from pie to eggs to shoes. >> look at that. that is quick. >> politicians show they can dish it out and they can take it. >> he didn't think. he just went bap. >> from a slap in the face -- >> i couldn't believe what i was seeing. >> -- to chewing over a piece of legislation. >> there are people pulling her hair, trying to get her to spit it out. it is unbelievable. >> lawmakers engaged in all-out brawling. >> nothing is under control. you know, just violence. just rage. >> and which of these slip-ups gets your vote for most embarrassing? >> uh-oh. you hate it when that happens. ♪ what is your name

>> politicians like you've never seen them before. "caught on camera -- politics gone wild." hello. i'm contessa brewer. welcome to "caught on camera." once upon a time, politicians were revered. after all, they have the ability to pass bills, create laws and govern entire countries, but sometimes they're the subject of ridicule. taunted, heckled and harassed by the public, under constant fire from their opponents and even their own parties. this hour is all about what happens when politicians are pushed too far. >> i think it was lyndon baines johnson, the u.s. president who said, if you want a friend in politics, get a dog. politics is all about adversity, whether it's psychological or sometimes even physical.

>> in britain, this is just how the public showed their disdain. physically. politicians are routinely subjected to egging, custard-throwing, flour-pelting, and paint-hurtling. >> we in britain have been brought up on pantomime in which chucking custard pies is seenz perfectly harmless fun. a way of expressing irritation, anger. it's become a quite common practice to show things that are colored, that will cling, liquid or flour or whatever, because that looks good on tele. >> in the face of indignity, politicians are trained to stay calm, simply to brush it off and walk away, but even they can be egged on to the breaking point. >> it's probably dumb, but i love it when the politicians fight back and attack their attackers. >> no one does this better than deputy prime minister john prescott in 2001, taking one for england right on the cheek.

>> the guy who threw the egg was half his age, for a start, and was very close and might have got it in his eye and might have actually injured him. >> there was a lot of jostling and abuse. i felt a bang on the back of my head. >> unluckily for his attacker, mr. prescott had trained as a boxer in his youth. >> he didn't think. he just went bap. >> i immediately responded to defend myself, and that's how it happened. >> it's one thing if someone throws something at you. it's another if someone attempts to punch you and then you punch them back. >> john prescott actually did himself quite a lot of good by his instant angry reaction to the guy who threw the egg. and i think the rest of the nation said, good for you, chum, that's absolutely right. this guy is going to behave with disrespect, you sorted him. >> including, it seems, the prime minister himself, who applauds his deputy during a press conference. >> he has got very, very great strengths. not least in his left arm. >> the dazed and bruised

protester is taken away in cuffs and spends several hours in police custody before being released. neither man is charged. >> who are you going to charge? and what are you going to charge them with? that was the middle of an election campaign as well. tempers ran a little high. >> after all, just another day in british politics. >> of course, i regret the incident. who would want to be in that? but why should we be subjected to that kind of protest? i think that's wrong. >> don't think the fun and games is just for the british. during the 2003 total recall election in california, one protester takes arnie's name a little too seriously and schwarzeneggs him on the shoulder. >> well, this is an effort to make somebody look foolish and politicians sometimes don't need any extra help, but that is the purpose. when an egg splatters on somebody's coat, it's great video. >> as if nothing happened, schwarzenegger peels off his jacket, continues to glad-hand

with the crowd and goes on to give his speech as planned. >> i think it's all in the reaction. you learn a lot about the politician. schwarzenegger had a great line later. >> this guy owes me bacon now. i mean, there's no two ways about it. because i mean you just can't have eggs without bacon. but this is just all part of the free speech. >> another silent but somewhat tastier attack happens in the netherlands in 2000. during a press conference on the hotly contested kyoto agreement, greenpeace advocates protest against america. they claim it's not reducing greenhouse emissions fast enough. >> the united states, which admittedly was a big part of the cause of the problem because we had had had been an industrial might for so long all of a sudden is viewed by many as a heavy. we viewed ourselves as trying our damnedest to actually find solutions, but they weren't pure enough for some. >> one protester takes matters into her own hands, throwing a

pie at u.s. undersecretary for global affairs frank loy. >> i had to make an immediate decision whether to be outraged or to treat it lightly. and i decided for the latter. this incident occurred the day before american thanksgiving, and i said, standing there with this stuff dripping off of me, i said, you would have thought that on the day before thanksgiving they could have picked pumpkin pie rather than cherry cream. >> a pie in the face is standard vaudeville stuff. i think you can almost get away with that because a pie in the face is something people do for fun. >> the press conference is suspended, and mr. loy is supplied with security and a new suit. >> the next day we had a press conference, and i was in the same spot. and i opened the conference by saying, now, look, this is my last clean suit. if there are any more pie throwers out there -- and i pointed to my colleague next to me, but there were no more pie throwers.

>> it seems as though they'd all been dragged away by the scruff of their necks. undeterred by the attack, frank loy continues to work to reduce the world's greenhouse emissions. >> if you argue today that this is all a made-up crisis, you really are in the flat earth category of believers. >> now watch as one woman tries to do something many people have dreamed about. no, not winning the lottery. arresting karl rove. >> i have to do a citizen's arrest -- a citizen's arrest for treason. >> clearly she's trying to add a little pizzazz to an otherwise boring meeting for mortgage bankers. it will take more than this to wake everyone up, including karl rove it seems. >> what's funny to me about the woman trying to handcuff karl rove is this may not be the last time someone attempts to handcuff karl rove. >> it looks like she's the only one who ends up being carted away.

in december 2009, an attacker strikes italian prime minister silvio berlusconi in the face with a souvenir statue of the duomo. it wasn't long before there was a new souvenir in italy. and then there's the famous shoe incident. the one where an iraqi journalist decides to trade in the traditional food-throwing for shoe hurling and aims right for president bush's head. >> now, watch bush's athletic instincts here. anybody else would have gotten hit by that shoe. look at that. that is quick. he also had a pretty good line after it. >> it doesn't bother me. and if you want the facts, it's a size 10 shoe that he threw. >> now, that's showing some true wit in response to a ridiculous event.

he rose to the occasion on this one and dodged the shoe. >> it's very important, i think, to be quick-witted in politics. it's very important, first of all, to know what it is you want to say and to be saying it with some passion and some sincerity and then some wit gets back at you. you want to go splotch. you want to score another point. >> president bush manages to shrug it off and even makes light of the situation, but this is far from a joke in many people's minds. >> it's easy to make that sound comic, but it was a very serious thing about the way the iraqis see the british and american incursion on what they saw as an army occupation. >> the chap was then hauled off. you can clearly hear him yelling as he was being beaten up in the room next door. it would have done bush some credit if he would have said, leave him alone. >> al jahidi spends time in jail

for his crime. the event sparks controversy when he's jailed for nine months for his crime. the public then throws something unexpected at the 29-year-old journalist. their support. protesting all around the world for his release. >> he's been released now, and he's being treated as a hero. for all of you politicians out there, whether you find a shoe, custard, eggs, or pie flying at your head, we have just one piece of advice for you. >> duck. coming up -- politics gets personal in prague. >> something was going to happen if you put these two alpha males in the same room together. >> and southern charm flies out the window in the alabama state senate. >> he called me a son of a pitch. okay? where i grew up, that's somebody talking bad about your mother. [ male announcer ] these days, a small business can save by sharing. like carpools... polly wants to know if we can pick her up. yeah, we can make room. yeah. [ male announcer ] ...office space. yes, we're loving this communal seating. it's great. [ male announcer ] the best thing to share? a data plan.

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let's face it.

many of us have felt like punching a colleague at some point. most of us go only as far as imagining fist striking jaw, but we're not all so restrained. just ask politicians in the czech republic. >> this fight occurred in may 2006, i think two weeks before general elections in the czech republic. it was quite a highly politically charged atmosphere. >> and it's about to become even more heated. the deputy prime minister takes the stand at a conference and strikes his health minister. >> seemed like a conventional boring speech and then excitement. >> no one knew it was going to happen. i think it really did come out of the blue. >> and no one is more stunned than the abused health minister. >> at first it seemed like the victim here was going to be above it all and show some

dignity and take his slap on the head and leave. >> he's obviously stopped by an adviser. he presumably says, you can't just let him get away with it. get back in there. the audience loves it. >> you attacked me cowardly from behind. why didn't you face me like a man? you're a coward, he says. there's a real punch and judy aspect to it. >> i think this guy was trying to talk his way out of it and got beaten up more. >> but what could have sparked such a public display of anger? there could only be one answer. a woman. >> the quarrel actually developed after he insulted him accusing him of marrying for money. >> in the tough guy world, if you're accused of something like that, you're not a real man, so he was defending his manhood by slapping the other guy on the head with a pretty childish way of showing your manhood, if you ask me. >> talk about airing your dirty laundry in public. >> it wasn't long, of course, before the incident escaped the borders of the czech republic

and was being shown on tv stations all over the world. so it was a slap that was heard around the world. >> this sort of thing used to happen in american legislative chambers a lot, even in the u.s. senate a century ago. i guess we've outgrown it. >> or have we? if you thought american politicians were above childish play, hold on to your hats and take a look at this next clip. >> oh! >> we finally get some good old-fashioned american brawling. of course wouldn't you know it would be alabama. >> southern hospitality flies right out the window during a legislative session in montgomery, alabama, in 2007. the day ends with a bang. or more literally a punch. >> oh! >> uh-oh. there it is. that was quite a punch. that was a roundhouse punch it looked like. >> oh, my gosh. oh, my gosh. >> journalist rhonda colvin

covers the state senate for alabama public television and was there that day. >> it was the last day of the session, so usually they stay until about midnight, getting a lot of last-minute legislation through. it was very mundane, actually. >> but mundane quickly turns to exciting when senators from both sides of the floor start spatting. >> and you can see between mr. barrett and mr. bishop there was a heated exchange. >> republican senator charles bishop and democratic senator lowell barren, both notoriously outspoken, begin to argue heatedly. >> you definitely see when you watch the tape that there are some words being exchanged and you're not quite sure what they're saying, but you knew that there was an argument at least. we didn't know, you know, what the outcome would be, but we just sat there and watched it for a little bit, and all of a sudden it happened and it happened very quickly. mr. bishop had hit mr. barren. he had punched him. and there was a little bit of a struggle for a few seconds.

the security guards ran out. they tried to break them up. a few other legislators also tried to get in between them. the punch was very quick, and the struggle was very quick, and the breakaway between the two, that was also quick. so it happened in a matter of seconds. >> he had just a standard all-american punch thrown. one punch thrown. everybody else pulls the two apart. >> i couldn't believe what i was seeing, you know. you're sort of like a car crash or, you know, a train wreck. you're looking at it and you're, like, did i just see that? what just happened? >> but what did just happen? what plunged these southern gentlemen to such undignified depths? yep, you guessed it. a woman. again. >> he called me a son of a pitch. okay? where i grew up, that's somebody talking bad about your mother. and when he did, i responded with my right hand. >> not so, says the shaken democratic senator. >> i really don't know what set the gentleman off.

he walked over to where i was sitting in my chair, and he said, you'd better watch your back. i'm going to be here for the next three years, and i'm going to "f" you every day. and i turned and i said, i don't give a darn. and about that time i saw a punch coming. >> and come it did. smack on the jaw. unfortunately, we may never know for sure what was said on that dark day in american politics. >> our cameraman, he came back to our station. i know for days he tried to manipulate the video to slow it down to see if he could see what they were saying or read lips. and we really don't know what was said. >> luckily, chivalry is not required in the alabama state senate. both men kept their jobs. >> am i going to apologize for it? no. i'm going home. y'all have a good day. coming up -- things heat up in south korea. >> if you want to be a politician in korea, a black

belt in tae kwon do may not be a bad thing to have. >> a lawmaker with a tasteless strategy. >> we can't vote on this bill because it's in her mouth. and she's chewed it up. >> plus the most violent political brawls on video. >> someone could have gotten killed. hey linda!

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in some countries, the national assembly can look more like a boxing ring than a political arena. >> i think the most notorious are probably south korea and taiwan in about the last 10 to 15 years that have gotten a lot of attention around the world. >> in fact, in 1995, the magazine "annals of ignoble prize," awards taiwan the prize for dem stranting that politicians gain more punching, kicking and gouging each other

than by waging war against other nations. >> the taiwanese parliament probably experiences some kind of episode of disruption in almost every session. >> during taiwan's two sessions per year, lawmakers have chewed over every option to prevent bills from being passed. literally. >> the craziest moment to me was definitely not a fight but this moment where one of the legislators, a woman, gets up in front of the legislature, grabs the paper away from the person who's holding it and eats it. so we can't vote on this bill because it's in her mouth and she's chewed it up, and there are people pulling her hair, trying to get her to spit it out. i mean, it was unbelievable. >> lately the speaker of the house has gotten smart, reading the proposals himself at the podium. but never fear, some taiwanese lawmakers have found a way around that one, too. >> he didn't have that podium for very long. either they knew what he was going to say or they didn't like what he said.

>> another way to slow down the process is to occupy the speaker's desk because the speaker has to be behind his desk using his microphone in order to conduct the business of the chamber. so if you can push the speaker out of the way and take over his desk, then you can also stop the process from happening. >> tackling the speaker also proves effective. >> oh, a well-executed running tackle here by an older fellow. he could play football. >> staging protests inside parliament is another successful tactic. >> one of the most interesting things about these legislative brawls is that they're usually not spontaneous. at least not in taiwan. i mean, they look spontaneous. it looks like all of a sudden people are rushing up to the front and there's this big mosh

pit and then up on the top of the dais there's a big scrum. it looks like somebody just lost his temper and went nuts. but almost always it's actually planned in advance. >> here you have very dedicated brawlers. they planned ahead. they've got placards, they've got costumes. >> they wear a special outfit on the days that they're going to fight. once i was interviewing a legislative assistant about this. he said, oh, yeah, we get a memo. we get an e-mail in the morning that says tell the boss to wear sneakers and the party vest today because we're going to have some action. >> planned or not, these brawls often turn violent and injuries can be serious. >> the most famous is the bloody face of the guy who got hit with a cell phone on his brow bone and split his eyebrow and blood all down his face. he had ten large stitches and a hundred small stitches. so it must have been a pretty nasty cut. >> and there have been other

casualties during intense legislative sessions, namely ruined suits. >> another very shocking but also kind of funny moment was the fight where they threw their boxed lunches at each other. >> this clip gives a whole new meaning to a sticky situation. >> this is what happens when you serve lunch during a meeting. >> there's rice in there, there's stir-fried vegetables in there. there's like a pork chop or a chicken leg. so when they hauled off and threw the boxes across the legislature, the food was just flying out and all of this greasy chinese food raining down on the legislators. >> so why are fights so common in taiwan? what is it about the country's political system that breeds such frustration? >> i think the key to understanding the political violence or particularly the legislative violence in taiwan is to understand that taiwan is

a relatively new democracy. until the 1980s, taiwan was a single-party authoritarian state. >> in the 1980s, taiwan begins to democratize. however, when marshal law is abolished in 1987, political brawls go on the rise. in addition, taiwan's ruling political party remains the minority in the legislature. >> they still couldn't get their stuff through the legislature because they didn't have a majority of seats. so it's like when you have a republican president and a democratic majority in the u.s. congress. there's always a lot more conflict. >> so is there any hope that taiwan will be able to stabilize its political system in the near future, rendering these fights a thing of the past? >> i'm pretty confident that taiwan will develop some mechanisms for smoothing over the worst and most violent of these legislative conflicts. >> but until then, grab some popcorn, sit back and enjoy the show. and you don't have to look far from taiwan to find more

political punch-outs. >> if you want to be a politician in korea, a black belt in tae kwon do may not be a bad thing to have. >> fights are so common in south korea's parliament that they've become a spectator sport. >> this looks like a coup. i don't know if i'd want them in charge. >> there has been a ritual aspect to confrontation in korean society. one of the challenges with korea as a relatively new democracy is that this is not really a political culture in which debate and compromise are prized. >> since 2004 the south korean parliament has dissolved numerous times into uncontrolled mass brawls. >> 2004 was a year in which we saw major change in the composition of the national assembly. it became younger. there was the introduction of a new labor party. and they brought with them the street protest tradition, to a certain extent they brought the street into the national assembly.

>> whether the subject is education reform or impeachment, free trade deals or government relocation, you can be sure that fists will be raised and punches will be thrown. >> a lot of pushing and shoving, a lot of competition to really gain control over the physical instruments of power, for instance, the speaker's podium or the gavel. hammers and fire extinguishers. there were draft bills being thrown. there were cameras in the national assembly. paper actually makes a good theatrical effect. >> and theater is really all it is. unlike in taiwan where political brawling often sways an outcome, scott snyder at the asia foundation says the punchups we see in the korea assembly are all for show. >> usually they are related to ritual confrontations or situations where a measure or a law is about to be passed. the assemblymen already know what the outcome is going to be,

but they need to show to their constituents that they have done everything they can in order to try to stop it from being passed. it's a ritual fight to show your loyalty even for a lost cause. >> well, guys, even if you're not changing history, you sure are getting a good workout. coming up -- uh-oh, look out. mikes and paperweights fly through the air in india. >> mikes and paperweights have become like missiles. >> plus somalis fight over whether to allow peace-keeping forces into their country. >> the ultimate irony of this one is this was a fight about peacekeepers. >> it was quite dangerous because of the way they were using chairs and sticks. i mean, someone could have gotten killed. hi, i'm terry and i have diabetic nerve pain. i worked a patrol unit for 17 years in the city of baltimore. when i first started experiencing the pain, it's, it's hard to describe because you have a numbness... but yet you have the pain

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i'm milissa rehberger. here's what's happening. the state department is defending the closing of 19 embassies in consulates in the muslim world through next saturday out of what it calls an

abundance of caution over a threat connected to al qaeda. it's being called the most significant threat in years. plus los angeles police have arrested a man on suspicion on intentionally driving into a crowd at the venice beach boardwalk. an italian woman on her honeymoon was killed. 11 others injured. back to "caught on camera." hello. welcome back to "caught on camera." i'm contessa brewer. whether they're lashing out in public, fighting one on one, or brawling en masse, politicians sure know how to disagree with each other. uttar pradesh, india, october, 1997. the state assembly erupts into violence. this man is a political adviser, and he has a ringside seat at the spectacular event. >> it was expected that there may be some shouting slogans, some throwing of something.

but physical manhandling and physically throwing of objects to the extent of injuring the other persons, it was not expected. >> the ruling vjp party in power for only one month is suddenly in danger of losing its majority. >> the issue was a vote of confidence for the state government. >> if this was a vote for confidence, it didn't succeed. i can imagine the voters not having much confidence in these guys. >> when state assembly members are called on to vote whether to replace the bjp party, things get ugly. >> as soon as the proceedings started and the shouting becomes noisy -- >> uh-oh. now they're throwing things, furniture, everything. >> it initially started with the paper weights. then the mikes are taken from the desks and thrown to the other side, and they're quite heavy.

mikes and paperweights have become like missiles. >> they look like they could do some damage. now, there's some nice form on that toss. >> as the scene descends from disruption into total disarray, those caught up in the fray take cover. >> the scene has become very violent, even physical, manhandling. >> undeterred by the chaos around him, the speaker carries on. he's determined that the vote proceed and be counted that day. >> so the marshals try to intervene. they try to make a shield around the speaker to save him because the speaker was going on with the proceedings. >> my favorite was the security guards holding up what appeared to be chair seats or something as a shield. >> the shield does the trick. the speaker is able to push the vote through and the bjp party, it seems, will be allowed to stay in power. the trouble-making opposition parties, however, won't give up.

that afternoon they storm the governor's house, and the governor intervenes on their behalf, dismissing the state government altogether. but the bjp party takes its case to the president. >> it was very unusual. up till now, nothing of this sort has happened in an indian parliament. >> in the end, the president supports the bjp party and gives the power back to it. >> in technical terms, bjp and its allies emerged winners. >> since 1997 violent outbursts in the state assembly have become rare, perhaps in part due to some redecorating. >> mikes and rots were removed. paperweights were removed. anything which can be thrown was not allowed on the desk. now take a look at what happened at a somali political summit in 2005. >> it confirmed all of our worst fears about the transitional parliament and the transitional

federal government, that this was an utterly dysfunctional group. >> the fight starts when somali politicians disagree about allowing peacekeeping troops into their troubled country. >> the ultimate irony of this one was this was a fight about peacekeepers. >> so mole ya is the longest running incident of state collapse in the post colonial era. >> the somali people have gone without a functional government since 1991, and many aren't willing to let peacekeepers try to stabilize the situation. >> somalia has a bad history with international peacekeeping. the u.n. operation in somalia in 1993 through '95 led to the black hawk down disaster in which 18 army rangers lost their lives and many hundreds of somalis as well. so there's a history to international peacekeeping in somalia which makes many somalians leery of it. >> on top of it, somalia's hotly contested transitional government has only just been formed. >> a parliament is not a routine thing in somalia. that's part of the problem. this is a country that had 20

years of dictatorship from the 1970s and 1980s, and had no real culture of parliamentary debate and dialogue. and then 20 years of state collapse. so we're really dealing with somali political figures that have no history, no culture of the give and take of parliamentary debate. >> there's a guy in this one just whaling on somebody with a cane, intending to do some real harm. >> i've seen more effective fighting in other places. this was really haphazard, but it was quite dangerous because of the way they were using chairs and sticks. i mean, someone could have gotten killed. >> peacekeepers are eventually allowed into somalia in 2007. and as a result, fighting among somali insurgents increases. >> we've got a very serious political crisis on our hand, and it has triggered the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. 3.8 million somalis are in immediate need of humanitarian assistance. 1.8 million are internally displaced because of the fighting.

u.n. considers somalia the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. >> sadly, this scene from 2005 mirror, on a much smaller scale, the struggle that occurs every day in somalia. >> the short-term future of the country is very, very troubled. we're not going to see the fighting go away very soon. in the long term i have confidence that the somali people will pull themselves together. i think the somalis will have an interest in seeing a revived state and a consolidated peace. coming up -- one political brawl gets really out of hand. >> somebody is saying that he was dead. >> nothing is under control. just violence. just rage. and then the political bloopers you just can't get enough of. >> one of the most embarrassing moments for any politician i've seen. ♪

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as we've seen, political brawls have produced ruffled hair, damaged suits, even a few cuts and bruises, but one country tips the scales for a truly shocking injury caught on camera. >> i think when it ends in a coma, something needs to be done. this shouldn't happen anymore. >> the bolivian congress has seen a lot of action in the past several years. >> bolivian politics is one of the most conflicted, aggressive in the world. >> in fact, bolivia only became a democracy in the '80s after

years of military rule, and then a string of governments, infamous for human rights abuses, narcotics trafficking, and economic corruption. but some say the word "democracy" should be used lightly when it comes to bolivia. >> what this violent fight says about the political system in bolivia, it's a system of failure. violence, it's the consequence of the lack of real democracy. we have elections. we have a congress. we have democratic representatives that have been elected. but somehow all of the problems that are beneath bolivian society have been erosion in a violent way, it becomes scary. nothing is under control. just violence. just rage. >> one famous instance of violent rage happens in september 2006. >> it was really, really a

terrible fight. it was really, really a tense situation. >> jose au, qipa is a former member of the minority party in bolivia. he's there that evening. >> that night i remember the president in the assembly was leading the session. >> he calls for all constitutional reforms to be passed by a simple majority. jose's party reacts angrily knowing they will have no say in these reforms. >> i recall that we took to the session small plastic bottles, and we started hitting the bottles and making noise and yelling "dictatorship, dictatorship" so that they could stop the session. >> words are not enough to stop the proceedings. >> you see people standing on desks yelling at each other. women throwing paper.

and, of course, men fighting with their hands, you know, punching each other. like it was a ring. >> as jose and his party are doing battle on the floor, a man named roman, a prominent member of the ruling party, loses his footing and falls from a ledge. >> suddenly he slipped and fell. he was lying down, and his head was bleeding. and somebody screamed, saying that he was dead. >> he is rushed to the hospital. his life hanging in the balance. >> people started crying. women started yelling. and some of the female members of the government started attacking us, accusing us, saying that we pushed roman loiza.

>> people that belongs to the government said it was on purpose. and a terrible fight also started. >> you can see jose in the middle of the melee being beaten from behind. >> that night was like a nightmare. all our fears started becoming true. we were attacked. we were hit. i felt a couple of punches on my head from the back. i almost fainted. >> scared for his life, jose and the rest of the opposition party flee. >> we managed to get out of the theater and run away, literally run away. >> jose runs home and remains there for several hours until he gets a startling phone call warning him that angry members of roman loiza's party are after him. >> so i decided to move to another place and then take us immediately at night and move to another city to stay safe. >> the lives of jose and other

members of his party depend on loiza's full recovery. they remain in hiding waiting for news of his condition. >> mr. loiza was in coma for quite a few days. we were all concerned about his health, no doubt about it. we would have ended up being lynched if mr. loiza had not recovered. >> two months later loiza recovers and returns to the assembly. >> he came back as a different person. he was not man of confrontation anymore. he summoned us for a reconciliation, and he provoked one of the most touching, sensitive moments of the constitutional assembly. we applauded him, we thanked him, and we held each other, members of the opposition and members of the government. some people even cried. >> the incident with mr. loiza

gave them a chance to talk. it gave them a chance to see each other as what really are, human beings. coming up -- politicians step out and get down. >> i don't know of any times when it's really good for a president to try to dance. [ male announcer ] if you had a dollar, for every dollar car insurance companies say they'll save you by switching, you'd have like, a ton of dollars.

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going wild seems to be an ongoing theme in the political arena, but fighting isn't the only thing caught on camera. sometimes they trade wild for just plain embarrassing. >> there's a rule for politicians that even if the camera is not on them, if there's a camera in the room, always assume you're on the air.

>> take the mayor of london, boris johnson, for instance. encouraging volunteers to help clean up london's rivers, boris sets the example and takes the plunge, literally. >> i'm here to promote volunteering week. what could be more lovely on a day like this than having a quick informal dip. >> informal? that's one word for it. >> getting ready. >> and who can forget presidential hopeful gary bauers pancake stunt. >> all right. whoa! oh, no! >> there's a tradition in new hampshire presidential politics where candidates have to flip pancakes at a pancake breakfast. >> oh, no! >> you compare and contrast the politician's skill at flipping pancakes at this event. gary bauer was the worst ever. >> jack be nimble, jack be quick, whoa, jack fall over the bisquick. >> one of the most embarrassing moments for any politician i've seen.

>> i hope your campaign platform is more solid than your footing, mr. bauer. that goes for you too, mr. dole. campaigning against president bill clinton turns out to be a dangerous affair for bob dole. reaching out to his supporters in california, he falls head first off stage. it turns out that the presidency is just beyond his reach. and speaking of feet, waiting around for dignitaries can be tedious work. president bush takes the opportunity to entertain the press with some fancy footwork of his own. >> i don't know of any times when it's really good for a president to try to dance. >> president bush, it seems, disagrees. here he is again in africa. >> and secretary of state hillary clinton gets down in kenya. >> thank you very much.

stop the music. >> even russian president boris yeltsin seems comfortable on the dance floor. >> kick it. >> not all politicians are quite so musically inclined however. just ask karl rove. ♪ tell me what is your name >> mc rove. >> i saw this one live, i'm afraid. it was even scarier to watch karl rove rapping in person than on the tv. he's got some of the movements that only dick cheney could manage. >> mc rove. ♪ our dnc is what they're calling me ♪ >> colin powell is equally musically challenged. here he is singing at a security meeting in indonesia. and bad boy blagojevich is caught on camera taking on elvis.

♪ >> yikes. don't quit your day jobs, fellas. oh, wait, never mind. perhaps they should have made a speedy escape like president bush tried to do after this press conference. >> this was one of the famous episodes with george bush looking like he didn't know what he was doing because he didn't even know where the door was. >> i was trying to escape. >> and talk about wanting to escape, who can forget vice president dan quayle exercising his spelling expertise in front of the cameras. >> add one little bit on the end. potato. you wrote phonetically. what else? there you go. >> i wouldn't try your luck at, are you smarter than a fifth grader, dan. >> i guess he was wrong and i was right. >> and speaking of a gaffe with

an "e" on the end, here's a technical one. >> and you're in my way of my script, there, if you will move. >> and don't you just hate those meetings that go on and on and on? president ronald reagan certainly did. just before leaving office, president reagan jokes about his frequent public snoozes. as soon as i get home to california, i plan to lean back, kick up my feet and take a long nap. come to think of it, things won't be all that different after all. >> and speaking of snoozing, i bet president bill clinton wishes this baby was napping and hadn't just eaten before he picked her up at a rally. >> threw up a little bit. >> that's good luck. >> no matter how embarrassing the bloopers or how wild the fights, one thing is for sure, there will always be more. after all, that's politics. if you have a video you'd like to send to us, logon to our

website caught on camera@msnbc.com. i'm contessa brewer. that's it for this edition of "caught on camera. chaos in the streets. >> the crowd was chanting burn it up, burn it up. >> a bridal alteration altercation. >> he is the guy who throw us out. you need to kill this guy. >> a video vigilante confronts a cop in a no-standing zone. >> what are you doing? >> what are you doing? >> you can't touch me. >> i can do whatever i want. >> and -- >> show me which one. >> bullies scared straight. >> i'll " -- everybody. >> and a case of sticky fingers. devastating day care and a battle for the space. >> she managed to actually move the car completely out of the space.