State Rep. Alan Boothe was the guest speaker at the Pike County Republican Women’s meeting on Wednesday.

Boothe “pop quizzed” the group and, if grades had been taken, there probably would have been few passing marks.

If there were those who knew the significance of the date Feb. 9, 1950, no hands were raised.

Boothe told the Republican gathering that, on that date in Wheeling, West Va., Joe McCarthy attacked President Harry Truman’s foreign policy agenda by charging that the State Department and Secretary Dean Acheson harbored traitorous Communists, 205 of them.

The term McCarthyism was derived from that speech and has come to mean the use of reckless and unfair accusations in the name of suppressing political disloyalty.

Boothe, laughingly, said that his words would not have such an impact. However, he did say that the actions take during the recent Legislative session will “forever change” Alabama politics.

“We made sweeping changes,” Boothe told the Pike County Republican Women and their guests. “The immigration law needs some tweaking but it is one that we can work with. The cost of illegal immigration is horrendous. I have no problem with people coming into the United State but there is a right way and a wrong way. We have a process whereby people can come into our country legally. That’s the right way.”

Boothe said the Legislature passed a new budget process that will take the state into the future.

He said that the Legislature approved a Health Care bill that will give small business owners a 200 percent tax break on health insurance for their employees.

Ethics reform was a big issue and the Legislature did away with double dipping and that bill will go into effect in 2014.

Boothe said that he takes pride in the Ethics reform bill and is hopeful that it will clean up the corruption in Montgomery.

“I’m a firm supporter of the late-term abortion bill that was passed that will stop the murdering of late-term babies,” he said. “I’m also pound of the tenure bill that will give local school boards and superintendents authority to fire teachers who are not doing their jobs.”

Boothe said this past Legislative session has received high marks by those who evaluate such things.

“I think that this was the best Legislative session that we’ve had in a long time,” he said. “We made some sweeping changes but the government can’t be all things to all people all the time. Unlike Washington, we can’t print more money.”

Boothe said that, if there’s a sewage problem in a household and the sewage keeps backing up, the solution is not to take the roof off to make room for more sewage. “The solution is to get rid of the sewage.”

“We’ve got some real problems in this country but we’re kicking the can down the road,” Boothe said. “But somebody’s got to deal with it.”