Democracy in action -- this is a strange developing story -- turn on C-SPAN now if you're really interested.

From what I can piece together (and this could be all wrong!) sounds like the Democratic members of the Ways & Means committee were meeting in the committee's library when the Chairman (Bill Thomas, R-California) arrived to stop the meeting. Pete Stark (D-California) threatened bodily harm to the Chairman, who called the Capitol Police to break up the meeting and protect himself.

p.s. both Mr. Thomas and Mr. Stark are hot-tempered bombastic twits (IMHO)

[ July 18, 2003, 11:01 AM: Message edited by: DCBucky ]

Well here's the story from Roll Call: Upset House Dems adjourned to the library at today's Ways and Means markup. Dems allege that Chair Bill Thomas (R-CA) instructed a staffer to call the police to remove them.

GOPers countered that Thomas called the Sergeant-at-Arms after Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) threatened Rep. Scott McInnis (R-CO).

All proceedings on the House floor were held up this afternoon to debate the matter ...

[seems like Tony Blair's visit to the Capitol yesterday got our Representatives thinking they should act more like the British Parliament! ]

Hey Bucky,any further developments?Why was Thomas interested in disrupting the meeting-is he trying to claim that it constituted some kind of "unlawful assembly"? :confused:
Are the Repugs just getting a little over-sensitive in the wake of tough questions and falling poll numbers? :cool:

[ July 18, 2003, 01:46 PM: Message edited by: Tim ]

Or maybe somebody finally figured out what's been obvious to me for years now: that Democrats are psychotic and need to be jailed.

You can read all the sordid details here., including this exchange:

Rep. Scott McInnis (R-CO) to Pete Stark (D-CA): "Shut up!"

Stark: you're "... a little wimp. Come on, come over here and make me, I dare you. . . . You little fruitcake. You little fruitcake. I said you are a fruitcake."