It wasn't that long ago that we were thrilled when politicians started using Twitter. Now we kinda wish they'd stop -- except for the one who has, it seems, actually stopped.
President Barack Obama, who began Tweeting during his campaign last summer, has fallen silent since Jan. 19 -- the day before he was inaugurated. After 264 updates, his 339,540 followers have been left bereft. And some of them are, at least tongue-in-cheek, unhappy.
"Can’t the guy type a one-line update?" asked Paul Boutin of the New York Times.
But at the same time President Obama has seemingly abandoned Twitter, Congress has discovered it. Embraced it, even. And guess what -- Congressional representatives can be just as inane on Twitter as anyone else.
During President Obama's Feb. 25 speech on television, Dana Milbank of the Washington Post followed the tweets of a number of Congressional representatives and reported back. Sad to say, they might have saved themselves -- and us -- the trouble.
""Capt Sully is here -- awesome!" announced Rep. John Culberson (R-Tex.), spotting the US Airways pilot in the gallery," the paper reported. Tubular, dude.
"I am sitting behind Sens Graham and McCain," wrote Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.). Good to know.
"I did big wooohoo for Justice Ginsberg," Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) broadcast, misspelling the name of the ailing Supreme Court justice, the paper said, adding that McCaskill could be seen applauding with BlackBerry in one hand.
"It seemed as if Obama were presiding over a support group for adults with attention-deficit disorder," Milbank described.
If nothing else, it tells us that Congressional representatives are just like anyone else.
Unfortunately.
