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Facebook Foibles Haunting Pols

Online antics already hurting candidates.

The 2010 election showed that embarrassing moments trapped in the Internet's amber forever on sites like Facebook are already proving dangerous for candidates seeking office. In Virginia, Congressional candidate Krystal Ball was photographed simulating sex acts with a toy. In Delaware, Christine O'Donnell was captured during one apparently inebriated Halloween dressed as a ladybug. A candidate in Texas was caught on film posing in duck-festooned pajamas next to a woman in black lingerie. Sean Duffy, a reality-television star who won a Congressional race in Wisconsin, had images of his youthful indiscretions used by his opponent in attack ads. Then there was Rich Iott, the Ohio candidate, who was photographed in Nazi attire. “I think all of us know that politicians would have to confront the Facebook skeletons in their closet, but that it would be in 20 years, not in two years,” said one technology consultant.