Senators Go Nuclear, Then Make Nice (Sort of)

After pounding each other with insults in a dramatic public display a day earlier, Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) buried the hatchet yesterday. Or did they? Depends who you ask.

DeMint tells us he and Dorgan have agreed to settle their nasty spat at Tuesday's committee markup of legislation to reauthorize the Consumer Product Safety Commission as a "staff" misunderstanding. Dorgan, however, says: "There's no misunderstanding from me. It was stunningly inappropriate for him to do what he did."

DeMint showed up late at Tuesday's markup -- because he was on the Senate floor trying to kill Dorgan's Indian health care bill -- and offered an unrelated drug re-importation amendment to the consumer product bill, which he opposes. DeMint's amendment wasn't even his own -- it was the text of a bill authored by Dorgan and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine).

Dorgan, typically calm, was irate. He gave his South Carolina colleague a tongue lashing like nobody had ever heard from him. Red-faced, he wouldn't hear DeMint's apology for being late. He told his South Carolina colleague he had shown a "stunning lack of courtesy," characterizing DeMint's action as plagiarizing his legislation. DeMint, a first-term senator, had no place to hide as the entire room watched.

"There's no hugging after an incident like that," Dorgan tells the Sleuth. Then again, he said, "the Senate is not a place where you hold grudges. ..... You can't carry these over for weeks and months."
Then Dorgan -- no grudge-holder, mind you -- said, "It was stunningly inappropriate for [DeMint] to do what he did. But he hasn't been here that long. Hopefully he won't do it again."

DeMint's spokesman, Wesley Denton, says Democrats were the ones who behaved inappropriately by refusing to allow DeMint to offer an amendment during markup, even if the senator was late. "It's pretty underhanded what happened [Tuesday]," Denton told us. "Even though Senator DeMint is tough on his policies, he's very gentlemanly."

DeMint -- who has angered both sides of the aisle at times this year with his anti-earmark crusade -- says he and Dorgan are now square. They settled the matter face to face on the Senate floor as a "staff" miscommunication that led DeMint to believe he was supposed to offer the amendment.

But Dorgan doesn't know where DeMint got that idea. He says neither he nor Snowe gave DeMint permission to offer that amendment as his own. "He shouldn't offer other people's amendments," Dorgan scoffed.

"We don't agree on much," says DeMint. But he said those ideological differences weren't the root cause of the dust-up.

So does that mean the two will be going out to dinner together any time soon? DeMint just smiled and walked away.

Comments

Testing the comments system

Posted by: labellaelle | November 1, 2007 1:27 PM | Report abuse

I personally believe that DeMint writing it off like some kind of sand box quarrel is the most inappropriate thing of all. if it is someone else's amendment it is not for you to take it and claim it is yours. And "we don't agree on much." is the understatement of the week. I mean Dorgan lectured him on manners in fron of the entire Senate, agreement was last week, honey.

Posted by: JMurphy | November 1, 2007 9:51 PM | Report abuse

I agree with Mr.Dorgan because if someone is late, they shouldn't be allowed to participate, especially a person with a lots of responsibilities like a congressman. Plagiarizing is a very serious crime and in college it is grounds for expultion, I would have expected better than plagiarism from Mr.DeMint even though he is just a first term congressman, shouldn't he have learned how to avoid plagiarism by now? Mr.DeMint is lucky that there is no such thing as being expelled from Congress. It is a good thing that people don't hold grudges in the Congress, if they did the debates and votes would be biased and I doubt that it would have been a good thing.

Posted by: somemongolianguy | November 1, 2007 9:51 PM | Report abuse

In a way, its good that the senators get into a heated debate, because it means they really care about what they are talking about. But I think sometimes they take an insult to their bill or work as an insult to them personally, which can lead into very heated arguments and debates. I agree that the senate is not the place to hold grudges, so I would hope that after a few days the incident would be forgotten, otherwise the whole system gets messed up.

Posted by: colorado_skiier | November 1, 2007 11:05 PM | Report abuse

You would think that after being an adult for some time now, these congressmen would be able to handle small disputes. But no! They have to make a big fuss and embarrass eachother in front of other professional senators. The humility and respect level in this country literaly is at no level at all. It is time for these so called "grown adults" to start acting like civilized people leading our country!

-BIG 11

Posted by: BIG 11 | November 1, 2007 11:29 PM | Report abuse

Senator Demint is indeed a gentleman, but he will not compromise his conservative principles. For that, I'm a very proud and supportive constituent in SC.
Ron Turner
Summerville, SC

Posted by: Ron Turner | November 2, 2007 1:50 PM | Report abuse

thanks for the GREAT post! Very useful...

Posted by: Whatever-ishere | November 21, 2007 4:41 PM | Report abuse

Very interesting... as always! Cheers from Switzerland.

http://dogtrainingtipstricks.blogspot.com

Posted by: Dog training | November 22, 2007 12:01 PM | Report abuse

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