Reply #20: No, we SHOULD give a shit about how they treat each other. [View All]

[MADem]

Those rules of protocol are every bit as important as the rules that get a bill to the floor, over to the other chamber, and off to the Executive Branch for signature. They ARE important. They're part and parcel of how the Hill does business.

Or did you forget about the fellah who used 'intemperate language' on the floor of the House, and, instead of his point about the war making the news, his apology did instead? He BLEW a chance to make his point, because he blew his cool.

We don't have fistfights in camera like the Taiwanese do. We no longer have duels 'off campus' either.

If you don't speak in a measured and reasoned tone when making your points, then the "story" becomes the invective, the snub, the insult. You bring it on YOURSELF if you don't adhere to those rules of civility on the Hill. Legislators know that, and the gifted ones are smooth as silk. They get their points across, too.