By Associated Press
Montgomery, AL – Harsh words gave way to a punch being thrown in the Alabama Senate Thursday morning.
Session-long tensions boiled as Republican Senator Charles Bishop of Jasper punched Democratic Senator Lowell Barron of Fyffe in the head before the two were pulled apart.
Bishop said he punched Barron after the senator called him a "son of a bitch."
Barron initially refused to comment and went into a closed-door meeting with other Democrats. Senator Vivian Figures, a Mobile Democrat, was seen going into the Democratic meeting carrying first aid supplies, but she said Barron was not hurt.
Bishop said he regretted throwing the punch because "that's not the way grown men solve their problems," but he said he would not immediately apologize to Barron.
The fight came on the final day of the 2007 regular session of the Legislature as Republican senators were using delaying tactics to force the Democratic leadership to bring up an election reform bill to ban transfers of campaign donations between political action committees.
The Senate had just taken a recess Thursday afternoon when Bishop approached the chair where Barron was sitting. Moments later security officers and others rushed to separate the two senators.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)