The passing of the great Harmon Killebrew recently caused a few Idaho political, history and baseball junkies to reflect on another guy from Payette, Idaho – one-term wonder Sen. Herman Welker. Welker is mostly forgotten to history these days, and probably deserves to be, except for two or maybe three footnotes in history. The Welker footnotes: 1) Welker’s nickname, Little Joe from Idaho, references his bosom buddy status with Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the Commie hunting, red-baiting politician from Wisconsin who had an entire era of politics – McCarthyism – named after him. Welker was just about McCarthy’s biggest defender, even as Joe was censured by the United States Senate. 2) Welker’s re-election was derailed in 1956 by a fresh faced young Idaho Democrat by the name of Frank Church/Marc Johnson, The Johnson Report. More here.

Question: Are you surprised that a former U.S. senator for Idaho would be 'Tailgunner Joe' McCarthy's biggest supporter?