Alan K. Simpson

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Alan Kooi Simpson (born September 2, 1931 in Denver, Colorado U.S.A.) is a Republican politician who served from 1979 to 1997 as a United States Senator from Wyoming. His father, Milward L. Simpson, was also a member of the Senate from Wyoming (1962-1967) and a former governor of that state (1955-1959).

From 1985 to 1995 Simpson was the Republican Whip in the Senate, and also served as Chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee from 1981 to 1987 and again from 1995 to 1997 when Republicans regained control of the Senate. He also chaired The Immigration and Refugee Subcomittee of Judiciary; the Nuclear Regulation Subcommittee; the Social Security Subcommittee and The Committee on Aging. In 1995, he lost his re-election for Republican Whip to Trent Lott (R-MS), and did not seek reelection in 1996. From 1997 to 2000 he taught at the Shorenstein Center of Press and Politics at Harvard University and served for two years as the Director of The Institute of Politics at The John F. Kennedy School of Government (Harvard). He returned to his home of Cody, Wyoming and practices law there with his two lawyer sons (William and Colin)in the firm of Simpson, Kepler and Edwards and the three are also partners in the firm of Burg Simpson Eldrege Hersh and Jardine of Denver, Colorado (Englewood). Colin Simpson is also a Republican member of the Wyoming House of Representatives.

Alan Simpson teaches periodically at his alma mater, the University of Wyoming at Laramie. He has just completed serving as Chair of the capital "Campaign For Distinction" (for U. of Wyo.) which raised the sum of $204 million dollars. That success was celebrated by the gala event, "An Extraordinary Evening", featuring former President George H.W. Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney and wife Lynne V. Cheney (who are both Honored Alumni of the University of Wyoming).

Simpson serves on the Commission for Continuity in Government. He also serves as co-chair of Americans for Campaign Reform with Bill Bradley, is active with the National Commission on Writing, is on the Advisory Board of The Common Good, and is a former member of the American Battle Monuments Commission. Simpson's father, Milward Simpson, also served in the Senate and was among six Republican members who voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Alan Simpson, however, has been an outspoken advocate for abortion rights, gay and lesbian rights, and equality for all persons regardless of race, color, creed, gender or sexual preference.

Trivia

As a young man, Simpson was a Boy Scout, and visited Japanese American Boy Scouts who, along with their families, had been interned in Wyoming during World War II. There, he developed a friendship with Norman Mineta, who later became a U.S. Congressman. They both served together on the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, and remain close friends.

Graduated from the University of Wyoming where he was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity.

Quotes

Any education that matters is "liberal." All the saving truths, all the healing graces that distinguish a good education from a bad one or a full education from a half empty one are contained in that word.

An educated man is thoroughly inoculated against humbug, thinks for himself and tries to give his thoughts, in speech or on paper, some style.

The word "liberal" distinguishes whatever nourishes the mind and spirit from the training which is merely practical or professional or from the trivialities which are no training at all.

There is no "slippery slope" toward loss of liberties, only a long staircase where each step downward must first be tolerated by the American people and their leaders.

If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters.

In your country club, your church and business, about 15 percent of the people are screwballs, lightweights and boobs-- and you would not want those people unrepresented in Congress!

Here we can brag and bluster and blather- and almost like a comic book character -you could invent, Captain Bombast, and pull the cape around the shoulders and shout the magic words, "Get him"- and rise above it all in a blast of hot air!

I've been a Republican all my life. They'll never throw me out. But they have an amazing ability to "eat their young". They will give each other the saliva test of purity every once in a while, and then they lose. And then they just sit around and bitch for four years. It's a fairly fascinating party.

Welcome to the pit and the great hunters who have been out to tack the pelt of Bill Rehnquist on the wall of the den.

Bibliography

Right in the Old Gazoo: A Lifetime of Scrapping with the Press (ISBN 0688113583, 1997, William Morrow & Company)

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