Your number's up.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva recently fired Waldomiro Diniz, an aide to Jose Dirceu, Lula's chief of staff, for accepting a campaign donation from a man who runs illegal numbers games in Rio de Janeiro. It's Lula's first real scandal, which is affecting his party, the Partido do Trabalhadores (PT). Markets took a wild ride as investors feared the fallout would affect the government's ability to pass economic reforms. The administration is now talking about closing bingo parlors, where numbers games are played.

"At most [Dirceu] committed a political error or acted naively for having trusted Waldomiro."

--Jose Genoino, president, Partido do Trabalhadores (Brazzil)

"The possibility of Chief of Staff (Dirceu) leaving the government is not part of the game."

--Andre Singer, Lula spokesman (Clarin)

"The government is having to act like a firefighter putting out the flames and it is forgetting its political agenda."

--Alvoro Bandeira, director, Agora Senior CTVM brokerage (Forbes)

"This revenge is going to take the government down to Waldomiro's level."

--Jose Agripino, senator, opposition Partido da Frente Liberal (Folha)

"For eight years, the PT investigated everything under the sun. Now that they are in power, they want to sweep these latest allegations under the rug."

--Zulaie Cobra, congresswoman, Social Democrat party (Associated Press)

"If [bingo] has been going on normally up to now, then you cannot extinguish it with a simple stroke of the pen."

--Eduardo Didonet Teixeira, federal judge in Santa Catarina state (El Universal)