Kelly Steele, a campaign staffer to Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., had to eat his Twitter words because he formed them into satire, a dangerous rhetorical art best practiced by those who are not working for politicians. And the worst part is that Steele wasn’t even taking a cheap shot at the rival campaign of his boss.

Steele tweeted a photo of a frowning Rob McKenna, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, at an Asian event and included the text, “Why aren’t the speaking English? #ASIANS.” He was poking fun at a McKenna staffer who earlier this year lost her job for tweeting the same words but not in jest.

As often is the case in Twitter politics, Steele defended his tweet amid the uproar that followed but later apologized.