STATE

Illinois Rep. Mike Bost flips his lid over pension legislation

Sean F. Driscoll
A still from a YouTube video of Ill. Rep. Mike Bost, R-Carbondale, angrily reacting to House rules regulating pension legislation debate being advanced by Democrats in the General Assembly on Tuesday, May 29, 2012.

The polite version: Illinois Rep. Mike Bost is not happy about the legislative process surrounding current pension legislation, and he's not shy about expressing his mind.

The less-polite version: this dude just had a meltdown.

Check out this video of Bost, a Murphysboro Republican, on the floor of the Illinois House of Representatives as members were discussing a pension bill that had cleared committee Tuesday morning.

Warning: salty language and paper tossing ahead.

I particularly enjoy the reactions of the legislators sitting near him, especially the guy to his right who has that look on his face of someone sitting at a dinner table where a couple is having a very ugly argument and wishing that a hole would open in the universe and just swallow him whole.

The pension bill Bost is raging against (actually he's raging against the rules for debate on the bill) passed a House committee Tuesday and may be heard by the whole chamber today before going back to the Senate for a vote. Stay tuned, and if you're on the floor of the General Assembly, wear a helmet.