Alan Simpson Interview (page: 8 / 9) Statesman and Advocate	Print Interview

Is there anything you didn't accomplish in your career that you really wish you had been able to do?

Alan Simpson: No, because now I'm doing things I never dreamed I'd ever accomplish. So whatever I didn't accomplish before means nothing. Here I am doing this thing all over the country, beating up on the AARP. The American Association of Retired Persons, 33 million Americans bound together by a common love of airline discounts. I love what I call them. God, it's fun! And they say, "Why do you feel that way?" I said, "Well, get in the game. You could be such a force for good and the helpless. Correct the Social Security system and Medicaid, and you greedy -- how can you do this to your grandchildren?" So I have that spirited interest, and it's not bitterness, it's just reality.

What are the biggest challenges you see lying ahead for America?

Alan Simpson: First of all, it's dealing with the extremists on both sides of every issue.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I happen to be pro-choice on abortion. I've never beat the drums, given speeches about it. Never served with anybody in all my 18 years of representing this magnificent, wonderful Wyoming -- Democrat and Republican, Malcolm Wallop, Dick Cheney, Ed Herschler, Mike Sullivan, Democrats as governor, Barbara Cubin, Craig Thomas -- not one of them held my view. And we never talked about that issue for 15 seconds. The reason we didn't is because we respected each other. If we don't resolve that -- this is purely Republican -- we will never elect another Republican president. I campaigned for George Bush and Bob Dole, and unless we can resolve that, we will never win. And you do it by one sentence. You say, "Abortion is a deeply intimate and personal decision. And out of respect for each other, and to avoid destruction of our party, it will not be part of the platform." That's it. If you can't do that, then keep fighting, gang, and never elect -- whether it's your George Bush, or your Steve Forbes, or your Lamar Alexander -- forget it, you won't ever get another one. They're all gone. They're history.

So then you deal with the extremists. I've been called a baby killer, that is not a pleasant experience. Versus the other side, where I see somebody walking down the street and they say, "That's my belly. I'll put anything in there I want and do anything I want with it." Wonderful. How wonderful that is! Gun control? Hell, in my state house, steady you hold your rifle. And you have to deal with the grandmothers who said, "If my child ever touched a cap pistol, I'd just never talk to the little booger again," versus some guy who wants to put a 105 howitzer on the back of his pickup and blow up everything a quarter of a mile on both sides of the road. Nuclear waste? The extremists: "Hell no, we won't glow!" versus "Nobody's ever been killed."

Get the Flash Player to see this video. There are 108 nuclear power plants, whether you and I like it or not, and all of the spent fuel is sitting under 60 feet of demineralized water right next to 43,000 metric tons, and there ain't a political worth their salt that isn't standing on their hind legs saying, "Don't worry. We're not going to bring it down this highway. We're not going to take it here, we're going to take it there." And young people have to get up in front of those guys and say, "Well what the hell are you going to do with it?" Because if the water disappeared from it, it would become recritical in 10 to 14 days. It doesn't mean it's going to blow up, it means it becomes radioactive and it goes to the atmosphere. Now what are we doing about it? Nothing. Then we have people running around talking about methane gas and cows, how that's going to destroy the universe. How many people will belch at one time, or flatulence at one time, to destroy the -- and then how many propellants and shaving cream cans.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. What will destroy the earth is the population of the earth. But nobody talks about that. Give Al Gore credit, he was talking about it and then they clammed him, because then you're into ethnicity and religion and other things. But let me tell you, the population of the earth is the most critical thing that this world has to deal with, and we're not dealing with it at all. We're still talking about acid rain. Well that's great, I'll talk about all those things and I'll help. But I'd rather talk about fertility rates, and contraception, and birth control. That's what I'd rather be talking about, because that's how it's going to get saved. So those are the things that are out there, and those things are not being dealt with. These young people are going to have to step into the breach. To me, those are real big things. The other stuff is a sparrow belch in the middle of a typhoon.

What do you think are the most important documents of this century?

Alan Simpson: Jefferson did the best one, the Declaration of Independence. He got damn mad that they picked on his words after he finished that first draft, and it irritated him. He wrote, on the back of one of the originals, words which mean he was tired of them. That's an amazing document, the Declaration of Independence. The Constitution, a living document. It's corny, but you can go see them. I mean go to Washington and stand right next to them. And the Bill of Rights, and this wonderful boxing match we have with the First Amendment, and the boxing match we have with the Fifth Amendment in these times. There's nothing corny to say that there aren't any documents that have the power of those. And the Federalist Papers and Thomas Paine. It's kind of fun living around Boston, because there's where it was: the State House, and Faneuil Hall, and "...the rude bridge that arched the flood... Where once the embattled farmers stood, and fired the shot heard 'round the world." It's a great country. You don't have to even give a talk on that. All you have to know is it must be great, because everybody in the world is trying to get here.

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