A lawmaker's plan to hold a Capitol Hill hearing on the Small Business Administration ignited the ire of small business advocate Lloyd Chapman.

Now the lawmaker is firing back.

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., called the American Small Business League president "dishonest and unethical" for suggesting last week that he was holding the hearing to explore abolishing the agency. "It is absurd to suggest that I have a hidden agenda to harm small business," Coburn said in a statement.

Coburn chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management. He said the April 6 hearing would be no different than others he's held that examine various federal agencies.

But things didn't end there. Today, Chapman issued his own statement. "If this hearing is merely to examine the effectiveness of the Small Business Administration, why would Senator Coburn call a French, anti-American small business activist to testify?" he shot back.

Ah … the French.