In 1954, with those words, Joseph Welch, an old-fashioned Boston lawyer, made headlines and rhetorical mincemeat of Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Those were the good old days when a man's dishonorable conduct was enough, in and of itself, to bring disgrace on his person in the eyes of his fellow citizens. Not so today. Today we have no decency; no shame; only the lust for personal and power remains, untempered by any sense of decency or code of honor.

Witness the on-going spectacle in New Jersey, home of Sen. Robert Torricelli and other garbage. Torricelli's dropping out of the Senate race is tacit admission of his guilt as charged in the taking of multiple bribes from David Chang, now serving time for his part in those acts. Nonetheless, at the press conference announcing his decision, Torricelli offers that he has given 20 years of his life to the people of New Jersey and the United States. Presumably, this is Torricelli's self-exculpation for his multiple criminal acts. But is he ashamed of himself? He doesn't say. His fellow democrats, such as New Jersey's other democrat senator, J. Corzine, and T. Daschle, democrat of the great state of North Dakota, offer nothing but fulsome praise of Torricelli. What they are truly concerned about is that without Torricelli the democrats might lose control of the Senate.

What we have in New Jersey is a United States Senator on the take. There is no question as to the facts. Torricelli is as guilty as sin which, like decency, is a concept foreign to him and his fellow democrats. But why are we surprised? Look at the recent occupant of the White House. A fulsome liar to his fellow citizens ("I did not have sex with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky"); disbarred by Arkansas for lying to the courts in the Jones' case and fined $90,000 by a federal judge for more lies. In the old days, so derided by the glitterati, any one of those acts would be the basis for banishment from decent society, much less political office. Not so today. Clinton is lauded by the press, lavished with millions for his memoirs and paid enormous sums for untruthful speeches which revise the sordid history of his disgraced presidency.

Beyond New Jersey, we have two congressmen, also democrats, praising Iraq, urging our government to take Iraq's word at face value and saying that they do not believe the President of the United States but they do believe Saddam Hussein. When called on those points by George Stephanopolous on this past Sunday's This Week, they defended their remarks to the utter amazement (and credit) of Gorgeous George.

This whole business of prating, posturing and prevaricating with no concern for any aftermath is a relatively new syndrome in American life. And it smells to high Heaven. It is one thing to sin and attempt redemption by good works. Charles Colson of Watergate fame comes to mind. There, forgiveness has been and continues to be earned. In so many other instances, forgiveness is not a consideration. The strategy is that people have short memories and love a rogue. Perhaps. But remember, first and foremost, Robin Hood was a thief. Castro, recently lauded as a Lion in Winter by a New York Times profile, is factually a tin horn tyrant, a murderer and torturer of his political opponents and, for 45 years, an unelected dictator of a failed country. Still, the '60s beats, now grown-up, refuse to admit their early error about Castro.

Want more? Try this: how about a guy who is caught cheating on a college exam, is a long-time drunk, runs away from the scene of a homicide in which he was the sole survivor and then poses as a voice of conscience and moral authority?

Q. Have you no sense of decency, Sir?

A. No; none at all. I'm a U.S. Senator.

Joseph Welch's words need to be heard all over this land of ours. They need be hurled to those whose conduct is reprehensible, especially to those whom we elect to represent us. It is time to demand decency. Nothing less will do.