As a Government Shutdown Deadline Looms, Fights Erupt in Congress - The New York Times

A number of skirmishes unfolded in Congress as tempers flared ahead of a government shutdown deadline and Thanksgiving holiday break. By Robert Jimison Reporting from the Capitol The former G.O.P. speaker elbowed one of the Republicans who had voted to oust him. A Republican senator rose to challenge an organized labor leader to a brawl during a hearing. Across the Capitol, the chairman of a different panel compared a member of his committee to a cartoon character. Tensions ran high on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, as the marbled corridors of Congress devolved into a backdrop for heated clashes — some of them physical — among lawmakers who are rushing to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the week and salvage their Thanksgiving vacation. The fights were the latest display of unruliness from a branch of government that has spent much of the year wallowing in its own dysfunction, only snapping out of it for long enough to narrowly avert a federal debt default and a lapse in government

A number of skirmishes unfolded in Congress as tempers flared ahead of a government shutdown deadline and Thanksgiving holiday break. By Robert Jimison Reporting from the Capitol The former G.O.P. speaker elbowed one of the Republicans who had voted to oust him. A Republican senator rose to challenge an organized labor leader to a brawl during a hearing. Across the Capitol, the chairman of a different panel compared a member of his committee to a cartoon character. Tensions ran high on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, as the marbled corridors of Congress devolved into a backdrop for heated clashes — s