Word: byrds
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...October, it will have compiled a record in passing landmark activist legislation exceeded in recent years only by the Great Society 89th Congress of 1965 and 1966. Says House Speaker Jim Wright by way of explanation: "There were pent-up needs too long deferred." Adds Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd: "We were too long in the desert. It seemed like 40 years...
...What Byrd alludes to is the six years -- not 40 -- from 1981 through 1986 < when Republicans controlled the Senate. Unable to dominate powerful Capitol Hill committees and staffs for the first time in 26 years, Democrats chafed as Reagan made Congress dance to his less-government tune by advancing deregulation and cutting back on funds for housing, education and college loans. But when Reagan's 1986 plea for continued Republican rule of the Senate failed to persuade enough voters, the Democrats won a 55-45 majority. With a party "more unified than at any time in my 36 years...
Wright was ready. But as soon as the twin TelePrompTers on the podium began to roll, he discovered that the ghostly text was not his prepared speech but that of Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd, who was scheduled to follow him. Wright, a stump speaker of the old school, improvised...
...Democrats Southern attack didn't stop with Richards and Bentsen. Some prominent names included Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton and Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd. The Texas entourage included House Speaker Jim Wright, Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower, former Congresswoman Barbara Jordan and Congressman Mickey Leland. Leland and the highly respected Jordan seconded Bentsen's selection as vice president. Even the ending of the convention had a Texan taste to it. Singer Jennifer Holliday closed out the convention with the old rendition of "America the Beautiful." And where is she from? You guessed it. She's from Texas...
Happily faced with a no-lose situation, Byrd, who sponsored the bill along with Howard Metzenbaum of Ohio and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, repeatedly turned back Republican pleas for compromise. Once armed with the votes, they handily defeated an amendment that would have exempted layoffs, as opposed to outright plant closings, from the 60-day notification requirement...