Washington ? The House put on a partisan spectacle Friday, with a Republican chairman calling in police, one member calling another a “wimp” and a “fruitcake,” and Democrats accusing the GOP of running roughshod.

“It wasn’t a day in which the dialogue among us met the responsibility of governance,” said Rep. Nancy Johnson, R-Conn. — perhaps the only point not in dispute.

The nastiness began when Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee made overnight changes in a pension bill. At its core were two veteran Californians with histories of rubbing their colleagues the wrong way — Republican Rep. Bill Thomas and Democratic Rep. Fortney “Pete” Stark.

No sooner had Thomas, the committee chairman, gaveled the panel to order in the morning then most Democrats walked out in protest, repairing to a library adjoining the committee room to plan their next step.

Shortly afterward, a Capitol Police officer appeared at the door.

Democrats said Republicans summoned police to boot them from the room. “He’s threatened to have us arrested,” Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., later said of Thomas.

Republicans had a different version, that the police were called because events were threatening to spiral out of control back in the committee room.

There, Stark had stayed behind, and was protesting Republican efforts to push through their bill quickly.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., talks at a news conference after Democrats failed to win passage of a resolution disapproving of House Ways and Means Committee Chairman William Thomas' conduct at a hearing. In the background are Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., left, and Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. House committee debate of a pension bill turned ugly Friday after changes were made to the bill overnight.

Apparently believing he had heard a challenge from a Republican, he said, “You little wimp. Come on. Come over here and make me. I dare you.”

Laughter rippled through the room as Stark added, “You little fruitcake. I said you are a fruitcake.”

Stark’s remarks were directed to Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., a 50-year-old Colorado Republican who later said the 71-year-old Stark “threatened me with physical harm. It was entirely appropriate for the chairman of that committee to call the sergeant-at-arms and the Capitol Police so order in the committee could be maintained.”

Angered, Democrats went to the House floor, demanding a vote on a resolution chastising Thomas for his actions and seeking to undo the committee’s approval of the pension bill.

The legislation would let Americans put more tax-deferred income into their personal retirement accounts and allow corporations to set aside less money for covering their pension obligations to retirees.

Majority Republicans defeated the resolution to chastise Thomas on a vote of 170-143, but not before Democrats used the debate as a platform to accuse Republicans of congressional tyranny.