Talking about the 15 years of compromise it took to enact the Boulder-White Clouds wilderness bill, which in the end was supported by an array of groups ranging from conservationists to county commissioners, ATV’ers to ranchers, 2^nd District Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson said today, “Is this a perfect bill? Absolutely not. This is not the bill any of us … would have written if we were king for a day. But we aren’t kings. It’s called compromise. That’s the nature of politics.”

“Is it a good compromise?” Simpson asked. “Well … I’ll leave that to the judgment of your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren, of whether we did the job when it was our time to do it.”

In response to questions, the longtime Idaho congressman and former speaker of the Idaho House said, “Some people get so wrapped up in their ideological beliefs that they forget other people are just as wrapped up in their ideological beliefs.”