{"id":1364149,"date":"2023-12-01T06:58:53","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T06:58:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/?p=306299"},"modified":"2023-12-01T06:58:53","modified_gmt":"2023-12-01T06:58:53","slug":"fisticuffs-in-the-senate-no-such-luck-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/12\/01\/fisticuffs-in-the-senate-no-such-luck-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Fisticuffs in the Senate? No Such Luck"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>\n
\"\"

Photograph Source: Staff Sgt. John Wright – Public Domain<\/p><\/div>\n

\nThe U.S. Congress almost joined the ranks of foreign legislatures on November 14, where opinions regularly become so heated that disputes degenerate into brawls. For those who amuse themselves by watching video clips of European, African or Asian lawmakers pummeling each other, the prospect of one such wrestling match on Capitol Hill was something to savor. Alas, Senator Bernie Sanders, alarmed at the impending mayhem, intervened and reminded his hot-headed colleague that a fistfight with a Teamsters Union president, then testifying, would be unseemly. The Oklahoma GOP senator, Markwayne \u201cReady to Bite\u201d Mullin, was thus, sadly, spared from making a thoroughly disgraceful spectacle of himself. Legislative watchers the world over groaned in disappointment.<\/p>\n

So what was so aggravating in that Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions committee hearing that Mullin had to be restrained from a pugilistic display? He objected to Teamster Sean O\u2019Brien calling him a \u201cgreedy CEO,\u201d at a previous hearing. This had led to an exchange of insults on social media \u2013 if good for nothing else, always good for name-calling \u2013 concluding with Mullin throwing down the gauntlet at the HELP meeting: \u201cSir, this is a time, this is a place. You wanna run your mouth, we can be two consenting adults; we can finish it here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Remember, Mullin is a martial arts pro. But O\u2019Brien wasn\u2019t daunted. He took up the challenge when Mullin blustered, \u201cWell stand your butt up then.\u201d O\u2019Brien replied, \u201cYou stand your butt up, big guy.\u201d At this minatory juncture, Sanders stuck his nose in, reminding one of the would-be brawlers that \u201cyou\u2019re a United States senator,\u201d to which any sensible bystander would retort, \u201cWell, so what?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanders was concerned about fisticuffs increasing the public\u2019s contempt for Congress. But NOTHING could increase the public\u2019s contempt for Congress. It\u2019s at an unsurpassable maximum. A scuffle would hardly have lowered our esteem for these bought-and-paid-for imbeciles, many of whom routinely resort to insulting each other as communists, thus revealing their single-digit IQs. There was simply no excuse for Sanders to interfere with these two slugging it out. He just proved once again that prissy busybodies do little besides depriving millions of Americans of their well-earned entertainment.<\/p>\n

Other countries lack such annoyingly effective party-poopers. Two weeks ago in Senegal\u2019s parliament, lawmakers threw chairs and wrestled after a male MP slapped a female politician. No fussy Budinsky interfered with the fun. Meanwhile, back in July, the Kosovo legislature descended into fisticuffs and a pile-on after some jokester posted a picture on the lectern of the prime minister with a lying Pinocchio nose. Male and female lawmakers were filmed bopping each other over the head, grabbing each other by the collar, hitting, kicking, punching and pouncing on each other in fury. Remember, these are the people that make the laws.<\/p>\n

Other famous fights include the opening of South Africa\u2019s parliament, some years back, and the Taiwan legislature, where lawmakers assaulting each other has been called \u201ca way of life.\u201d These imbroglios include everything from throwing eggs to pulling hair to lawmakers ripping off each other\u2019s jackets. Last March, Georgian representatives rumbled, hitting and leaping on each other during a discussion of the controversial foreign agent law.<\/p>\n

Also a few years ago, legislators bloodied each other\u2019s noses and threw eggs in the Ukrainian parliament, while South Korean lawmakers used an ax and fire extinguisher to break into a barricaded room, to say nothing of shouting, name-calling and worse. We here in the U.S. have missed out on this sport, thanks to the huffy propriety of senators like Sanders.<\/p>\n

Sanders\u2019 interference didn\u2019t stop Mullin from thrusting his chest out and bragging on TV about his bold challenge to a Teamster, boasting to Sean Hannity about how he scared O\u2019Brien. \u201cYou should have seen the fear in his eyes when I stood up!\u201d Mullin told Hannity. He did the same on Newsmax. \u201cYou know some people are real strong behind a keypad, but when they get called out, it\u2019s completely different,\u201d Mullin was quoted by Mediaite on November 14, then saying of O\u2019Brien: \u201cI think he got called on the carpet and I think he got really nervous. Because when he stood up, the look on his face was a bit different.\u201d<\/p>\n

In one interview, according to New York Magazine November 15, \u201cMullin made clear that when he fights someone, he\u2019s not above biting them\u2026\u2018And by the way, I\u2019m not afraid of biting. I will bite. I bite 100 percent. In a fight, I\u2019m gonna bite. I\u2019ll do anything. I\u2019m not above it. And I don\u2019t care where I bite by the way.\u201d\u2019 Dang. Sanders deprived us of seeing a sitting senator bite a witness, and maybe in a very sensitive spot. The question is, should we forgive Sanders? I think not.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s not forget that this senatorial eruption occurred within the context of class war. \u201cToo often, big union bosses intimidate, threaten and bully employers and job creators to get their way,\u201d Mullin tweeted. \u201cThis might work on some people, but not on me. Yesterday I made it clear: in Oklahoma, you don\u2019t issue a challenge unless you\u2019re going to answer the call.\u201d Mullin not only aimed to prove that he\u2019s a tough guy, he preened that he was tougher than a trade unionist, one who dared to doubt his credentials as a \u201cself-made\u201d businessman.<\/p>\n

The question is, how many congresspeople are ready to punch, bite, kick and scratch to defend the ruling class that owns them? My guess is quite a few. They know very well that they\u2019ll suffer no real damage on the Senate floor and the opportunity to bloviate about their \u201ctriumphs\u201d over leftists on Fox News and other right-wing TV outlets would probably prove irresistible. It\u2019s easy to picture Dem Senator Joe \u201cPoor People Use Money for Drugs\u201d Manchin pummeling an environmentalist, while senate minority leader Mitch \u201cDemocracy\u2019s Grave Digger\u201d McConnell might find that kicking a poor person unfreezes his geriatric \u201cpauses.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only problem for these guardians of our plutocratic elites is that their opponents might strike back. But no worries \u2013 they can just ask Senator Mullin to bite them.<\/p>\n

The post Fisticuffs in the Senate? No Such Luck<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Congress almost joined the ranks of foreign legislatures on November 14, where opinions regularly become so heated that disputes degenerate into brawls. For those who amuse themselves by watching video clips of European, African or Asian lawmakers pummeling each other, the prospect of one such wrestling match on Capitol Hill was something to More<\/a><\/p>\n

The post Fisticuffs in the Senate? No Such Luck<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":380,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364149"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/380"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1364149"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1364150,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364149\/revisions\/1364150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1364149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1364149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1364149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}