Claim: Obama Told Fellow Legislator in ’97 “I’m Going to Kick Your Ass!”

A fellow Illinois state Senator says Obama made the threat -- or something sounding like it -- during a tense exchange in the Legislature.

The lawmaker says a third person had to phyiscally intervene to separate them.

Ryan Lizza's 15,000-word New Yorker opus also includes Obama's initial response to Sept. 11.

"The essence of this tragedy, it seems to me, derives from a fundamental absence of empathy on the part of the attackers...." Read more here.