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WASHINGTON -- Look who’s Twittering now.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, an aficionado of the ever-brief quip, has joined those posting their thoughts in 140 characters or less.
Reid’s entrée into the Twittering class comes none too soon. At one point, he was the No. 1 lawmaker tweet lovers wanted to hear from.
Most of the tweets will be posted by the senator’s staff -- not quite the spirit of the medium, but more often the practice among lawmakers in Washington.
Republican Sen. John Ensign is a voracious tweeter. (“Just saw the premier of Night at the Museum 2. All the stars were there. It's better than the first one ... very creative, funny lines”) but most of his tweets still go through his press-office filter.
Still a slim few tweets will come from the majority leader himself. For those who enjoy Reid at his unfiltered best, look for the entries that begin, “From Reid:…”
But don’t expect too many super-Reid-isms – even those tweets will pass through staff for posting.
Reid, up for re-election in 2010, is apparently betting the reaching the masses will outweigh the risk of posting a gaffe. And he clearly is not heeding the advice of others who have suggested recently, and not too delicately, that Twittering should be left to others, lest it be a career hazard.
All of this, of course, now poses a challenge for whomever has been tweeting at the Not-Harry-Reid Twitter site.
Oh dear gawd please make words like tweet and twitter go away! No one wants to hear when a senator is bathing or eating. Isn't pages like myspace and facebook doing enough harm to the American people?
As Pinky is a TWIT this is appropriate.
I applaud Senator Reid for his sensitivity to his constituents, some of whom are Twitters. Senator Reid can effectively use this tool to correspond with Reporter Lisa Mascaro to address the death rate of children in Las Vegas which is 5 times what it was this time last year.
Although Senator Reid has plenty to do, Twitter puts his constituents in the passenger seat as he travels through the day. The man needs the layers of protection (extra eyes/security input) as we live in a world of opportunists ready to spin anything said. But this is another sign that he is acting on this administrations mission of transparency in government.