Last month, Senator Tom Cotton keynoted the Federalist Society’s Barbara K. Olson Memorial Lecture. Cotton noted he’s a long-time Federalist Society member. “Back when I was a student and a lawyer, I belonged to the Federalist Society because I believed in individual freedom, constitutional government, the rule of law, and the free-enterprise system.”
His speech primarily focused on Olson’s legacy:
I didn’t know Barbara personally. Of course, I knew of Barbara from her frequent television appearances and her writing in the 1990s. She was a fierce advocate for limited government and individual liberty. Barbara also worked tirelessly to expose the Clinton machine’s corruption and abuse of power. It was a target-rich environment back then, as it is now, and Barbara had excellent aim. I did meet Barbara once, at the annual summer barbeque she and Ted hosted for Federalist Society students at their home. Many of you probably attended a similar party in those days. And you probably recall Barbara’s warmth, her passion, her zest for life. However vivacious, thoughtful, and graceful she may have seemed on television, the screen still didn’t do her justice. She made a big impression on me, as she did on so many others. I was therefore deeply saddened when she died a few weeks later, one of the nearly 3,000 Americans killed on September 11, 2001. Right away, though, I learned, to no one’s surprise, that Barbara didn’t sit quietly by as Flight 77 was hijacked and hurtled toward the Pentagon. In those most fearful and chaotic moments, Barbara had the courage and the presence of mind to call her husband, Ted-not only as a husband, but also as a high-ranking official at the Department of Justice who could alert the authorities. When the call dropped, she called back. Ted explained back then that Barbara was “enormously, remarkably, incredibly calm. But she was calculating … she was wondering, What can I do to help solve this problem?” Barbara wasn’t cowered by those terrorists. She refused to meekly surrender. As they say in the Army, she went out with her boots on.
Read his full remarks here.
