Phil Hardy is the communications director for GOP Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho.
Or rather, he was.
The exact text of the tweet above accidentally appeared on Rep. Labrador’s official Twitter account by accident. It was deleted after 14 seconds, but of course, Twitter is forever. The Idaho Statesman newspaper broke the story and news of Hardy’s firing over the reference to a racy Super Bowl ad for the TV show, “2 Broke Girls.”
Idaho's Labrador fires spokesman for bawdy '2 Broke Girls' Super Bowl ad pole-dancing tweet. Hardy was flack since 2010.http://t.co/nHDqAawR
— IDS_Politics (@IDS_Politics) February 6, 2013
As word spread of Hardy’s firing, so did some sympathy among political watchers and journos.
The idea that you'd fire someone for a very minor twitter blooper is crazy. http://t.co/4r80Y86i
— Ben Smith (@benyt) February 7, 2013
@BuzzFeedBen Hardy was a very good spokesman too. Accessible, responded after hours, answered q's quickly.
— Daniel Walters (@danielwinlander) February 7, 2013
https://twitter.com/BuzzFeedAndrew/status/299616666441117696
https://twitter.com/fran_chambers/status/299611121030152194
There’s always someone who sees racism, of course:
Impressive that the reporter & every commenter think this tweet's problem is "bawdiness", not "racially offensive" http://t.co/zpd7HvzC
— Francis Lam (@Francis_Lam) February 7, 2013
Weighing both sides:
On the one hand, I'd hate to be fired for a single Twitter mistake. OTOH, the guy's job is PR. http://t.co/albmw1W6
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) February 7, 2013
https://twitter.com/krempasky/status/299621055205609473
Don't think firing was necessary damn RT @mashable: Hill Staffer Fired for Tweeting 'Me Likey Broke Girls' http://t.co/4efhT15O
— CorinaCorina ??? (@CorinaCorina) February 7, 2013
What do you think?
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