Dick and Lynne Cheney were among the Washingtonians who came out Thursday night to support their old friend from Wyoming, former Sen. Al Simpson. Simpson was celebrating the release of his biography, “Shooting from the Lip: The Life of Senator Al Simpson,” at a Tammy Haddad hosted fete at the Jefferson Hotel.
The book was penned by his longtime Congressional aide Donald Hardy. Hardy used his time at the podium to demonstrate Simpson’s willingness to work across the aisle, saying he was–gasp–friends with the late Sen. Ted Kennedy. Hardy retold a funny story about the duo that took place at a town meeting in Wyoming. “This raucous meeting is going on and Al’s presiding over it and in the door comes Ted Kennedy and people can’t believe it,” Hardy began. “[A] guy stands up and says, ‘that Ted Kennedy…that guy is a horse’s ass.'” As the story goes, Simpson got up, grabbed the guy, took him outside and threw him into a snowbank. “And when he comes back in Kennedy says to him, ‘good heavens, that was magnificent Al, I had no idea this was Kennedy country,’ and Al looked at him and said, ‘Ted, it’s not, it’s horse country,'” Hardy concluded to laughs.
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When Simpson spoke to us, it was apparent that not much had changed since he left Congress, he was as frank as ever, as a pro-choice, pro-gay marriage Republican, he was peeved that social issues were once again on the frontburner. “Look, if the Republican party is going to spend time on abortion, gay/lesbian issues…and all of that goofy stuff we haven’t got a prayer,” he told Yeas & Nays. “Here’s a party who believes in government out of your life, the precious right of privacy and the right to be left alone, if that’s your theory than what the hell are you doing with those issues?”
As for Cheney, he hasn’t changed much either. “He’s a great American, one of my closest and oldest friends,” the former vice president said of Simpson. But did he have any good stories about him? “Yeah, but I’m not going to tell it,” Cheney said with a smirk, before making a stealthy exit.
