There was a bit of a dust-up over the weekend in social media land. It began with a YouTube clip of Democratic AG candidate Mark Herring, in which the would-be AG criticizes Ken Cuccinelli’s attempted investigation into former UVA climate scientist Michael Mann:
That was in February. The clip was essentially dormant until this weekend, when Republican lieutenant governor candidate Pete Snyder picked up on Herring’s use of the term “unAmerican.” Snyder, seeing a nice hook in old footage, took to Twitter to call on the other Democratic candidates to repudiate Herring’s remarks.
That generated a response from Blue Virginia’s Lowell Feld:
[1]
A bit salty, no? It was a fine response, actually. Until the f-bomb is dropped. The tweet has since been deleted (though the screen capture above will live forever).
Why should any of this matter at all? Because of one small thing: Lowell is also “consulting on social media [2]” for the Herring campaign.
It’s one thing to offer advice to a campaign on social media. God knows some of them need it. Desperately. It’s another to serve as a campaign consultant for social media and then take to Twitter to tell an opposition candidate to perform a physically impossible act.
And then delete it.
That’s bush league, and an embarrassment to the Herring campaign.