Nicholas Allard, head of the public policy practice at Patton Boggs and a former counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee under the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) in the 1980s, said he is still struggling to absorb the news of Kennedy's death earlier this week from brain cancer.
"It's hard to imagine him not being there in the Senate," Allard said.
Allard said Kennedy taught him "the importance of not cutting corners and doing things the right way." He also credited Kennedy with showing him that it was possible to show respect for others even while disagreeing. "That's one of the reasons he was so effective in getting deals, getting things done," he said.
As a young staffer, Allard and others competed to get memos into Kennedy's briefcase at night. "It's called the bag," Allard said of the briefcase, "and sometimes, it was a two-bag night. No matter what he was doing, he read those memos every single night, and he'd mark them up and have a question for you. He knew every single thing about ...legislation that I was working on."
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