Joe Biden lashed out at a Democratic colleague in 1977 for blocking his anti-busing measure in the Senate Judiciary Committee, referring to him as a “dirty bastard” and threatening never to support any of his future bills, according to the former senator’s memoir.

James Abourezk, of South Dakota, wrote in his 1989 book, “Advise and Dissent: Memoirs of South Dakota and the US Senate,” that Biden blew up at him when he worked to scuttle the legislation advancing beyond the committee to the Senate floor.

Abourezk said he had been approached by Clarence Mitchell, who was then the chief lobbyist of the NAACP, to fight an anti-busing measure Biden had written with GOP Sen. William Roth of Delaware that would have overruled a federal court decision to desegregate schools in the state.

“If I could hold up passage of the bill until the court’s ruling went into effect, the legislation would be nullified,” Abourezk wrote in the book, which was first reported on by the Washington Free Beacon.

At the time, Sen. James Eastland of Mississippi, the segregationist whom Biden recently said he could work with even though they “didn’t agree on much of anything,” was the chairman of the committee.

He brought up Biden’s bill.

Abourezk said Eastland recognized him and the South Dakotan began filibustering Biden’s bill until there was a lack of a quorum and Eastland had to adjourn the meeting.

Biden approached Abourezk after the meeting.

“Biden leaned over to me, fire coming out of his eyes, ‘Abourezk, you sonofabitch, if I ever vote for another one of your bills, it’ll be a cold day in hell.”

Abourezk said he tried to calm him down by explaining that eventually Biden would thank him for blocking the anti-busing measure.

“Like hell I will, you dirty bastard,” Biden shot back, according to the book.

Abourezk wrote that Eastland continued to call more meetings about the bill because “I suppose … Eastland rather liked Biden’s anti-busing bill,” and he continued to filibuster.

Days later, Biden entered the committee meeting and headed straight for Abourezk.

“You were right,” Biden told him, according to the book. “You should see the Delaware papers – big front page headlines saying, ‘Biden Battles Liberals in Washington.'”

Biden was called out by Sen. Kamala Harris during last month’s Democratic presidential debate for working with Eastland on opposing busing.

At a campaign event Saturday in South Carolina, Biden said he was wrong to work with senators like Eastland early in his career.

“Was I wrong a few weeks ago? Yes, I was, and I regret it,” he said.

Biden’s campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment about Abourezk’s book.