Sen. Arlen Specter's announcement that he would switch parties to pursue reelection as a Democrat drew surprise quickly from his Democratic Senate colleagues.
A one-word response characterized Democrats' response: "Wow."
Whoa, Arlen Specter is switching to Democratic Party after three decades in GOP
The surprise announcement was met with shock well beyond the walls of Congress, however. Tweets from bloggers, pundits, and journalists all expressed surprise at the announcement today.
Hm, this is interesting. The National Organization for Marriage, the most active organization fighting the recent gay marriage decisions, is meeting with Miss California. NOM just tweeted:
Maggie: I'm in San Diego, waiting to have breakfast with Miss Calif.
"Maggie" is Maggie Gallagher, President of NOM and blogger at The Corner. Coincidentally, here's what Gallagher blogged last week:
Perez "You dumb b-tch" Hilton is typical of the new face of the gay-marriage movement in America. (Joining Frank "you are all bigots" Rich among others). And I would like to nominate Miss California as the new face of the marriage movement. Much better than mine! "Truth and love will prevail over lies and hate."
Maybe Miss California is taking NOM up on the offer. Will she go on a whistle-stop tour with Orson Scott Card?
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) is coming to Twitter's defense.
Last week, Matt Bai wrote a piece for the NY Times indicting Twitter as a political tool. Too many politicians, Bai says, use Twitter to share the trivial aspects of their daily lives:
The clear leader in this field is Claire McCaskill, Missouri's junior senator, who took up Twitter just before the inauguration. "I get old style crunchy taco, and a chicken burrito supreme & Diet Coke at Taco Bell," McCaskill recently tweeted. "Miss those tostados." Then: "Ok, ok, brain freeze. I know you can only get Diet Pepsi at Taco Bell." Give McCaskill credit: she clearly does the tweeting herself, and she shares both her policy positions and the details of her daily life in a way that can be informative and oddly endearing. And yet at times McCaskill, like just about all devoted tweeters, can sound like Tom Hanks in that movie on the island, jabbering to his battered volleyball so as not to lose touch with his own existence.
Ouch. McCaskill, probably the Senate's most prolific tweeter, defended herself today. She tweeted (of course) a link to her blog, where she posted a justification of Twitter as a tool for political outreach.
After reading Matt Bai's piece in the New York Times Magazine yesterday, I'd like to explain why I tweet and post here on Tumblr. His thesis is that twitter is banal and superficial and therefore not a good fit within the context of politics and Congressional activity. Of the 100's of tweets that my thumbs are responsible for, he chose to highlight a reply I made to someone who had asked about my favorite meal at Taco Bell. Admittedly, this is definitely not important stuff.
But--like many in Washington--he misses the point.
First, through Twitter, on a daily basis I post information on a public bulletin board about serious public policy issues. Short and sweet, these messages are intended to drive thought and discussion rather than provide a thorough analysis of the issue.
U can't get swine flu fr eating pork. Eatup. Regardless of epidemic
Of course, Iowa is the largest producer of pork in the United States, even playing host to the annual World Pork Expo. This year's expo (Get excited!) takes place June 3-5, 2009, at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines.
Weekly Standard Executive Editor Fred Barnes hinted Monday at a development that could inflame liberal Twitter users: getting the magazine's editor-in-chief William Kristol on Twitter.
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