Bradford Berenson Quotations

Ultimately, ... I think the president is unusually good at ignoring all kinds of outside pressure with an important decision like this and focusing on the merits and what's important for the long term.

Nobody who gets hit by a bus has warm feelings about the bus. People who have tangled with David over the years and come out on the wrong end of those fights harbor some bad feelings.

Because of the pool problem, we did carefully examine law firms and professors as well in looking for good women and minorities to appoint as district judges and appellate judges.

My own hunch, given the president's own commitment to diversity on the federal bench, is that he is going to have a strong bias in favor of selecting a qualified woman or minority for this second seat.

That's the right move for a whole variety of reasons and, if I were on the inside, that is what I would be arguing. There is the one and only way for the Supreme Court to start its term with nine members and a chief, and that is to nominate John Roberts.

The pressure to find a woman or a minority if anything will be even greater this time around, I have a sneaking suspicion it would be either a woman or Gonzales.

The reason his name is popping up is he's probably the closest thing out there to John Roberts. And he's got even more of a full record that people on both sides of the aisle can evaluate.

David has always been one of those quietly influential staffers that has an impact all of out proportion to their public profile. He knows how to get things done, and when he talks, people listen because they know he has the authority of the vice president behind him.

He believes what he believes and he does what he does because he is genuinely and sincerely committed to trying to save American lives from events like 9-11. He advocates his views as forcefully as he does because he sincerely believes they're in the public interest.

All else being equal, the president would go for diversity. Women and minorities will be among the candidates considered,