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.

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"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

[hpmom]

Nasty! These comments are inappropriate and both men should be censured. THIS IS NOT WHAT WE PAY THEM FOR!!! As a taxpayer, I expect to see them (on CSPAN) debating issues/legislation. Send these jackasses home -- no matter what their party affiliations are.

[yellowdogminnesotan]

Kent Conrad is my Senator, and I'll do no such thing. The fact that leaders from opposite parties can joke around with each other should be commended. If only the talking heads on T.V. could do the same, maybe we'd get more done in this country.

[captainkirk449]

Where I come from, if you were to mention my wife in a negative way, you would not be able to open your eyes for a couple of weeks. I would bitch slap the living sh.t out of him!

[utahterry]

Seemed to me, thus I appreciate how Conrad kept it clean with his response. Taking the high road.

[wordvarc]

Life in the lawmaking trenches with the Limbaugh-led GOP.

[oxygen]

limpaugh not limbaugh

[EgyptianMysterySchool]

Conrad missed a great opportunity for a "yo mama" joke. Something like..

Yeah and your mother said the same thing to me and your father last night - she's quite a woman.

If someone goes for your wife - you go for the jugular.

[Hugh-Gee]

Iowa is not a red state. Despite his years of service, I can't believe that Grassley is completely invulnerable. Though he's ranked as pretty safe by 538 http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/search/label/senate%20rankingss), his constituents might determine that he's too much of an embarrassment.

Then again, NY re-elected Al D'Amato at least once...

[DB55]

Grassley seems to be losing it ... first the suicide suggestion to AIG execs, then this. He and Jim Bunning make a great pair.

[brijit]

Don't forget his comment that some corporations are "sucking the tit" of the taxpayer.

[Robert Cantor]

and Biden has the rep as the human gaff machine? This guy is a nut - his weird thoughts leak out through his open mouth.

[RickyPoo]

More evidence of obvious frustration and despair from the GOP.

They know they're going to be in the minority for a very, very long time.

[Robert Cantor]

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), "Well, your wife said the same thing," This guy is one the 100 (senators) most powerful people on earth and he has the mind of a 15 year old? Our righty friends smirk at this statement because their man seems tough - just like adolescent school yard bullies. The future of the nation is at stake and this is what we get?

[Dakotadem]

No, no, no, it's supposed to be, "That's what she said." These guys need to get with the times.

[SOLERSO68]

the senators continued the "debate" with a sharp exchange over nuanced philisophical positions such as "so's you mother" , "takes one to know one" and "Iknow what you are;but what am i?"

[Robert Cantor]

LOL

[Shieldmaiden]

Ew. Grassely has seriously started to scare the c.rap out of me. Just EW.

[unstuffedshirt]

He's exhibiting some pretty erratic behavior of late. That's "erratic," not "erotic," Chuck.

[Acidicscold]

this is sick. i thought these two were in the minority of good senators. guess not

[rabiddog6708]

Conrad should have replied: "My wife said you were good all right, but that you left her with a soc.ial dis.ease."

[underoath]

I never laughed so hard at c-span in my life

[rachel88]

Wow, that is weird.

[Robert Cantor]

Yeah, weird - not funny.