Simpson initiated broad legislation aimed at reducing immigration and was outspoken in his support of Clarence Thomas when Anita Hill accused the soon-to-be confirmed Supreme Court Justice of sexual harassment.

He says it was his experience in practicing law, not his opin- ions about gender, which motivated him to takehis stance amidst the firestorm.

"We were faced with things that looked legal,"he says. "I have a logical mind."

Simpson is vocally pro-choice and hasencouraged the Republican Party to drop theabortion issue from its platform.

"I've never been able to let a sleeping doglie. I love being in the middle of controversy,"he says.

After a life in politics, Simpson speakslucidly about what he sees as the realities ofpolicy-making.

He says "emotion, fear, guilt andracism"--instead of actual facts--are oftentwisted, in the push to make bills into laws.

"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, butnot everyone is entitled to their own facts,"Simpson says.

Fun with the Media

Simpson's has had an up and down relationshipwith the media.

When Simpson first arrived in Washington in thelate 1970s, his easy laugh and sharp humor drewfriendly stories from D.C. journalists.

In 1980, Ward Sinclair of The Washington Postwrote, "Simpson turns out to be one of the mostrefreshing breezes that occasionally gentles theirway through Congressional pomp and fustian toremind that all is not lost."

But when the U.S. became entangled with Iraq inOperation Desert Storm, Simpson fell out of favorwith the press, after he accused CNN correspondentPeter Arnett of being a "sympathizer" with SaddamHussein.

"I could not stray from my simple belief thatjournalists are citizens first and reporterssecond," Simpson wrote in his 1997 book, RightIn The Old Gazoo: A Lifetime of Scrapping With thePress.

Even two years after his departure from publiclife, Simpson is quick to offer his thoughts oncurrent political happenings.

In a recent article in the New York Times,Simpson describes President Bill Clinton's habitof saving his political career just as a newscandal appears to threaten it.