Missed this the first time, but Critical Mass has a story from Bates College in my old backyard of Maine, where its media relations office both chose not to publicize an event by the Bates College Republicans, but had one of its staff send a letter to his supervisor that was mistakenly routed to the CRs instead. Here's the letter.

Oli Wolf has drafted a press release for a GOP training institute his bunch of thugs is hosting at Bates next week. It follows. This really seems pretty far afield for an event that we would publicize, but that may just be my socialist tendencies talking.

Mr. Wolf of the CRs, who got this by mistake, turns out to be much better at publicity than Douglas Hubley, the sender of that email. You can find this story on a lot of the academic blogs. So yesterday, Mr. Hubley wrote an apology letter, mostly apologizing for having been caught.

Please know that I do not in any way regard the Bates Republicans as "a bunch of thugs." I am very sorry for having misspoken, and that my words were presented to you in such a hurtful way. Feb. 23 was my return to work after a week's vacation, and it was a very busy and difficult day. As sometimes happens, my anxiety with events led to my flying off the handle in what was intended as a private communication from me to my supervisor.

People who know me well know that my sense of humor tends, sometimes unfortunately, to take the form of sarcasm and irony, impacting all in sight regardless of political affiliation. My comment was intended only in that sense.

Ch'yeahright. It's hard to imagine how referring to someone as a "bunch of thugs" could be taken in any way other than an insult. And covering for it by being stressed out over coming back from vacation to find, surprise!, that you have work to do, is weak. Compared to this apology, though, it's not a bad effort.