Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from Houston, Sheila Jackson Lee, for sharing so many great stories and fond memories of Speaker Jim Wright. I would like to add a few words of my own. Jim Wright was very influential to me. When I was elected into the State legislature in 2004 was when I really started to get to know him well. I had known him previous to that when I was an aide for United States Congressman Martin Frost, who was also from Fort Worth. Once I got into the State legislature, I got to know him even more, and I realized very quickly what a great storyteller he was. Speaker Wright had some amazing stories from people that he had met over the years, people that influenced him in his life. So many people always wonder how he became the great orator that he was. There were so many stories that I heard early on about before the House had C-SPAN--now, we can watch coverage of the House of Representatives 24 hours a day, thanks to technology--but Speaker Wright was such a great orator that, before C-SPAN came into effect, you heard stories about staffers coming to fill the galleries so they could come and hear this man from Fort Worth, Texas, come in and give speeches because they were so amazing. I asked him: How did you become the great orator that you were when you were in the U.S. House of Representatives and that you still are today?…”