Why Would Anyone Expect Farmer Fincher To Employ Someone Unlike Racist Hound Elizabeth Lauten

Republican

People who have known her say Elizabeth Lauten was always a goodie-two-shoes overachiever with a mediocre, inside-the-box mind; she still lists her 1580 SAT score from 2000 on her LinkedIn page-- along with the fact that she's been a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution since 2013. Before thrusting her racist ass onto the national stage last week with a typically nasty KKK Thanksgiving Facebook post about the president's two teenage daughters, North Carolina native Elizabeth Lauten was probably best known for her insipid reviews of episodes of The Bachelor and Miss Universe pageants for AskMissA, a magazine for white girls with pimples that she was entertainment editor of last year.

Inside the GOP Beltway, though, the sharp-tongued Lauten, who had been arrested for shoplifting in a mall when she was a teen-- and had quite the reputation among Camp LeJeune marines in her hometown-- was the vicious voice behind Joe Walsh's psychotic press releases. Before she came to work for the grotesquely hypocritical Farmer Fincher, she was Walsh's press secretary. From her LinkedIn page:

Press Secretary

U.S. House of Representatives - Rep. Joe Walsh (IL-08)

January 2011-- August 2011 (8 months) Washington D.C. Metro Area

• Aggressive media outreach to secure interviews with publications and radio, as well as television appearances

• Executed extensive day-to-day on-the-record and background communication with national and local reporters

• Coordinated district communications outreach including direct/franked mailings and e-newsletters

• Develop tactical messaging strategies to respond to a variety of issues related to public policy including the composition of talking points, opinion pieces and interview preparation materials

• Managed Congressman’s social media accounts, including updating status and responding to messages

- Second largest Facebook following in the freshman class of the 112th Congress
- Ranked in top five most affective political Twitter accounts of the 112th Congress

• Produced elaborate YouTube videos including filming and editing

Even though she's an employee of a congressional office-- albeit Fincher's-- and gets paid by the taxpayers, she has her own one-person lobbying and communications shop, Audeamus Communications, she runs simultaneously. She boasts of her self-declared skills in crisis communication and management: "Extensive experience, rapid response and excellent media relations skills have made Audeamus Comms’ crisis management practice a paradigm for the industry. We will work around-the-clock, if necessary, to craft strategy, draft the appropriate language and contact the media. We are acutely aware that unanswered 'bad' news-- whether true or false-- can inflict long-term damage in a very short time on an organization’s image or an individual’s character. We are highly skilled in quickly identifying the salient points that must be addressed and in determining the manner of delivery most likely to counter the crisis at hand. By disseminating the correct message to key journalists, we are able to help significantly reduce the intensity of a crisis so that an organization may return as swiftly as possible to its day-to-day business operations."

All those "best-in-class" state of the art skills she incongruously claims to be the master of, were put to the test this week, not on behalf of Farmer Fincher, the RNC-- she claims she "was responsible for day-to-day management and online political strategy development for the Committee, completing national interactive strategies using email, Facebook, Twitter and other channels"-- or ex-Congressman Joe Walsh. Today the boastful claims she makes about her mastery of social media, particularly Facebook and Twitter, are a smoldering wreck. Her social media sites are either all deleted or privatized. And, career-wise, she is toxic. Forbes' Elisa Doucette decided not to waste time on dissecting Louten's motivations for the ugly racist rant on Facebook. "I think we can all agree that when you write about a 13-year-old and a 16-year-old, calling them classless and telling them they look like they belong in a bar, you are simply not being a nice person," she wrote. She covered the crisis management state of the art non-apology apology instead.

IT WAS NOT AN APOLOGY

I get it. This is the internet. We’re all  fast and furious at our keyboards, with the sinfully seductive appeal of immediately publishing our innermost thoughts for the world. We say things we regret. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but as soon as the trolls come screaming at your back door, you know you have done something you are going to have to be held accountable for.

When we do this, there is one simple statement that each and every prepared statement MUST include:

I’m sorry.

Not the “I’m sorry” Lauten stated at the end, to those she has hurt and offended.

First and foremost, to honestly offer an apology, one needs to suck up their ego and political leanings and any other baggage they are carrying.

Secondly, an apology needs to acknowledge the person (or people) who really deserves to hear the apology, and address them directly.

How does this change Lauten’s statement?

Simple.

Instead of apologizing for a post about Malia and Sasha Obama, Lauten needs to treat them like they are human beings deserving of her compassion and respect, rather than puppets to dance around in political battles.

Her previous statement:

I wanted to take a moment and apologize for a post I made on Facebook earlier today judging Sasha and Malia Obama at the annual White House turkey pardoning ceremony:

When I first posted on Facebook I reacted to an article and I quickly judged the two young ladies in a way that I would never have wanted to be judged myself as a teenager. After many hours of prayer, talking to my parents, and re-reading my words online I can see more clearly just how hurtful my words were. Please know, those judgmental feelings truly have no place in my heart. Furthermore, I’d like to apologize to all of those who I have hurt and offended with my words, and I pledge to learn and grow (and I assure you I have) from this experience.

A better apology:

I wanted to take a moment and apologize to Sasha and Malia Obama for a post I made on Facebook earlier today judging them at the annual White House turkey pardoning ceremony:

When I first posted on Facebook I reacted to an article and I quickly judged the two young ladies in a way that I would never have wanted to be judged myself as a teenager. After many hours of prayer, talking to my parents, and re-reading my words online I can see more clearly just how hurtful my words were. Please know, those judgmental feelings truly have no place in my heart. Furthermore, I’d like to apologize to all of those who I have hurt and offended with my words, and I pledge to learn and grow (and I assure you I have) from this experience.

All the same words. Rearranged.

The first apology is what people who have been caught say. It carries this hard-to-shake implication that you are not REALLY sorry you did it, you are instead sorry that people are outraged by it.

The second apology is what people who truly feel badly about what they have said or done say. It carries the personal connection to say “I am a person, you are a person. In this situation I didn’t treat you as an equal, and that is not ok.”

Granted, the chances that Lauten knows the Obama sisters and chats with them frequently is unlikely. Yet if she is willing to “call them out” on the internet like she would a friend in a bar bathroom, she needs to extend the same familiar tone in her apology.

The second apology still has its many flaws, including apologizing to those you have hurt and offended-- again, implying she is not sorry she said it, but instead sorry that people are hurt and offended. Like those judgmental feelings MIGHT still have a place in her heart, she just won’t share them so publicly in the future if people are going to be so cranky about it.

...Treat the people you are apologizing to as if they are actual people, not pixels on a page. Say I’m sorry directly to them, acknowledge it was poor behavior, and promise to be better next time.

Then, make sure you do just that.

I bet the Bible thumpin', holier-than-thou, food-stamp cutting, corporate welfare-taking Fincher (R-TN) doesn't fire her tomorrow. Looks like her colleagues at AskMissA felt her vile attitude was a detriment to the magazine's charitable efforts:

UPDATE: DING DONG

I was wrong; Fincher pushed her out this morning. He has enough problems without this albatross around his neck. Let's see which clueless Republican hires her next.

From The Corporate Shame Files

By Noah

While perusing the weekend papers, I found this from the once venerable Washington Post, Saturday edition, an article headlined: "First Lady Opposes 'Sweet Sasha" and 'Marvelous Malia' Dolls."
 
Now, the Washington Post no longer prides itself on uncovering any kind of corporate wrong-doing, so I can only surmise that, to them, this was just a light-hearted bit of filler, but, to me, it is so much more. The article opens with:

"First Lady Michelle Obama, who has described herself "first and foremost... Malia and Sasha's mom," has defended her daughters' likeness, saying that it is not proper for a company that makes the plush "Beanie Babies" to produce dolls called "Sweet Sasha" and "Marvelous Malia." "We feel it is inappropriate to use young, private citizens for marketing purposes," Michelle Obama's press secretary, Katie McCormick Lelyveld, said in a statement today."

I couldn't agree more. It's hard enough to raise any kid to be reasonably well adjusted and normal these days. Imagine growing up OK if dad is The President! And, having dolls named after you. It's different if you are an adult, and an adult in politics at that. We've had talking Bush and Clinton dolls. In MY mind, we've even had David Diapers Vitter dolls (He wets), Larry Craig Wide Stance dolls (He cries), even Mitch McConnell and Charlie Crist dress up dolls (Don't ask) with full ensembles, heals included. But, a child's ego is a fragile thing, easily crushed or just as easily over-inflated. I realize that people want a hat just like the one Aretha wore at the inauguration and their kids may want clothes like the ones Sasha and Malia wore, but, in my opinion, going and marketing dolls, use of likeness legal issues aside, is tasteless exploitation for a quick buck. The guilty party? Illinois based TY Inc.; the people responsible for attics, flea markets, and ebay pages full of Beanie Babies.

The Sasha and Malia dolls are described by the Post as having "soft brown skin" and "big eyes". Here's the kicker: Ty Inc.'s NAMELESS and utterly shameless spokescreep says that the dolls are NOT BASED ON THE OBAMA GIRLS! Yeah. I'm sure TY Inc. had these dolls, that just happened to be named the same as the Obama daughters, on the drawing board for, oh, say, 10 years, or even 2 years ago and, imagine the coinkydink: along come two little African-American girls in the White House with those very names! Who knew? This is a prime example of how, thanks to the example of the Bush administration, the "coloration" of spin became outright lies. Our corporations are now so arrogant that they not only try to change the meaning of specific words, they change the meaning of meaning and implication itself and try to coax us into buying into their crap. "Not based on."

Apparently, more and more corporate PR execs are coming into companies directly from the CorporateAssclowns.com placement service (a division of Horseshit Industries and nearly as bad as the GOP version of the same mentality). I next expect some PR flak to tell me that Keith Richards has never tried drugs, that Salt Water Taffy is good for your teeth, and that Britain doesn't have a National Drinking Problem.

The Washington Post continues:

Since Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, arrived in the national spotlight as their father, now President Barack Obama, ran for office, fascination with the Obama girls has grown intense with web sites devoted to photos of the girls, what they are wearing, what they are doing. The girls have become fashion icons. Thousands of people tried ordering the J. Crew coats the girls wore on inauguration day. Malia wore a blue coat with a blue bow and Sasha wore a guava colored coat with a tangerine scarf.

I get that. But, dolls? Fortunately, the President and First Lady give every indication of being great parents, but why make the job harder for any parent? Right now, Michelle Obama is reportedly focusing on getting the girls settled into their new lives in Washington. Isn't just being uprooted because of your dad's job and the magnitude of that job enough of a strain. Yeah, lots of kids go through it, but dolls named after you?
 
But wait. There's more:

On Thursday, Jenna and Barbara Bush, daughters of former president George W. Bush, wrote a letter to Sasha and Malia, giving them advice on living as "family members of a President" in the national spotlight.
 
"Sasha and Malia," the Bushes wrote in a letter published in the Wall Street Journal (Who else?), "it is your turn now to fill the White House with laughter... It isn't always easy being a member of the club you are about to join. Our dad, like yours, is a man of great integrity and love; a man who always put us first. We still see him now as we did when we were seven: as our loving daddy. Our Dad, who read to us nightly [from an upside down copy of My Pet Goat, no doubt], taught us how to score tedious baseball games. He is our father, not the sketch in a paper or part of a skit on TV. Many people will think they know him, but they have no idea how he felt [neither does he] the day you were born, the pride he felt on your first day of school [he probably doesn't remember], or how much you both love being his daughters [to each her own]. So here is our most important piece of advice: remember who your dad really is."

This note, purportedly from the Bush daughters, is no more than the latest in the Bush propaganda project, or, as they "SPIN" it, the Bush Legacy Project. It reeks of agenda mongering. My favorite line is a blatant attempt to ride on President Obama's coattails "Our dad, like yours, is a man of great integrity and love…" but, the rest of it speaks for itself. I just wonder which one of Dubya's speechwriters wrote it. It just doesn't read like it came from anybody's heart but then, that is easily explained when you understand that no one named Bush is born with a heart, or a conscience, for that matter. And, just do the math, the Bush twins were full grown 20 year olds by the time Dubya infested the White House. Please, someone tie their tubes. Another generation of Bushes polluting the world right down to the language itself is more that we can bear. Talk about revisionist history. I think I know what Bush "really is" and I don't need two twins who share one brain amongst them to tell me in the WSJ.