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."