All Episodes
Previous Next
March 29, 2025 15:00-16:00 - CSPAN
59:54
Washington This Week
Participants
Main
l
liz cheney
r 10:47
Appearances
Clips
h
harriet hageman
00:09
|

Speaker Time Text
unidentified
She loves America and I can assure you she is no Wanda Wallflower.
She is one substantial human being, former Wyoming U.S. Congresswoman Liz Cheney.
liz cheney ▲ ● ▼
You know, it's to begin, It seems obvious to talk about the decades of friendship and the connections between our families.
But in a way, that seems insufficient because you are family.
And I was thinking last night as I was listening to all of you, but especially the wonderful grandchildren.
You know, when my grandmother Cheney died many years ago, the minister said to Mary and me that the closest thing on earth to God's love is the love of a grandparent.
And I hope you all know that.
My God, what incredible grandparents you're blessed with.
And I only could think last night sitting there, what a legacy, what a blessing, what an incredibly special thing that we all got to know Al, that we've all gotten to know Ann.
And Ann and Al both have lived life right.
You know, I don't really remember a time when Al and Ann Simpson were not in my life.
The relationship really does go back 60 years.
It goes back to 1965 when Al Simpson was a brand new legislator and Dick Cheney was an intern.
He was a University of Wyoming political scientist.
And I think it may not be true that Al is the only C student to have a building named after him here at Laramie, but I got to go check on that.
But after their time together in Cheyenne and Al had risen to be Speaker pro tem of the legislature of the state house and my dad had gone to Washington, we came back.
It was 1977 and Cliff Hansen announced that he was not going to be running for re-election.
So my dad got in his car in Casper and drove to Cheyenne to seek the counsel of former Wyoming Governor Stan Hathaway.
And he said to him, you know, I'm thinking of running for the Senate seat that Cliff Hansen is retiring from.
And Stan said to my dad, well, you know, you could do that, but of course Al Simpson is going to kick your butt.
Which gave my dad pause wisely.
He didn't jump into that race, but a few months later, when our Congressman Tino Roncalio announced that he wasn't going to be running, my dad decided that race might in fact be a lot more appealing.
And that began the wonderful, amazing 1978 campaign where Al Simpson and Dick Cheney, it really was the Al Simpson and Dick Cheney Road Show all across Wyoming.
People asked me about my experiences campaigning.
That one was a family affair.
We traveled the state together and we listened to Al Simpson and Dick Cheney tell stories in every town and every truck stop, every county fair, every parade all across the state.
And what an education that was.
They usually kept their stories G-rated, but I will tell you I will never forget the first time that I watched Al.
He was dealing with somebody in the audience who was being a little challenging.
Was a gentleman who happened to have a full head of hair.
And Al looked out in the audience at this guy and he said, You know, each one of us is only given a limited number of hormones.
And if you choose to use yours to grow hair, that's up to you.
Now, my sister and I were like eight and ten at the time, and we noodled on that one for several days trying to decipher it.
But that election led to Al and my dad joining Malcolm Wallop in Washington as Wyoming's congressional delegation.
I am biased, but having been a member of our congressional delegation, I think I can say that was the golden era of Wyoming representation in so many ways.
They were three serious people who cared deeply about our country.
We all know Al's humor and his warmth and his love, but he also was a huge intellectual, somebody who spent time thinking about the issues that matter and how we should handle those.
And the three of them believed that the voters of this state deserved the truth.
They accomplished much and they had a great time doing it.
Now, Al and my dad took their roadshow national in 2000 when Al joined us on the vice presidential campaign.
He came out on the road with us many times and he was a joy to campaign with.
So long as you understood, Al would do whatever you asked.
He would go wherever you wanted, but he was always going to say exactly what he wanted to say.
Now, as you all probably know, presidential campaigns are pretty tightly scripted events.
You know, there are key issues that you're trying to get the press to cover every day, and some you would rather the press not cover.
Al was with us on a particularly memorable campaign swing through Nevada.
Now, one of the hottest political issues of the day was whether or not the nation was going to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.
This was such a sensitive issue that campaign headquarters in Austin had sent talking points and had said to my dad, You need to really stick to these talking points if you get asked about nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.
Now, the talking points were completely unhelpful.
They were something along the lines of President Bush is going to consider all options and do what's best.
Now, basically, this idea was, you know, get in, get out, move on, hope nobody gets hurt.
So the staff gathered the press, the local press, at one of our stops.
Al and my dad came in for the press conference.
And sure enough, the first and the second and the third questions were all about is nuclear waste coming here to Yucca Mountain.
My dad very dutifully deployed the talking points each time while Al sat and watched this all unfold.
Now Al was not scheduled to speak, mind you.
But after the third go-round, Al couldn't take it anymore.
For God's sake, he said, the nuclear waste is definitely coming here, and you all just need to get used to it.
Now, this wasn't the talking points.
So there was dead silence in the room.
Nobody knew what to do.
Reporters are scribbling what Al Simpson has just announced, and we all looked over at the campaign staffer, the young man who was supposed to be managing Al that day.
And just as we all looked over at him, he stood up, turned around, and sprinted out of the room.
Now, I've never seen anybody move quite that fast.
And to his credit, he recognized this was something of an emergency, and he needed guidance from headquarters staff.
That campaign aide is a wonderful guy who actually has a very important job today.
He's now the head of global affairs for Facebook.
So if you ever run into Joel Kaplan, ask him about Al Simpson and Yucca Mountain.
You probably will see the color drain from his face.
But Al Simpson's reach is very long.
And by the way, Bush Cheney won Nevada pretty handily that year.
But of all of the politicians who came out on the campaign trail with us, and there were many, Al was very special.
He would come up to the front of the plane and he would talk to the big Whigs in the front of the plane about policy and strategy.
But then he would go to the back of the plane where the people who really ran things were, where the campaign staff hung out.
And he would shoot the breeze with them and give them life lessons and they loved it.
And by the end of the campaign, that part of the plane was decorated with photos that they had taken all on the campaign trail, things that we had seen and done.
Now, of all of the politicians who traveled with us in that campaign, not a single one got a place of honor on the wall of photos on the plane, except for Al Simpson.
He took a picture with the staff, and it was proudly displayed right next to the photo of the cow made entirely of butter we'd seen in Wisconsin.
And Al was very proud of this.
We all loved Al so much.
He was always there at the other end of the phone with sage advice mixed in with great humor.
At one point, when I was talking to Al about the differences between the House and the Senate, he gave me this self-deprecating pearl of wisdom.
The thing you have to know, Liz, about the seniority system in the United States Senate is it's just like a cesspool, and the biggest turds rise to the top.
unidentified
He said it with love.
liz cheney ▲ ● ▼
But with all of Al's tremendous humor and warmth, he never stopped fighting for the truth and for what's right.
He could easily have stepped away, decided that he'd made his contribution, and he certainly had, and he had earned the rest, but he never did.
Al knew that silence was complicity, and he showed all of us what it means to carry out the duty that we have as citizens to defend this country and the Constitution that we love.
When Al first announced his run for the Senate all those years ago, he promised two things to the people of Wyoming.
He said he would work very hard and he would try his best to make us very proud.
Well, my friend, you did that, and so much more.
Godspeed Al Simpson.
We love you and your wonderful family.
What a man.
What a life.
unidentified
I'll always refer to politics as the contact sport and he stated often his admiration for those like Harriet Hageman who are so willing to step into this arena The Simpson family has expressed their deep appreciation for Congresswoman Hagelman's praise for Al's decades of public service and his desire to make our country a better place.
Wowing Congresswoman Harriet Hageman.
Good afternoon.
It is such a pleasure to be with you all today and to pay honor and tribute to Senator Simpson.
There is so much to glean from those who have gone before us, and that is especially the case with regard to Senator Simpson.
My father Jim Hageman used to say, public service is uplifting, self-service is not.
Senator Simpson's life, like that of my father before him and with his wife ever beside him, lived a life marked by public service, uplifting the lives of so many.
Anyone with a connection to Wyoming politics or philanthropy knows Al Simpson.
Even though he finished his service as United States Senator nearly three decades ago, he and Anne were constants at Lincoln and Reagan Day dinners, fundraisers, and meetings of all kinds.
Wyoming's political landscape is like that of any great movement historically.
Change is often made as a result of those very few who are willing to act.
For many, many years, Al and Ann Simpson have led a cohort of that very few who have made themselves available to step up and give their all to impact both our state, the country, and the world.
Not only did Senator Simpson lead a life of service, but he always remained sensible, employing a practical outlook on the needs held by Wyoming and the best way to solve them.
Marked more recently by his work done to rein in government waste, he didn't shy away from big problems, but chipped away at them one step at a time until he reached a solution.
Finally, I will always admire Senator Simpson for his sincerity.
Whether his beliefs were vogue or in the minority, he stood strong for them and was relentless in their pursuit.
harriet hageman ▲ ● ▼
His sincerity to individuals and to the causes for which he fought is an achievement for him and an example for all of us.
unidentified
Senator Simpson was one of Wyoming's leading citizens, a globally respected statesman for his leadership and his character, and a man who had great love for his state.
All of Wyoming pauses today to mourn a man towering both in stature and a unique ability to lead.
May we also pick up where he left off and continue to carry the torch of all things Wyoming and of sincere service to our fellow man.
Thank you.
Pete Simpson, Colin, as we come toward the end and wrapping things up, one of God's greatest gifts to Wyoming, the Simpson brothers.
When God presented them to our world 13 months apart, God's world would never be the same.
And God loved it.
God knew his world needed two brothers who would help countless others see that each day can be the best.
Leadership matters.
Integrity is forever.
And laughter is the key to living forever.
Al called his brother the dearest friend of my lifetime.
He is priceless to all of us.
Pete Simpson.
He always said, I hate when people stand up.
so many escape.
Well, this has been absolutely wonderful.
Absolutely long, but absolutely wonderful.
So thank you.
Thank you all for being here.
Thanks for being a part of this.
It's great to see so many who loved him and so many we love all in one big massive group here at the university that he loved.
Al would be pleased to be here.
He would love it.
He would also be astonished at how many of his how many of the professorate might be here because as someone said before, his claim to academic fame was simply, I didn't graduate cum laude, I graduated tank dilati, which of course would apply to his C grades and all the rest of it and mine too.
But it was here where he found Ann.
He found himself and he found Ann, this beautiful troll girl from Grable, Wyoming.
She was every fellow's ideal on the campus.
Everybody just thought, what a gal, she could be a model, a movie star, the rest of it.
So when my brother came up to me and said, Pete, I'm going to marry Ann Schroll, I said, what?
He never really got over that remark.
He said, that's not the kind of thing you want to hear from somebody who's supposed to be your best friend and your great supporter.
But he lucked out.
And so did we all, the family and this place, and Al's career, because that partnership is what propelled Al's career and undergirded his life and legacy.
UW is a testing ground for Al as well.
I got to do a quick story about Ann.
Those of you know, back in Washington, you had go to some very sophisticated events, and there are not always people with less pretension.
There are plenty might be just plain snobby.
But one gal comes up to Ann at a very fancy party, a cocktail arrangement, lobbyists and all, and said, You come from Wyoming.
Where did you prep?
Where did you prep?
And Ann said, Grable High School, home of the Grable Buffaloes.
When Al was tested here, his common sense, the things you've heard from these great friends and people here on the stage and in the audience, they liked his style, they liked his easy way, and they loved his legendary humor.
They felt comfortable in his presence even back then.
And so when he ran for student senate, he won by a landslide.
And one of the comments that I heard then and have heard since was from a good friend of mine who worked for Democratic Party, and he was a college student at the same time.
He says, you know, I don't agree with three-quarters of the things that he says, but I trust him.
But I trust him.
Well, he became known on this campus in my time and his as Big Al.
Why not?
He was huge by that time, and so the old phrase has been used here before when he claimed I was back when I had hair, weighed 250, and thought beer was food.
That applied.
It was quite true.
He made the team, the football team.
And in his senior year, he was a starter.
And the thing that amazed me the first time that I was out for basketball at that time, that's another story.
But when he was on the bench, and we knew that he was maybe going to play in his junior year, a yell went up from, it was largely from a bunch of rap scallion fraternity members, but still.
And it said, we want Big Al.
And then it went all the way around the stadium.
We want Big Al.
God, he was being voted for right then.
It was stunning to me, startling to me.
And I've never forgotten.
It made me think this guy has some very special qualities.
After all the years we've been living together in the same dog gun bedroom, finally had to get seven-foot beds.
And he's got something special.
And he considered that a great part of his life was not just touched by the great relationships we had at home with our parents, but with this university.
He considered this university the touchstone for the career that he finally was able to make.
And it was a part of this place that he decided he would always try to give back.
And it's been recited here.
President of the Alumni Association.
The campaign chairman for a $200 million, all-time high distinction campaign, and powerful legislator from Cheyenne who knew and loved the university and represented what it needed, like adequate funding.
How am I doing, Ed?
He was such a supporter, such a man of this place.
And there are many stories that I could tell him before I started doing that.
You might not get home until next week.
But the thing that I particularly wanted to mention is he was kind of Lincoln-esque in his posture, his stature, his demeanor, his humor, the stories he told, his small-town lawyer common sense, good wit, and good sense, his insights,
his ways of looking at things in a compassionate manner, and from the other side of the fence and the other party.
Those things didn't count as much as humanity did.
And his way of thinking was: you have to be the human being you want to be, and you have to work at that.
And this was a place he considered his growing up place to work at that particular goal.
I'm actually going to close.
This is astounding, but I will.
Because when I mention his Lincoln-esque qualities, that's strange that when he walked on the stage, the public stage, when he first started this game that he was in, it was the press and TV announcers and others who began to use the phrase Lincoln-esque.
So I picked something out by A.P. Markham about Abe Lincoln.
And by the way, Al would be the absolute last person to have himself compared by his brother or not with Abe Lincoln.
Come on, what are you doing?
Anyhow, you can't stop me, Al.
So the poem that he wrote about Lincoln's passing, mostly, I've committed it to memory, was simply a line.
He said, when he went, like a lordly cedar on the hill, he went down with a great shout and left a lonesome place against the sky.
Goodbye, Big Al.
I hate it, but I love you.
Okay.
Pete, I love you.
I love you, my friend.
Thank you.
How do you close a program of this magnitude?
How do you bestow the ultimate honor Al Ken received today?
The only voice to close is the singular voice of his children.
Bill, Colin, and Sue.
Ladies and gentlemen, Colin Simpson.
Good evening.
Oh, no, good afternoon.
This is what dad did first.
Pull up his pants.
Wow.
I will never be the 14th speaker of 14 speakers again.
But Ben Laylock, thank you so much.
Incredible job.
Thank you.
Not only for this event, but what you've did for the university over the years.
I mean, I can go down the line, and I'm not going to, but I wanted to thank Ben and Mary Ivanoff.
Where is Mary?
Mary, I don't know how you pull this off.
Well, I do know how you pull it off because you're a professional at it and you've done it before.
And thank you so much.
It's an incredible event.
And Cody Gortmaker with the Ballard Funeral Home in Cody, if you've seen the big, tall, Al Simpson-looking guy around, he's taken such great care of this casket and dad that we're just eternally grateful.
So I wanted to start, fellow candidates, old and new, but that was the wrong speech.
And Phil, I did want to just add in there that I have this written down, that the jackass at the Kentucky Derby, the end of that is he knew he couldn't win, but he certainly enjoyed the company.
Oh, I'm so proud to be here today on behalf of the family.
Well, Pete is on behalf of the family as well, but I'm so proud of the family and what we've experienced with Dad in his transition over the last months has been a very powerful experience and love you all.
I stand before you today full of gratitude for the life of our father, our rock, our inspiration, and our legacy.
On behalf of the entire family, I extend much love and appreciation to today's speakers for their beautiful words about mom and dad and their accomplishments.
Words that spring from many years and generations of friendship.
Dad was all about words and their impact, and you've done him proud, as you heard him say.
I also extend our deepest gratitude and respect to the wonderful doctors, nurses, CNAs, aides, staff who so compassionately and selflessly gave of themselves that dad might heal, be comforted, and find peace.
Thank you so much.
You are angels on earth.
We thank those who have sent expressions of condolence, sympathy, love, and remembrance.
Beautiful words that we can tell from reading them were the most important words they wanted to say.
Thank you so much.
I first met Al Simpson when he came to my incubator in March of 1958.
I was five weeks premature, much like my mother.
I'm impatient and it's hard for me to sit too long.
But Dad, he was mostly very deliberate and thoughtful.
I say mostly because if mom would say, he's a wonderful husband, except when he's not.
Right?
That was a famous family saying.
Mom, our incredible mother, our Grable girl.
Words cannot describe the impact you have had on our lives, the whole family.
Mom lost her father, Ivan Schroll, when she was 15.
And she and her mother, Pansy, and her twin sister Nan and their brother Rob moved here to Laramie.
She grew up much differently from dad with much less privilege.
But she too was enveloped in love, and her father's death forced her to become self-sufficient and strong.
Her wonderful qualities and strong character guided she and dad's lives together in the most positive way.
Mom, your character, beauty, grace, intelligence, and practical nature make you equal to dad in every way.
It is true he severely overmarried, and he did rely on you greatly and loved you dearly.
You pulled him through very difficult times, and today, Mom, we honor your commitment to dad and the family.
You are the very best.
Mom rode along for many of Dad's speeches and heard his oft-repeated jokes, and you heard about how she would clear her throat and so loud enough so dad could hear it, and many people in the room, and he called it the dog whistle, and it was quite effective.
And it was if he was going on too long or speaking about something she had told him, Al, stop saying that.
But that was great.
And Dad would sometimes be asked, what is your wife's name?
And he would say, long suffering.
Back to Dad.
He would sit for hours dictating, editing, and re-editing his letters and speeches, Simpsonizing letters of recommendation, reading about sports, art, history, poetry, humor, and so many other things that occupied his agile mind.
He loved language and books, and among his favorites were Kipling, Shakespeare, Robert Service.
He never met a document he could not edit.
Lyrical profanity was his friend.
Beautiful iteration of thought was his gift.
The perfect choice of words.
He was so good at it.
He would come up with things, and I'd think to myself, well, that's how it should be said.
I've been rifling through his files.
Dad would call it rifling through.
Get out of my stuff.
It's a museum of his life at home.
Incredible photos, books, binders, and dad's stuff.
Things that scratched his funny bone, tugged at his heart, piqued his intellect, recalled to life event or made him ponder the mysteries of life.
He kept files for everything.
For instance, Simpson, doggrell, and songs, MLS and tribe, or sayings and stuff, achaus gatherings.
And here are a few of the gems that I pulled out of there.
And miraculously, after the 14th speaker, there is still more.
I do know that at my funeral, the 14th person will go, that's it, folks.
I don't know.
Okay.
Nobody's perfect except you and me.
You and I.
He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.
Winston Churchill.
I have never killed a man, but I've read many obituaries with great pleasure.
Clarence Darrow.
He is not only dull himself, but he is the cause of dullness in others.
Samuel Johnson.
I feel more like I do now than when I came.
Al Simpson.
When the chips are down, are the buffalo empty?
And Dad would say, think about that one.
And a very important one to remember is if you're damned if you do and damned if you don't, then do.
Dad had great faith in God and he was a faithful servant and member of the Christ Church in Cody.
And there's the idyllic picture of Pete and Dad staged in front of the window, looking like the angelic acolytes that they were not.
His dad's grace at meals were wonderful and later in his life legendary in their breadth.
It's a family inside joke.
He did a speech to the Senate prayer breakfast, and I don't know the date.
I think it was in the late 90s.
It is really a stirring, powerful confessional by Dad.
It's really amazing.
And this was a prayer he enjoyed.
Dear Lord, so far today, Lord, I have done all right.
I haven't gossiped, haven't lost my temper, and haven't been overindulgent, selfish, greedy, grumpy, or nasty.
I'm very thankful for that.
But in a few minutes, Lord, I'm going to get out of bed.
And from then on, from then on, I'm probably going to need a lot more help.
Amen.
Here's another one.
To do something, get at it.
That was Al.
Dad didn't, oh, reading was a great pastime for Dad.
Daily, mom and dad would read vast amounts of things.
Mail, newspapers, magazines, periodicals.
They read everything from the Grable Standard to the New York Times, from the basin Republican Rusk or Lusk, whatever, the Lusk Herald to the Washington Post and The Economist.
They read everything.
But Dad didn't just read things.
He tore pages out.
He cut things out.
He wrote on them with his trusty black felt-tip pen, which many of you may have photos that he wrote on, and disseminated them to his family like, Ann, read this.
Ann, read and toss.
Ann, get to Colin.
Bill, do what you want with this.
TGO.
TGO, the great Oz.
That was Dad.
He loved competition, the scrap of politics, and he loved to say that the difference between a horse race and a political race is that in a horse race, the entire horse runs.
Dad loved being part of a team.
And Brother Pete was his captain for the first 22 years of his life.
What an incredible bond.
But he so loved this university.
And my God, how he loved this place.
And its role in his life and his parents and his brothers and that of the Simpson family.
Thank you, the University of Wyoming, President Zeidel, for all the incredible gifts that you've given us this weekend.
You've heard about all the 260 in here with food, or whatever.
He had hair, thought beer was food.
But he was known, and then, but the rest of that is, I played some put football and basketball for the Cowboys.
In basketball, I was listed in the statistical column as others.
I was known as Other Simpson.
And he had a clipping from the 1961 column of Larry Berlaffe, the great sportscaster and a sports writer from Cheyenne.
That he wrote about how he'd met with Kenny Saylors.
God rest his soul, Al Simpson, Dick Haig.
And they were talking about Ev Shelton's team when they were playing, they needed a win over Montana at Missoula for the Skyline title.
And Dad was the 12th man of a 12-man squad.
And four of the starters had fouled out, and Ev turned to Dad and said, Well, young man, I'm too old to play.
So get in there.
But whatever you do, don't shoot.
Well, Wyoming was leading by three points at that time, and a few seconds later, Dad found himself under the bucket.
So what did he do?
He made a bucket.
And the Cowboys won by five.
The Paul hung for a lifetime on the edge of the hoop and finally sank through with what proved to be the winning margin.
After the game, Coach Shelton said, Al, you scored.
You scared the devil out of me on that one.
Never in doubt, Al said.
In fact, I started to hook it in just for laughs.
I found the box score.
But Dad loved to reminisce about his cowboy football and basketball days and the many great men he came to know and love all his life, including General Charlie Wing right here.
Charlie, thank you so much.
It's great to have you here with us.
He was, I think he scored 13 points in that game, if I remember the box score.
He was a great basketball player.
Dad would say, you've heard this many times, have you lived in Wyoming all your life?
Not yet.
Traveling with Dad around Wyoming was a travelogue of memories.
He had stories about darn near every pullout, bar, historical marker, and town we passed.
He loved to say, we'd go by Hellstaff Acre, and he'd go, reminds me of the one who'd go, you know, this would be a good town if you got some good people and some water.
And the guy turned to him and said, well, that's all hell needs.
Dad was a compulsive joke teller, and he was a master at it.
He loved the goofy and the absurd.
He loved to make people laugh at him and with him.
He had great comedic timing and a near photographic memory.
He never forgot a joke.
I couldn't believe it.
His stories and jokes will live on because, as Dad said, there's no such thing as repetition.
He had sheets of punchlines.
We're trying to recreate some of the jokes, but we'll spend considerable time doing that.
And we will be limited in the release because of the limited audience that can be shared with some of them.
He was a ruby in the dung, as he loved to say.
Over the last few weeks, I've read with pride many of Dad's speeches, and the one he was most proud of, but the accomplishment he was most proud of was the law school renaming.
But the speech he was most proud of was the eulogy for President George Bush.
And he received a wonderful gift from the Bush family, and he delivered for his friend.
And I plagiarized a bit of it, but the punchline for Alan K. Simpson is this.
You would have wanted him on your side.
He never lost his sense of humor.
Humor is the universal solvent against the abrasive elements of life.
He never hated anyone.
He knew what his mother and my mother always knew.
Hatred corrodes the container it's carried in.
The most decent, honorable, and decent and honorable person I ever met was my father Al Simpson.
One of man's noblemen.
His epitaph, perhaps just a single letter, the letter L for loyalty.
It coursed through his blood.
Loyalty to his country, loyalty to his family, loyalty to his friends, loyalty to the institutions of government and this university, and always, always a friend to his friends.
Great men.
He was wonderful company.
No matter what context and no matter what the hours, he had a favorite place to eat or drink the world over, and he didn't just know the name of the matri D or the waiter or the janitor the security guard or the owner.
He knew them all.
And he remembered some detail about them in amazing detail that made them feel special.
But what was Dad's life's work?
To me, it was communicating, talking with people, writing letters, calling people in extremis, consoling, learning, encouraging, teaching, helping others see the best in themselves.
His letters were so special.
I can't tell you the number of people I've met over decades that come up to me and say, my son, my daughter, my mother, my father got a letter from your father about an accomplishment, a loss of a family member that was so touching to them.
And it was really incredible.
And what a legacy to have.
He reached out easily in difficult circumstances, and that's a gift.
Dad loved life and had incredible adventures.
He threw snowballs off the White House roof with President Bush.
He had memorable dinners with President LaReagan, and he used to say to us kids, it's a great day for the race.
And we'd say, what race?
He'd say, the human race.
You know, I was thinking, what characters contributed to Dad's character?
Well, Bill Simpson, who fought against the expansion of Grand Teton National Park.
His father Millard, who as governor commuted a death sentence of a confessed killer, shut down gambling in Jackson Hole, had a row with the highway department about where I-25 would end.
It goes on and on.
So on that foundation, that heritage gave Dad that foundation and a tough hide.
But what made him special?
He was a self-made man, thus saving God from an awesome responsibility.
That was one of Dad's favorites, too.
Many people say he was authentic and genuine.
Many people say he changed their life.
Many people say he influenced them in a direction they did not believe they could go.
What does it take?
Dad showed us the way, listening, hearing, caring, love, forgiveness, acceptance, honesty, sharing personal faults, humanizing himself, and always having humor at hand to put someone at ease.
He understood that the privilege he had been afforded did not make him better than anyone else, and he worked hard to show people that he did not believe he was better than them.
I know he felt different and insecure in ways few ever understood.
And he developed an incredible capacity to want to know and understand each person at their own level.
He was full of grace for his fellow humans who tread this mortal coil.
Dad was never going to be done with life or politics.
He frequently joked that the only way he would get politics out of his systems was with embalming fluid.
It's hard for all of us, and obviously many of you, to reconcile that someone so much larger than life and so full of life is no longer with us.
But his good works live on in all of us, in his thousands of good deeds, in his thousands of friends, and in his thousands of letters.
He will be well remembered.
And up there, the tall guy's bent over a crowd telling his favorite jokes and he's smiling.
And as he loved to say, as tiny Tim would say, God blesses everyone.
Thank you.
So Anne, in closing today, of our thoughts, turn to you.
And before you clear your throat for me, I just want to say thank you.
You and I all have touched my soul.
And God changed the course of my life through your gifts of love and support from me.
I owe you everything.
I love you forever.
At this time, we're going to have military funeral honors.
Veterans and current military members may render the hand salute, even though you may not be in uniform.
Let me ask all of our gifts to stand for the playing of taps.
As we close the day, you can remain standing.
We felt the only way to bring all this home was Al and Pete.
Please direct your attention to the video screens as the Simpson brothers sing their mother's song.
Yeah okay, from the mountains of Wyoming and across the sagebrush plain, from the cowboys fighting charging piling, game on game so.
So cheerful Wyoming on the martyr of renown.
Touchdown, touchdown, touchdown for the gold and the brown.
Come on, Wyoming, we've got to fight today, for we want a victory.
Come on, Wyoming, you've got to win today for the university.
Come on, Wyoming.
We all depend on you.
We are loyal through and through.
Powder, river, letterbuck, letterbuck, wyoing.
Oh, beautiful.
That was a couple of gorgeous more than muffled applause this time, actually.
Thanks a little heart batting. God bless.
The Wall Street Journal and others are reporting that Dr. Peter Marks, one of the FDA's leading vaccine officials, has resigned from the agency.
Dr. Marks, one of the architects of the Operation Warp Speed COVID Vaccine Initiative, had reportedly clashed with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In his resignation letter, Dr. Marks writes, I was willing to work to address the Secretary's concerns regarding vaccine safety and transparency.
However, it has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.
Congress returns Monday for a busy week of legislative work.
The House scabbles in Monday at noon Eastern.
And later in the week, members will vote on legislation to limit federal judges' authority to issue injunctions that apply nationwide.
▲
Export Selection