Perry, Rosenthal, Reynolds, Madden, Stenholm

Gov. Rick Perry, during a pre-Christmas stop in Iowa (YouTube video here) on behalf of presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani: "Let me share something with you. George W. Bush was never a fiscal conservative... Look, he was better than Al Gore."

Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal, who is married, in an email to his executive secretary that was inadvertently made public by a federal court, a disclosure that prompted him to drop a reelection bid: "The very next time I see you I want to kiss you behind the right ear."

Lizzette Gonzalez Reynolds, deputy director of the Texas Education Agency, talking to the Austin American-Statesman after calling for the firing of an employee who forwarded a notice of a pro-evolution talk: "The concern was, should these sorts of things be on the TEA e-mail? ... I realize that people have their opinions. If you want to do that, Yahoo is free. Get a Yahoo account."

Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Richardson, asked by The Dallas Morning News whether legislative remedies at the Texas Youth Commission were sufficient: "We probably don't have management raping kids now."

Former U.S. Rep. Charlie Stenholm, D-Abilene, on how his colleague, former U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson, D-Lufkin, survived politically, in The Dallas Morning News: "What gets politicians in trouble is when you do something and you hide it and then it comes out and then you try to explain it. "Next thing you know, you're perjuring yourself. But Charlie was always very open, very honest — what you saw is what you got."