Word: dirksenism
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Saving Face. It was Dirksen who saved the Administration from its own intransigence. Acting without White House approval, he met quietly with Majority Leader Mike Mansfield and negotiated a face-saving compromise. Mansfield, unwilling to saddle his party with the political responsibility for the death of the surtax, readily agreed to a six-month extension, retroactive to the June 30 expiration date of the original tax. The concession was good enough for Dirksen. He contacted White House Aide Bryce Harlow, who conferred with Treasury Secretary David Kennedy and accepted on behalf of the President...
...past five years, Everett Dirksen has worked with evangelical zeal to press for a second constitutional convention. He aims to reverse by amendment the 1964 Supreme Court decision that state legislature districts must be drawn equitably on the sole basis of population: one man, one vote...
...Dirksen's vehicle is a section of Article V of the Constitution, never before invoked. It specifies that "on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states," Congress "shall call a convention for proposing amendments." Before becoming part of the Constitution, provisions advanced by the convention must be ratified by three-quarters of the states...
...ever actually assembled, a convention would ostensibly concern itself only with the so-called Dirksen amendment, which has been defeated twice in the Senate. The measure would reverse the court decision and permit election of one house of a bicameral state legislature on a basis other than population. Trouble is, there is nothing in the Constitution to limit such a convention to a single issue. As Ev Dirksen himself acknowledges, delegates might begin to rewrite the national charter...
...role of a latter-day James Madison, however, there is a maze of constitutional questions to be negotiated. All but seven of the 33 petitions, for instance, were passed by state legislatures that had not yet been reapportioned to reflect the one-man, one-vote ruling which Dirksen wants to overturn. This has already resulted in a court challenge to the validity of Utah's resolution. Suits elsewhere are likely...