A tweet in the midst of debate about the Senate Health and Human Services bill Wednesday night will likely give rise to an ethics complaint.
"Sen Goodwin just called people with mental illness- idiots and imbeciles- while debating HHS bill," Sen. Gretchen Hoffman, R-Vergas, sent out on Twitter.
But Sen. Barb Goodwin, DFL-Columbia Heights, didn't. Instead, she disparagingly read on the Senate floor what people with mental illness used to be called. When informed of the tweet, Goodwin rose to her feet on the Senate floor to complain.
"This goes beyond the Pale. This is an ethics violation in my opinion," a shaking Goodwin said. "She totally understood what I said....This is beyond politics. This is just plain mean spirited."
Hot Dish has requested a response from Hoffman, and Senate staffer Michael Brodkorb, who repeated the message from Hoffman. I will update this post if I receive a response.
Here are the tweets: