While re-inventing himself at age 87 in his 47th year as a senator, Robert C. Byrd has denied his clear past use of parliamentary maneuver to force majority rule in the Senate. That fits the broader phenomenon of Democrats reinventing the senatorial filibuster, historically notorious for protecting racial segregation, into a weapon of liberalism. Byrd's use of a simple majority rule to make Senate rules fit the wishes of dominant Democrats during the 1970s and 1980s was revealed by legal scholars in January. It took Byrd's lawyers until March 20 for him to claim he did not do what he...
