Margaret Chase Smith was a Republican senator from Maine. As a freshman senator in 1950, she rose to defend Americans' free-speech rights against the red-baiting of Senator Joseph McCarthy, delivering what became known as her "Declaration of Conscience". "As an American, I condemn a Republican fascist just as much as I condemn a Democrat communist," she said. The speech was the brave beginning of McCarthy's eventual end. Susan Collins, another Republican senator from Maine, has cited Ms Smith as a role model.
Asking someone to repeat a phrase you'd not only heard very clearly but were also exceedingly angry about was around Defcon II in the lexicon of squabble.