by Karl Kurtz
Brian's posting about Sen. Robert Byrd as a champion of legislatures, reminded me of a personal anecdote that I had not thought about for a long time.
One of the keys to Sen. Robert Byrd's success was his personal touch. I once had a minor experience with his charm--mixed with a bit of imperiousness. In 1971 I worked as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow in Indiana Sen. Birch Bayh's office. At the time Sen. Bayh was traveling around the country as an unannounced presidential candidate and was often not present for Senate votes. Sen. Byrd was majority whip and responsible for keeping track of wayward senators. Around 7 p.m. one evening, when no one else was around, I was in the office and the phone rang. I answered and a voice said, "This is Bobby Byrd, is Birch there?"
"No, Senator, I'm sorry he's not here," I said, tentatively."What I need to know is if he will be here tomorrow at 10 in the morning. We need his vote on a bill [I don't remember what it was], so we won't schedule it unless he's going to be here."
"Senator, I'm sorry that I don't know the answer to your question, but I'll be glad to try to find out what I can and get back to you." In fact, I knew that Sen. Bayh was in California but not when he was returning.
"Who am I talking to?," demanded Sen. Byrd.
"This is Karl Kurtz," I said, hesitantly.
"Well, Karl, I expect you to call me back in the next 15 minutes and tell me the answer to my question."
In the next quarter hour, I was able to find out that Sen. Bayh was taking a red-eye back to Washington and would in fact be in town the next morning. When I called Sen. Byrd back to tell him this, he answered the phone himself, thanked me for my answer and went ahead and scheduled the vote.
Sen. Bayh arrived in the office at 9 a.m. the next day, went into his senatorial bathroom to shave and change into a fresh white shirt and tie--all the time talking through an open door to me and other aides about yesterday's campaigning and the coming day in the Senate--and headed off to Sen. Byrd's crucial vote.
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