simpson has become a lawyer, he opens his newspaper over breakfast one morning to see the story of norman panettalected to be the mayor of san jose and he's like, well, i will be darned, and he fires off a letter to norman mehta and his like, hey, norm, remember that fat kid from cody? that is how he referred to himself. and of course, norm remembered him and later, they are both elected to congress. they have a decades long friendship. norman said, you know, i am a liberal democrat and he is a good republican, referring to alan simpson. and you know, we might have fights in committee hearings but then we always slap each other on the back and say, come on, let's go have dinner. let's go have a drink. when you look at pictures of them, and there are many, you look at pictures of them throughout their life starting in, you know, their 30's, 40's, when they get to washington, all the way up through their 80's, they are almost always in states of uproarious laughter. they are just clearly just enjoying each other so much. even their wives described -- what is up with them question might even their w

bush viewed the role of government, and so i asked him, why did you keep norman panetta in your cabinetwhen you could have gotten somebody from your own party to do it? his answer really struck me. he said there was no better servant for america than norman mineta. i thought like what a legacy to leave. not that norm was the best member of the democratic party , or, you know, norm agreed to do whatever i told him. norm was the most loyal to my 'nor was the most loyal to my view. norm w t most loyal to my views. his view was that the s no better servant for america and what an incredible thing to be known for. peter: one of the stories i had forgotten was his friendship with alan simpson, getting a letter. "remember that fat kid from the pup tent?" sharon: this story really amuses me. alan simpson becomes the united states senator. by the way, he is still alive as of today. he is still alive. he is in his 90's. this is a great example of how history is not that long ago. he grew up in wyoming and belonged to a boy out troop and his boy scout leader said to the families of wyoming that we