George Bush and Dan Quayle are famous for fractured oratory, but the godfather of political malaprops is Sir Boyle Roche, an Irish member of Parliament in the 18th century. Highlights:

• “Mr. Speaker, I smell a rat; I see him forming in the air and darkening the sky; but I’ll nip him in the bud.”
• “While I write this letter, I have a pistol in one hand and a sword in the other.”
• “All along the untrodden paths of the future I can see the footprints of an unseen hand.”
• “He is the kind of opponent who would stab you in front of your face and then stab you in the chest when your back is turned.”
• “We should silence anyone who opposes the right to freedom of speech.”
• “I answer in the affirmative with an emphatic no.”

The best I’ve seen: “It would surely be better to give up, not only a part but, if necessary, the whole of our constitution, to preserve the remainder.”