Word: byrds
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Vice President Walter Mondale and Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd blundered as they moved to shut off an eight-day filibuster-a fight that was actually being waged in support of the President's position. The impatience of the principals was understandable-up to a point. Byrd wanted a quick Senate vote, certain that deregulation would win momentarily but lose in conference with the House. He also saw the filibuster as a threat to his developing reputation for running the Senate briskly and feared that the Senate would end up with no natural gas bill at all. The filibuster...
Carter's position was more complex. Presumably anxious to get his program moving, he did not want to discourage such supporters as Abourezk and Metzenbaum, but he also did not want to step on Byrd's leadership prerogatives. In the end, he apparently failed to communicate to anyone his desires on whether to end the filibuster...
...vote. The Senate had run through only about 200 of them-and seven days, including one 37-hour session-when serious moves began among the Senate leadership to curtail the filibuster. The two filibuster leaders said they would end the talkathon if Carter asked them to do so. But Byrd advised the White House to stay out of the Senate's business. He would take care of the filibuster his own way. What followed was a unique show of parliamentary force that outraged much of the Senate...
...Thus Byrd was shaken by last week's filibuster, which he had striven mightily to head off for fear that it would tarnish the Senate's image and kill a major part of Carter's energy bill. That fear-and a certain anger at the inconvenience-was widespread among colleagues, but Byrd managed to be philosophical about the mercurial nature of his beloved institution. "The Senate is very much like a violin," said the leader, who plays one himself. "The sound will change with the weather, the dampness, the humidity. The Senate is a place of great...
Supporters and opponents give conflicting preliminary counts of how the Senators are leaning on ratification. In the end, the fate of the treaties may rest with two key Senators: Majority Leader Robert Byrd and Minority Leader Howard Baker. Despite calls from President Carter, both remain uncommitted. Baker told the President: "I have decided not to decide for the moment." Byrd has indicated only that if he makes up his mind to push the treaties, he will do so in an all-out way, directing Senate strategy. If he decides to oppose them, he will cast his negative vote...