But a few lawmakers were holding their breath to see just what might happen when Rep. Greg Hughes, R-Draper, and Sen. Bill Hickman, R-St. George, seemed to nearly go to blows with each other near the speaker of the House dais during a recent floor session.

According to witnesses, a few choice words were exchanged, including the expletive Mitt Romney once claimed he has never said, along with an invitation to "step outside."

The bad blood between Hughes, chairman of the House Conservative Caucus, and Hickman, once a member of the old Cowboy Caucus, has been simmering since last year, when Hughes blocked Hickman's attempt to remove the cap on higher education funding so he could get an appropriation for Dixie State College.

After that, all of Hughes' bills met untimely deaths in the Senate Rules Committee, which Hickman chairs.

Then, about two weeks ago, Hughes' bill to bar candidates from the ballot if they failed to meet filing requirements passed the House unanimously, but was stymied by Hickman in the Senate's Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Committee.

Later, Hickman was on the House floor when Speaker Greg Curtis asked him to approach the speaker's dais, where he tried to calm things down with Hickman.

Hughes, still hot about his treatment in the committee, then confronted Hickman as he was leaving the speaker's dais.

Two days later, the Senate committee reconsidered Hughes' bill and passed it with a favorable recommendation. So maybe things are settling down.

DéjÀ vu: The Legislature's passage Friday of a bill to revoke a teacher's license for having sex with a student reminds me of former Rep. Frank Pignanelli's bill several years ago to outlaw having sex with animals.

That bill failed to pass the House.

Question of the day: Is stealing your own property a crime if you steal it from somebody else?

Mona and Bob Dietrich, owners of HodgePodge Furniture, Flowers and Stuff, a Salt Lake City consignment store, pondered that one recently.

Mona says a "nice young man" brought in a self-portrait of renowned local artist Ruby Chacon to sell and said he would bring in some other merchandise soon.

While the portrait hung in the store, Ruby's husband, and later Ruby herself, came in the store, noticed the painting and talked nostalgically about when it was done. Ruby wondered why the owner wanted to sell it, but that was unknown.

Later, the portrait's owner came in with a friend, apologized for not bringing in the other merchandise, and chatted with Mona while his friend looked around. After they left, the Dietrichs noticed the portrait was gone. They called the police and officers went to the owner's house, confirming the portrait was back on the owner's wall. Nothing could be done, the officers said, because the man stole his own property.

Mona wonders why he didn't just ask for it back, because it was his. Maybe it was the thrill of the crime that motivated the legal theft.

prolly@sltrib.com