Lawmaker Fined Roughly $4,000 for Saying EU Chief Has 'Charisma of a Damp Rag

How much does it cost to tell the one of the EU's top officials he has "the charisma of a damp rag?" About €3,000, or close to $4,000, as a European member of Parliament has discovered.

In 2010, Nigel Farage, an anti-European Union member of the EU Parliament, rose following a speech by Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council.

As Van Rompuy listened, Farage began with a description of collective aspirations for the man, before continuing:

The man whose job [is] so important that, of course, you're paid more than President Obama...[but] I'm afraid what we got was you.  I'm sorry, but after that performance earlier that you gave-- and I don't want to be rude-- but you know, really...You have the charisma of a damp rag, and the appearance of a low-grade bank clerk.

[...]

I sense, though, that you're competent, and capable, and dangerous.  And I have no doubt it's your intention to be the quiet assassin of European democracy and of the European nation-states.  You appear to have a loathing for the very concept of the existence of nation-states.  Perhaps that's because you come from Belgium, which of course is pretty much a non-country.

Watch video of the scathing performance, below:

The Parliament docked Farage (EURO)2,980 - 10 days' expenses.  Though Farage appealed to the European Court of Justice, it recently ruled that he filed his appeal too late and will also have to pay Parliament's legal expenses.

This isn't the first time Farage has made news for indelicate speech.

In June, TheBlaze featured the man mercilessly berating EU leaders for their "total and utter failure" in managing the economic crisis.

He wasn't fined for saying it, but Farage called the Spanish Prime Minister "about the most incompetent leader in all of Europe," conceding that there is "pretty stiff competition."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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