At least they’re not assassinating each other on the legislative floor, the way political foes sometimes did in the ancient Roman empire. But still . . .

Tensions were simmering in the Alabama Senate. Then tempers were flaring. Republican State Senator Charles Bishop says he heard Democratic State Senator Lowell Barron, chairman of the rules committee, call him a “son of a” something or other. Barron denies it.

No question what Bishop did. There’s a video of the punch. And Bishop later admitted, “I responded to his comment with my right hand.” He also said, “that’s not the way grown people solve problems. It shouldn’t have happened out there.” But then he also said, “If he calls me that again, it’ll happen again.”

So far Barron has declined to press charges. It would be within his rights. The Alabama blog Between the Links says we must resist the temptation to punch those who call us names.

On the other hand, the bums shouldn’t be calling each other names, either. Maybe just suspend both of these big boys. Like schools suspend kids for carrying paper scissors or tugging somebody’s pigtail. Zero tolerance. None of this “He started it!” nonsense.

Actually, I sympathize with the desire of politicians to call each other names and punch each other out. But it is just not conducive to the civility required to decide how best to stick it to the taxpayer. Can’t let anything interfere with that crucial process, now can we?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

A referendum to give initiative rights to the citizens of the state of New York?

Yes, New York’s state senate has passed an initiative and referendum bill. Now it’s up to the Assembly to echo it. And then, boom, it’ll go onto the ballot.

If this proposal reaches the ballot, I’m pretty certain that it would win in a walk. New Yorkers know they need a voters’ veto to the politicians.

But there’s many a slip twixt cup and lip, and right now we’re in that between-cup-and-lip stage. It seems unlikely that the New York assemblymen will merrily echo what the New York senators have just done. And frankly, I suspect the wheelers and dealers in the state senate, like Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, are counting on that.

The senators are making the motions of responding to widespread public disgust with entrenched political corruption. But that’s just what they are. Motions. Not expressions of conviction.

There has also been some mumbling in this legislature about term limits. Perhaps committee chairmanships will be limited, though I wouldn’t bet the ranch. Will lawmakers go all the way and cap their basic tenures? Unlikely. That’s one reason New Yorkers need the right of initiative and referendum. So they can impose term limits directly.

If you live in New York, tell your assemblyman that no matter how cynical your senator may be, you want the right of citizen initiative.

Prove the politicians wrong. Hey, prove me wrong.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

“>What’s wrong with the Oklahoma Supreme Court? Maybe the justices don’t quite get the gist of citizen government.

You see, the court threw a voter initiative, called the 65 Percent Solution, off the ballot. The measure would have mandated that 65 percent of school funds be spent in the classroom actually teaching kids.

In Oklahoma only 58 percent of education funds are spent in the classroom.

The Oklahoma State School Boards Association challenged the petition in court. The group’s executive director, Dr. Keith Ballard, said, “We are very much in favor of as much money as possible going into instruction.”

Only thing is . . . they aren’t at all in favor of any such thing.

Dr. Ballard argued, “Other areas would have suffered greatly.” And he pointed out “the great resistance that this had in the education community.”

Funny, I don’t think Ballard sees the great support among parents for spending education money on education. You know, in the classroom. Where our children just happen to be.

Ballard and his so-called “education community” argued that the short explanation on the petition, called the gist statement, was misleading. Of course, anyone not certain what they were signing had a full copy of the measure available on every petition.

Still, the court ruled that the hundreds of thousands of Oklahoma voters didn’t know what they were signing. Once again, the court has protected Sooner State citizens from the awful rigors of decision-making.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Claire McCaskill, the freshman senator from Missouri, has (so far) risked wrath from her own party and constituency by continuing to stick to her campaign promise to oppose earmarks — that is, federal funding for special local projects. According to the Kansas City Star, the Democratic senator “has received about 200 pleas for money from all over the state and turned down every one of them.”

I say “so far” because I’m a little too familiar with politicians who go to Washington only to let the political culture change them rather than vice versa.

McCaskill’s Democratic colleagues are grumbling up a storm. Missouri Congressman Emanuel Cleaver says he carefully explained to her that earmarks have helped patch roofs and fix bridges in Missouri. He says, “At some point she may have to tell her constituents that sitting on the outside, things look quite different than they do when you get inside.”

“On the inside” you’re an incumbent, you have political pressure. Time will tell whether McCaskill sticks to her guns. But McCaskill has supported Republican Senator Jim DeMint’s new push to ensure that earmark requests be transparent, revealing the name of the sponsor and exactly where the money is going. Early moves toward such transparency in the new senate have stalled.

Eric Dixon, an editor at Missouri’s Show-Me Institute, says “We should congratulate McCaskill for sticking to her principles in her fight against congressional earmarks.” I agree. I’m cautiously optimistic. Very cautiously, though. Show me!

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

There are about a dozen candidates in each party I don’t want to see as president. So I guess that limits the possibilities.

We could do worse than former Senator Fred Thompson. Look where he is on the one-to-ten scale of narcissistic egomania. Whereas most political aspirants for the presidency typically rate a nine or ten, Thompson is closer to zero.

For one thing, he likes term limits. He tells the American Spectator that he still believes in them, as he did when he entered the Senate in 1995. He says, “[S]ome people . . . came to Washington to drain the swamp and then stayed longer than they should have and became alligators. . . . I think the professionalization of our political class has a tendency to create people who worry more about their careers and honors than what the voters sent them to Washington to do.”

Thompson has rebuffed a proposal of the Tennessee legislature to name a highway after him. He says “I didn’t build it and I didn’t pay for it. The taxpayers did.” Has Thompson learned nothing from serving with Senator Robert Byrd, after whom every taxpayer-funded block of stone and tarmac in West Virginia is especially named? Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen says Thompson is too “normal.” Not enough of a megalomaniac. But Thompson’s distaste for power-mad politics is what I like best about him.

I’ll take healthy and normal any day.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.