Loose cannons

Cheery

"My role will be to lead the cheer squad for the Australian team." — Prime Menzies John Howard, asked his plans during the Olympics.

Market failure

"The level of the dollar does not reflect the fundamentals of the Australian economy." — John Howard.

People failure

"People have stopped taking an interest in us." — Labor's shadow treasurer, Simon Crean, explaining the fall of the dollar.

Motive force

"American arrogance exists in proportion to the movement of the Nasdaq index." — Academic Francis Fukuyama, known for his "end of history" thesis.

Head start

"I know of no country ... where the love of money has taken a stronger hold on the affections of men." — Nineteenth century French writer Alexis de Tocqueville on the United States.

Doing good at last

"I believe she [Pauline Hanson] has done a lot of damage to the [One Nation] party." — One Nation policy coordinator and executive member Rod Smith.

As far as we know

"He [Alan Bond]'s well connected, switched on and he's got a lot of drive and energy. And he's not breaking the law, is he?" — Paul Hare, owner of ChequeExchange, which has just sold its British franchise to Bond.

He wasn't there

"The woman who knew I had dyslexia — I never interviewed her." — US presidential candidate George W. Bush, doing his best to stop a rumour about himself.

From GLW issue 422