( CNN ) -- Presidential kids are off-limits . That 's the unwritten rule in Washington . But rules are broken -- and Elizabeth Lauten is hardly the first one to do so . Lauten , communications director for Tennessee Rep. Stephen Fincher , resigned from her post after setting off a social media firestorm by railing against the Obama daughters . In a Thanksgiving-Day screed on Facebook , she scolded Malia and Sasha Obama , 16 and 13 years old , respectively , for what she said was their inappropriate outfits and their bored looks during Wednesday 's turkey pardoning ceremony . `` Try showing a little class , '' Lauten wrote . `` Dress like you deserve respect , not a spot at a bar . And certainly do n't make faces during televised , public events , '' she concluded . She later apologized , but the post went viral . CNN political analyst John Avlon said Lauten 's reaction was `` way out of order. `` `` Let 's reality check here , folks . This is a turkey pardon . This is not a matter of war and peace . This is kind of an odd bit of show dating back to Harry Truman , '' he said . `` And I think a bunch of teenagers could be pretty easily forgiven for not taking it too terribly seriously without insulting the republic . '' GOP staffer resigns over criticism of Obama daughters . The White House expressed shock , but so did the GOP . `` Children , especially the first daughters , should be off-limits in the political discourse from attacks , '' said Sean Spicer , the Republican National Committee communications director . It has long been a bipartisan goal to respect , and protect , the privacy of presidential kids , who are living in a fishbowl through no fault of their own . But that hands-off policy has limits . Here are some examples from the recent past : . Amy Carter . Amy was just 9 years old when her father , Jimmy Carter , took up residence in the White House in 1977 . Her first day of class at a public elementary school was a media circus , with photographers snapping shots just a few feet away of her in a stocking cap , jacket and Snoopy tote bag . The school quickly established some ground rules to ensure a semblance of normalcy . Even the Secret Service agents who accompanied her had to wait in an office across the hall . Chelsea Clinton . This first daughter turned 13 about a month after the inauguration of her father , Bill Clinton . Wanting her to have a normal childhood , the Clintons asked the media to limit their coverage of Chelsea to public events . `` We really work hard on making sure that Chelsea does n't let other people define her sense of her own self-worth , '' President Bill Clinton said in a 1992 People magazine interview . `` It 's tough when you are an adolescent because peer opinion and other people 's opinion become more important . But I think she 'll be OK. '' Still , it was n't long before `` Saturday Night Live '' and Rush Limbaugh took a crack at Chelsea , mocking her appearance . Limbaugh compared her to a dog . . He then recounted how he apologized once to Amy Carter for calling her `` the most unattractive presidential daughter in the history of the country . '' Jenna and Barbara Bush . Jenna and Barbara , daughters of George W. Bush , were already young adults -- but not of legal drinking age -- when their names were splashed in headlines during the spring of 2001 after getting caught with liquor . Largely ignored by the media up to that point , the 19-year-olds were branded `` party girls '' by the tabloids . Five weeks later , Jenna was in trouble again for attempting to use a fake ID to buy alcohol . A `` New York Post '' headline screamed : `` Jenna and Tonic - Bush daughter in new booze incident as twin sister watched . '' And all of this happened before the age of social media , in which the Obama daughters now live . When everyone has a voice via Facebook , Twitter and the like , the children of political families may be subjected to the same swings and arrows as their parents . It shows how `` divided and how dumb and mean-spirited so many of our debates are right now , '' Avlon said . `` It 's an indication of how ugly and undercutting the politics are that even kids are fair game to some people who are punching way below their weight . It 's ugly , ugly stuff . '' Dana Bash , CNN 's chief Congressional correspondent , reported from Washington ; Ed Payne reported and wrote from Atlanta .
There 's an unwritten rule that presidential kids are off-limits . A GOP staffer is resigning after breaking that rule . Commentators and satirists made fun of Chelsea Clinton . The Washington Post ran a story about how the Clintons were so out of touch with ordinary Americans, they had to hire people who could speak in front of crowds at campaign rallies.