In january. Next, we look at the historical role of the Senate Majority leader and its four former leaders, robert byrd, harold baker, and we hear from Donald Richie and mitch mcconnell. Donald richie, thank you for being with us. The Senate Majority leader is not a position in the constitution. How did the job evolve . We looked at a former speaker of the house, who contacted us and say why is the president pro tem a matter of succession but not the majority leader . That is the functional equivalent. The speaker of the house is written into the constitution, to president pro tem is as well. No mention of a majority or minority leader. The constitution did not anticipate political parties. We had no majority leader in the history of the senate from 1839 to 1914. For most of the history of the senate, we did not have a majority leader. There were chairmen of committees who would take care of things on the floor, and the chairman of Party Conferences that would open up and close things
He went on to get his law degree, and he had president kennedy come to present his diploma at his graduation. But i thought here he was in a body full of rhodes scholars and yale and stanford and harvard graduates and all of the ivy leaguers with terrific education. He never felt inferior about that. He felt that he never ended his education. He was always reading, he was always studying. I once went with him to an event, and i looked at the back of his car and there was the count of month cristo, and i was surprised, and he said, i never got to read it. Irma byrd complained she could never dust her table because she was bringing books home from the library of congress always stacked up and he was working on them. In 1980 he gave an impromptu speech at his grand Daughters School class, which was in the gallery. He gave a speech about the history of the chamber of the senate. Several senators came up after and said i didnt know that. Thats interesting. So he began to give more impromptu
Majority leader, the functional equivalent on the senate side. The speaker of the house is written in the constitution. No mention of a majority or minority leader. Thats because the constitution did not anticipate political parties. Parties. We had no majority leader in the history of the senate from 1839 to 1914. There were chairman of committees who would take care of things and the chairman of the Party Conferences that open up and close things the way they do today. But nobody sitting down there trying to organize what happened on the floor on a daily basis. That changed in 1913 when Woodrow Wilson was elected president. Former president to prince ton university. A phd. In history and political science. He had written his doctoral information about congress. He had strong ideas about how congress was to operate and the vicious legislative agenda. He prevailed on the democrat kraatzes. He had come in the majority to pick one of their senators to be a leader, the person who could ta
Of the house, who contacted us and say why is the president pro tem in the order of succession but not the majority leader . That is the functional equivalent. The speaker of the house is written into the constitution, to president pro tem is as well. No mention of a majority or minority leader. The constitution did not anticipate political parties. They thought it was going to happen, but they did not want to encourage political parties. We had no majority leader in the history of the senate from 1839 1789 to 1914. For most of the history of the senate, we did not have a majority leader. There were chairmen of committees who would take care of things on the floor, and the chairman of Party Conferences that would open up and close things the way they do today. But nobody sitting down there in the Front Row Center seat trying to organize what happened on the floor on a daily basis. That changed in 1913, when Woodrow Wilson was elected president. He was the former president of princeton