From: mshaw@panix.com   
      
   https://apnews.com/article/senator-alan-simpson-dies-faf4826aba7   
   0283e4f4e6581082a41f   
      
       CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- Former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson, a political   
       legend whose quick wit bridged partisan gaps in the years before   
       today's political acrimony, has died. He was 93.   
      
       Simpson died early Friday after struggling to recover from a   
       broken hip in December, according to a statement from his family   
       and the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, a group of museums   
       where he was a board member for 56 years.   
      
       "He was an uncommonly generous man," Pete Simpson, his older   
       brother, said in the statement. "And I mean generous in an   
       absolutely unconditional way. Giving of his time, giving of   
       his energy -- and he did it in politics and he did it in the   
       family, forever."   
      
       Former President George W. Bush called Simpson "one of the   
       finest public servants ever to have graced our nation's capital."   
      
       "My family will remember him best not for his many accomplishments,   
       but for his loyal friendship -- and sharp sense of humor," Bush   
       said in a statement.   
      
       Along with former Vice President Dick Cheney, Simpson was a   
       towering Republican figure from Wyoming, the least-populated   
       state. Unlike Cheney, Simpson was famous for his humor.   
      
       "We have two political parties in this country, the Stupid   
       Party and the Evil Party. I belong to the Stupid Party," was   
       among Simpson's many well-known quips.   
      
       A political moderate by current standards, Simpson's three   
       terms as senator from 1979 to 1997 covered the Republican   
       Party's rejuvenation under President Ronald Reagan. Simpson   
       played a key role rallying GOP senators around the party's   
       legislative agenda as a top Senate leader during that time.   
      
       Simpson was better known for holding his own views, though,   
       with sometimes caustic certainty. A deficit hawk with sharp   
       descriptions of people who relied on government assistance,   
       Simpson supported abortion rights -- an example of moderation   
       that contributed to his fade in the GOP.   
      
       His Democratic friends included Robert Reich, labor secretary   
       under President Bill Clinton, and Norman Mineta, transportation   
       secretary under President George W. Bush.   
      
       Simpson and Mineta met as Boy Scouts when Mineta and his family   
       were imprisoned as Japanese-Americans in the Heart Mountain   
       War Relocation Center near Simpson's hometown of Cody, Wyoming,   
       during World War II.   
      
       After leaving politics, both promoted awareness of the   
       incarceration of some 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry in   
       camps during the war. Mineta, who died in 2022, recalled that   
       Simpson once was asked what was the biggest difference between   
       them as a Republican and a Democrat.   
      
       "Alan thought about it and he said, 'Well, I wear size 15 shoes   
       and he wears a size 8 and a half,'" Mineta replied, according   
       to the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation.   
      
       Simpson was "gifted in crossing party lines and building   
       bipartisan consensus," Colin Simpson, one of his three children   
       and a former Wyoming House speaker, said in the statement.   
      
       "Dad and Pete have anchored the extended Simpson family for   
       decades with the same love, humor, compassion and dedication   
       their parents did before them," he said. "Dad was a mighty   
       force and with Mom's steady hand by his side we are so blessed   
       and proud to have been along for the ride of a lifetime."   
      
       In 2010, President Barack Obama tasked Simpson with co-leading   
       a debt-reduction commission that developed a plan to save $4   
       trillion through tax hikes and spending cuts. The plan lacked   
       support for serious consideration by Congress.   
      
       At 6-foot-7, Simpson was literally a towering figure -- tallest   
       on record in the Senate until Alabama Sen. Luther Strange, who   
       is 6-foot-9, took office in 2017.   
      
       Big as Simpson's shoes were, he had huge ones to fill politically.   
      
       His father, Milward Simpson, was a governor, U.S. senator and   
       state legislator. His mother, Lorna Kooi Simpson, was president   
       of the Red Cross in Cody and on the local planning commission.   
      
       "I saw Dad loved politics and the law, and I wanted to do that,"   
       Simpson once said.   
      
       Simpson was born in Denver in 1931. After a childhood of reckless   
       gun-shooting and vandalism in Cody that put him in danger and   
       in trouble with the law, he graduated from Cody High School in   
       1949 and the University of Wyoming in 1954.   
      
       Also that year he married Ann Schroll, of Greybull, Wyoming,   
       and joined the U.S. Army, where he served in the Fifth Infantry   
       Division and the Second Armored "Hell on Wheels" Division in   
       Germany.   
      
       Alan and Ann Simpson celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary   
       with a community ice cream social attended by relatives and   
       hundreds of others in a Cody park last summer.   
      
       After leaving the Army, Simpson got a law degree from the   
       University of Wyoming in 1958 and joined his father's law   
       practice, where he worked for the next 19 years. He was elected   
       to the Wyoming House in 1964 and served there until his election   
       to the U.S. Senate in 1976.   
      
       A football and basketball athlete at the University of Wyoming,   
       Simpson fondly described politics as a "contact sport."   
      
       "I've been called everything," he said in 2003. "What the hell.   
       If you don't like the combat, get out."   
      
       Simpson's candor made him popular with voters. He also was   
       known as a well-read, hardworking and sometimes hard-nosed   
       politician involved in immigration, veterans' affairs and   
       environmental issues.   
      
       He served on the Immigration Subcommittee and the Veterans   
       Affairs Committee, among others.   
      
       Simpson opposed sentences of life without parole for juveniles   
       and said he supported review of criminal sentences after a   
       period of time.   
      
       "When they get to be 30 or 40 and they been in the clink for   
       20 years, or 30 or 40, and they have learned how to read and   
       how to do things, why not?" he told The Associated Press in   
       2009.   
      
       By 1995, he'd had enough of the Senate and decided not to run   
       again.   
      
       "Part of me said I could do this for another three or four   
       years but not six," he said at the time. "The old fire in the   
       belly is out. The edge is off."   
      
       Others of his family in politics and government included his   
       older brother, Pete, a University of Wyoming historian who   
       served in the Wyoming House and was the unsuccessful Republican   
       nominee for governor in 1986. Alan Simpson's son Colin was   
       speaker of the Wyoming House, and his nephew Milward Simpson   
       directed the state parks department.   
      
       After leaving the Senate, Simpson taught about politics and   
       the media at Harvard University and the University of Wyoming.   
      
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