Comments on: When Cheney Is On The Mic, It’s Like a Cookie, They All Crumble

By: Rana

Rana — Fri, 23 Jul 2004 19:09:27 +0000

Oh, you didn’t include the funniest part of that piece—the convoluted “family paper” versions of what the two men supposedly said to each other.

By: will

will — Wed, 21 Jul 2004 04:30:20 +0000

>There was also the Senator (Calhoun?) who was beaten so badly he never recovered, because he was against slavery, with one of those canes. < That's Charles Sumner, who, as the page tells us, "was beaten unconscious by Preston Brooks, a congressman from South Carolina. His injuries stopped him from attending the Senate for the next three years." (Anyone else find it odd that Sparatacus has so many pages on lefties and left sectariana, e.g. this? Maybe the name is reference to Luxemburg?)

By: bellatrys

bellatrys — Tue, 20 Jul 2004 22:54:59 +0000

More than that – people got killed! There’s a true story of a congressman stabbing another congressman to death with a Bowie knife. There was also the Senator (Calhoun?) who was beaten so badly he never recovered, because he was against slavery, with one of those canes. All on the floor there. (Parliament’s benches are exactly just too far for people on each side to reach each other with a longsword, btw.)

By: serial catowner

serial catowner — Tue, 20 Jul 2004 21:34:44 +0000

And nobody has thought to comment that that was once the actual case in the Congress? Page Smith tells us that in the Antebellum period many congressmen regularly armed themselves with pistols, daggers, and heavy canes before attending a session.