As dearly as the president and first lady might wish it, Malia and Sasha Obama are not off-limits.
But as a staffer for a GOP congressman learned to her regret, you go after them at your peril.
On Thanksgiving Day, Elizabeth Lauten — a communications director specializing in social media, if you can believe it — wrote a post on Facebook criticizing the girls for their clothing choices and their eye-rolling at the official White House turkey pardoning.
"You are part of the First Family, try showing a little class," she wrote. "At least respect the part you play. Then again your mother and father don't respect their positions very much, or the nation for that matter, so I'm guessing you're coming up a little short in the 'good role model' department."
It was a shot at Barack and Michelle Obama, but she missed and hit the kids.
She went on to say, "Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at a bar." ("Spot at a bar?" They are 16 and 13, for heaven's sake.)
USA Today and Gawker had both written about how bored the girls looked at an event even their father described as silly. But what Ms. Lauten wrote crossed a line the press and the opposition party don't always observe: leave the kids alone.
Even her own party criticized her comments as "inappropriate and insensitive." (But the media response was "appalling," said Republic National Committee communications director Sean Spicer. We are always appalling, it seems.)
The 31-year-old woman, who worked for Rep. Stephen Fincher of Tennessee, said she prayed for hours over her mistake — hard to believe it took that long — and resigned. She apologized, but not to the girls. Just to that convenient but ill-defined group that includes anybody who might have been offended by her comments.
Almost immediately, old pictures of Jenna Bush Hager reappeared. The Bush twin sticking her tongue out at reporters, falling down drunk at college. The pictures raised the question: It depends on whose ox is being gored, doesn't it?
But there is another kind of hypocrisy at work here.
When the Obamas talk about their daughters, they aren't just being proud parents who can't shut up about the kids. Their comments — on sports and dating, driver's licenses and laundry duty, eating vegetables and no snacking — must been seen as part of a script from this carefully controlled White House. By talking about rules and limits, the Obamas can send a socio-political message about how to raise your kids.
The girls, so often pictured with their dad, also soften his image. They make him seem like a regular dad instead of a coolly cerebral policy wonk. Even their eye-rolling teen contempt casts the leader of the free world in a sympathetic light. We get it. We get him, because we've all embarrassed our kids.
Rush Limbaugh said hideous things about Amy Carter and Chelsea Clinton, comments far more hurtful to young teens than "your skirt is too short and stop looking bored." And he still has his job. One might wish that the those comments had rendered him unemployed, too.
At the end of the day, my sympathies are with Sasha and Malia, who never bargained for any of this.
And who can be forgiven for not knowing how to dress for a turkey pardoning.
Susan Reimer's column appears on Mondays and Thursdays. She can be reached at sreimer@baltsun.com and @SusanReimer on Twitter.com.