Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I am pleased to join my colleague from Delaware here to offer a Senate floor farewell to our friend Steve Susman. He was a very big personality, but unlike a lot of very big personalities, it was never all about him. He wasn't pushing people away with the size of his personality. He was enveloping them with the size of his personality, and I was one who was fortunate to be so enveloped. We became friends, and I will miss him. To Ellen and to their children, to his brother, Tom, who gave such beautiful remarks at the electronic service for Steve the other day, I want to say thank you. I just want to tell one story, but the story will not make sense if you don't understand what a big deal Steve Susman was. If you don't understand that he was the main partner of Susman Godfrey, which by many lights is the best and biggest litigation firm in the United States of America. His name is on that firm. His name is on thousands of pleadings filed by that firm in cases all around the country. He is a person who had gravitas as a lawyer and who lived before judges and needed to make sure he kept their good will and respect. Now, for a lot of people, that would have meant taking no chances-- not for Steve. I have a practice, from time to time, in the Senate, of writing Supreme Court amicus briefs as an amicus curiae--a friend of the court and not the party.…”