Session ends with a bang

MONTGOMERY -- The wheels finally came off in the Senate on the final day of the 2007 legislative session Thursday when a Republican state senator punched a Democratic Senate leader in the face.

The altercation occurred moments into a recess that was ordered after a contentious debate on the Senate floor.

The Senate majority of 18 moved to bar Republican state Sen. Charles Bishop, of Arley, from continuing to participate in the last day of the session after he punched Sen. Lowell Barron, D-Fyffe.

Bishop, 69, said he punched the 65-year-old Barron for calling him a "son of a bitch.''

"I responded to his comment with a right hand," Bishop said later.

Barron was struck on the side of the head near an ear.

"When I come back and you call me a son of a bitch, I might whop you again,'' Bishop said while pointing to Barron about two hours after hitting him.

Bishop voluntarily left the Senate to prevent his supporters and opponents from voting on a motion to bar him from the Senate. The motion to censure and bar Bishop was made by Sen. Bobby Denton, D-Muscle Shoals, when the session resumed.

Barron said he wasn't injured and denied calling Bishop an SOB.

"I did not say that and that is not a correct statement,'' Barron said.

His version was backed up by Denton and Parker Griffith, D-Huntsville, who said they were close to the pair at the time. They said they did not hear Barron call Bishop anything.

Barron, instead, said Bishop used an obscenity to him.

"He said 'you better watch your back because I'm going to be here the next three years and I'm going to (expletive) you every day,' '' Barron said Bishop told him.

Griffith said Bishop, a big man, threw a vicious punch that could have seriously injured Barron, who slipped the punch.

"It was a hospitalization punch, it was a neurological punch,'' said Griffith, a medical physician.

Barron said he saw the punch coming and was able to avoid much of the blow.

The altercation, which occurred about 2:45 p.m., was viewed by only a few. Alabama Public Television, however, videotaped the fight, which clearly showed Bishop punching Barron and then wrestling him backward over Barron's desk.

They were separated and the Senate stayed in recess for about two hours.

Barron said he isn't sure whether he'll press charges. A complaint was filed against Bishop and sent to the Ethics and Conduct Committee.

"I would like to finish today in a productive manner," Barron said. "I will evaluate the situation tomorrow on what I may do."

Denton, whose motion would have barred Bishop from the seventh floor of the State House where the Senate meets, appeared to be conciliatory, almost forgiving, afterward.

"I do know Charles; he does have a good heart,'' Denton said. "He helps a lot of people.''

Denton said he's not sure what action, if any, the Senate could take against an elected senator.

Some Democratic senators, including Hank Sanders, of Selma, urged disciplinary action, though.

"I've been down here 23 years," Sanders said. "There have been many heated moments, but I don't know of another moment where a senator has hit another senator upside the head."

Bishop left before the Senate could act on Denton's motion and before Barron denied Bishop's claim of provocative language that he considered fighting words.

Bishop often reminisces about his hardscrabble upbringing in rural Arkansas in a sharecropper family. He previously challenged another senator to a fistfight.

"I am ashamed of it. Am I going to apologize? No,'' Bishop said. "I was raised over in the woods a little different than someone else. You can't call grown men sons of bitches. You bring my (late) mother in this; people don't say that about your mom.''

Senate Secretary Mac Lee said he's never seen anything like it. "I've been here 52 years and I learn something new every year,'' Lee said.

Reactions from senators-differed.

"In all the years I served, I've never been more embarrassed than I have today,' '' said Sen. Roger Bedford, D-Russellville.

Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, said she fears Bishop, who she referred to as "this person,'' who needs psychiatric evaluation. "I ask the Senate to consider that because we all should feel safe,'' Figures said.

Earlier in the session, Figures sprayed her Senate desk area after accusing Bishop, a pipe smoker, of invading her personal space with the odor of pipe tobacco "on his body.''

Sen. Steve French, R-Birmingham, said Bishop was provoked by foul language.

Bishop and others had been at respective microphones discussing whether to call up a bill that would have banned transfers of political action committee funds between political groups.

"We're at this point because of the attitudes of some of this body who believe almost half of the state doesn't deserve representation,'' French said. "This state Senate is in dysfunction.''

Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, said he wasn't surprised by Bishop's reaction.

"You can't just cuss people and cuss people's mothers and not expect reaction,'' Beason said. "You cuss my wife, you cuss my mother and the same thing probably is going to happen.''

Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, a lawyer, said Bishop's reaction was illegal because it was greater force than was used against him.

"No matter what anybody said, you cannot hit somebody if they used a word,'' Smitherman said.

Trouble has been brewing the entire session that began with a contentious fight over the rules that 17 minority senators said disenfranchises their representation and constituents. The Senate majority of 18 said the rules give the majority control, as it should be.

The 35-member Senate is divided into camps of 18 Democrats on one side and 12 Republicans and five dissident Democrats.

"This is one of my most embarrassing days; I cannot hold my head high," said Sen. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery.

"I am not going to lay all the blame on Sen. Bishop,'' said Sen. Hank Erwin, R-Montevallo. "I don't think when you get into language insulting your mother you don't know what's going to push someone's button.''

Dana Beyerle can be reached at (334) 264-6605 or dtb12345@aol.com