Tweet Beat: Follow-Up Question Edition

Pants on fire! Old grudges! Middle-school elections! Congress causes confusion on Twitter this week.

Written by Elliot Kort | Published on December 14, 2010

However conscious they may be of their reputations in other forums, members of Congress tend to cut loose on Twitter, espousing eye-opening opinions or giving into whimsy. So in the wake of some of this week’s most baffling tweets, it’s time to ask follow-up questions. Dana Rohrabacher makes readers question his concept of temperature. John Garamendi pushes the limits of hashtags. Chuck Grassley insists on misspelling words, even if he has enough characters to spell them correctly. And Nathan Deal shouts “Fire!” or does he?

Representative Chris Lee: @chrislee_ny26 6 facebook fans away from 1800. Can you help me get 6 more? #Buffalo #Roc #GOP #TCOT

Why must it always be about quantity?

Representative Dana Rohrabacher: @DanaRohrabacher After being cold all summer, at 100 degrees it’s finally warm (= #ocsurf (@ Blackie’s (northside of Newport Pier)) http://4sq.com/95Lxyu

If 100 degrees is warm, what do you consider hot? And didn’t the congressman spend at least part of the summer in Washington?

Representative Nathan Deal: @VoteDeal RT @NoRoyalty: Lots of rhetoric, no solutions: Barnes’ pants are on fire http://bit.ly/932IcP #gagov #gagop #gapolitics

Are you resorting to childish taunting or just severely burying the lead?

Representative John Garamendi: @RepGaramendi $400k to #Travis #AirForce Base #green program that saved #Army $1b. Helps #California #AB32 goals http://bit.ly/greenca

#How #many #hashtags #can #one #Tweet #contain?

Representative Keith Ellison: @keithellison R “Pledge to America” is a Plague on America. Same beefstew warmed over. Same mess that ran economy into a ditch in the first place

Really? You can’t settle on just one metaphor?

Senator Lindsey Graham: @GrahamBlog Graham “Dems who oppose extending the tax cuts are going to get beat. . . .Those up in 2012 are going to get religion.” #sctweets #scpol

Even the atheists?

Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton: @EleanorNorton Colbert’s coming to town. Time for payback for making fun of us for not having the vote! See Eleanor on Colbert at www.norton.house.gov

Seriously? After six years, you two can’t bury the hatchet?

Representative Mary Fallin: @MaryFallin Extra! Extra! Headline in #McCloud Middle School paper: “Fallin tops student poll” http://ow.ly/i/4aqw #okgov #okelecti

Does the middle-school vote account for a lot of the electorate in Oklahoma?

Senator Chuck Grassley: @ChuckGrassley Watch DrPhil Oct1 to c intrvu w Grassley/Landrieu on a nonPartisan social issue

Senator, you had 60 extra characters. You’re seriously telling us there’s no way to spell “interview” correctly?

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