(2 of 3)
That gave Mansfield his opening. If he could not talk the Southerners into voting for cloture, he could at least persuade them not to vote at all. Mansfield scheduled the vote for a day when a few anti-cloture Senators had good excuses to be away from Washington—Arkansas' William Fulbright found that he had a speaking engagement in New York, Nevada's Alan Bible and Arizona's Carl Hayden were on business trips home. At voting time, Virginians Harry Byrd and Willis Robertson, North Carolina's B. Everett Jordan and Arkansas' John McClellan simply stayed away. Explained McClellan later: "I would never vote for cloture, but I wasn't going to help those people [the Morse band]." Similarly, such anti-clo-ture Senators as West Virginia's Robert Byrd, Nevada's Howard Cannon and North Carolina's Sam Ervin delayed their appearance, recorded their no votes only after cloture was assured.
From Across the Aisle. Of vital aid to Mansfield was Republican Leader Everett Dirksen, who enjoyed the opportunity of bringing the G.O.P. to the rescue of a Democratic leadership so beset by Democratic dissidence. Dirksen worked tirelessly at rounding up Republican votes for cloture. Said he to his colleagues: "This is personal. I have to have your votes.
The prestige of the Senate is at stake.'' Thirty-four Republicans ended up voting for cloture. Only two—Texas' John Tower and Arizona's Barry Goldwater—voted against. And Goldwater, waiting in the Republican cloakroom, did not appear to naysay until Dirksen sent him word that his vote would make no difference.