Child's Play.

Some high school kid decides to cut loose among her friends on Twitter about what she would have said to Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, and Brownback's staff decided to rake her over the coals for speaking her mind. If a man can't handle a teenage girl saying bad things about him (and truth be told, it was miles tamer than what less charitable mouths would have opined), then perhaps he needs to grow thicker skin. After all, no one has an obligation to be nice to someone 100% of the time, unless they're drawing a paycheck from said person.*

Then again, Emma Sullivan learned some valuable lessons in public discourse on-line.

• No matter how much the concept of free speech is espoused, there will always be a crybaby out there who's ready to shut down someone for talking bad about them.
• When said crybabies come out of the woodwork, you have to be ready to stand your ground and stand behind your words.

Fortunately, Emma stood her ground and refused to knuckle under to a bunch of knuckleheads. And the attendant publicity only made Brownback and his staff look like complete idiots and crybabies.

What gets me is that others have said far worse about Brownback, yet his staff chose to target a high school student for silencing. If that isn't the hallmark of a bully, I don't know what is.

And if you're in the mood for an opposing viewpoint that reads a lot like a messy Blue Dress session behind the governor's desk, read what Ruth Marcus has to say about Sullivan's tweets. Wear gloves.

*Or if that someone happens to have a drawn weapon. Your mileage may vary on that one.