Some of you may have heard that Liz Mair, a messaging expert who had just joined the Walker Campaign, almost immediately resigned (as in, her tenure could pretty much be counted in hours) over tweets she had put out earlier this year criticizing Iowa.
Well, there are plenty in the GOP who see this as a spineless act on Walker's part, and they're not pulling punches.
More below the fold.
CNN: Walker flap exposes GOP rift on Iowa's sacred status
Back in January, Ms. Mair sent out a trio of tweets over a couple of days critical of Iowa:
Morons across America are astounded to learn that people from IOWA grow up rather government-dependent. #agsubsidies #ethanol #brainless
In other news, I see Iowa is once again embarrassing itself, and the GOP, this morning. Thanks, guys.
The sooner we remove Iowa's frontrunning status, the better off American politics and policy will be.
This trio of tweets was apparently a sufficient affront to the Iowa GOP that once they were brought to light it led to Ms. Mair's almost immediate resignation from Walker's staff.
The response from across the rest of the GOP has been a bit blistering. The CNN article provides a sampling:
If you'll let Steve King and the Iowa GOP pick and choose your team, what happens when the Clinton machine goes at you? Disappointed, guys.
"This is absurd," wrote The Federalist's Sean Davis, who worked with Mair on former Texas Gov. Rick Perry's presidential campaign in 2012. "Tech vendors and social media staffers have no say whatsoever when it comes to advising a presidential candidate on policy. That's not how campaigns work. This farmland fatwa is especially absurd given the record of Iowa Republicans when it comes to picking presidents. They're straight-up awful at it."
Gotta like the phrase "farmland fatwa". And I'm from Iowa.
Here are some others tweets and comments from around the web:
Wait, @GovWalker actually accepted @LizMair's resignation?! If he can't handle this minor pressure, he'll fall fast once the primaries hit.
Here's a pair from Erick Erickson:
Prediction: Mad scramble to get Liz Mair on another payroll to show the candidate has balls and will stand up to nutters in the GOP.
The entire team that came up with ORCA still has jobs. Liz Mair doesn’t because of a tweet.
Or how about this one:
Hi @ScottWalker How is Liz Mair any less qualified for the job you hired her for two days ago than she is today? Seriously ridiculous man.
By the way, here are a few other tweets from Ms. Mair after she resigned:
I do find some of the things Steve King says on immigration embarrassing and factually dubious.
I also think the fact that King is held out as the only real force in Iowa and representative of what Iowans think is embarassing for Iowa.
Wow. I can't find any fault with those two comments. She actually sounds rational. No wonder she got pushed out of Scotty's campaign.
Looks like Scotty's finding out that the big, wide world outside of Wisconsin might not be so welcoming after all, even within the GOP.