Word: rayburns
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House Speaker Sam Rayburn found himself last week facing a dilemma somewhat akin to that of a gold prospector who spots a huge nugget on the far side of a chasm perhaps too wide to jump across. Splendid would be the reward if he leaped and made it; but then how painful the penalty if he missed. Understandably, Rayburn hesitated at the brink...
...nugget in Rayburn's case was what he would gain from victory in his battle to add three new members to the House Rules Committee, chaired by Virginia's courtly, conservative Howard W. Smith. Over the years, in alliance with committee Republicans, Smith had repeatedly held up legislation he disliked by keeping it in the Rules Committee, through which most bills ordinarily pass before they can get to the floor (TIME, Jan. 13). By adding new members Mister Sam could gain a working majority on the committee and clear away a formidable congressional roadblock to the Kennedy Administration...
...Camp. Fortnight ago, with Democratic Congressmen from the Northern and Western states solidly behind him, plus a sprinkling of Southern Democrats, Rayburn thought he could count on enough liberal Republican votes on his side to assure a majority on the floor. But then House Republican chieftains, captained by Indiana's gut-fighting Minority Leader Charles A. Halleck, decided to make opposition to the Rayburn plan an official party stand. That move dragged all but 20 or so of the Republican liberals out of the Rayburn camp. Then some of the Southern Democrats who had agreed to vote with Rayburn...
...waverers who could not be safely counted on either side reached a nerve-fraying intensity. One shaky Southern Congressman switched back and forth half a dozen times within the week. A freshman Congressman got an offer of a dam for his home district if he would vote with Rayburn. A pressure campaign organized by the National Association of Manufacturers, the American Farm Bureau Federation and other conservative lobbies deluged Congressmen with letters and telegrams urging them to vote against the Rayburn plan. With matching ardor, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and the civil rights lobbies tried to swing votes to Rayburn...
Into the Fight. The day before the scheduled showdown, it appeared that the outcome might be decided by a margin of three votes, or even less. "That's too close for comfort," said a Rayburn lieutenant. Mister Sam decided to postpone the floor battle until this week. "The New Frontier," jeered Charlie Halleck, "is having trouble with its first roundup...