When news broke that Commerce Secretary John Bryson was involved in two car crashes just minutes apart this weekend, Karl Rove's Super PAC American Crossroads clearly felt the news gods were shining upon it. Rove saw his boss, George W. Bush, suffer thanks to the buffoonery of some Bush administration officials, even though their actions weren't his fault. But American Crossroads' jumped too soon in hoping President Obama had suffered the same fate. The group tweeted, "How does @CommerceSec have 3 car crashes in 5 minutes and alcohol NOT be involved? #Skills." Turns out there's an answer to that question: a seizure. The tweet was deleted less than two hours later, ABC News' Michael Falcone reports. Two other Bryson-related tweets were also deleted. 

We can understand the pressure to have a funny joke ready the moment the news breaks. The pressure must be particularly high for this kind of political group to instantly spot and capitalize on an Obama gaffe, like when President Obama said the private sector was doing "fine" last week. (The comment was instantly mocked by lots of Republicans.) But the Bryson accident won't work so well. "Earlier Bryson tweet with hashtag #skills attempted levity (before facts known) and failed miserably. We took it down and regret the tweet," the group eventually tweeted. 

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Elspeth Reeve