Robert C. Byrd: Child of the Appalachian Coalfields

11. MUDDY WATERS

Chapter 11 z Muddy waters hen the new Congress met on January 3, 1969, Senator Edward Kennedy defeated Senator Russell Long in a race for Democratic Party whip. Senator Long had held the office of whip, but in the last few days before the Democratic Leadership Caucus met, Ted Kennedy announced his candidacy. Kennedy’s late entry as a candidate for whip came after Edmund Muskie said he was not interested in the post, a job that involved rounding up votes and keeping an eye on floor proceedings. In the past, not much glamour or publicity had been attached to the position. The outcome was a shocker. Kennedy won! Senator Long, the loser, was candid about the situation. “I don’t think I could have been defeated by anyone else in the U.S. Senate, and my guess is that I would have taken any other opponent by about a two-to-one margin.” He continued: “This happens to have been a race where it was a nationwide proposition, and while I had Senator Kennedy outgunned in the United States Senate, he had me outgunned in the United States.” Discounting all the speculation and talk about his future candidacy for the presidency, Ted insisted: “I want to give my full attention to the Senate. You go on, and you see what happens. I’m not planning four years or eight years or twelve years into the future. I am planning to serve my party and my country now, to the best of my ability, in the United States Senate.” Yet, he was expected generally to defend the liberal viewpoint, and he had pledged to promote an independent Democratic program. Millions of Americans were W 248 chapter 11 fascinated by the indomitable Kennedy legend and its latest inheritor. The future looked bright for Ted Kennedy. Adding to his already enhanced and rapidly growing stature on Capitol Hill, he picked up the chairmanship of an important subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Subcommittee on Administrative Practices and Procedures. I had also been named to the Senate Judiciary Committee, and would give up my membership on the Senate Armed Services Committee. I would retain my seat on the Appropriations Committee, but there had been reports earlier of efforts by two liberal senators to block my appointment to head the Appropriations Subcommittee for the Departments of Labor and of Health, Education, and Welfare. I had already announced that I was stepping down as chairman of the District of Columbia Appropriations Subcommittee, but rumors were to the effect that Senator Warren Magnuson of Washington had asked to be named chairman of the Labor-HEW Subcommittee in a reported arrangement that would let Senator Pastore succeed Magnuson as chairman of the Independent Offices Subcommittee. I had viewed the chairmanship of the Labor-HEW Appropriations Subcommittee as a seat from which I could expand my concerns with welfare and education from the city of Washington, D.C., to the national level. It was this factor, according to rumor, that impelled Magnuson to exercise his seniority over me to deny me the chairmanship of the subcommittee. Concerning Magnuson’s request, I stated, “By virtue of his great seniority, he [Magnuson] should have considerable claim to it.” I also remarked that I was pleased at having been selected to serve on the Judiciary Committee. Customarily, members of that committee had been lawyers . I was, therefore, not considered eligible for membership. Since then, however , I had received a law degree from American University, ending about fifteen years of higher education pursued on a part-time basis while I had been serving in the West Virginia Legislature and in the U.S. House and Senate. When the time came for chairmanships of Senate subcommittees to be announced, I was named chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Deficiency and Supplemental Appropriations. As chairman of that subcommittee, I would review all requests for additional funds after government departments and agencies had received their regular annual budgets. I was also named Chairman muddy waters 249 of the Rules Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Rules. That subcommittee had jurisdiction over the rules under which the Senate operated. Meanwhile, the Washington Post looked with favor upon Kennedy’s victory over Long. In an editorial, dated January 4, 1969, “The Kennedy Upset,” the Post stated that Kennedy’s successful challenge of Senator Long for the job of Democratic whip was...