Lawmaker should have just ignored Internet troll

Miffed that someone allegedly was impersonating him when commenting on a blog, Rhode Island State Rep. Daniel Gordon decided to take his beef to the state police, seemingly an extreme reaction in any case but a particularly ill-advised one here.

Thanks to Gordon’s arrival on their doorstep, the state police were able to learn that he was wanted on charges stemming from a 2008 police chase in Massachusetts, and that he was driving on a suspended license, according to this story in the Boston Globe.  So rather than launching a manhunt for the blog troll, they arrested Gordon last week.

Now the public knows that the first-term lawmaker, elected last year by a handful of votes, has an arrest record longer than his arm dating back to the 1980s.

And that story of his having been wounded in combat in 1991? Not true, according to Marine records.

There’s even reason now to doubt whether anyone was actually pretending to be the lawmaker online: An editorial in one of his local newspapers notes:

As a candidate and as a sitting Republican representative, Gordon has come to be known as a “cyberbully,” personally attacking and harassing political opponents and other “targets” – even from his own party – on Internet forums and social media sites.

Here’s my favorite quote about Gordon from the Globe story:

“I was surprised when he won (the election),” said his aunt, Regina Mack, of Warminster, Pa. “He’s just an honest guy, and I didn’t think people like that got elected.”

I didn’t think so either.

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