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Is there Twitter trouble brewing in the McCain family? 

We're just joking, but we did notice that after Meghan McCain tweeted that it was her birthday today, her father Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) tweeted some birthday wishes her way:

I'm 25 today!! going to Vegas. I swear on my twitter account Im gonna try to keep my impulsive nature in check - cause, well, u all know ;-)

Happy Birthday Meghan, I'm proud of you!!

But McCain never replied to her father even though he tweeted nearly two hours ago. Maybe it's because he didn't inclue her Twitter handle @McCainBlogette in the message.

Or maybe she is just having too much fun. 

On Twitter, "follow Friday" is a time-honored tradition in which users recommend to their friends other users to follow.

But 2012 presidential hopeful and ex-Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.) has applied a new meaning to the Twitter-tradition. Today, he recommended that his followers to track state-level organizations of his own political action committee, Huck PAC

GovMikeHuckabee: #followfriday @teamhuckmn @teamhuckca @teamhuckin @txteamhuck @teamhuckga @teamhuckwi more later today pls RT

Juding by the Twitter handles, Huckabee has created "follow yourself Friday."

Not enough public option votes? - Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.)
Reforming the PATRIOT Act - Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.)
NATO ministers approve broad Afghan effort - Keep America Safe
Five worst insurance company denials - SEIU
Running Marine Corps Marathon this weekend - Rep. Mike Hoffman (R-Colo.)
Urban farming - Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.)
Promote colombian free trade bill - Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.)
At breast cancer awareness event - Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.)
Google CEO coming to Utah - Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah)
Train is more productive than plane - Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.)

The head of a key House subcommittee said on Friday that he is "more hopeful" that the Senate will include a public option in their final healthcare reform bill.

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), chairman of the Energy and Commerce Health subcommittee, took to Twitter on Tuesday to say that he is encouraged by recent developments in the Senate's effort to merge its two reform proposals:

More hopeful that Senate includes public option. A stronger option in House & Senate = more likely a better version survives conference.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has been grappling with the decision of whether or not to include a public health insurance option in his chamber's final bill. Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) has long said that a public plan could not earn the 60 votes necessary to guarantee cloture in the Senate.

But recently, some centrist Democratic senators have indicated they would be open to a compromise on the public option that would allow states to opt out of a public health insurance plan.

Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) said yesterday evening that Senate Democrats have 60 votes to invoke cloture on a bill with a public option without having to attract Republican support from centrist Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine). 

Cross-posted to the Briefing Room

Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.) has found a new way to show some love for his southern California congressional district.

The sixth-term lawmaker tweeted on Friday about his San Diego County district:

My new favorite hashtag? #sandiego

Bilbray has represented the 50th district since 2006, when he won in a special election to replace Rep. Duke Cunningham (R), who pleaded guilty to accepting millions of dollars in bribes. Before that he served the state's 49th district from 1995-2001.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R) is holding a Twitter-based reenactment or "twitternactment" of a Revolutionary War battle to promote of his new book on the subject. 

Gingrich's new novel is titled "To Try Men's Souls" and is based George Washington's role in the Revolutionary period. The title is derived from a quote from founding father Thomas Paine.

He tweeted:

#1776 Our live twitternactment of the Battle of Trenton starts Sunday: follow @genwashington76, @colonelrall, and @pvtvandornNJ

The three account were created specifically to promote the book. Washington is feature as "Commander and Chief of the Colonial Army." Colonel Johann Rall is "Commander of the [pro-British] Hessian troops stationed at Trenton" and Pvt. Jonathan Van Dorn is "A private in the colonial army. I am from NJ and am ashamed of my loyalist family."

George Washington has over 500 followers while the other two accounts have over 300 each.

We've all heard of fake Twitter account mimicking athletes and movie stars, but some Connecticut Republicans have created fake handles imitating Democrats in the state legislature.

This all according to the New York Times' "The Caucus." According to the report, the accounts' creators had their sites suspended by Twitter. The company suspended 33 such sites that used names such as "MeetRepDonovan" or MeetRepUrban."

It's possible that the idea sprouted from another Connecticut campaign. @PocketDodd, a Twitter account mimicking Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) was created by one of his Republican opponents, former Rep. Rob Simmons (R).

The account seldom tweets, but sends out messages such as "Sweetheart mortgage deal?! What sweetheart mortgage deal ??! Ooo, that sweetheart mortgage deal..."

Here's more from the Times:

When you try to [access the accounts], you get this message, one of our favorite Online “road signs:” Sorry, the account you were headed to has been suspended due to strange activity. Mosey along now, nothing to see here.

But according to Greg Hladky in the Hartford Advocate, no one has shut down the Web pages tied to those links, like this one that anyone might think belongs to Christopher G. Donovan, the speaker of the house. With no affiliation to Twitter, the Web sites say at the bottom that they are "Paid for and Authorized by the Connecticut Republican Party, Jerry Labriola Jr. Treasurer," but you have to get past a lot of negative information about Mr. Donovan before you get to that.

[...]

Today on Mediaite, Glynnis MacNicol writes that the practice is "What Dirty Campaigning Looks Like Today." To continue, that as elections get closer, more politicians, including those running for national office, will be trying to use the Internet to their advantage, some of them with fakery. “It is for certain not going to be the last. The real Internet election year is yet to come."

Chris Healy, the Connecticut Republican chairman, told [The Hartford] Advocate that the party has no intention of taking down the fake Web sites, in spite of complaints from Democrats:

"They didn’t think of it first, so that’s why they’re whining," Mr. Healy told him.

Jay Stevens on Left in the West calls Mr. Healy’s response "classy."

"Just as sleezy [sic] and lowdown as you’d expect," writes Paddy at Political Carnival.

Simmons has a similar website linked off the Pocket Dodd account, has a clear "Rob Simmons" banner on the top of the page.

Former Vice President and climate activist Al Gore took to Twitter on Thursday to express his disgust for a fradulent lobbying effort during the debate over cap-and-trade legislation this summer.

In June, a coal group had known of forged letters critical of the climate legislation sent by a firm hired by a contractor to Democratic members of Congress. The letters were allegedly from local nonprofit groups.

Though the American Coalition for Clean Coal Energy knew of the forgery, they delayed notifying the affected members until well after the vote. 

Gore tweeted:

This disgusts me http://bit.ly/12TAH7

The former VP linked to a blog post in which he said "this subversion of our democracy is disgusting. The fact that members of the House of Representatives went to the floor to vote on the climate bill with false information is unacceptable."

The House eventually passed the legislation, which the Senate is now working to complete.

"As the Senate begins work on this issue, members should view communications from lobbying groups opposing climate and green jobs legislation with increased skepticism," Gore added.

President signed my veterans bill - Rep. Mike Michaud (D-Maine)
Finding health bill shouldn't be complicated - Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.)
More NASA funding is crucial - Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.)
Biden travels 20 years after Berlin Wall's demise - White House
Health insurers have a litany of lobbyists - AFL-CIO
My take on W.H./Fox dispute - Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.)
Dems rewarding trial lawyers - House Financial Services GOP
Support rural healthcare - Rep. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.)
A big endorsement - Rick Lazio (R-N.Y.)
Chinese drywall issues - Sen. David Vitter (R-La.)

Notice a lot of letters along with off-beat district projects scrolling across Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) Twitter feed the last few days?

That's because the one of the Senate's most voracious opponent of earmark spending has taken to Twitter to share his "Top 10 earmarks of the day" in order to paint them as examples of wasteful outlays. 

While Tuesday's "tweetup" featured examples from the Homeland Security appropriations bill, today's will include examples from the Agriculture appropriations package.

Here are some examples of McCain earmark tweets, which he started sending out on Tuesday. They include a landlocked Coast Guard station and a study for earthquakes in Memphis.

#6. $3.6 million for Coast Guard Operations Systems Center in West Virginia [from Tuesday]

#4. $200,000 to retrofit a college radio station in Athens, OH [from Tuesday]

#1. $325,000 to study seismic activity in Memphis, TN [from Tuesday]

#7. $75,000 to promote “childhood farm safety” in Iowa. [from Thursday]

Though McCain and others have focused on earmarks to eliminate wasteful spending, critics say they only represent a tiny slice of federal spending and that ridding them from legislation would not make a significant impact.