Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Tex.) is seen on Capitol Hill on March 19, 2013. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP) These days, many Washington politicians are unafraid to take verbal shots at one another over legislative discord, whether it’s on social media or on cable network shows. But long gone are the days when politicians would threaten to settle rivalries duels. So it was a throwback when Rep. Blake Farenthold, a Republican from Corpus Christi, Tex., on Friday criticized some Republican “female senators from the Northeast” for their opposition to efforts to pass a health care overhaul. Then, he said, “if it was a guy from south Texas I might ask him to step outside and settle this Aaron Burr-style.” Speaking to local radio host Bob Jones, Farenthold was referring to the 1804 duel in which Burr shot and killed Alexander Hamilton, former treasury secretary and Burr’s long-standing political rival and personal enemy.

A U.S. Senate candidate and former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice told voters this week that Islam is a “false religion.” Republican Roy Moore — the front-runner in Alabama’s Aug. 15 special election to fill the Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions’ appointment as U.S. attorney general — made the comment Monday during a meeting of the North Jefferson County Republican Club at Jim ’N Nick’s BBQ in Gardendale, Alabama. Senate candidate Roy Moore told a Republican group in Alabama on Monday that Islam is a “false religion.” His remark came in response to a question about Sharia law from a woman at the meeting, as heard in a video posted to Moore’s campaign page on Facebook. “I’ve seen a lot in the news about Sharia law, and Muslims demanding break times to do their prayers and wanting to have their laws oversee our laws, and I just wonder how you plan to deal with that,” the woman said, repeating the debunked conspiracy theory that Sharia, or Islamic law, is a threat to the U.S. judicial system.

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