Near adjournment time one afternoon last week, Illinois' Republican Senator Everett Dirksen arose in the Senate. "Mr. President," he proclaimed, "I present an amendment in the nature of a substitute." Passing to Senate Parliamentarian Charles Watkins a 74-page rewrite of the House-passed civil rights bill, Ev resonated: "I doubt very much whether in my whole legislative lifetime any measure has received so much meticulous attention."
By that time the civil rights bill had been before Congress for six months and six days. Reported to the House last Nov. 20, after 22 days...