Phoney Bar Fight

The Post-Star :Local News

"Sweeney in a bar fight? Maybe ... or maybe not By CHRISTINE MARGIOTTA Updated: 11/18/2005 10:10:45 PM U.S. Rep John Sweeney made national gossip news this week -- not for making policy, but for taking a punch. A gossip column in Thursday's New York Daily News reported Sweeney, R-Clifton Park, took a blow from a Red Sox fan who'd had enough of Sweeney's pro-Yankees banter one evening earlier this month at Bobby Van's Steakhouse in Washington, D.C. Sweeney spokeswoman Melissa Carlson flatly denied the report, saying the alleged incident was nothing more than a "heated discussion about Yankees vs. Red Sox. The story originally appeared Wednesday in Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill. A Bobby Van's bartender who withheld his name for work-related reasons said he was on duty the night in question and saw nothing. "It didn't exist. It did not happen" he said. "He didn't get hit while I was here. We don't know anybody that hit any congressman, that's for sure. If I had seen it, I would have done something about it, you can guarantee that." The bartender is known by patrons as a particularly faithful fan of the Boston Red Sox. "We all have our crosses to bear, and that happens to be my one," he said. That allegiance has made him the target of friendly back-and-forth from Sweeney, an apparent die-hard Yankees fan, for the past five years. Sweeney and his staff frequent the New York-style restaurant and make their Yankees loyalty known, the bartender said. "John Sweeney and I are good friends," the bartender said. "He and I do have a banter every time we see each other.""

Tags: John Sweeney (t d f)