Hill staffers fired for off-color tweets
They called it a “December to Remember”: a mission to spend the final month of the legislative session partying under the patronage of Rep. Rick Larsen.
Eight days into it, and a series of ill-advised tweets later, three staffers for the Washington Democrat were fired Thursday after a local website detailed a pattern of wildly unprofessional behavior—including drinking on the job and insulting the congressman—POLITICO has confirmed.
Continue Reading“Congressman Larsen and his staff became aware of the issue concerning the three staff members at noon EST. We became aware of the issue through a tweet referencing an article about the incident. Congressman Larsen immediately decided to fire the three staff members involved in the incident. The staff members were dismissed at 1:10 p.m. EST,” Larsen’s office said in a statement.
The Capitol Hill staff culture has always resembled a fraternity party for the just out of college professionals who dominate the offices, but the staffers involved this incident clearly crossed the line, Larsen’s office says.
“Neither Congressman Larsen nor his other staff were aware of the actions by these three staff members before today,” it said.“Congressman Larsen is disappointed by their actions and takes this very seriously. He has made it clear that he will not tolerate this kind of behavior.”
The details were first reported by the Northwest Daily Marker, a website that describes itself as “Journal of political events and issues affecting Washington and Oregon from a center-right point of view.”
The Twitter accounts, which the site says belong to legislative assistants Seth Burroughs (@therocketship1) and Elizabeth Robbee (@betsybites), and legislative correspondent Ben Byers (@byers_remorse), sent messages in disparaging Larsen and their work for him over a period of at least four months both during and after work hours, according to the report. In one tweet Larsen is referred to as a “p—sy.” In another, Burroughs appears to brag that he destroyed his official work Blackberry in the December to Remember debauchery, according to screen grabs posted on the Daily Marker Website. The accounts have since been deleted.
In one, @TheRocketship1 tweeted “My coworker just took a shot of Jack crouching behind my desk. We have unabashedly given up on just about all things work related #D2R”
In another Tweet, @TheRocketship1 posted “I’m pretty sure I couldn’t pass a field sobriety test right now. Looking forward to a day in the office. #D2R #workoutskipped
The staffers also refer to drinking before work—in at least one instance, on the steps of the House Cannon Office Building, where Larsen has an office.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70116.html#ixzz1fyhu9jvW
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