Twitter

I've been interested about the role of Twitter in politics for a bit now. Whether it's stories about Congressmen twitting while meeting with President Obama or giving away their exact location in real time during secret trips to Iraq, I find it an exciting time to see Congressmen experiment with being hip and responsive. This latest story really gave me a chuckle:

YESTERDAY morning, Virginia politicos caught wind of a rumour that one of the Democrats in the state Senate was about to switch parties. Because the Democrats had a 21-19 majority, that shift would have flipped control over to the Republicans. Then Jeff Frederick, the chairman of the state Republicans picked up his smartphone and sent out a tweet.

Big news out of Senate: Apparently one dem is either switching or leaving the dem caucus. Negotiations for power sharing underway.

And that's how the Democrats found about about the plot. They adjourned business, cornered the rogue senator, and browbeat him out of his big plan."Be authentic on Twitter," texted Patrick Ruffini, a Republican web guru. "But still keep a frickin' secret when you need to."