ABSTRACT
West Virginia’s Robert C. Byrd was widely viewed as an outsider when he entered the U.S. Senate in 1959: a provincial politician from a provincial state. Yet the ambitious Byrd methodically climbed the Democratic leadership ladder in the Senate for two decades, succeeding Mike Mansfield as majority leader in 1977. Along the way, to gain the trust and loyalty of his Democratic colleagues, Byrd established himself as an indefatigable master of the Senate’s arcane rules and procedures, a legislative tactician, and the foremost defender of the institution’s powers and prerogatives. As the Senate’s majority whip (1971–1976), majority leader (1977–1980; 1987–1989), and minority leader (1981–1986), Byrd helped Congress regain some of the power it had lost to the "imperial presidency" during the mid–20th century. He co-authored the Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974; successfully shepherded the controversial Panama Canal Treaties through the Senate ratification process in 1978; and guided with steady hand the 95th (1977–1979) and 100th (1987–1989) Congresses, two of the late 20th century’s most productive. When Byrd abruptly announced his resignation as leader in 1988, he had already left an indelible mark on the world’s greatest deliberative body.
