Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson Brings Western Flair as New IOP Director

Alan K. Simpson is known to speak his mind, peppering his commentary with rather colorful metaphors and the occasionally salty phrase.

"I've been in public life for 31 years," the former Republican senator from Wyoming said with a smile, and "I've been called a left-wing pinko and a rightwing cuckold...and I'm the same guy."

Simpson, who on Jan. 12 began work as the new Director of the Institute of Politics (IOP), said he hopes to bring the same openness that earned him the respect of bi-partisan colleagues to his job at Harvard.

Simpson replaced Phil Sharp, who said he plans to devote more time to teaching at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and to serving on an Environmental Protection Agency Panel.

Simpson will also teach a course at the Kennedy School, serving as the Lombard Lecturer at the school's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.

In an extensive interview with The Crimson, Simpson outlined his philosophy as both a teacher and IOP director, strongly defended his record on immigration policy and reflected upon the nature of politics in America today.

After meeting late last week with the IOP's student advisory council, Simpson said he was excited to be working with them.

"It was a delight," he said. "I told them who I am and what I intend to try to do."

The IOP's main mission is to foster an interest in politics and Simpson said that he wants students to see it from every angle.

"I'd like to show them that politics is sloppy, silly, stupefying sometimes," he said. "But you'd never want to live in a country without politics."

All in the Family

Simpson's IOP office is adorned with reminders of the Wyoming landscape and a particularly prize possession, an autographed picture of William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody.

Simpson was born in 1931 in the town named for Cody. He graduated with from the University of Wyoming, and after two years in the military, received a law degree in 1958.

After spending 13 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, Simpson was elected to the Senate in 1978.

Simpson's father, Milward L. Simpson, also served in the Senate (R-Wy.), at one time being second in seniority to Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy '54-'56 (D-Mass.).

Alan Simpson rose to the position of Republican whip before retiring from the Senate in 1997.

Simpson made very few enemies in politics but many adversaries, the former Wyoming Governor and IOP Fellow Mike Sullivan has said. And Thompson said Simpson has never been afraid to engage those who disagree with him.

Simpson demonstrated his willingness to butt heads with those he disagrees with when he and National Public Radio's Nina Totenberg got into a public row over Clarence Thomas's nomination to the Supreme Court, which Simpson supported.

The senator criticized Totenberg's reporting and Totenberg in turn said Simpson's tactics smacked of McCarthyism.

"She and I had a very serious disagreement," he said. "She was gracious enough to call me...and said...'You and I have both been beaten up pretty good,' and I said, 'Let's go out and heal.'"

Totenberg has since been a guest lecturer for Simpson's Kennedy School course entitled "Creating Legislation: Congress and the Press."

Totenburg is not the only journalist with whom Simpson has had disagreements.

The former senator said that Peter Arnett's Gulf War reporting for CNN so infuriated him that he tried to contact Arnett to complain.

"What's [Peter Arnett] doing over there in Baghdad, saying 'now we're looking at a child care center.' Well, he's hosted by the enemy government," Simpson recalled thinking at the time.

Arnett never responded to Simpson's criticism.

Simpson said that instead of shying away from controversy and clashes of opinion he hopes to bring to the IOP speakers who will stimulate debate.

"We're going to bring in some very interesting people, people who have not come here before," he said.

Simpson said he was especially interested in making the IOP a more inviting place for people who fear they will receive a cold reception when they come to speak.

Simpson knows first-hand what it feels like to be greeted with hostility at the IOP.

When he spoke last year on immigra- tion at the IOP's ARCO Forum, liberal student groups protested en masse.

"As I was finishing my remarks, I made a big mistake," he said. "I said, I'm going to finish here in a few minutes' and when I said that, the groups...filled the microphone avenues. So I turned to the sponsor and said "We're going to extend this program 45 minutes."

At the Forum, Simpson strongly defended his record on immigration issues and continues to do so.

He said sees the debate polarized by extremes.

One side uses the image of the Statue of Liberty to argue for unimpeded immigration, an open door policy, he said.

The other side says "shut the door and don't let anybody in."

Simpson said he advocates taking the middle ground.

Simpson said his work on immigration policy in the 1980s legalized nearly 3 million immigrants. "Without my [1986] bill, 3 million people would still be living in a closed, underground society," he said. "And they came out into the sun."

"Eighty percent of what was in my [1995] bill was in the Barbara Jordan report," he said, referring to the commission on immigration chaired by the late Democrat from Texas, the first black woman to serve in the House of Representatives from the deep South.

After Simpson's ascension to the IOP post was announced, a Crimson staff editorial said Simpson's "public stances on immigration make us question, whether, given his politics, he ought to help determine the make-up of speakers and study groups at the Kennedy School."

The editorial was entitled, "Wrong Move to the Right at IOP."

Simpson said the editorial was "a knee-jerk liberal response. "That editorial board is one of the most left-wing out there."

"You want to start slugging that way," Simpson said with a smile, "God, I love to slug. We'll have a debate. Line 'em up."

Yet Simpson said he does not agree with conservatives who bemoan Ivy League schools for their expressed progressivism.

"That's what college is for. It's no different at the University of Wyoming than at Harvard," he said.

"The politics of academia will outstrip the politics of Congress, but if a college or university is not the place for that kind of inculcation and that kind of emphasis, then there is no other place for that," Simpson said.

"That's the way it will always be, hope fully."

Divisive Issues

Simpson, in his words, has "flunked the conservative test" in other areas.

Simpson is pro-choice and predicts that until the Republican party successfully deals with the issue of abortion, a GOP President will not be elected by the American people.

Campaigning with George Bush in 1992 and Bob Dole in 1996, Simpson said he saw "thousands of women in my presence [jump] ship and would not have supported either one of them because of the issue of abortion."

Last week, Republican National Committee member Tim Lambert's controversial proposal to deny funding to pro-choice Republican candidates was defeated.

Simpson advised the Republican party to handle abortion like the state GOP party did in Wyoming, adopting a resolution that acknowledges the divisiveness of the issue and agrees to remove it entirely from the party platform.

Besides Gov. George W. Bush Jr. of Texas, Simpson sees Colin Powell as a possible Republican candidate for president in 2000.

Minority leader Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) will be a strong but highly partisan candidate for the Democrats, Simpson predicts.

"I don't believe Al Gore ['69] will be the nominee," he said. "I know I have my personal thoughts. about his voting during the Gulf War," Simpson said.

Former New Jersey senator Bill Bradley, who serves with Simpson as a co-chair of Project Independence, a campaign reform initiative, could also be a strong Democratic candidate, Simpson said.

In and Out

Don't expect to see Simpson in the national political arena, however.

He said he's out of politics for good, and looks forward to the challenges of teaching and the IOP.

Simpson and his wife Ann will live in Eliot House, as they did last year when Simpson taught at the Kennedy School.

The students he's met at Eliot House "are some of the finest young people I know."

To those, however, who disagree with him and his politics, Simpson says the door to his office on the second floor at the Institute of Politics is always open.

"When I disagree with someone, and it's very important for this campus to understand, give me a call!" he says.

"And we'll sit down. And we'll talk.

"As I was finishing my remarks, I made a big mistake," he said. "I said, I'm going to finish here in a few minutes' and when I said that, the groups...filled the microphone avenues. So I turned to the sponsor and said "We're going to extend this program 45 minutes."

At the Forum, Simpson strongly defended his record on immigration issues and continues to do so.

He said sees the debate polarized by extremes.

One side uses the image of the Statue of Liberty to argue for unimpeded immigration, an open door policy, he said.

The other side says "shut the door and don't let anybody in."

Simpson said he advocates taking the middle ground.

Simpson said his work on immigration policy in the 1980s legalized nearly 3 million immigrants. "Without my [1986] bill, 3 million people would still be living in a closed, underground society," he said. "And they came out into the sun."

"Eighty percent of what was in my [1995] bill was in the Barbara Jordan report," he said, referring to the commission on immigration chaired by the late Democrat from Texas, the first black woman to serve in the House of Representatives from the deep South.

After Simpson's ascension to the IOP post was announced, a Crimson staff editorial said Simpson's "public stances on immigration make us question, whether, given his politics, he ought to help determine the make-up of speakers and study groups at the Kennedy School."

The editorial was entitled, "Wrong Move to the Right at IOP."

Simpson said the editorial was "a knee-jerk liberal response. "That editorial board is one of the most left-wing out there."

"You want to start slugging that way," Simpson said with a smile, "God, I love to slug. We'll have a debate. Line 'em up."

Yet Simpson said he does not agree with conservatives who bemoan Ivy League schools for their expressed progressivism.

"That's what college is for. It's no different at the University of Wyoming than at Harvard," he said.

"The politics of academia will outstrip the politics of Congress, but if a college or university is not the place for that kind of inculcation and that kind of emphasis, then there is no other place for that," Simpson said.

"That's the way it will always be, hope fully."

Divisive Issues

Simpson, in his words, has "flunked the conservative test" in other areas.

Simpson is pro-choice and predicts that until the Republican party successfully deals with the issue of abortion, a GOP President will not be elected by the American people.

Campaigning with George Bush in 1992 and Bob Dole in 1996, Simpson said he saw "thousands of women in my presence [jump] ship and would not have supported either one of them because of the issue of abortion."

Last week, Republican National Committee member Tim Lambert's controversial proposal to deny funding to pro-choice Republican candidates was defeated.

Simpson advised the Republican party to handle abortion like the state GOP party did in Wyoming, adopting a resolution that acknowledges the divisiveness of the issue and agrees to remove it entirely from the party platform.

Besides Gov. George W. Bush Jr. of Texas, Simpson sees Colin Powell as a possible Republican candidate for president in 2000.

Minority leader Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) will be a strong but highly partisan candidate for the Democrats, Simpson predicts.

"I don't believe Al Gore ['69] will be the nominee," he said. "I know I have my personal thoughts. about his voting during the Gulf War," Simpson said.

Former New Jersey senator Bill Bradley, who serves with Simpson as a co-chair of Project Independence, a campaign reform initiative, could also be a strong Democratic candidate, Simpson said.

In and Out

Don't expect to see Simpson in the national political arena, however.

He said he's out of politics for good, and looks forward to the challenges of teaching and the IOP.

Simpson and his wife Ann will live in Eliot House, as they did last year when Simpson taught at the Kennedy School.

The students he's met at Eliot House "are some of the finest young people I know."

To those, however, who disagree with him and his politics, Simpson says the door to his office on the second floor at the Institute of Politics is always open.

"When I disagree with someone, and it's very important for this campus to understand, give me a call!" he says.

"And we'll sit down. And we'll talk.