After budget negotiators were on the verge of a compromise over the weekend, the debate over taxes degenerated into partisan squabbling today.

Internal political debate also degenerated into violence.

Republicans on the committee suggested that the Democrats were using the Superfund for partisan purposes and that the debate had degenerated into bickering.

But in its first segment, about whether the United States should attack Iraq, the debate degenerated into unintelligible yelling.

In the budget talks, the debate over taxes degenerated into partisan squabbling.

The debate has degenerated into simple arguments about resources and demands on a limited budget.

In such a toxic atmosphere, what could have been a civilized debate has degenerated into a tiff.

Arguably, however, the peace movement had lost its original spirit, as the political debate degenerated.

And at times the debate has degenerated into incidents of incivility.

The state elections of 1832 were "charged with tension and bespattered with violence," and "polite debates often degenerated into frontier brawls."