In the excellent 1962 movie The Manchurian Candidate one of the key characters is a rabble-rousing and bibulous US Senator called John Iselin.
In the movie his claim to fame and the cause of his rise to being a vice-presidential candidate is based on his campaign against supposed communist infiltrators in government. He is portrayed somewhat comically.
Was he intended to be a parody of Joseph McCarthy (who also showed excessive love of alcohol and campaigned against supposed communist infiltration)?