“These are affirmations that I see as damaging to my dignity, affirmations that … cannot be reduced to jokes. To my husband and to the public man I therefore ask for a public apology, having not received one privately.”
–Veronica Berlusconi, wife of Italy’s former prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, in a letter to a leading Italian newspaper complaining about his open flirtations with women
“Here I am, saying I’m sorry. I was recalcitrant in private, because I am playful but proud too. Challenged in public, the temptation to give in to you is strong. I can’t resist. So, I beg you, forgive me and accept this public display of a private pride that gives in to your rage as an act of love–just one of many.”
–Silvio Berlusconi, 70, to his wife 20 years his junior, later
“I think you’re out of line with that question.”
–Vice President Dick Cheney, when asked about his daughter Mary’s decision to have a baby and raise it with her female partner
“They’re trying to set me up. They want me to be the sacrificial lamb. I will not be sacrificed so Karl Rove can be protected.”
–Attorney Theodore Wells, recalling a conversation between his client, former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, and Libby’s boss, Vice President Dick Cheney, on the leak of a CIA operative’s identity
“I’ve kissed a lot of [actresses] whom I didn’t want to kiss in scenes. It was pretty much exactly like kissing a woman I didn’t want to kiss. It was work.”
–Grant Show, a straight actor who plays a gay action star on FX’s “Dirt,” on kissing a man on the show
“It’d be nice if he’s remembered for winning the Kentucky Derby, not for breaking down in the Preakness.”
–Peter Brette, the exercise rider for the late Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro
“Since I do have a little experience in this area, I know what not to do.”
–Hillary Rodham Clinton, joking about her work on the Clinton administration’s ill-fated health care initiative; she pledged to work again on universal health care
“Since the president is adamant about pursuing his failed policy in Iraq, Congress has a duty to stand up and prevent him.”
–Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), who introduced a bill that would end funding for the deployment of U.S. troops to Iraq
“The message to our troops is that we no longer support them.”
–Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), on Feingold’s bill
“Short of letting everybody have a feel, I don’t know what else to do. I really am pretty happy with what God gave me.”
–Actress Jennifer Aniston, quelling tabloid rumors that she has breast implants
`The public expects that certain things are sacred. You don’t play with the tortilla. You can play with the price of oil. That’s easy. But not the tortilla.’
–Lorenzo Meyer, a historian at El Colegio de Mexico, on the rising price of corn tortillas
