Today’s floor debate in the Senate was particularly lively. So we at The Fix thought we’d give you some highlights from the press box.

-The day began with Democrats temporarily blocking fellow party member Kevin Gunn from a seat on the Public Service Commission. You can read our full write-up here, but Sen. Victor Callahan, D-Independence, had one quote that stood out: “If he doesn’t have the gumption or the spine to run for Senate, that’s certainly his choice.”

-A vote on whether to create a quality rating system for preschool providers garnered some strange bedfellows. Both Sens. Jolie Justus, D-Kansas City, and Chuck Purgason, R-Caulfield, voted against the bill. Purgason thinks the state should get out of the preschool business altogether, while Justus thinks the bill should provide more money to preschool providers.

The proposal, which also includes $5 million for a pre-school program that could benefit St. Louis Public Schools, narrowly passed, 19-14.

-During the debate on whether to require a 5 percent biodiesel blend in all diesel fuel sold in Missouri, Purgason used the word “trough” at least seven times.

A choice example: “You depend on me to pay taxes so you can saddle up to the trough,” he told Sen. Wes Shoemyer, who receives subsidies for his stake in an ethanol plant.

Purgason’s repeated trough references did not go without notice. Many onlookers were reminded of a famous Allen Iverson video. When he thought debate was stretching too long, Sen. Kevin Engler quipped: “My trough is in Farmington, and I’m not getting there because of the longevity of this debate.”

Purgason also said conservatives who vote for the bill are no better than a 900 number: they promise a “fantasy” of smaller government and then “hang up” and vote for state subsidies and mandates.

Senators eventually passed the biodiesel mandate, 20-11.

-Interrupting a bit of contentious debate, Sen. Jack Goodman, who was at the dais at the time, had to remind senators to “talk one at a time.” He did not, however, ask legislators to use their inside voices.

-Sen. Gary Nodler, R-Joplin, cast the day’s events in historic terms: “I’ve enjoyed this morning about as much as any morning in my six years in the Senate.”