UPDATE: Read the entire deposition here, here, here, here, here and here.

This is ugly.

The Rossi deposition started out combative and went downhill from there, according to the transcript of the morning session released by the Rossi campaign.

Rossi's attorney, Mike Patterson, objected to just about every question asked by plaintiffs' lawyer Mike Withey (who represents former State Supreme Court Justices Faith Ireland and Robert Utter, who filed the suit.) Patterson said many of the questions went way beyond the scope of what the judge said the deposition could cover.

More than once, Patterson accused Withey of giving him dirty looks. "Mr. Withey, Mr. Withey, this is supposed to be a very good decorum. You don't need to stare at me in disdain."

Withey said he did not stare.

During his testimony, Rossi repeated his earlier assertions that any contacts he had with BIAW prior to declaring himself a candidate for governor were legal. He claimed his conversations about political fundraising were general in nature -- that they were about mending a personality "rift" between different BIAW factions -- and that he was not illegally coordinating fundraising with the group.

Whenever he could, Rossi tried to turn Withey's questions around to attack the Democrats.

For example, Withey asked whether Rossi understood the purpose of the public disclosure law in the state was to prevent groups with lots of money from having a "disproportionate or controlling influence on the election of candidates?"

Rossi responded: "Oh you mean like SEIU helping pay for lawsuits like this, Fuse and other ones that are paying for sham lawsuits like this one, is that what you're talking about?" (Fuse is a liberal activist group that has pushed what it calls the "Buildergate" scandal.)

After a heated exchange this morning, Withey said he'd had enough and that he'd be asking Judge Paris Kallas for sanctions against Patterson for obstructing the deposition.

"For the record, I've been in practice for 36 years. This has been the most obstructive deposition I've ever participated in. It's made a mockery of the four hours that we've arranged for. We are going to move the court to impose sanctions upon Mr. Patterson, we'll move the court to allow us additional time to depose Mr. Rossi in light of this obstruction. We will -- let me finish. We will make a transcript of this proceeding available to the judge immediately, and we will then ask her to give us a call back when she's had the chance to review it so that she might determine what sanctions if any should be imposed and whether this deposition should be continued further."

Patterson fired back.

"Mr. Withey, I'm going to state that I've been in practice just about as long as you have and I'm going to say this. I probably participated in more depositions than you ever thought of participating in and I've certainly tried more cases than you ever have, okay? And I'm going to tell you that... I am not here to have the due process and constitutional rights of my client overrun and I'm not here to see that lawyers that are being paid by Christine Gregoire... to ask questions that are geared toward the press. I'm not here to have Mr. Lowney hold a press conference and to otherwise try to influence this election. My objections will stand for the record. I will have anybody take a look at those. I'm happy to have the judge take a look at those objections."

Knoll Lowney, the other plaintiffs' attorney in the case, accused Patterson of "defaming" him by saying he was being paid by Gregoire. (While the lawsuit has been pushed by Gregoire supporters, her campaign is not paying for it.)

No word yet on whether the judge intervened in the dispute.