Inevitably, tributes to and obituaries for Alan Simpson will recall how the three-term former senator, who died Friday at 93, was a moderate Republican who bridged party gaps during his stint in the Senate from 1978-96.
True, the 6-foot-7-inch man from Wyoming always seemed irked by those he dubbed "the right-wing nutjobs." In 2013, he recalled to Newsmax in his own unique way how he was at the Young Republican National Convention in San Francisco a half-century before as conservatives devoted to the presidential candidacy of Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater took over: "I remember a bunch of bushy-tailed young guys at the YR nuthouse."
When George H.W. Bush, a close friend for more than a quarter century, was nominated for president in 1988, speculation was rampant Simpson would be his vice president. But the Wyoming man knew his pro-choice stand on abortion and support of the fledgling gay-rights movement made a Bush-Simpson ticket out of the question.
Appearing on Meet the Press, Simpson ruled himself out of the veepstakes by saying he would be a liability to the ticket because, "I've had a rather checkered career" having "punched the lights out" of many "sacred cows" in speeches on the floor of the Senate.
But Simpson could also deploy his sense of humor and good nature to help conservative causes. In 1981, he was a major player in securing Senate passage for the bold tax and budget initiatives of President Ronald Reagan. Simpson and Reagan, who both loved horseback riding and cowboy lore, became fast friends.
Furious at the media's treatment of Reagan during the Iran-Contra controversy in March of 1987, a fiery Simpson told a group of reporters just before the president's news conference: "You're asking him things because you know he's off-balance and you'd like to stick it in his kazoo!" (Simpson loved using the word 'kazoo' or, as he sometimes pronounced it 'gazoo,' and entitled his memoirs "Right in the Old Gazoo: What I Learned In A Lifetime of Meeting the Press.")
Simpson could also be humble when he was wrong. In 1991, he denounced CNN correspondent Peter Arnett an Iraqi "sympathizer" and charging that during the Vietnam War, the reporter had a brother in-law "who was active in the Viet Cong."
Six weeks later, realizing that his information on Arnett's brother-in-law was an undocumented rumor, Simpson wrote the New York Times to say, "I do feel the deep personal need to apologize for repeating the rumors about Mr. Arnett's family connection to the Viet Cong… .I regret any hurt, pain, or anguish that I have caused his family."
Soon after, Simpson and Arnett were seen joking together at the White House Correspondent Association dinner.
In 1995, as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Simpson charged that the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) "has also drifted considerably from any reasonable description of a non-profit organization." He thereupon opened hearings on the AARP's non-profit status.
"Al Simpson questioned its funding, how many AARP executives earned $100,000 a year or more [$225,000 in 2025 dollars]," recalled Jim Martin, president of the SixtyPlus Seniors Association, "Horace Deets, who was AARP president at the time, could not answer."
Everyone who met big, bald Al Simpson seemed to have a story about him. At a charitable event in Washington D.C., I introduced Simpson to my wife. She said that I had told her his grandfather had been a lawyer in Cody at the turn of the century and represented "some interesting clients."
"Yes," Simpson shot back. "He was of counsel to Billy the Kid."
It was true. William Lee Simpson, father and grandfather of U.S. senators, was the lawyer for notorious bankrobber William Bonney, better known as Billy the Kid.
Not all agreed with Al Simpson but all found that he could disagree without being disagreeable. That is why as much as he could irk those farther to the right than him, he never had much trouble in his trips to the polls as state legislator and then senator.
And the same people who disagreed with him now mourn and honor Al Simpson.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.