Labour MP Chris Carter is in trouble for comparing Prime Minister John Key with Italy's fascist wartime dictator Benito Mussolini.
Mr Carter yesterday saw Mr Key standing on a Beehive balcony for a photo shoot and called out to him "you look just like Mussolini".
He thought this was so funny he put it on Labour's Red Alert blog, along with a photo of Mussolini standing on a tank.
Blog editor Trevor Mallard wasn't amused and took it down, but by then it had spread through the internet and was raising comments on other political blogs.
Left wing blog The Standard said Mr Carter had been unwise. Respondents had more forthright opinions and one said the MP was a buffoon.
Labour leader Phil Goff didn't think it was funny either and is understood to have suggested Mr Carter apologise.
Mr Carter explained himself on TV One News tonight.
"I called out `John, you look like Mussolini'. We had a laugh, it was a light-hearted moment," he said.
"Trevor was sensitive to people who found it offensive. There are people in New Zealand still alive who suffered under fascism. That wasn't something I thought about when I put the blog up."
Mr Carter said he had offered an apology if he had caused offence.
Mr Key laughed it off.
"I don't really take anything Chris Carter says seriously."
