For example, Walters says, Clyburn diplomatically challenged former President Bill Clinton to cool his racially tinged anti-Obama rhetoric in South Carolina during the 2008 Democratic presidential campaign. Clinton relented, although Clyburn remained neutral during the primary campaign season. In the general election season, however, Clyburn campaigned for Obama, who won only the 6th district in South Carolina.

Keeping the more than 200 Democratic lawmakers in line for one purpose is no easy task, says Clyburn. The lawmakers come from all parts of the country with differing needs and agendas. No one knows precisely what a majority whip does to get dissidents to fall in line. The only peek into the operations of the majority whip was during the tenure of Texas Republican Rep. Tom DeLay. He publicly jaw-boned and arm-twisted his party dissidents with a style that eventually caused him to fall from favor and lose his power. 

Clyburn attributes his success in office to his professional staff, the legislative team of fellow lawmakers that make up the majority whip’s army and the advice his late father instilled in him that “there ain’t no limit to what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit.”

The majority whip team includes Clyburn’s nine chief deputy whips and a senior chief deputy whip, Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, who as a student in Nashville became another 1960s college legend of the civil rights movement. Clyburn says he turns to Lewis, once a divinity school student, to make the moral case for various pieces of legislation. Lewis and the chief deputies serve as Clyburn’s eyes and ears to where Democratic lawmakers stand on various issues the leadership wants to bring to the House floor.

The majority whip team meets with Clyburn weekly in between phone calls, giving him a sense of who stands where and what various members want in order to get on board. He also relies on regional whips (members from such well-organized caucuses in the House as the Women’s Working Group, Blue Dogs, The Progressives and so on) and caucuses regularly with what he calls the Tri-Caucus, representatives of the Black, Hispanic and Pacific Islander caucuses. Clyburn also credits Pelosi and Hoyer for their insights. Both have served as Democratic whips and have some firsthand appreciation for the nuances of the job, he says.