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As regards gentlemen, I am reminded of a conversation between Cardinal Newman and Oscar Wilde. The good Cardinal said that a gentleman never knowingly gives offence. Wilde responded, Oh no your Eminence, a gentleman never UNknowingly gives offence.
As regards the decorum of the senate, I seem to remember reading in American History that Senators used cane each other in the chamber and that while duelling was technically illegal duels were fought between Senators, and Congressmen, into the early 20th Century.
As to Republicans and Democrats who are gentlemen I defer to Brother Theodore Roosevelt, Alpha of DKE, who in a discussion on the relative merits of Ladies and Gentlemen and their qualifications to be considered as such, said that the best course was to consider all brothers to be valient and all sisters to be virtuous unless and until they proved themselves to be otherwise, and even then it didn't hurt to err on the side of generosity.
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