Note: This item incorrectly had Richard Connelly's byline on it for awhile. It's by Steve Olafson. Apologies to all.

Question: How sexy are Ron Paul-style Republicans?

We intended to post a YouTube video that might have addressed the above question, but before we did so, we decided to place a call to the Washington office of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, the Republican from Brazosport and one-time presidential candidate.

We didn't want to talk to Paul. We wanted to talk to Rachel Mills, his press secretary who last week caused a small stirring in the loins of the Internet that ended prematurely.

You can't see the aforementioned YouTube viddy now. Rachel took it down after we called her. (The best we can do is show you this frame of her from her video.)

By way of explanation, the video was in the vein of a one-woman comedic skit in which she spoke directly to the camera, talking about what she wanted in a fella. In the political vernacular of the gag, she was looking for a "candidate" -- preferably one who believed in "Constitutional protection," an oblique reference to safe sex. Va-va-voom!

She then, more or less, vamped for the camera and laid down a few other sexual innuendos and double entendres.

Some found it clever; others, not so much.

Said one commenter on a thread at RonPaulforums.com: "Practice safe lunch; use a condiment.

By the way, should this be considered NSFW?"

L. Golden, a Paul constituent in the 14th Congressional District, was among those put off by the display, telling us:

"The problem I have is that there is ZERO coverage of our Congressman in District 14's news media. This is what a press secretary is supposed to be doing, correct? Instead, we have this video circulating on the internet. It's distasteful, downright inappropriate and does not reflect well on Dr. Paul and whoever hires and manages the congressional staff. In addition, this person's salary is paid by the taxpayers...for doing what?? "

We talked to Rachel on the phone last night and she said she wished we didn't write about this video.

In her own defense, she said she performed in the video on her own time. She didn't want to talk about this during office hours, either, asking to speak to Hair Balls via her "personal cell phone" after work. (Yea, taxpayers!)

She's only billed as "Rachel" in the video and not as Paul's press secretary. Nevertheless, she said she decided to pull the video after getting our phone call.

"I don't want to upset anybody," she said, most especially Congressman Paul, whom she said she greatly respects.

Mills, who once ran for a state House seat in North Carolina and marketed a pin-up calendar featuring herself and other Libertarian women wearing bras and panties, called her now-deleted video a "casual, fun thing" and nothing more.

Mills appears in a few other videos on the "Ladies4Liberty" YouTube Channel. She's the "waitress" in the "Unidine" vid, a sketch that equates universal health care to a restaurant where the customers are told they can't pick from the menu and must eat whatever they're served.

It's not the least bit sexually suggestive and no one's complained about it yet, so far as we know.