Word: rayburnisms
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Though he did not control the committee, Rayburn usually managed, down to 1959, to find a way to bring to the floor any bill that he really wanted to see get there. Georgia's late Eugene Cox, longtime leader of the Southerners on the Rules Committee, had a deep affection for Rayburn, often at Rayburn's urging voted in committee for a bill that he would vote against on the floor. After Cox died in 1952 and Judge Smith succeeded him as captain of the Southern conservatives, Rayburn sometimes managed to get help from Republicans on the committee...
Postscript Fiasco. Rayburn's serious troubles with the Rules Committee flared up in the 86th Congress-despite the fact that in the 1958 congressional elections the Democrats had widened their margin in the House to nearly 2 to 1, most lopsided majority since the 19303. What made the Rules Committee more troublesome than before was that Rayburn could no longer get any cooperation from the Republicans. Compromiser Joe Martin was deposed from the Republican leadership by Indiana's tough, uncompromising Charlie Halleck (and last week registered his vote against Halleck and for Rayburn). Halleck filled the Republican seats...
...Break the Grip. The postscript session riled the frustrated young Kennedy "pragmatic liberals," and they prodded Sam Rayburn to do something about Judge Smith. By the time Congress convened again after the election, Speaker Rayburn had made up his mind that he had to break Smith's grip on the Rules Committee...
...Kennedy rebels wanted to purge Mississippi's William Colmer from the committee and replace him with a Rayburn man. Colmer seemed fair game since he had supported the independent presidential-elector slate in Mississippi rather than Kennedy-Johnson". Rayburn vacillated between the purge and his three-new-member plan, a less drastic break with House traditions and Southern feelings. His mind once made up on committee packing, he announced a "binding" Democratic caucus, a rare device by which a two-thirds vote can bind all members of the party to vote for a particular proposal. Again Mister Sam wavered...
Custom-Designed Pressure. Then gut-fighting Charlie Halleck swung into battle behind Judge Smith, made opposition to the Rayburn plan an official Republican stand-a position that made good tactical sense but grated on some Republicans because it aligned the G.O.P. with Southern Democrats. That confronted Rayburn with the possibility of a messy and painful defeat on the floor: he needed Republican votes to win, and Halleck's thrust forced several Republicans who would otherwise have voted for Rayburn into the Smith camp...