Odd News

Bush quotes most notable of 2006 expert says

(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-01-22 17:30

Three of Bush's quotes, led by his "I'm the Decider" remark in April, head 2006's most notable quotations compiled by Fred R. Shapiro, editor of the Yale Book of Quotations.

Bush's comment that "I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense" is followed by his State of the Union address quote that "America is addicted to oil" and by his comment on Hurricane Katrina to high school students in New Orleans: "I take full responsibility for the federal government's response."

The "decider" quote was also named "Bushism" of the year by the Global Language Monitor, which issues a list of best George Bush quotes each year. The monitor's Paul JJ Payack said No. 2 on that list was "I use The Google."

Other notable quotes of the year compiled by Shapiro include British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's explanation about his movie "Borat," in which he plays a boorish Kazakh TV journalist:

"The joke is not on Kazakhstan. I think the joke is on people who can believe that the Kazakhstan that I describe can exist."

Cohen's quote was followed in fifth place by another comic's remark --- Stephen Colbert's comment on Bush at the White House correspondents dinner: "The greatest thing about this man is he's steady. You know where he stands. He believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday."

The quotes are not chosen because they are eloquent or admirable, Shapiro said, but "because they are important or they are particularly revealing of the spirit of our times."

Right-wing polemicist Ann Coulter made the list for her attack on the widows of men who died in the World Trade Center on September 11:

"These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arrazies. I have never seen people enjoying their husbands' death so much."

In seventh place was a line from the Will Ferrell film, "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Rickey Bobby," "If you ain't first, you're last."

Eighth was a quote from embattled Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany about statements made about the economy to win an election: "We lied morning, noon and night."

No list would be complete without a comment from Paris Hilton: "When I was a kid I had no idea I lived in a mansion. Then I went to a friend's house and I was like -- 'Oh.'"