Although it’s no David Vitter visiting a prostitute or Anthony Weiner exposing himself to everyone on the internet, it’s still a political scandal worthy or your time. Taxpayers, take a direct look into some of the uselessness of your Congress, all caught on the watchful eye of Twitter.
Drinking on the job, while generally frowned upon, could be acceptable in some scenarios. For instance wine tasters, food critics, bartenders and possibly dentists all have perfectly acceptable reasons for throwing back a few while on the clock.
One group of people that should probably refrain from boozing on the job is United States congressional assistants. And if they must, it would most likely be advised that they leave the discussion of said drinking off social networking sites like Twitter.
All of this should have been covered in “Working for a U.S. Representative 101,” but was apparently lost on a few staffers working for House member Rick Larsen.
Tweets from the personal accounts of three legislative assistants to Larsen paint a picture of drunken debauchery taking place on the Hill. Most of the tweets come from a legislative assistant named Seth Burroughs (@therocketship1), but some mention other staffers (@betsybites and @byers_remorse). The accounts have been taken down, but the NW Daily Marker has screencaps of many of the controversial tweets.
The first batch of tweets hints at some office drinking. According to the NW Daily Marker, the hashtag #D2R refers to “December to Remember” – or in this case, it looks like December to not remember all that well:
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Drinking on the job is tough to pull off, so I guess it’s oftentimes easier to just come to work already hammered:
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To be fair, congressional staffers probably don’t have too much to do during a Summer recess, but come on man…
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The tweeting genius went on to apply his skills as a filterless drunk to insulting his boss, the aforementioned Congressman Larsen:
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Of course, these tweets were made by staffers and not the Representative himself – that would have been a scandal on a whole other level. But, if accurate, they definitely show that one doesn’t have to be the sharpest tool in the shed to get a job working on the Hill.
A spokesman for Larsen told the Washington Times that their office become aware of these tweets just recently, and everyone involved has been fired.
Neither Congressman Larsen nor his other staff were aware of the actions by these three staff members before today. 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.
Situations like this are giving Twitter the reputation of a place where careers go to die.