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'Suppository' Gaffe Makes Politician The Butt Of Jokes

Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.
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Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

(Click here to avoid sophomoric humor.)

We've posted some corrections over the years, as Two-Way readers know, so we do have sympathy for Australia's "leader of the opposition" — Tony Abbott, the Liberal Party standard bearer who might be his country's next prime minister.

But we can't resist this video of Abbott on Monday (local time) saying that current Prime Minister Kevin Rudd shouldn't be the "suppository of all wisdom."

Ouch.

It remains to be seen whether he can put this all behind him.

The gaffe "left his colleagues squirming and reporters giggling," The Telegraph reports. It also led to much tweeting — #suppository.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.