Photos: 2006's worst political mishaps

Basic logic: when you say something stupid once, generally you don't repeat it in another speech. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like anybody told that to Burns, who said on two separate occasions in August that terrorists "drive taxicabs in the daytime and kill at night." Both times it was caught on video. Many audiences took it as a nasty racist jab.

And with video evidence of Burns making the statement on two separate occasions, it becomes less of an excusable mistake and more of, well, just plain mean spirit. Burns, like previous top-10 lister John Sweeney, failed to win re-election in November: Burns was narrowly edged out by Democrat Jon Tester. But also like Sweeney, Burns had his fair share of other issues. Namely, the Montana senator appears to have been involved with the shady dealings of jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff.