The other side of the health-care fight: Steineger instigated the bar fight, attorney claims

Earlier this week, after hearing reports from the Kansas statehouse that Sen. Chris

Steineger had shown up to a committee meeting with a black eye, The Pitch broke the story about his bar fight.

The Pitch confirmed that Steineger, a Wyandotte County Democrat who is considering a run for governor, had gotten into an argument at Breit’s Stein and Grill last Friday. Steineger’s side of the story — claiming he got “sucker punched” in an argument over health-care reform — appeared on Prime Buzz earlier today.

Here’s the other side of the story: After Steineger claimed that he might file a police report, Richard Carney, an attorney, hired another attorney, Thomas F. McGraw of Overland Park.

“What happened to the story about him stepping on a rake?” asked

McGraw, who’d heard that Steineger was telling his statehouse colleagues that his black eye came from “yard work.”

Here’s what McGraw says happened: Steineger was drinking at Breit’s with his wife when an argument with Carney escalated. Steineger grabbed Carney’s tie and took a swing at him; Carney blocked it and popped Steineger in the face. McGraw says Carney acted in self-defense and Steineger was the “primary aggressor.”

The fight was broken up quickly.

McGraw calls Steineger’s threats of filing criminal charges “ridiculous” and says if criminal charges are filed, they should be filed against Steineger.

“Why didn’t he call

the police a week ago?” McGraw asks. “Why did he lie about what happened?”

Steineger’s spokeswoman, Kris Schindler, told The Pitch that Steineger wouldn’t be talking any further about the fight.