Political Slips of the Tongue, 5-9

Our next round of political slips of the tongue starts with a blooper by Gib Lewis.

5. Texas House Speaker Gib Lewis

A true slow-talkin' Texan, many of Texas House Speaker Gib Lewis's famous bloopers may have influenced his colleague, future president George W. Bush.

While closing a congressional session, Lewis's real feelings about his peers slipped out when he said, "I want to thank each and every one of you for having extinguished yourselves this session."

He tried to explain his problems once by saying, "There's a lot of uncertainty that's not clear in my mind."

He could have been describing his jumbled reign as Texas speaker when he commented, "This is unparalyzed in the state's history."

6. Dan Quayle

Before President George W. Bush took over the title, Dan Quayle was the reigning king of malaprops. Serving one term as vice president from 1989 to 1993, Quayle's slips of the tongue made him an easy but well-deserved target for late-night talk shows.

His most famous blunder came in 1992 when, at an elementary school spelling bee in New Jersey, he corrected student William Figueroa's correct spelling of potato as p-o-t-a-t-o-e.

Quayle didn't really help the campaign for reelection when, at a stop in California, he said, "This president is going to lead us out of this recovery."

7. Spiro Agnew

Spiro Theodore Agnew served as vice president from 1969 to 1973 under President Nixon, before resigning following evidence of tax evasion. This slip expressed his true feelings on this matter: "I apologize for lying to you. I promise I won't deceive you except in matters of this sort."

Agnew also didn't endear himself to poor people in 1968 when he commented, "To some extent, if you've seen one city slum, you've seen them all."

8. George W. Bush

Reflecting about growing up in Midland, Texas, President George W. Bush said in a 1994 interview, "It was just inebriating what Midland was all about then." Back in those days, Dubya was known to be a heavy drinker, so misspeaking the word invigorating was a real Freudian slip.

During his time in the White House, the junior Bush has had enough malaprops to give a centipede a serious case of foot-in-the-mouth syndrome.

9. George H. W. Bush

With Dan Quayle as his vice president, the bloopers of President George H. W. Bush sometimes got overshadowed, but he still managed some zingers.

While campaigning in 1988, Bush described serving as Ronald Reagan's vice president this way: "For seven and a half years I've worked alongside President Reagan. We've had triumphs. Made some mistakes. We've had some sex . . . uh . . . setbacks." When it comes to presidents 41 and 43, you could say that the slip doesn't fall far from the tongue.

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:

Helen Davies, Marjorie Dorfman, Mary Fons, Deborah Hawkins, Martin Hintz, Linnea Lundgren, David Priess, Julia Clark Robinson, Paul Seaburn, Heidi Stevens, and Steve Theunissen