--- title: Mom Calls C-SPAN to Break Up Sibling Spat description: A mother of two political operatives, one Democrat, the other Republican, called into a live debate on C-SPAN on Tuesday to tell her sons to lay off the partisan bickering come Christmas. canonical: https://time.com/3635840/mom-calls-into-c-span-to-break-up-spat-between-sibling-political-rivals/ author: Dan Kedmey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-16T16:24:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T02:54:03.414Z article:section: Politics og:title: Mom Calls C-SPAN to Break Up Sibling Spat og:description: "Oh god, it's Mom." og:url: https://time.com/3635840/mom-calls-into-c-span-to-break-up-spat-between-sibling-political-rivals/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1b881be0b1365bec/69876f18f887dc0d66e890e4/c-span-argument-woodhouse.png?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: c-span-argument-woodhouse og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mom Calls C-SPAN to Break Up Sibling Spat twitter:description: "Oh god, it's Mom." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1b881be0b1365bec/69876f18f887dc0d66e890e4/c-span-argument-woodhouse.png?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch a Mom Call C-SPAN and Embarrass Her Fighting Sons  by [Dan Kedmey](https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Dec 16, 2014 4:24 PM UTC   by [Dan Kedmey](https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Dec 16, 2014 4:24 PM UTC A mother of two political operatives–one Democrat, the other Republican–called into a live debate between the brothers on C-SPAN on Tuesday to tell her sons to lay off the partisan bickering come Christmas. Joy Woodhouse called into the show using the regular phone line. Within seconds, her right-leaning son, Dallas Woodhouse, recognized the voice. “Oh god, it’s Mom,” he says, as the left-leaning brother, Brad Woodhouse, drops his head into his hands. “I don’t know many families that are fighting at Thanksgiving,” the elder Woodhouse said over the air. “I was hoping you’ll have some of this out of your system when you come here for Christmas. I would really like a peaceful Christmas.” The two brothers work for rival political advocacy groups, at one point [broadcasting](http://www.newsobserver.com/content/print/front%5Fpdf/1-A-Tue-February-10-09.pdf) rival campaign ads in North Carolina, the _News & Observer_ [reports](http://www.newsobserver.com/content/print/front%5Fpdf/1-A-Tue-February-10-09.pdf). “Thanks mom,” one of the brothers can be heard saying at the close of the call, though neither one committed to holding a quiet, bipartisan Christmas celebration. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3635840/mom-calls-into-c-span-to-break-up-spat-between-sibling-political-rivals/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3635840/mom-calls-into-c-span-to-break-up-spat-between-sibling-political-rivals/"},"headline":"Watch a Mom Call C-SPAN and Embarrass Her Fighting Sons","datePublished":"2014-12-16T16:24:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:54:03.414Z","description":"\"Oh god, it's Mom\"","url":"https://time.com/3635840/mom-calls-into-c-span-to-break-up-spat-between-sibling-political-rivals/","keywords":["democrats","republicans","People"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1b881be0b1365bec/69876f18f887dc0d66e890e4/c-span-argument-woodhouse.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dan Kedmey","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1b881be0b1365bec/69876f18f887dc0d66e890e4/c-span-argument-woodhouse.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"c-span-argument-woodhouse","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3635840/mom-calls-into-c-span-to-break-up-spat-between-sibling-political-rivals/","name":"Watch a Mom Call C-SPAN and Embarrass Her Fighting Sons"}}]}] ```