

Erik Schelzig: Who does he think he is?

You know it's time for state lawmakers to go home when they start fainting during their sessions. House Speaker Kent Williams, who is diabetic, collapsed this morning as he presided from the podium. Lawmakers crowded around the fallen Williams, and he hopped up a few minutes later and drank a little orange juice.

On his way to the Legislative Plaza cafeteria, he smiled and said he was OK. Just a case of low blood sugar, he said. He returned to the House podium this afternoon.

"Like a dummy, I didn't eat breakfast this morning," Williams said. "I've been diabetic for 20 years and that's only the second time that's happened, that my blood sugar got that low. But I'm fine."

In other news, state troopers dragged the AP's Erik Schelzig out of the chamber as he was using his cell phone to take pictures of the collapsed Williams. Taking pictures isn't against House rules, but the troopers apparently got a little carried away in the excitement. A few legislators were in Schelzig's face about it, too. One of them called him "a piece of shit." Another one threatened to "whup his ass."

"They stormed in with the troopers and everything and dragged him out," Rep. Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, told us. "The speaker was passed out on the floor and I guess some people thought it was disrespectful" to take pictures of it.

Something tells Pith these lawmakers might live to regret starting this little fight with the press.

Update: The press corps is in a tizzy over all this and threatening reprisals. "These are the tactics of Afghan opium warlords when they don't like shit," one writer says. Pith isn't sure we can control this volatile situation.