Stinger missiles

This week, India’s US envoy formally apologised for likening opposition MPs to “headless chickens”. Here are other barbs that landed bigwigs in hot water.

This week, India’s US envoy formally apologised for likening opposition MPs to “headless chickens”. Here are other barbs that landed bigwigs in hot water.

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We Won, you lost, eat that: New Zealand’s minister of finance is still trying to play down the gleeful rant he let loose when his party come to power. Critics have panned it for lack of humility, but sympathisers point out that Michael Cullen himself had a lot to “eat” in his 12 years in the opposition.

Don’t mind the names: Underplaying all the taunting directed at Andrew Symonds recently, Greg Matthews has said Indian fans are quite mild compared to the ones in New Zealand who have called him everything from a closet epileptic to a Greenpeace Warrior that got sunk.

YEEEEEEEERRRRRRHHH: That was the primal roar Howard Dean let out during the last American election, the one that sank his presidential prospects. It has since been dubbed the “I Have a Scream” speech, with one talk show host pointing out that it is always a bad sign when at the end of your speech, your aide is shooting you with a tranquiliser gun.

He is stupid. It is a big mistake: This is how the French President described an interview with 60 minutes and the press secretary who had arranged it. It was the programme’s interest in his marriage that Nicolas Sarkozy found a particular waste of his time. But two weeks later, the presidential palace announced his divorce, just like that.