Into The Wild

Alan Simpson and Grover Norquist hunt for common ground at the National Zoo

Chris Buck for TIME

Alan Simpson and Grover Norquist, sans talking points, at the zoo.

The orangutans of Sumatra swinging overhead prompted former Senator Alan Simpson to recount one of his favorite bawdy limericks.

"Oh, my God, look at that," said the 81-year-old Republican co-chair of President Obama's fiscal commission, spotting the orange-haired creatures moving over two cables suspended 50 ft. above the National Zoo. "Of course, it reminds me of every foul Tarzan joke I ever learned, and they're all bad. They can't be repeated."

Simpson's longtime foe, the conservative activist Grover Norquist, stood nearby, 25 years younger but just as interested in foul humor. "I don't even know a single naughty Tarzan joke," Norquist...

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