by Justin Webb concerns the history of that curious American institution, the filibuster. Mention is made of Jimmy Stewart’s moving performance in Mr Smith goes to Washington. Mr Webb records with an indulgent smile the 87-year old Senator Robert Byrd (Democratic – West Virginia) reminiscing on the art of the filibuster: “And so when I filibustered 14 hours and 13 minutes in 1964 I never got off the germaneness of the subject.”
Some journalists might, at this point, have thought to include a little period detail as to what “the subject” was, or why the Senator says that southerners in particular had mastered filibuster technique. What measure did the Republican party propose* in 1964 that was so bad in Senator Byrd’s eyes that he was willing to make this heroic effort to stop it? Justin Webb’s article does not say.
The Rottweiler Puppy will tell you the answer. I imagine most of the readers of Biased BBC know already. I wonder how many casual readers of the BBC website do?
Even the briefest of articles about the debate over the use of the filibuster in American politics is incomplete without some mention of what the filibuster was most notoriously used for in the last few decades.
(Hat tip – DumbJon)
*[CORRECTION: I was not correct to refer in my original post to the 1964 Act as a measure proposed by the Republicans. Commenter “Sachem77” points out the Act was initiated by the Democrats, and then pushed through by a coalition of Northern Democrats and Republicans against the opposition of Southern Democrats. More history here.]
I didnt manage to hear all of John Humphries interview with Tony Blair on the Today Programme.Did he ask him about immigration like he used half of Howards interview in the subject?
At the risk of engaging in pedantry, I should point out that the 1964 Civil Rights Act was an initiative of the Democratic Party, not the Republicans. In ’64 the Dems controlled both Houses of Congress (and would continue in this enviable position until Bill Clinton’s first term), and LBJ was President. This meant that they effectively controlled the agenda in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Had they wished to do so, the Republicans might have tried to obstruct passage of the bill via a filibuster; some Republicans in the Senate probably considered it.
But LBJ got the Republicans in Congress to sign on to the legislation through intensive arm-twisting (of which he was a master). LBJ thought the key person to get on board was the Minority Leader of the Senate, Everett Dirksen of Illinois–and he succeeded.
Byrd and many other southern Democrats in and out of Congress opposed the bill, and this is the beginning of the split within the Democratic Party between the so-called “social conservatives” (many of them southerners) and the “progressives” (mostly northerners or residents of the East or West Coast).
Byrd is a is a holdover from that era; he embodies the last living memory of the old line southern segregationist politician–and since the South was solidly Democrat, virtually every politician of this breed was a Democrat. Byrd may have moderated his views in the years since; he is not a stupid man, merely stupidly partisan. But he remains an eerie echo of the past.
Thanks, Sachem77. I’ve added a correction to the post.
With regards to above posts on the fear of terrorism would it be possible to inject a degree of common sense.
It’s a regrettable fact that anyone with a couple of years of secondary school chemistry and a few easily obtainable industrial chemicals could fabricate a bomb powerful enough to make a hole in Central London big enough to put the BT Tower in. And still fit the device in the back of a Transit.
Andrew Marr may well believe that the security services have foiled 174 terrorist incidents but, given that Marr’s are a gullible species, the implications are:
1 Terrorists are remarkably inept.
or 2 The incidents enumerated are so trivial as to be meaningless.
I don’t know if anybody has noticed but we’ve already lived through a close to 30 year terrorist campaign, not just in Ulster but on the mainland and particularly here in London. I know I have, because loud bangs tend to disturb my sleep. I would not be surprised to woken up again and if that happens there’s an evens chance the boys with the Shamrock fettish will be responsible for the alarm call. We know they’re capable – they’ve had a great deal of practice.
A couple of Derry’s finest with a truckload of fertiliser I can take seriously. An Algerian with his grandmother’s recipe for castor oil porridge I can’t.
Yes, I think we could have our very own 9-11 and yes I think this country is playing host to far too many people who wish us ill. But I’m more concerned about the climate of fear that the government is propagating to serve it’s own ends.
And I think Marr should be paying more attention to that guinea pig of his.It’s probably brighter.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry when I hear Robert Byrd lauded as the “conscience of the Senate”.
From this site
“Sen. Byrd has set a new standard for taxpayer-funded narcissism by convincing the West Virginia Legislature to erect a statue of himself in the state Capitol. The statue’s completion violates state law prohibiting statues of government officials until they have been dead for half a century.
Byrd’s statue is currently housed in the Capitol Rotunda, as shown in the picture, and it is said if you stand under the statue the senator’s hand points directly at your pockets.
The doddering old bastid has no conscience. He is still able to use the forbitten “N word” in public without the L³ media turning a hair.
Typical shallow British journalism. The UK media can be likened to what a great American politician once said of a rival: “He’s like the River Platt — five miles wide at the mouth and two inches deep!”
Sounds like our Tone.
“It’s a regrettable fact that anyone with a couple of years of secondary school chemistry and a few easily obtainable industrial chemicals could fabricate a bomb powerful enough to make a hole in Central London big enough to put the BT Tower in. And still fit the device in the back of a Transit.”
Eh? Even when the IRA, who were a proper terrorist organisation, let off a truck bomb at Canary Wharf, the damage was only superficial: no major buildings were floored.
The bomb that destroyed the Alfred P Murrah building in Oklahoma with the loss of 168 lives was a relatively unsophisticated truck bomb made from fertiliser and fuel oil. So it can be done. The bomb left in a van that destroyed the Baltic Exchange was also fertiliser based, although Semtex was also involved.
BTW any detailed discussion of bomb making techniques will be censored by me. It makes you go blind.
You want bombs? Read this one:
http://www.suicidestring.co.uk
I thought the filibuster record was held by the Grand Old Man of the Liberal Left – Strom Thurmond………….