All kinds of rhetorical elbows were thrown Wednesday, on Capitol Hill and off, as California lawmakers tussled over water policy. There was also a remarkable amount of passion; real, honest-to-God-sounding passion.

It wasn't just that each of the San Joaquin Valley's lawmakers -- Democrats Dennis Cardoza and Jim Costa and Republicans George Radanovich and Devin Nunes -- took time to speak at the Interior Department hearing. It was their vehemence and anger that really stood out; noteworthy, in particular, for the Democrats who were really blasting their own party's Interior Department.

The half-day hearing itself was like a convention of all the water heavies. From Westlands Water District, there was General Manager Tom Birmingham and Jason Peltier. Omnipresent Los Banos farmer Jean Sagouspe was around, as was former state legislator Mike Machado.

The real punctuation for the day of water rage, though, came on Capitol Hill several hours after the Interior Department hearing ended. Urged on by Nunes, who is starting to specialize in these kind of maneuvers, House Republicans brought to defeat a water bill authored by Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez.

You know the old saying from "The Godfather" movie, that it's nothing personal, it's only business? This seemed the exact opposite of that, as the GOP's party line rejection of Miller's "Bay Area Regional Water Recycling Program Expansion" seemed designed mostly as a personal rebuke. Interestingly, or maybe just coincidentally, Costa did not vote on the measure. (Strangely, neither did Miller.)

It's only temporary, though; the bill itself will probably come back under rules under which it is likely to pass easily.