Now that's mature

Via CNN - Tempers flare, fist flies on floor of Alabama Senate

Simmering tensions in the Alabama Senate boiled over Thursday when a Republican lawmaker punched a Democratic colleague in the head before they were pulled apart.

Republican Sen. Charles Bishop said Democratic Sen. Lowell Barron called him a "son of a [expletive]."

"I responded to his comment with my right hand," Bishop said. Alabama Public Television tape captured the punch.

[. . .]

The fight came on the final day of the 2007 regular session of the Legislature. Republican senators were using delaying tactics to force the Democratic leadership to bring up an election reform bill to ban transfers between political action committees.

Barron is chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, which sets the chamber's work agenda, and Republicans were angry that he had not put the election reform bill in a position to come up for debate.

I know that tensions have been high in the state house, but this is uncalled for.