Politicians' kids + Facebook = problems

This seems like an absurd thing - a perfectly innocent photo of a family having a toast - but in the world of election politics, even a drink is fodder for a scandal. The Boston Herald reported that Ashley Mihos - daughter of gubernatorial candidate Christy Mihos - committed the cardinal sin of posting on Facebook.com a photo of the family enjoying a toast.

The shocking thing apparently is that they were toasting over a copy of the Herald that featured Mihos questioning events related to the Big Dig death. The family says they were celebrating a birthday.

But the fact that it's a story at all goes to the fascination with young people and social networking sites.

This isn’t the first embarrassing political episode involving personal Web pages. In June, a Missouri Democratic Party worker had to resign after posting pictures of a bikini-clad young statehouse aide on his MySpace.com page - a move quickly lampooned by GOP consultant Jeff Roe on his conservative blog “The Source.”

Roe said the Internet is the first place he goes to dig for dirt. “Candidates, and children of candidates - their Facebook and MySpace pages are the first thing we check,” Roe said. “It falls right in there with tax and voting records.”