in 1950 when he went to wheeling, west virginia, to give a lincoln's day talk and held up a piece o f said, i hold in my hand a list of known communists in the state department that the secretary is not doing anything about. at the time, mccarthy was really

reading from notes rather than from a prepared speech. even he cannot remember what he said. an associated press story came out and made headlines all over the country. and mccarthy seven became the nation's number one red hunter. this is at a time when alger hiss' case was going on. the rosenberg case was going on. mccarthy had nothing to do with hiss or rosenberg, but he was making charges -- against all sorts of people, including secretary of state george marshall and secretary of state dean at sent. -- dean acheson. when he got to be chairman of the committee on the permanent subcommittee on investigation, the senate thought he would get off that issue because there already was in anti-communist subcommittee, the interal security subcommittee. and it had jurisdiction over communist issues. but mccarthy felt that his

committee had jurisdiction over everything and he could do what he wanted. he was looking around to hire a chief counsel. he had some senior people, some people who, some decent reputations, people like john judge in became a watergate. he looked up robert kennedy. instead he hired roy cohen, who had worked in the justice department. this was a big mistake, because mccarthy needed somebody to slow him odnw. he would sometimes lose control and he needed a mature person. cohn was very young and a totally worth his person and egged because beyond. i have done a lot of or history of the people who work here at the time, and mccarthy had a villainous image in the historybooks. almost all the people who worked for him really liked joe mccarthy. he was a very nice guy.

he was the only senator who gave one of the staff a christmas present, for instance. he was the kind of person who went out of his way to help people. he was always lending money to the capitol police. he was sort of hail fellow well met. get before theld tv cameras, it was a dr. jekyll-mr. hyde. a different side of his personality came out. it shoeccked people who like hi. on television.re i think the millions of people can see how low a man can sink. an allegede how low m an can sink. when the cameras were turned off, he can throw his armor on the person he just attacked on the floor. a very odd person in a lot of ways. as an totally inept investigator. he was not focused enough to be able to do the hard work. also not a really great

investigator in the long run. the records of the committee are a total mismatch for that time period. they called up hundreds of witnesses to come to talk in closed session. we have recently published those closed sessions. it is clear they were her souls. -- were we hurdles. mccarthy was looking for who to bring out before the cameras. eled or ifn grov stonewalled mccarthy, they were likely to be called to the public session. ina person said it is true 1932i was a member of the communist party, but after a while, i realize the party was ridiculous and i got out after they signed a pact with nazi germany in 1939, and i have been anti-communist ever since. in other words, if they offered a reasonable expiration of their behavior, they were much less lightly to be called out in public. mccarthy wanted people who were either going to humble

themselves in front of him or look awful but -- stonewalling and taking the fifth amendment. we know now that, because of the intercepts, that there were communist spies in the government in the 1940's. we also know that presently know when that mccarthy paid attention to was involved in spying. they weren't ino on venona. the house un-american's activity had a much better track record in terms of investigating than did mccarthy. mccarthy floundered around. cohn hasd of 1930, roy started an investigation of fort monmouth, the army single corps in new jersey. he convince mccarthy they had found a link because julius rosenberg had once work there. he was sure there was a rosenberg spy ring at work. eventually, the army let 32

engineers be suspended because of the investigation. as the investigation was going on, it turned out mccarthy did not have evidence of these people. most, all of them were offered their jobs back. some of whom refused to go back to work. it really wound up hurting our s, which is our investigation. it was the one way we were able to track what was happening in the world and that was crippled by the mccarthy investigation. in the middle of all this, one of mccarthy's staff, david shine, got drafted. he was a young man. he got brought into the army as a private. mccarthy and roy cohn. cohn had a crush on david shine. cohn try to get shine an amrrmy commission, but he was not

qualified. then they began to bombard the army with requests for david shine to get weekends off. the committee was going to meet him for things. and eventually -- the army tried to placate the mccarthy. they started documenting all this. final bit army charge that mccarthy was continuing his fort monmouth investigation to blackmail them into special treatment for private shine. and mccarthy responded that the army was holding private shine hostage to stop his investigation. so now you have charge and counter charge. the senate had to investigate. and this is senator mccarthy's own committee but he is one of the plaintiffs. so he had to step down as chairman and let another chairman, senator chair. and that became the army vs carthy -- mccarthy. republican,t was a

dwight d eisenhower, who spent his entire adult life in the army. so the one institution that president eisenhower identify the most with and felt the warmest about was the institution that mccarthy was investigating. so now the entire eisenhower administration came down on the other side. and a lot of republicans who had been supporting mccarthy really realized they needed to support president eisenhower. so mccarthy's support began to erode. the army mccarthy hearings were hot television. abc, which was the third television network at the time, did, covered it gavel-to-gavel during the day. abc had very little daytime programming. covered it at the beginning, but they went back to their soap operas pretty quickly, and then at night, they would do the highlights. they would do a special program in the evening. at work during the

day, you could catch up with army-mccarthy at night. during the day, everybody was glued. ofo oral histories and a lot people said, i came home from school and my mother was watching television pitching never did that, but she was caught up watching the army mccarthy hearings. senator mccarthy was no longer chairman of the committee. and so, he could not control the committee. but he had a way of making sure that he was sort of the majordomo by interrupting with points of order. as soon as the first witness tried to speak, "point of order, mr. chairman." senator mccarthy would badger and attack the witnesses and raise questions about the credibility. in implied they were all communists. [gavel pounds] >> gentlemen, do i have to floor? to determine whether or not senator mccarthy is speaking -- state the point of order and

speak to it. suggest, im getting sick of sitting down at the end of the table and having whoever wants to interrupt in the middle of a sentence. said watchinghn television that night he realize that mccarthy was coming across terrible, as of bullying, humorless person. very on some pathetic figure. the army had the wisdom to hire a very talented lawyer from the who is anbert welch, old-school country lawyer type. but a very cagey, shrewd fellow. andadgered roy ocohn mccarthy with humor and really got under mccarthy's skin. eventually, mccarthy attacked, not welsh, but one of his one assistant attorneys who had been

a member of the national lawyers guild, which was the justice department -- the justice department thought was a communist front. therefore, implies that this attorney was sickly a communist. and -- was secretly a communist. welsh had worked out that there were certain things that cohn did not want to bring those up. we will not bring those up and lets you bring those up. when mccarthy cannot control himself and brought this up. cohn try to stop him. that is when welsh said, at long last, sir, have you no sense of decency? >> let us not assassinate this lad -- you've done enough. have you no sense of decency, sir, at olong last? have you left no sense of

decency? >> i know this hurts you, mr. welsh. >> senator, i think it hurts you, too. >> there was some evidence that welsh expected mccarthy to do this and was not quite as shocked as he appeared on television at the time. but the television audience were shocked, and mccarthy's personal standing eroded. interestingly enough, hollywood hired robert welsh. if you see " anatomy of a murder," he is the judge in th at. but he really did show mccarthy for what he was. and that undermines mccarthy's standing among the other senators. they began an investigation of mccarthy and his tactics. in december 1954, the senate voted to censure senator

mccarthy for conduct unbecoming a senator. the democrats, except for john kennedy who was in the hospital and half of the republicans, including prescott bush, father and grandfather of two presidents, wound up votingt to censure. senator mccarthy was never able to regain his national standing after that. he went into a tailspin, and he died at the age of 48 few years later. when roy cohn stepped down as the council of that committee, the committee hired robert kennedy to replace him. you can go through the records of the national archives pretty can tell the moment that cohn leaves and kennedy takes over. this mismatch of paperwork is suddenly replaced by nice, tight depositions. i looks like a serious attorney hast -- is in charge. kennedy brought together a very talented staff. and they began investigating, and continue some of the investigations that mccarthy off, includingt

an investigation of general electric. it had a union that was a communist-dominated union. and general electric as a result of this try to improve its public relations and hired an actor by the named of ronald reagan to do be a spokesman. >> good evening. tonight john forsythe source on the general electric theater. and we will see product reports that show how things could lead to a better life for us all. at general electric, progress is our most important products. reagan and really making him less of a hollywood actor and more of a public spokesman, a public figure. kennedy then, when the democrats came back into the majority, became the chief counsel of the committee an launched an investigation into racketeering. in the late 1950's, this is the room where robert kennedy interrogated jimmy half a and other labor leaders. on the committee serving with

him was his brother john f. kennedy and a republican senator barry goldwater. it was the first time that national television audiences got a chance to watch the two kennedy brothers and senator goldwater. it a big impact on all of their careers. >> and the only people -- you cannot tell us who you talk to besides you, mr. hoffa, and the other judgment. >> you ask him. >> i'm asking you. you're the one who made a report to the committee about what you found. now we find there are no records. we talk to you and the other derailment involved. -- other gentlemen in involved. 1960 when robert kennedy became the campaign manager for his brother's president campaign. john f. kennedy declared his presidential candidate -- candidacy in this room. kennedy -- >> for the presidency of the

united states. thend a lot of the staff of permanent subcommittee who during the day were investigating mccarthy, at night were in the back room with john f. kennedy's campaign. salinger, o'brien, a lot of people who became major players in the kennedy administration started out on the senate staff on the permanent subcommittee on investigation. that was not the permanent subcommittee. that was a special committee that was created out of the labo r committee and the permanent subcommittee. hybrid it was a committee. robert f kennedy announced a 9068 he was running for president in this room. -- announced in 1969. had ar edward kennedy very long career as chairman of the judiciary committee and other committees involved in things. when senator kennedy died in 2009, the senate named this room

for the three kennedy brothers, all of whom had served in the senate -- john, robert, and edward. and all of them had some major event in their career, from hearings like the jimmy hoffa hearings to announcing their sharing othero investigations and other nominations that were held in here. so this room is now called the kennedy caucus room. 1973, the watergate hearings opened in here. watergate was a real turning point, a turning point for the exitn, for the administration, but it was also a turning point for the investigation. general mccarthy had given a bad name to investigations. had given a bad name to investigations for this up in court weighed in. it gave a stigma. there were a number of books that came out for people that were civil libertarians in the 1950's denouncing investigations

in general and saying that they were not good for the nation. and congress was irresponsible. the watergate break-in happened in june, 1972. post"ile "the washington covered it for months, pretty much the rest of the press really let watergate's story drop. they did not think it was a big issue. they follow the campaign, president nixon versus george mcgovern. nixon won an and or surgery over mcgovern in 1972, despite the " s"shington post' investigation. by genera, 1973, on a story set, -- by january, 1973. a discovery that white house connection to the hush money that was paid to the burglars to keep them from spilling the beans. and at that point, congress realized they needed to look into it. so the senate voted to hold an

investigation. mike mansfield was the chairman, the majority leader at the time. usually when a resolution is submitted to hold a special investigation, the person that commits the resolution becomes chairman. edward kennedy had been chair of the subcommittee of the judiciary this started looking into watergate. and he suggested the creation of a special committee. but people thought of edward kennedy as a presidential candidate. mike mansfield realized they should not have anybody on this committee who could be seens as a presidential candidate. so he prevailed on sam irvin. a very conservative, constitutionally oriented lawyer from northe carolina. and not a presidential person. and several other senators, like herman tell much, and joseph wereya, dan iouye who respected by the other senators but not seen as presidential

candidates. the republicans picked howard ing member onr rank the committee. and some of the mix of members from ther caucus as well -- their caucus as well. they began an investigation, closed door. then they went to public hearings. again, i was in graduate school and working in the library of congress. and because we were just fixed on watching the hearings, and pbs was broadcasting the hearings live. the other networks were doing the highlights. and i lived in a group house full of graduate students, and we watch loads of watergate. i actually came over and took a day off from working at the library, came over here, sat on the stairs for hours waiting to get my turn to come in here. i stood in the back of the room and watched john dean on the third of fourth day of his testimony. there are all t senators.

the room was bright because of all of the tv lights. it was like watching a hollywood set. these were tv personalities. it was just a really electric time to be here for that hearing. >> i began by telling the president that there was a cancer growing on the presidency and if the cancer was not removed, the president himself would be killed by it. >> the senate actually got ready to hold an impeachment trial. one of the things they discovered was that they'd never had tv cameras in the senate chamber, and the public would look at this as a sort of star chamber event if they were not allowed to watch it. so, they actually installed the first television cameras in the chamber in 1974. and they, president nixon resigned before there was a trial. but they kept the cameras there until december. they turned them on just once, and that was enough -- to watch the

rockefeller inauguration as vice president. not until 1986 that the cameras were back in the senate chamber. >> so help me, god. >> so help me, god. [applause] watergate was 1973 and 1974. 1970's, youlate have senator frank church investigating irregularities in the cia and the fbi. this is in 1975 and 1976. there are major hearings held in here. that lease to the creation of the senate intelligence committee, because -- that leads to the senate intelligence committee because there is a charge that part of the congressional -- part of the exec branch is operating without congressional oversight. what the intelligence committee does is behind closed doors because it is classified.

after that, in 1983, the hart building opens up, the third of the senate office buildings, because the growth of the staff is happening at a very rapid pace. 1960's, there mid were less than 1000 employees on the senate staff. they were paid in cash twice a month. they stood in line to get an envelope full of cash. by the early 1970's because of watergate, the legislative branch to not feel you could trust the executive branch as much. before that, they had been relying on executive agencies to do a lot of the legwork for them. now they needed their own staff, they needed independent staff to evaluate what was happening. and so, they increased the size of the senate house staff considerably. and the senate staff went from about 1000 to maybe close to 7000. and so, eventually, they built

is hart building, which designed for modern senate operations. about half of the senators operate over there. thee is a large room called central hearing which is designed for modern television. this room was designed before there was television. and so there is to build i in any televised like. everything had to be brought in temporarily for investigations. since then, most of the big investigations have switched over to the hart building central hearing room. a few of the senior senators, like ted kennedy and others like to this room. they remember this. iran-contrae the hearings were held in the 1980's. so even then, iran-contra was chaired by senator in a way -- senator iouye. he like this room.

you get some major hearings over here. and also because sometimes the other room is booked. this is the room where the robert bork nomination hearings were. >> i never advised the white house how to meet, how to deal with the watergate special prosecution force. thomas'sarence nomination, a very controversial nomination. thomas was narrowly approved. the hearings were very important for both of those nominations. this room added to the setting. we can hear the echoes. you can hear " point of order, mr. chairman." you can hear the gavel. sittingmember sam irvin up there. it brings back memories. it certainly is filled with the echoes of history.