[bestcigsnick]

Do you honestly think that Italians expect their politicians to have "conservative values? Or that they care?

Where was Berlusconi's mea culpa? His apology? His speech to the Italian public with his wife by his side?

That stuff don't happen here. Do you really think Italians are shocked?

As I've pointed out... as Luca has pointed out... as any journalist covering this issue who knows Italy: it's just not a big issue. OF COURSE Berlusconi is a hypocrite, Do you think Italians think differently?

After the "scandal" broke, his poll numbers went UP!

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Berlusconi promising to put family values at the centre of his campaign (a true quote):

Speaking at his party's convention in Sardinia on January 28, 2006, "Thank you dear Father Massimiliano, I'll try not to let you down and I promise you two and a half months of complete sexual abstinence until April 9 [election]"

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Asked to explain how Italy managed to get the support of its biggest competitor over the EU Food Authority dispute, he said:

"I used all my playboy skills and courted the Finnish President."

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At the Brussels summit, at the end of Italy's EU presidency, in December 2003:

"Let's talk about football and women." (Turning to four-times-married German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder.) "Gerhard, why don't you start?"

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Mr Berlusconi's aides said he knew nothing about allegedly paying young women to attend parties:

"To think that Berlusconi needs to pay 2,000 euros (£1,700) a girl, for her to go with him, seems to me a bit much," said his lawyer, Niccolo Ghedini.

"I think he could have great quantities of them for free"

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My favorite:

Italian President Silvio Berlusconi on his wife's claim he "consorted with minors".

"I don't think there is any way of reconciling our marriage and she should be publicly apologizing to me.
This is the third time she has done something like this during an election campaign and this time it is too much."

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On Italian secretaries (comments made at the New York stock exchange):
"Italy is now a great country to invest in... today we have fewer communists and those who are still there deny having been one.
Another reason to invest in Italy is that we have beautiful secretaries... superb girls."




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