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You Thought The VP Debate Was Feisty? Things Got Physical In California

By: Eyder Peralta // October 12, 2012
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All eyes were on Vice President Joe Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan, last night. By all accounts, it was a political debate for the ages, full of barbs and fireworks.

But a much smaller debate in what The Los Angeles Times calls "one of the nation's nastiest congressional races" got physical to the point where a uniformed officer had to put some daylight between the two candidates.

Here's the video of the tense moment in the debate between Democratic Reps. Howard L. Berman and Brad Sherman:

The Los Angeles Times reports that this has been building for some time. The Times says the two have lobbed personal attacks at each other about "Berman's use of a government car and Sherman's earnings on loans he made to his campaign."

But the Los Angeles Weekly says the near-altercation came while the representatives were debating the Dream Act, legislation that would give young college-bound illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.

The Weekly writes:

"Sherman disputed that Berman had authored the legislation, at which point Berman called Sherman 'delusional.'

"Sherman rose to his feet — as the crowd cheered — and loudly confronted Berman. At that point, Berman took a step toward Sherman. Sherman warned him not to 'get in my face,' and then moved even closer, grabbing Berman around the shoulder and saying, 'You want to get into this?'

"As the crowd of college students cheered and hooted, a deputy stepped up to the stage to make sure the confrontation didn't go any further."

Copyright 2012 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

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