The public at large, however, knew little and cared less about what was happening behind the scenes. Their eyeswhen they bothered to look at allwere upon the well lighted stage where the Harding Administration was playing a drama of discreet and seemly statesmanship.
Actions speak louder than words basically means that the character you play as yourself shows the real truth of who you are and what you're capable of, since playing the role of yourself can show your true colors without you even saying a word.
When used at the beginning of a sentence, this word is a variety of the 'filler' word basically. Another direct replacement for technically is essentially. Maybe the speaker sees his or her own bad speech patterns and recycles these three words while speaking. Filler words add absolutely nothing to the sentence being spoken.