Word: byrds
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...SALT. Church requested two liberals for committee vacancies: Muskie and Tsongas. He got Muskie, but Tsongas was rejected in favor of a conservative Nebraska Democrat, Edward Zorinsky, who after much public vacillation voted against the Panama Canal treaties last year. "There's no mystery behind that selection," said Byrd. "Zorinsky got the most votes on the Steering Committee...
...amid a group that so jealously guards its prerogatives. But Long had a friend in Mississippi's John Stennis, chairman of the Armed Services Committee. Sure, said Stennis. He was willing to drop a couple of members. "It's a small reduction," he acknowledged. Long then approached Byrd, who convened a hasty meeting of the Steering Committee. Boren landed a place on Finance as well as a debt to Long that will not be easy to repay...
Despite the conservative trend and the new combativeness of Republicans, Byrd quickly took charge of the 96th ses sion. "Bobby Byrd has a hammer inside that velvet glove," says Cranston. The man who plays a mean fiddle off-hours displayed some fan cy footwork on the Senate floor last week. Frustrated in past sessions by the increased use of the filibuster and the postcloture filibuster, Byrd decided to do something about both obstructionist tactics. After much study, he was convinced, just be fore the session began, that he had found an answer, though he was not telling anybody what...
...Byrd made his first move shortly after Vice President Mondale finished swearing in the newly elected Senators. The majority leader proposed to invoke cloture by a vote of three-fifths of the Senators in at tendance instead of the currently required 60 votes. He also wanted to eliminate the endless motions and amendments that make a post cloture filibuster possible. While the new Senators waited to have their pictures taken with Mondale, Byrd insisted on setting a time for a vote on his reforms. Otherwise, he warned, he would bring them up for a vote that would only require...
Minority Leader Howard Baker got the message and was soon talking com promise himself. He set up a Republican task force to study Byrd's proposals. "It is pretty clear now that something might be worked out," said Baker. "It is more than likely that there will be a meeting of minds." Was the majority leader bluffing about his new strategy? Nobody knew for sure, but nobody was willing to challenge his authority. In short, the Senate of the 96th Congress was in business...