The Greatest F-Bombs of American Politics (pictured: Vice President Nelson Rockefeller gives protestors at a 1976 rally the middle finger)
- “Go fuck yourself” - Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada), in the White House lobby before a meeting with President Obama and congressional party leaders on the fiscal cliff. The story leaked after Boehner bragged about the incident to House Republicans
- “Fuck yourself” - Vice President Dick Cheney to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), after Leahy publicly questioned Cheney’s ties to the Halliburton oil company
- “Fuck you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room” - Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) to Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) during closed-door negotiations on immigration reform in 2007.
- “This is a big fucking deal” - Vice President Joe Biden, whispering in President Barack Obama’s ear after introducing him before a speech on healthcare reform
- “I don’t give a fucking damn!” - then- Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, after he told an aide to get off the plane in the midst of an argument, and the aide pointed out that they were over the ocean
- “Y’all talkin’ about Iraq? Fuck Saddam, we’re taking him out” -President George W. Bush, walking into a meeting with his national security advisors
- “This is a fucking coup d’état!” -President Bill Clinton to Vice President Al Gore after the Monica Lewinsky story first broke
- “This is important. Don’t fuck it up” -Rahm Emanuel, senior advisor to President Clinton, to British Prime Minister Tony Blair before an appearance with Clinton during the Lewinsky Scandal
- “I’m fucking good enough. I’m fucking smart enough, and goddamn it, people fear me” -Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, pumping himself up in front of the mirror before a speech
- “I don’t need Bush’s tax cut. I’ve never worked a fucking day in my life” -Congressman Patrick Kennedy (D-Rhode Island) making a self-deprecating joke during a democratic fundraiser
- “Did I expect George Bush to fuck it up as badly as he did? I don’t think anybody did” -Senator John Kerry (D-Massachusetts), explaining his Iraq War vote to Rolling Stone magazine in December 2003
- “John is substantively more sure-footed than he is politically adept. My plea to John is: ‘John, I don’t want to hear you explain another fucking thing. Be declarative.’ And he’ll say to me, ‘Well, I’ll say it and explain it.’ I say, ‘Don’t explain it! Say it! Question and answer, period.” -then Senator Joe Biden (D-Delaware), on longtime friend John Kerry in 2004
- “This is a fucking valuable thing…I’ve got this thing and its fucking golden, and I’m just not giving it up for fucking nothing” -Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, during a wiretapped phone call in which he tried to sell Barack Obama’s former Senate seat
- “Well, this is obviously a fuck up” -President John F. Kennedy, after reading an outrageous article in the Washington Post
- “Fuck your parliament and your constitution. America is an elephant. Cyprus is a flea. Greece is a flea. If these two fellows continue itching the elephant they may just get whacked by the elephant’s trunk, whacked good” -President Lyndon B. Johnson, to Greek ambassador Alexandros Matsos after he objected to the U.S. plans for Cyprus
- “Fuck you!” -Chicago Mayor Richard Daley to Senator Abraham Ribicoff (D-Connecticut) after a speech at the 1968 Democratic National Convention
- “Listen, I’m a fucking steamroller, and I’ll roll over you and anybody else” -New York Governor Elliot Spitzer, to Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco
