If you're a fan of fight night, the 2007 Alabama legislature couldn't have ended any better in June, when a Republican lawmaker connected a right-hook to a Democrat's jaw in the middle of the chamber.
The fight, over in a flash, was caught by Public TV cameras. "Oh, my gosh," one lady says off-screen. "Got into it," says a man's voice.
The punch heard 'round the South came after vicious infighting in the Senate created a toxic atmosphere on the floor. Now (link here) the Alabama Senate has to figure out how to move forward. An ethics committee -- again, thanks to political maneuvering -- has been unable to reach a verdict on how, or even if, to punish the progenitor of the punch.
One line of thought: If this was any other workplace, the guy would have been tossed in jail.
But let's face it, the legislature is not any other workplace. It's the quorum of our democracy, and to me there's nothing worse than a passion-less debate -- that reeks of bureaucratic rubber-stamping. To see tempers flare can be a relief, and at least they settled it with fists and not, as in Rome, with a flurry of knives.
In other words, politics is sport. And five minutes in the sin bin should be enough for those two bareknucklers.
(Final days of legislatures are usually the call to arms. Witness this melee from Taiwan.)
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