This cartoon indicates the declining influence of Senator Joseph McCarthy during the months after the televised Army-McCarthy hearings, which exposed his aggressive, bullying interrogations of people suspected of anti-communism to a broad audience and helped undermine his public support. In Herblock’s cartoon, McCarthy, having stumbled on the ground, hands his brush of dark, tar-colored McCarthyism to Senator William E. Jenner and Vice President Richard Nixon, who are depicted as like-minded supporters, ready to continue the fight.