Decent people everywhere are still absorbing the shock from the scandal that erupted when a Republican Capitol Hill staffer, Elizabeth Lauten, a former Republican National Committee apparatchik who has served in communications positions under two tea party congressmen, took to Facebook over the Thanksgiving holiday to smear Pres. Obama’s daughters, Sasha, 16, and Malia, 13, as having no class and dressing like sluts:

Dear Sasha and Malia: I get you’re both in those awful teen years, but you’re a part of the First Family, try showing a little class. At least respect the part you play. Then again your mother and father don’t respect their positions very much, or the nation for that matter, so I’m guessing you’re coming up a little short in the “good role model” department. Nevertheless, stretch yourself. Rise to the occasion. Act like being in the White House matters to you. Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at a bar. And certainly don’t make faces during televised, public events.

There is no excuse for writing such a despicable thing, especially about two young people who are as lovely and well-behaved as any of the dozens of First Family youngsters who’ve grown up in the White House. To explain why Liz Lauten would post something so vile and vicious on a public forum, consider that in her short career, she has worked for two of the tea party’s finest: Rep. Stephen Fincher of Tennessee and former Rep. Joe Walsh of Illinois.

Fincher

Until today when she was fired, Lauten was the communications director for Rep. Fincher, the millionaire tea partyist from Tennessee’s 8th District. Between 1999 and 2012, as operator of the agribusiness concern Fincher Farms, the congressman raked in $3.4 million in taxpayer-funded subsidies — a haul that reportedly makes him “the second most heavily subsidized farmer in Congress — and one of the largest subsidy recipients in Tennessee history.”

Fincher relies on the stupidity of tea party voters by portraying himself merely as a farmer, businessman and gospel singer — a member since childhood of the Fincher Family gospel group. His religious faith is best described as an adherence to prosperity theology — a belief that put him in the news in May 2013 during the debate over the Farm Bill, which traditionally allocates funds both for agribusiness subsidies and food assistance programs for the poor.

Fincher voted for adding billions over 10 years allocated to subsidies for farmers like himself, but then he also voted to throw 2 million families off SNAP, the federal food assistance program. Fincher quoted Thessalonians 3:10, “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat,” to justify his hypocrisy. “The role of citizens, of Christians, of humanity,” he explained, “is to take care of each other, but not for Washington to steal from those in the country and give to others in the country.”

Except when it comes to billions in subsidies for businesses like Fincher Farms — then it’s okay with Stephen Fincher for “Washington to steal from those in the country and give to others in the country.”

Walsh

Prior to working for Rep. Fincher, Liz Lauten was press secretary for Rep. Joe Walsh, a notorious blowhard tea bagger from Illinois who constantly sought media attention by making outrageous statements about the president — one of which backfired spectacularly:

Freshman U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh, a tax-bashing Tea Party champion who sharply lectures President Barack Obama and other Democrats on fiscal responsibility, owes more than $100,000 in child support to his ex-wife and three children, according to documents his ex-wife filed in their divorce case in December.

“I won’t place one more dollar of debt upon the backs of my kids and grandkids unless we structurally reform the way this town spends money!” Walsh says directly into the camera in his viral video lecturing Obama on the need to get the nation’s finances in order.

Walsh starts the video by saying, “President Obama, quit lying. Have you no shame, sir? In three short years, you’ve bankrupted this country.”

In court documents, after his ex-wife, Laura Walsh, asked a judge to suspend his driver’s license until he paid his child support, Joe Walsh asks his ex-wife’s lawyer: “Have you no decency?”

Walsh’s ex-wife claimed that even though he was in arrears to the tune of $117,437 in child support, he’d lent his congressional campaign $30,000. Walsh did not deny he’d made the loan, nor did he deny having repaid himself $17,000 after he’d started drawing a paycheck from taxpayers.

It bears repeating that Liz Lauten was Rep. Walsh’s press secretary while he was embroiled in this public-relations fiasco, a debacle that contributed to his being tossed out of office in the next election.

Let Us Dare

But wait, there’s more. While Liz Lauten was on the congressional payroll, she also ran her own communications shop — Audeamus Communications, a namebrand that is as hard to remember as it is to spell — it’s Latin for “Let us dare.” One of Audeamus’ services, paradoxically, is crisis and communication management. Here’s how Lauten promotes these services on her website:

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.

Laying Odds: How Soon Before She’s On the Payroll at Fox

Since the scandal erupted, Lauten has displayed a certain amount of dexterity in countering the crisis at hand. Before disappearing from the public spotlight, she issued a follow-up post in which she apologized to everyone whom she offended, but stopping well short of asking forgiveness of the teenaged girls who were the targets of her cyber-bullying:

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 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 how hurtful my words were. Please know that these judgmental feelings truly have no pace [sic] in my heart. Furthermore, I’d like to apologize to all of those who I have hurt and offended with my words, and pledge to learn and grow (and I assure you I have) from this experience.

Why not apologize to Sasha, Malia and their parents? Because doing so would ruin the bright future she has secured for herself in right-wing media. After all, Rush Limbaugh described 12-year-old Chelsea Clinton as a dog back in the 1992, and look where that has gotten him. Liz Lauten’s being fired today is just a minor setback. Great things await her. Just as Kim Kardashian built an empire based on a sex tape, Lauten will build a career as a Fox News analyst or right-wing radio host based on cyber-bullying teenage girls on Facebook.