Feminist Apologizes For Offensive Tweet After Paul Walker Death
Following the death of actor Paul Walker in a car crash last Saturday, self-described liberal Erin Gloria Ryan, a staff writer/editor at Jezebel.com, repeatedly apologized for an inappropriate tweet about Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
On her very active Twitter feed, Ryan said “why couldn’t it be Scott Walker.” The tweet was subsequently deleted.
After being chastised on social media, Ryan initially tried to defend her earlier so-called joke, responding that “Wow, conservatives are about as bad at jokes making fun of celebrity worship as they are at governing Wisconsin.”
About an hour or so later, Ryan evidently realized that her tweet about Scott Walker in the aftermath of the Paul Walker fiery car crash was unseemly. In separate tweets, she said “dumb joke deleted. Apologies” and “No excuse. It was dumb. I’m sorry,” and “I don’t wish death on anyone. Joking about that was insensitive and inappropriate.”
She also tweeted out apologies directly to GOP Gov. Scott Walker. The governor himself recently fired a staffer for posting inappropriate tweets in 2011.
In a tweet earlier in November, Ryan alluded to a party that she’ll throw after Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia dies.
The soft-spoken Walker at one time was perhaps the prime political target of liberals and Democrats. Against the backdrop of Walker’s contentious collective bargaining reforms, known as Act 10, that were voted into law by after a protracted political struggle and massive protests in Madison at the state legislature in 2011, organized labor and the Democrats mounted a recall election against the governor, which failed. Recalls of other Republican office holders were only temporarily successful as both houses of the state legislature are back under GOP control. An effort to dislodge a perceived Scott Walker ally from the state supreme court also was defeated. Walker is the only governor in American history to survive a recall. Act 10 among other things ended mandatory public sector union membership and automatic dues deductions. In late January, the US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit upheld the constitutionality of the law, although various other legal challenges are still pending in the state courts.
There are still hard feelings as the opposition gears up to try to defeat Walker for re-election in 2014. For example, a Democrat staffer lost his job in March when he compared the governor to serial killer/cannibal Jeffery Dahmer.
Elijah Blue Allman recently apologized for a tweet by his mother Cher who called Sarah Palin a “dumb C-Word.”
.@GovWalker Doubt you read these @’s, but I’m sorry for using you as fodder for an incredibly tasteless joke that went viral.
— Erin Gloria Ryan (@morninggloria) December 2, 2013
. @GovWalker I’m not ideologically aligned with you, but that’s no excuse for what I said. Have a happy and safe holiday/Christmas season.
— Erin Gloria Ryan (@morninggloria) December 2, 2013
[image credit: WisPolitics.com]
