In the run-up to the war, Senator Robert Byrd was one of the few anti-war democrats in congress and he delivered passionate speeches on the floor of the Senate. However, he's an older guy and many people dismissed him as a relic and a crackpot. Now he's the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee! This is one argument for voting for centrist Dems that you don't really like: if they get a majority, you get the good ones in positions of power too. Check out his speech on cutting funding for the war, and then this, where he nearly incited a riot in the Senate. Definitely check out that second link!

Most of the news reports focused on "the heckling anti-war" people who had to be thrown out.

That's about the second link.