RNC Chairman Michael Steele needs to brush up on the literary classics.

Toward the close of a  five-way debate held Monday at the National Press Club between candidates vying to head the committee for the next two years, moderators Tucker Carlson and Grover Norquist asked the candidates to name their favorite book. Steele named "War and Peace" and then recited what he thought were the opening lines: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." But those lines begin the Charles Dickens classic, "A Tale of Two Cities." Several people in the room called out to correct him.

The opening line of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace: "Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just private estates of the Buonapartes."

But Steele doesn't win the prize for the biggest gaffe of the debate. That goes to Ann Wagner, who though the question was "What is your favorite bar?" To which she responded, "My kitchen table."

After everyone in the room broke out laughing, she realized the question was about her favorite book and named George Bush's "Decision Points."