By Associated Press
Montgomery, AL – A Republican senator slugging a Democratic senator gave the Alabama Legislature a national black eye. The much talked about punch has become fodder for T-V comics and commentators.
Glen Browder, a political science professor and former member of the Alabama Legislature and U-S House, said the incident is something everyone is talking about and some people are laughing about.
Merle Black, an expert in Southern politics at Emery University in Atlanta, said it "feeds into the stereotype of the rural South."
On the last day of the Alabama Legislature's regular session, Jasper Republican Charles Bishop and Fyffe Democrat Lowell Barron were having an emotional exchange when Bishop hit Barron in the side of the head, knocking him over a desk.
An aide to Barron said Friday he is still considering whether to file charges.
House Speaker Seth Hammett, who helped to recruit the ThyssenKrupp steel mill, said the Senate slug tarnishes an international reputation that Alabama has struggled to build by recruiting companies like Mercedes, Honda and Hyundai.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)