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A willing, two-fisted debater, McCormack once spoke on 200 different subjects in a single year, had a memorable moment when he demolished Michigan's acidulous Republican Representative Clare Hoffman in the House's own florid parliamentary language: "I'm one of the few men in the House who still has a minimum high regard for the Gentleman from Michigan."
The floor leader must always know how the House is leaning on the issues that come before it. To help him, McCormack can always call on the Democratic whip, Oklahoma's Carl Albert, who, with his 15 assistants, can come up with a quick nose count in 24 hours, a firm figure within a week. (In 1955 the whip count indicated reciprocal trade would win by a single vote on the key roll call; the actual count was 193-192.)
Perhaps more than anyone else, McCormack will be guided this year by the 1958 election results. In the 85th Congress he knew that every time he scheduled a New Dealish labor or welfare bill for floor action, he could expect about 40 Southern conservatives to join with a big majority of the 200 House Republicans in blocking the legislation. But there are far fewer Republicans, far more liberal Democrats in the 86th Congress. "We have a good working majority," says McCormack. "The coalition will be ineffective." Another McCormack rule of thumb: the later in the session that a piece of really controversial legislation gets to the House floor, the less chance it has of being approved. His hope for this year: get labor and welfare bills to the floor early.
Up on the Count. But it is not all that easy. Under the House system as it has evolved over the decades, the floor leader, the Speaker or anyone else must nearly always go through the Rules Committee to get legislation to the floor. The Rules Committee serves as an absolutely necessary check on the flood of bills introduced each session by the members of the House (by last weekend they had introduced 3,443 so far this session). But beyond that, notions differ. "Some think we are just a traffic cop," says Rules Committee Chairman Howard Smith. "Others feel that we have to be selective and exercise our own judgment on what should go to the floor. I subscribe to the latter."
Virginia's Smith especially subscribes to the latter when civil rights bills are before his committee. In 1956 he delayed Rules consideration of a civil rights bill for more than a month, was finally forced, by a signed petition from his own committee, to hold hearings. For days Southern Congressmen paraded their objections before Rules -and all the while Judge Smith kept counting committee noses. Finally one afternoon he found that no quorum was present -and down went his gavel. Missouri's Dick Boiling, leading the civil rights fight within Rules, realized he had been caught.
"You've got us," he said, smiling almost despite himself. "What rule do I look at?" Twinkling his delight, Judge Smith cited the rule by which he could -and did -put off civil rights hearings for a precious while. Recalls Smith, puffing on his old curved pipe: "I felt like a well-fed missionary at a cannibals' convention. They were really mad at me. I don't blame them a bit. I would have been mad had I been in their shoes."