There was a lot of news this week, and I could not write a column about every event. Rumble on the Senate FloorOn Tuesday, Markwayne Mullin, a Republican senator from Oklahoma, challenged Sean O’Brien, the president of the Teamsters, to a fight during a Senate hearing. The two had previously exchanged insults after Mullin complained that unions were trying to undermine his plumbing business. He noted the caning of Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts by Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina, an incident that left Sumner seriously injured. That extremism produced a rigid and doctrinaire style of politics that condoned violence and, in short order, destabilized the nation’s political system.

---

Persons: Markwayne Mullin, Sean O’Brien, Mullin, “, Charles Sumner of, Preston Brooks of, Sumner, — Sumner Organizations: Republican, Teamsters, CNN, Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, Democratic Party Locations: Oklahoma, Preston Brooks of South Carolina