Author Neil Gaiman took to Twitter after a Minnesota politician called him a weasel.Photo: Craig Lassig/AP

When reports started popping up in the news and on Twitter that a Minnesota politician had called Neil Gaiman a “pencil-necked little weasel,” all the best-selling author could do was laugh.

“I woke up this morning and people sent me links to the story and someone quoted it on Twitter and I thought, ‘That’s mad, a real politician can’t have actually said that,’ and then I went to the article and read it,” Gaiman told Wired.com, still snickering at the thought. “I expected him to carry on [in] the article saying that I was a stupid stupidface and that he would be meeting with his friends behind the lockers.”

‘That’s mad, a real politician can’t have actually said that.’

Why the insult? Republican Minnesota House of Representatives Majority Leader Matt Dean called out The Sandman author Tuesday, saying Gaiman “stole $45,000 from the state of Minnesota” for accepting money from a state arts fund to speak at a public library.

Gaiman responded Wednesday on Twitter, linking to a story in Minneapolis’ Star Tribune that reported Dean’s comments.

“Sad & funny. Minnesota Republicans have a ‘hate’ list,” Gaiman tweeted Wednesday. “Like Nixon did. I’m on it. They also don’t like capitalism.”

The comments came as the Minnesota House was discussing its Legacy funding, which goes to cultural programs like public radio. Dean told the Associated Press that, although it was legal for the fantasy writer to take the money, he found the payment “infuriating” and he wanted Gaiman to return the payment. (Wired.com’s message left with Dean’s office seeking comment was not returned.)

Gaiman, who noted he was a little dumbfounded as to why he was called a thief by Dean, said he received $33,600 for speaking at the library and he donated the funds to charity.

Taking the message to Twitter wasn’t necessarily an attempt to “raise the might of 1.5 million people” against the politician, Gaiman said.

“I guess there is that agenda of going, ‘I do not believe that Minnesota Republicans are being represented by this twit, therefore it may do some good to point this out to those of my readers who are Republicans and in the state of Minnesota and have some voting ability,’” said Gaimain, who casts his ballots in the United Kingdom.

The Hugo Award-winning author’s tweets did have an effect, even if he didn’t intend it. After Gaiman linked to Dean’s site and wrote, “Bizarrely, the twit who called me a pencilnecked weasel has posted my blog on his and claims copyright on it,” the post in question was down most of Wednesday.

“When I linked to it and then brought down his blog I thought, ‘I gotta stop doing that!’” said Gaiman, who called the crash a #neilwebfail on Twitter.

Let that be a lesson, politicos of America: Don’t speak ill of beloved fantasy writers with more than 1.5 million Twitter followers.