Word: ev
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Near adjournment time one afternoon last week, Illinois' Republican Senator Everett Dirksen arose in the Senate. "Mr. President," he proclaimed, "I present an amendment in the nature of a substitute." Passing to Senate Parliamentarian Charles Watkins a 74-page rewrite of the House-passed civil rights bill, Ev resonated: "I doubt very much whether in my whole legislative lifetime any measure has received so much meticulous attention...
...first secret of Dirksen's success is the fact that the lopsided Senate Democratic majority is split every which way, while Old Ev can influence, if he cannot command, almost all his Republicans. Because of this, Dirksen can often provide the votes that a Democratic Administration needs for its programs -particularly when a two-thirds Senate majority is required, as on treaties or for cloture. And that is the second reason for Dirksen's success: when such Republican votes are needed, he is always willing to cooperate with the Administration-but never without the Democrats paying a certain...
...while, the Johnson Administration insisted that it wanted its original bill to go through the Senate completely intact, proposal by proposal, comma by comma, and would brook no change. But Old Ev knew better -no changes, he said, and there would not be enough Republican votes to pass the salt. The Administration, being eminently realistic, eventually gave in, and in a series of meetings between Dirksen, the Democratic Senate leadership, Attorney General Kennedy and Justice Department lawyers accepted almost all of Dirksen's ideas for changing the bill...
...Democrats. In practical terms, all that really matters is the Republican reaction, since some 25 of their votes are needed to shut off the filibuster. If Dirksen can persuade them to go along, there will be a new civil rights law-and it will to a significant degree be Ev Dirksen...
...Purifying. Almost daily, Dirksen was huddling with key Republicans and liberal Democrats, Attorney General Robert Kennedy and Justice Department lawyers. Explained Ev: "I'm trying to unscrew the inscrutable." That meant reaching some sort of agreement on some 70 amendments that the Republicans want passed in return for help in shutting off a threatened Southern gabfest...