There is an odd excitement in the right-wing media over an exchange between MSNBC host Karen Finney and conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt. The right-wing talker invited Finney on his program after she linked the rhetoric of Ted Cruz to that of Joe McCarthy, an unsurprising comparison considering the Texas senator's previous hunts for communists on the Harvard Law School faculty.

Finney's comparison was not unique as numerous others have observed the same thing, and Cruz claimed the comparison to the disgraced senator led him to conclude he is “doing something right.”

Instead of discussing Cruz's behavior, however, Hewitt decided to discuss the history of McCarthyism, ostensibly defending the Wisconsin senator.

“Was Alger Hiss a communist?” Hewitt asked. Finney responded, “I think that's distracting from the point I was trying to make.”

Finney continued, “And the point I was trying to make was, you had Joe McCarthy was on a mission to root out communism in the government, and he did it in such a way that created a hysteria that was very unhealthy for this country. Do you really disagree with me on that?”

Hewitt refused to engage with Finney's question and refused to discuss the damage McCarthy had done, just like he refused to acknowledge the damage to our discourse caused by Ted Cruz's behavior. This is after Finney explicitly stated, “Obviously, spying on this country and betraying this country is absolutely wrong. Of course it is.”

Hewitt somehow views Finney's hang-up as a victory. However, what this interview demonstrated was Hewitt's inability to defend the rhetoric Cruz and others use within Hewitt's own party. Instead he chose to engage in a 50-year-old conversation involving Alger Hiss that has no relevance to today's discussions.

Finney later tweeted that she hung up because Hewitt “was interested in a shout fest not an honest conversation.” And she was absolutely right.