The tech industry is starting to weigh in on Mark Hurd’s resignation from Hewlett-Packard, with Oracle CEO Larry Ellison taking up Hurd’s cause. In the same breath, he lambasted HP for the way it’s handled the PR nightmare, effectively calling them wimps for cowering in fear instead of fighting to protect Hurd.

From Ellison,

“In losing Mark Hurd, the H-P board failed to act in the best interest of H.P.’s employees, shareholders, customers and partners,” Ellison wrote in an email to The New York Times, which posted excerpts of the email late Monday. “The H-P board admits that it fully investigated the sexual harassment claims against Mark and found them to be utterly false.”

Therein lies the problem. HP looks bad either way. The company’s support of Hurd could cause backlash from moral camps, with its legal foundation for squeezing out Hurd begins to crumble. Instead of curbing disaster from this case, HP has forced the issue.

And for good cause, too. It’s been quite a year of PR nightmares in the tech industry, and the summer’s not yet ended. From Antennagate to bloated sales numbers from Sprint EVO, the consumer electronics camp is under a lot of pressure. It’s not surprising that HP may have gotten a little trigger-happy with Jodi Fisher as a contender. Have you seen the demo reel?

For some extra chuckles, check out some more CEO scandals here.

[image credit: Reuters]