As chairman of the Rules Committee, Virginia’s conservative Howard Smith could block legislation he didn’t like and sometimes Rayburn bargained with him to get bills out of his committee. But when Smith violently opposed a measure he was in the habit of disappearing completely so the committee couldn’t meet.
On one occasion, when he excused his absence by saying that a barn had burned down on his Virginia farm, Rayburn exclaimed: “I knew Howard Smith would do most anything to block a civil rights bill, but I never suspected he would resort to arson!”
Source:
Boller, Paul F. “In the Chair.” Congressional Anecdotes. New York: Oxford UP, 1991. 259. Print.
Original Source Listed:
Robert Bendiner, Obstacle Course on Capitol Hill (New York, 1964), 23.
Further Reading:
Thought this was gonna be a more recent story about the time the Democrats left Wisconsin(?) and fled to Illinois to prevent votes on bills they did not have the numbers to stop.
They didn't lie about it, though; everyone knew what was up.