fililbuster

Ted Kennedy, Robert Byrd, and the History of Sick Bed Senators

It remains one of the most dramatic scenes in Senate history. California Democrat Clair Engle -- dying from a brain tumor -- was wheeled onto the Senate floor, attended by a nurse, to vote to end a Dixiecrat filibuster against the 1964 Civil Rights Act. As civil rights historian Nick Kotz tells it in "Judgment Days," Engle valiantly tried to speak but could not form the words. So he slowly lifted his hand and pointed to his eye as the Senate clerk declared, "Senator Engle votes aye." ...

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