"Political junkies generally know that Alan K. Simpson was a witty, three-term Republican senator from Wyoming. Most probably don't know that Simpson's teenage years were full of (to be charitable) juvenile delinquency. Among Simpson's admitted transgressions were shooting up mailboxes, burning down an abandoned barn and being an accessory to shooting a cow dead. Now, because Simpson was white and his father was a prominent politician, Simpson got off pretty easy. Imagine if Simpson had been black. Instead of a three-term senator, he'd be an ex-felon scratching out a living if he were lucky.