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A New Generation of Internet Lawmakers

Posted by Mitch Wagner on September 29, 2009 08:14 PM

I'm still stuck in the 90s when I think about elected officials using the Internet. Back in the 90s, elected officials had never even touched the Internet. … Until recently, I thought of lawmakers as still being as naive as they were back then. But a brief conversation with Rep. John Culberson shattered my preconceptions.

Of course, I knew intellectually that elected officials had moved on from the 90s. President Obama couldn't bear to part with his BlackBerry, and drove using Web 2.0 for open government. But I guess I didn't really get it. I still thought of elected officials as being a bunch of old fogies who typed with one finger, had to call tech support when they couldn't find the "any" key, and referred to the CD-ROM drive as "the cup holder."

Culberson, a Texas Republican, called me recently to discuss his work crowdsourcing the healthcare bill. He posted HR 3200 online, and invited constituents to comment on it using software from SharedBook. But I had the vague idea that Culberson himself--and other Congressmen, Senators, and elected officials--didn't get the Internet, that probably he had some younger, more with-it staff behind the crowdsourcing effort.

Culberson brushed that preconception aside as soon as he called me. The first thing he did was ask me about Google Voice, the Google Internet telephony service, which I have used as my primary phone number since the service launched as Grand Central in early 2007. We discussed the benefits: Voicemail transcription, one number that rings all your phones. He had some difficulty setting it up, and we talked about that. In a strange way, his difficulty getting it configured impressed me most of all--the problems he encountered are the ones that a skilled Internet user sometimes stumbles over when running a Web 2.0 service. (I told him I'd be happy to help with it, but that the folks at Google would probably be thrilled to lend a hand, too.)

We had a brisk discussion about the merits of Twitter, Facebook, and the Qik; video-sharing service. He ended up explaining Qik to me

Culberson, a leader of the conservative opposition to Obama, has led the charge for Republican use of social media and Web 2.0, getting many of his GOP colleagues active on Twitter.
And that speaks to another misconception about Washington social media usage: When we think of Government 2.0 efforts, we think of it as being led by the Democrats. The GOP is using the Internet too, to coordinate its opposition to Democratic leadership. They're doing it skillfully, and Democrats and progressive will forget that fact at their peril. 

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27464.html

Congressional Republicans may be struggling to communicate a coherent message above the angry din generated by town hall protests, Rep. Joe Wilson’s scream and conservative talkers, but a new study finds it’s not for lack of tweeting.

Nearly twice as many Republicans as Democrats have accounts on the social networking platform Twitter (101 compared with 57), and the GOP dominates Twitter usage by an even wider margin, according to a report released this week by the Congressional Research Service that analyzed two weeklong periods in July and August. During those spans, congressional Republicans posted 932 messages — or tweets — compared with 255 for Democrats, CRS analysts found.

Twitter allows users to text short messages of 140 characters or fewer from their phones, BlackBerrys or computers to their profile pages and their followers’ phones and computers. And though some experts question the effectiveness of Twitter as a political communication tool and more than a few lawmakers have already experienced the downside of the unfiltered communication it offers, Republican communications staffers have actively encouraged their lawmakers to tweet away. And so they have.

“While in St. Joseph, I made a second stop at the Stetson outlet store to get a second pair of Levi’s,” Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) tweeted this month.

“Stoked that the triplets stood up on a surfboard and road [sic] the wave for the first time today,” Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) recently informed his public.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) had the most subscribers to his tweets, but two Democrats — Sens. Barbara Boxer of California and Claire McCaskill of Missouri — did make it into the top five list maintained by the website TweetCongress, which describes itself as “a grass-roots effort to get our men and women in Congress to open up and have a real conversation with us.” It lists Sens. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) in the top five, as well, and puts the current total of congressional Twitterers to 190. The CRS report, meanwhile, found that 4,186 people subscribed to — or followed — the median Republican senator, versus 2,874 for the median Democratic senator. The median Republican congressman had 1,615 followers, compared with 969 for Democratic colleagues.

McCaskill is one Democrat who has made something of a name for herself with her tweets. Earlier this month, she replied to someone who had spotted her and her daughter shopping: “Yes @tigeranniemac that was me at Target in the soap aisle. You shoulda said hi. Was with my daughter Lily. We’re very friendly.”

Through a spokeswoman, McCaskill said her staff doesn’t monitor her tweets and that her constituents get a lot out of the direct interaction with her.

What are members of Congress getting out of all this sharing? Not clear.

David All, a Republican Internet strategist hired recently to help bolster Wilson’s presence online — including on Twitter — said the site “is not the end-all, be-all, but it has proven to be a good tool to help public officials, trade associations, major brands and media achieve their online goals.”

He asserted that “every effective communications professional or major association needs a real strategy for utilizing Twitter at all times — especially during key events where real-time response is crucial.”

But Micah Sifry, who blogs about the intersection of the Internet and politics at TechPresident, contended that “few members of Congress are really using Twitter very effectively. Most aren’t engaging a community all that well and, instead, use the tool primarily to broadcast a PR-style message that isn’t likely to get spread around much by others.”

In fact, congressional staffers have taken to tweeting bland press-release-style messages in their bosses’ names. According to the CRS study, a lion’s share of the 1,187 congressional tweets during the two weeks analyzed (July 26 through Aug. 1, and Aug. 9 through Aug. 16) touted upcoming television appearances or disseminated links to press releases or news stories in which the member in question was quoted.

Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise, which tracks Internet traffic, said Twitter “does have the potential” to be an effective political tool, though he predicted it’s just as likely that another new platform will supersede it.

Twitter is better utilized for communicating about things other than politics, judging by the number of people who click on URLs embedded in tweets that take them to other websites, according to Tancer. And, as for Twitter’s usefulness for Republicans, he argues that its demographics are bad for them. Research suggests the biggest group of Twitter users are “affluent urban professionals” who tend to lean left.

And that’s not the only problem GOP tweeters have faced.

A handful of House members were called out for tweeting during President Barack Obama’s February address to a joint session of Congress, including Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), whose account tweeted, “Aggie basketball game is about to start on espn2 for those of you that aren’t going to bother watching pelosi smirk for the next hour.” That was followed quickly by another message reading: “Disregard that last tweet from a staffer.”

In July, Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), a member of the Navy Reserve, was criticized for disclosing his location while on duty, which risked running afoul of military rules.

Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) raised eyebrows when he used his very active Twitter account to compare the Iranian protests over their disputed election to House Republicans’ efforts to “expose repression” such as a House Democratic “clampdown” on Republican amendments.

But Culberson, whose 12,735 followers  put him among the most popular House members on Twitter, called social networking “an essential part of my job, which is a direct personal interaction with my constituents. The day will come very soon in which we will achieve real-time democracy in a way that has never been done before. And like freedom, once people taste it, they won’t go back.”

Still, he said Twitter is just “one tool. I have shifted in recent weeks to Facebook. I’m personally convinced that Facebook will be the pivot point for the next American Revolution, which will organize itself digitally over the Internet and will express itself at the next election.”

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/23/house-lawmakers-aim-push-back-against-hasty-votes/print/

Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday turned back a Republican amendment to wait 72 hours and require a full cost estimate before the final committee vote on the health care reform bill.

It was the committee's first vote out of more than 500 amendments awaiting them, in what has already been a contentious mark-up session.

The amendment would have delayed a vote on the final bill for about two weeks to allow the Congressional Budget Office to complete its final analysis on the cost and implications of the legislation.

Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln was the only Democrat to vote with Republicans for the amendment, further signaling that she may be an attractive swing vote for Republicans.

Instead, the panel passed an alternative amendment that would require the committee to post the full bill, in "conceptual" instead of legal language, as well as as a CBO cost estimate.

Separately, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers on Wednesday announced their own effort to force Democratic leaders to give members of Congress -- and the public -- 72 hours to review legislation before any bill is brought to the floor for a vote.

The measure, sponsored by Rep. Brian Baird, Washington Democrat, and Republican Reps. John Culberson of Texas and Greg Walden of Oregon, would require House leaders to post all non-emergency legislation online, in its final form, three days before a vote.

The lawmakers have begun circulating a discharge petition that would force House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to hold a vote on their bill, which has been stuck in committee for months.

GOP lawmakers in particular have hammered Mrs. Pelosi and other Democratic leaders for rushing long, complex bills through the House.

"The American people are angry that Speaker Pelosi didn't allow the public and their elected representatives to read the trillion-dollar 'stimulus' bill or the national energy tax before they were rammed through the House," Minority Leader John Boehner, Ohio Republican, said Wednesday. "Congress can, and must, do better."

In the Senate Finance Committee debate, Democrats argued that the amendment, offered by Sen. Jim Bunning, Kentucky Republican, was merely an attempt to stall President Obama's top legislative priority.

"This is fundamentally a delay tactic," said Sen. John F. Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat.

Chairman Max Baucus, Montana Democrat, promised committee members that they'd have a preliminary analysis of the bill before they vote.

Republicans said the full analysis, which details the cost and implications of the bill, is necessary to inform their vote.

"It's what [the public] expects us to do anyway -- read a bill before you vote on it," said Sen. Charles E. Grassley, ranking Republican on the panel.

Further complicating the process is the fact that the Finance Committee works on "conceptual language" -- plain English explanations that are later turned into legislative text.

The committee has always worked with conceptual language with the understanding that if a lawmaker finds a discrepancy later, the chairman can change the text to reflect what was intended.

Democrats argued that the conceptual language made it easier to understand what the committee is voting on, but Republicans said that the legislative details are significant.

Rushed floor votes on the stimulus bill and the cap-and-trade energy bill -- both of which totaled more than 1,000 pages -- have fueled calls from the public that lawmakers read bills before voting on them. The House resolution is supported by several public-interest groups, including the Sunlight Foundation, which point out that hasty votes can result in unintended consequences, such as the provision tucked into the stimulus bill that had the effect of authorizing executives of bailed-out insurance giant AIG to receive retroactive bonuses.

Earlier this summer, Mrs. Pelosi told a reporter she would allow a 48-hour waiting period prior to bringing health care legislation up for a vote.

The discharge petition requires 218 signatures to force a vote on the bill, which has 98 co-sponsors. There are currently 256 Democrats and 177 Republicans in the House.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/18/AR2009091801969_pf.html

Politicians' Tweets Are Mostly Self-Promotional, Researchers Say

By Daniel de Vise
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 18, 2009 1:32 PM  

The arrival of Twitter on Capitol Hill has given ordinary citizens access to the candid, real-time thoughts of their elected representatives.

Like this dispatch from Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii): just completed weightlifting workout at the Nuuanu Y.

Or this, from Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa): I will b intrvud on AgriTalk at 10amCST. Pls tune in.

A team of researchers from the University of Maryland plodded through more than 6,000 Twitter postings by members of Congress to study whether the social networking site promoted transparency in politics and dialogue between elected leaders and the public.

They found -- surprise! -- that politicians spend most of their time on Twitter promoting themselves.

Launched in 2006, Twitter allows users to send succinct (no more than 140 characters) reports on their comings, goings and musings. Sixty-nine members of Congress had Twitter accounts by February. The number has since risen to 169. An estimated 21 million people tweet worldwide.

Eighty percent of the congressional Twitter postings reviewed by the U-Md. researchers fell into two categories: links to news articles and press releases, mostly self-serving and readily available elsewhere; and status updates that chronicle the pol's latest trip to the sawmill or the supermarket. The researchers announced their findings this week and hope to present them at an international conference on human-computer interaction in the spring.

"Twitter by its nature is a very self-absorbed service," said Jennifer Golbeck, lead researcher and assistant professor in the university's College of Information Studies. "Politicians are very self-important people."

Many Twitter postings read like very short press releases. We learn from Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa), for example, that he is working to help Iowans as they contend with all of the flooding throughout the state. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) advises: On Rachel Maddow right after this commercial break. Tune in!

While few politicians have bared their souls on Twitter, some have nonetheless managed to tweet themselves into trouble.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) caught flak in February when he posted Just landed in Baghdad, inadvertently posing a security risk for his congressional delegation. He drew criticism again in June for likening the tumult in Iran to Republican conflicts with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The irony here, said U-Md. researcher Justin Grimes, is that politicians seem to be putting less thought and deliberation into their Twitter messages, posted for all to see, than they might devote to, say, an old-fashioned e-mail.

"It's so easy to type 140 characters," Grimes said. "You don't think about it. You just send it."

Because members of Congress spend just 7 percent of their time interacting with citizens, some believe that Twitter could bring constituents closer to their leaders and fulfill some of the promise of Twitter.

The researchers rate Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) the best tweeter in her chamber and Rep. John Culberson (R-Tex.) tops in his.

McCaskill has the second-most followers among congressional tweeters (more than 32,000), trailing Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has more than 1.3 million. She says she reads all her Twitter correspondence. Her page is a compendium of personal replies to constituents and snippets of life that sound authentic. Here's one from earlier this month: Yes @tigeranniemac that was me at Target in the soap aisle. You shoulda said hi. Was with my daughter Lily. We're very friendly.

Culberson has the most active Twitter site in Congress. Like McCaskill, he engages regularly with his constituents on Twitter, and he has used his page to challenge the Democratic leadership, as he did in this July post: Pelosi regularly turns off the microphone on the House floor, shuts off amends, & debate, shuts out all public sunlight, & gets away w it.

Culberson was an early tweeter and considers himself "an active proselytizer for social media among my colleagues." That may partly explain why the U-Md. researchers found that Republicans outnumbered Democrats on Twitter 2-1.

Culberson sees a coming revolution in online politics. But it might not happen on Twitter. Lately, the Texan has been spending more time on Facebook.

http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/092009/09132009/490442

Date published: 9/13/2009

Twitter lets me keep up with Rep. Wittman

Although the digital social media rage gets a bit overwhelming at times, it has given me an inside scoop on news and politics.

This is not because of the instantaneous nature of the technology, but because of the human beings I keep up with, like Rep. Rob Wittman.

I decided to keep an eye on our public servants via Twitter and became fascinated to read about the things that one member of Congress does for us.

From Washington to local events in Spotsylvania County and beyond, Rep. Wittman sends messages every few hours that are easy to understand and personable. I feel like I'm right alongside him during his 20-plus hour workday.

He maintains a one-to-one relationship with all of us "friends" that translates to already knowing him when we meet in person.

I've learned about congressional hearings, how the House floor operates, and what other counties are up to.

I commend him for being so open and available to his constituents in this way.

I can't recall the last time Sen. Jim Webb or Sen. Mark Warner cared enough to consider my opinion, let alone respond to my e-mails and letters.

That's the difference between a government that comes at you and one that comes from you.

Rob Wittman cares. He and I pick up our 140-character chats right where we left them, whether in person or in cyberspace.

Social media, and some of our elected leaders' participation in it, have certainly changed how we get our information and news, and it has been an eye-opener to get to know all about it directly from my "personal" source in Washington, D.C.

He can be yours, too, for just a few text characters per day of your time.

Eric Martin

Spotsylvania