Senators Get Nasty: "You're Good" ... "Your Wife Said The Same Thing" (VIDEO)

Marking up budget legislation can be a brutal affair, often beginning early and lasting long into the night.

But buried within the hours of debate in the Senate on Thursday is an exchange you'd be more likely to hear in a locker room than a congressional hearing.

Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) was on the receiving end of this one, after telling Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), "Oh, you are good."

"Well, your wife said the same thing," Grassley responded.

The back-and-forth came after Grassley, the ranking Republican on the finance committee, pressed Conrad to include an amendment of his. "I'd like to suggest to the chairman that he might want to support this because, you remember, you asked me two years ago not to take a vote on it and you said if we did take a vote on it you might not get your budget resolution adopted. So I did not ask for a vote on it and you said it was a very statesmanlike thing for me to do at that particular time and so I would hope that you would return the favor," said Grassley.

"You know, I used to like you. Let me just say: Oh, you are good," said Conrad.

"Well, your wife said the same thing."

Conrad didn't miss a beat. "She did, she said you were the biggest hit of all the speakers at the event," he replied.

"Okay," said Grassley.

An audience member can then be heard calling out something that sounds like, "What she say?!"

Watch it, courtesy of the C-SPAN Video Library:

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Comments

[neumann]

07:43 PM on 03/30/2009

Oh no, you dih - ent!

[jbs902]

02:35 PM on 03/30/2009

Is this the same Grassley who went after the TV ministers about their taxes? Wow what a hypocritical piece of work. A man in his position should have enough decorum to leave these smutty remarks in the back room of the Animal House Fraternity where they belong.

[MiniMogul]

01:00 PM on 03/30/2009

Has someone put a voodoo curse on the Repubs? Their collective behavior lately has been bizarre, even by Republican standards.

Thems fightin' words!!!!!!

But I guess a Senatorial slap fight wouldn't help matters much at this point...

[EminemsRevenge]

09:03 AM on 03/30/2009

I think Grassley is a rising GOP star!

STILL get a chuckle over his comment that the AIG execs should do the honourable think: QUIT and commit suicide:)

[isis]

10:59 AM on 03/30/2009

Yes so appropriate in a time of suicide bombers.

[Millie Lencioni]

07:54 AM on 03/30/2009

Senator Charles Grassley should be fined for that comment, totally unacceptable to be talking like that. You are not in a bar, show some class.

[DonCosenza]

02:23 AM on 03/30/2009

I believe you'd get your ass kicked sayin' something like that, man.

[sf101]

04:56 PM on 03/29/2009

So the obvious question is: how many hits has this "pricess" exchange gotten on the Net? Naturally Conrad could have had some other comebacks:

Well, at least I'm better than you'll EVER be.
That's funny. Last night, she said you were anything BUT good.

[IvyShoots]

02:52 PM on 03/29/2009

"That's what she said" would be funny, but making it about his wife was inappropriate. Grassley made himself look cheap. Seems he spends too much time on 4chan.

[ladycubsfan]

07:26 AM on 03/29/2009

That's funny! My husband tells me that all the time..."I used to like you..." This shows some quick wits, people! We should appreciate it, especially considering some of it came from a Republican and we ALL know how rare quick wits ( or ANY wits) are from them. This is one comedy act I would pay to see. They should take it on the road.

[karela]

10:07 PM on 03/28/2009

It sounds terrible in print, but geesh, it just sounded like joking around on the tape replay. There was no anger. Everybody's laughing. Yes, it was not tasteful, but please watch the video clip before you decide. I changed my opinion completely after I did.

[ZackShorty]

08:07 PM on 03/28/2009

Hockey players get in trouble for this kind of rhetoric, Senators get away with it. Why don't these guys just drop their mittens and square off at center ice?

[aflyinyoursoup]

07:24 PM on 03/28/2009

Grassley...A typical, classless, school-yard punk...A true Republican!

[1differentdrummer]

05:41 PM on 03/28/2009

If he said that publicly, Grassley is as common as dirt.

[TheWanderer]

02:20 PM on 03/28/2009

Why am I not surprised to learn that our esteemed senators are actually Beavises and Buttheads?

[Jaladeno]

08:58 PM on 03/29/2009

huh huh huh Wanderer said "esteemed"...

[AnnfromCA]

02:00 PM on 03/28/2009

This HuffPo headline made the bit pages......as an example of ongoing non-journalism.

Check out the poke on Real Clear Politics.