Political Quotes

“for a few weeks in March 2010, Alan Frumin was one of the most talked about men in the entire city of Washington. The Senate was poised to send a historic health care reform bill to President Obama's desk for him to sign, but the usual procedural hurdles stood in the way. Health care policy staffers were camped out in Alan Frumin's office studying Senate procedure and precedent. But despite the pressure, despite the national spotlight, Mr. Frumin remained calm and professional through what must have been one of the most intense moments of his career. For a very few weeks, every Capitol Hill reporter knew his name for sure. His respectable face was on every political news blog. Every political science professor talked about him. Even a few folks outside the beltway learned what on Earth was a Senate Parliamentarian. What do they do? He was briefly a Washington celebrity. But for those of us who work in the Senate, Alan Frumin has always been a star, even when very few of us knew who he was or what job he did. But it did not take us long after coming to the Senate to learn that quickly. Alan has served in the Office of the Secretary of the Senate since 1977. In his 18 years as chief Parliamentarian, he has made countless difficult decisions with composure. He has a knowledge of complex rules that certainly would be deemed to be extraordinary. These are rules that are convoluted, and procedures are somewhat unique. But he understands every one of them.…”