One of the overlooked highlights of the debate on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was seeing Democrat Robert Byrd of West Virginia lecture Trent Lott on Senate rules and decorum, after Lott had denied him the right to speak. Byrd didn't take kindly to this, and when given the opportunity to speak delivered 15 minutes of parliamentary rabble rousing. "There's too much of what the House does that we don't need to do in this Senate," said Byrd. "And I'm afraid there are too many senators who feel that we need to get to be like the House."
A pitfall of a career as long as Byrd's is the length of the paper trail. Here's Robert Byrd during Senate debate on September 21, 1978: "I wish I had the rules of the House over here at times. . . . There are lots of rules over there I would just love to have." Thus the hidden constant of his career: It hardly matters whether you follow House rules or Senate rules so long as Byrd rules.