Brit Hume: Maxine Waters needs to keep a civil tongue and so do we all

When Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters next rises to speak on the House floor, she will be recognized as “The gentle lady from California.” Never mind that she may not be many people’s idea of gentle or a lady. It is the custom of the House that members address each other as ladies and gentlemen.

In the Senate, members are discouraged from even addressing each other at all, but rather are supposed to speak to the presiding officer and mention fellow members in the third person, as in “I disagree with the distinguished senator from (name of state).”

Quaint as they seem in this rough-and-tumble age, there is a reason for such customs. They spring from a recognition that political disagreement can quickly become personal and debate can devolve into barbarous language and even behavior.

This was most famously exemplified in 1856, when anti-slavery Republican Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts was nearly beaten to death on the Senate floor by a cane-wielding pro-slavery Democratic Rep. Preston Brooks of South Carolina.

The country at that time was bitterly divided over the issue of slavery. The parties to that bitter debate spoke of each other in the harshest terms, strikingly similar to the language used today by partisans for and against President Trump.

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http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/06/26/brit-hume-maxine-waters-contributes-to-poisonous-atmosphere-in-washington.html