If the McCarthy in question is a Democrat, and especially if she is an Obama nominee (as in, EPA nominee Gina McCarthy), then the defintion of the New McCarthyism is "imposing completely ridiculous demands on a presidential nominee in order to give yourself a stupid fig-leaf excuse for opposing her nomination." Politico:
Republican leaders were unmoved, though, saying the Obama administration deserves blame for the impasse by refusing to fully answer questions that GOP nominees have posed about McCarthy and the EPA. They include questions about the “underlying data used to justify EPA’s job-killing regulations,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement to POLITICO.Democrats have noted that the GOP questions totaled more than 1,000 — what they call a record — with Vitter alone contributing 653.
Who on Vitter's staff got paid a taxpayer-funded salary to sit around and dream up 653 questions? How can anybody take these people seriously?
