Think the shout of "baby killer" from U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas, during Sunday night's health care debate was as indecorous as it has ever come in Congress? Think again, says American Enterprise Institute scholar (and native Minnesotan.)
He rounded up some of the less polite moments in Congressional history in the Washington Post.
A selection:
1837: Rep. Balie Peyton (Tenn.), taking offense at testimony by former federal bank director Reuben M. Whitney before a committee of investigation, shouted, "You shan't say a word while you are in this room; if you do I will put you to death."
1964: Positioned outside a committee room, Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) was trying to dissuade his arriving colleagues from forming a quorum to consider the nomination of LeRoy Collins to head the Community Relations Service under the new Civil Rights Act. When pro-civil rights Sen. Ralph Yarborough (D-Tex.) showed up, the two ended up in a wrestling match.
2003: In protest over the lack of notice about a markup of a pension bill, Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee left the hearing room. The one Democrat left behind to make sure nothing untoward happened, Rep. Pete Stark (Calif.), was told to "shut up" by Rep. Scott McInnis (R-Colo.). "You think you are big enough to make me, you little wimp?" Stark replied. "Come on. Come over here and make me, I dare you. You little fruitcake."
