The Senate launched the 87th Congress with its own version of an ancient liberal-conservative battle, but in contrast with the House's guerrilla war it seemed as pro forma as a Capitol guide's speech. Question at issue: How big a vote should be necessary to restrict Senate debateand thereby cut off legislation-delaying filibusters?
A wide-ranging, bipartisan forcefrom Minnesota's Democratic Hubert Humphrey to Massachusetts' Republican Leverett Saltonstallwas drawn up against a solid phalanx of Southern Democrats, who have traditionally used the filibuster to stop civil rights bills. New Mexico's Clint Anderson offered a resolution...