Rudolf Schmidt, the Senator for Arizona, was entertaining the Russian ambadassador over Christmas. After dinner Schmidt looked out of the window and saw sleet was falling. "Hey" he said to his guest, "It's snowing". The ambassador laughed out loud. "Is not snow, tovarich - is just rain!". It didn't often snow in Arizona so Schmidt stuck to his guns. "No, that's not rain - it's snow". The ambassador kept insisting it was only rain, and Schmidt got quite heated.
At that point, Schmidt's wife tapped on his shoulder and whispered to him "Rudolf, the Red knows rain, dear".