Bipartisan meetings on Capitol Hill regarding the government shutdown reportedly involved a talking stick to prevent people from interrupting each other — but one meeting ended with a broken glass elephant.
Politico reported that Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, hosted multiple meetings in her office late last week as lawmakers negotiated to stop the shutdown that eventually began at midnight Saturday. Collins decided to keep the meetings civil by having the person speaking hold a stick.
During one meeting, however, Politico reported that Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., tossed what was described as a "ceremonial Native American stick" toward Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., after Warner interrupted him. The stick sailed past and struck a glass elephant on a shelf in Collins' office.
The elephant was chipped but was otherwise intact.
"There were no injuries, there were a couple close calls but everything worked out fine," a Republican senator told CNN, adding that everyone in attendance joked about the incident.
Another GOP senator told CNN, "That was the most entertaining meeting I'd ever been to."
During subsequent meetings, Collins used a small rubber ball in place of the talking stick.
The Senate voted to end the brief shutdown Monday afternoon and the House was expected to vote on the short-term spending measure Monday evening.
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