Ellison erases 'retweet' of nasty barb on Romney

Under fire from conservatives, Rep. Keith Ellison deleted a message on his Twitter account that repeated another Twitter follower's reference to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney as a "douchebag." Wednesdays's episode, which was picked up by Fox News and conservative commentators like Michelle Malkin, involved Ellison's retweet of a message referring to Romney as "a heartless douchebag who doesn't like animals or small children." One conservative Web site, Freebeacon.com, said Ellison's retweet effectively "promoted the message despite (his) calls for civil discourse." Ellison spokeswoman Jennifer Gore distanced the Minnesota Democrat from his retweet, which she said is not an endorsement of the original tweeter's message. "Keith inadvertently retweeted something where some language was used regarding Mr. Romney, and that was not his intention," she said. "That's not language he tends to use. It's not something he intended to do, so he took it down."