Texas Rep. Larry Taylor, the chairman of the Texas House's Republican caucus, fights for the little guy. So at a committee hearing yesterday about insurance coverage, he flat-out told the state's insurance companies to stop nickel-and-diming hurricane victims in the state and pay up: "Don't nitpick. Don't try to Jew them down." Whoops.

This was in public, at a hearing, in front of an audience. Taylor immediately realized his mistake, saying, "That's probably a bad term." Probably.

He later apologized for "inadvertently us[ing] a phrase that many people find offensive." Not that many people. Just the Jews, mostly.