Posted by Most people I know agree that if we are allowed to start hitting state senators, well… the longest line would quickly form in front of Sen. Lowell Barron (D – Fyffe).
And State Sen. Charles Bishop (R – Arley) remains resolutely unapologetic for striking state Sen. Lowell Barron. In fact, his hometown newspaper reports yesterday that if he could do it over, he would do it better:
I’m not going to apologize for striking him — only in the chamber that is owned by the state of Alabama, ‘cause if I had been smart, I’d have turned and walked off — and I’d caught him in the parking lot and kicked his butt good.
Of course, we, except for possibly Charles Bishop, are not allowed to hit state senators.
At this point, Bishop’s words demonstrate that an apology would be meaningless and insincere.
When AEA Associate Executive Secretary Joe Reed likened Bradley Byrne to Hitler in a letter, GOP state Sen. Jabo Waggoner (Senate Minority Leader) and GOP state Rep. Mike Hubbard (House Minority Leader and state party chair) signed a letter saying that Reed should apologize or be forced to step down. They added, “Certainly teachers all over the state were appalled that our children were reading such inflammatory remarks by a leader in the education field.”
Which is more appalling for our children to see? A letter with inflammatory remarks? Or video of one senator attacking another? Shouldn’t Waggoner and Hubbard hold their own to the same level of accountability for an act of violence that they demand of others for name-calling?
Barron may have taken the punch, but he’s not the one with the black eye.
Hat tip to Red State Diaries.
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Even Speaker Hammett has said it’s time to move on. It’s time to move on.
Hard to think of Barron as a victim of anything other than his own greed and arragonce.
If I had wait for the spell check, I would have spelled it “arrogance”
You guys are a bunch of candy-assed pansies. Get over it already.
Anonymous in #1, I agree that it is way past time to have dealt with this. This matter should be resolved, and everyone should move on.
You know what would be fun? If Aderholt retired and these two ended up being the nominees for his seat this fall. Can you imagine watching those two debate each other. It would be absolutely priceless. Lowell would be smarting off and Charles would be wanting to fight within the first few minutes.
Let me be the first to welcome Senator Bishop (in comment 4) to the conversation.
Barron has one other bone to pick. One reason Jill Simpson backed off supporting and working for Riley was she was asked to spread rumors and help fabricate murder charges against Barron. This was just another case of Riley wanting to use the justice system as an arm of the republican party. Riley should know that you can not attempt to frame some one for murder and expect them to get over it.
Would someone please put a straightjacket on the guy who wrote comment #8 and throw him in a padded cell immediately, please!!!
Now we know what the comedy show writers are doing while they’re on strike.
I bet #8 will be hiding in the woods up in NE Alabama tonight with Tommy Gallion and the Siegelman conspiracy backers when Karl Rove,Mike Hubbard,Phillip Fulmer and Tubby arrive for their NWO meeting to discuss how their going to bring down some more of those saintly Democrats and the Tide football program.
Time to move on? Sure, people without facts or reason on their side want to move on.
Like Speaker Hammett, anon #12?
If Bishop would like for people to move past this, then he do better than to say this week, “if I had been smart, I’d have… kicked his butt good.” That’s not the kind of language you hear from people eager to put it behind them. It’s a lot easier to look past a transgression from someone who is contrite than it is from someone who continues to go on about it saying, “Yeah, I did it, and if I could do it again I’d do it bigger and better.”
It may look look as if I’m hammering the point with 2 posts this week, but when I typed the other one Monday night, I had not seen Bishop’s comments in the Daily Eagle that came out Tuesday, and they were too noteworthy to pass up.
I have been surprised at how much response I have received to the first post this week (including comments, email and in person) from others who are frustrated about this. I really did wonder if I was the only who thought we were living in some crazy Alabama funhouse regarding this issue where up was down, right was wrong, and violence of a legislator was going to be ignored by the leaders of our state.
I think there would have been more of a ruckus if the Barron’s party or Barron himself were louder about the issue. However, for some reason, they let drop out of the public eye or so it appears.