http://www.theonion.com/content/news/time_publishes_definitive_obama

I still think he’s a better option than John “the answer to any given question is ‘more war’” McCain, but there’s definitely some anointing going on.

As for whaling an abolitionist with a stick, I thought for a minute this was a reference to Jesse Helms…

Just as an aside his wife’s lover killed by Dan Sickles was the son of Francis Scott Key, the composer of the national anthem. And then he forgave and took back his wife, which didn’t go over well at all. His career was sunk until he came back as a political general in the Civil War.

This sounds like a garbled version of the Brooks-Sumner Affair in 1856. Rep. Preston Brooks (D-SC) took offense at a speech by Sen. Charles Sumner (R-MA), in which Sumner excoriated his uncle, Sen. Andrew Butler (D-SC). Brooks attacked Sumner at his desk on the Senate floor and beat him insensible with a walking stick. Sumner was hospitalized for three years, though he did recover and served till 1874.

But if you think that was wild – consider this:

During the debate over the Compromise of 1850, Sen. Thomas Hart Benton (D-MO) took offense at the rhetoric of Sen. Henry Foote (Whig-MS), and marched toward him in a threatening manner (Benton was over 6′ tall). Foote fled to the desk of the Senate President, and pulled out a gun!

There was Rep. Philemon Herbert (D-CA). When the House voted on intervening in the Brooks case, it was noted that they had just voted not to intervene in the similar case of Herbert – which I had never heard of. It seems that a month earlier, Rep. Herbert got into a brawl at Willard’s Hotel, in which he shot and killed a waiter. The House voted that it was matter for the D.C. courts, not a question of Congressional privilege.

But even Herbert was hardly the most violent man in Congress of that era.

Rep. Dan Sickles (D-NY) shot and killed his wife’s lover in Lafayette Park, across from the White House. Sen. David Broderick (D-CA) was killed in a duel with the ex-Chief Justice of California.

Our present crop of politicos are tame by comparison.