That's one of the best little touches in a great scene. One of the nice things about that scene is that it shows the cultural difference between a Mafia guy (Cicci) and someone who's "well bred" (the Senator). The Senator, an educated man, uses "buffer" to describe people between Cicc and the boss. Cicci obviously never heard of the word "buffer" used in that context (he was probably told, "You never go to da boss direct--ya go t'ru your capo") so he says, "Say what?" The Senator explains, and Cicci gets it: "Yeah, da family had a lotta buffiz..." It's just a perfect bit of dialog in a perfect scene.

Speaking of perfection: Joe Spinell, who played Cicci, was absolutely perfect in his role. He never did much memorable stuff before or after in his career, but he shone in the Trilogy. If you do the "search" function, you'll find that our members here have posted lots of thoughts about Cicci--far out of proportion to his relatively minor role in GF and II. I count that as a tribute to his performance, and a tribute to Spinell's performance and to his selection for the role.