robert byrd spent 51 years in the senate. >> longest-serving senator. >> in history. >> in history, yes. >> so how much of robert c byrd do weave in our archive? >> in our archive? my goodness. a lot. let's just say that. i don't know how many hours of robert c byrd we have, but he cast more votes. he served for 51 years or so. he's number one on the all-time voting list. more than you could spend -- it would be a great documentary just doing it on robert c byrd on the floor of the senate. >> he died in 2010. is there anybody like him in the senate now? >> you know, i'm not sure there's going to be anyone like him ever again. again, he was out there reciting poetry. he knew the rules of the senate. there are so many times we were going through videotape and watching him just either waxed poetic about what the institution is supposed to do, or take on a senator who doesn't know the rules as well as he does. i'm not sure theirs in institutional us now that does institutional there now that does that. >> when he died he was still a united states senator at the time. kind of explain to the average person that may not be in the t

got to serve with robert c. byrd and richard lugar and kennedy and bachus, the list goes on and on. we don't debate. we don't even vote. in fact, we don't even live up to the constitution's goals for us, requirements for us, whatever you want to call it. we're a coequal branch of government. we shouldn't be allowing the president, as senator durbin said, asking for permission slip from the president to be able to do our business. bring the bills to the floor to open this government and vote on it. if they go down, they go down. i think they'll pass. if the president vetoes them -- if the president vetoes them, bring them back for a veto override. it is as simple as that. i wonder what the forefathers would think today if they saw this body, a shell of its former self. and it's not due to the rules, it's due to the fact that we have a leadership that won't live up to the obligation of this body it was set up to begin with. we've got work to do here. we've got a lot of work to do, and that work starts with opening the government of the united states. if we don't do it or if we say we'

got to serve with robert c. byrd and richard lugar and kennedy and bachus, the list goes on and on. we don't debate. we don't even vote. in fact, we don't even live up to the constitution's goals for us, requirements for us, whatever you want to call it. we're a coequal branch of government. we shouldn't be allowing the president, as senator durbin said, asking for permission slip from the president to be able to do our business. bring the bills to the floor to open this government and vote on it. if they go down, they go down. i think they'll pass. if the president vetoes them -- if the president vetoes them, bring them back for a veto override. it is as simple as that. i wonder what the forefathers would think today if they saw this body, a shell of its former self. and it's not due to the rules, it's due to the fact that we have a leadership that won't live up to the obligation of this body it was set up to begin with. we've got work to do here. we've got a lot of work to do, and that work starts with opening the government of the united states. if we don't do it or if we say we'