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Dana Milbank mocks lawmakers for posting pensees to Twitter during Obama's speech last night:

"One doesn't want to sound snarky, but it is nice not to see Cheney up there," Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) announced as Obama entered the chamber.

"I did big wooohoo for Justice Ginsberg," Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) broadcast, misspelling the name of the ailing Supreme Court justice. McCaskill could be seen applauding with BlackBerry in one hand.

"Capt Sully is here—awesome!" announced Rep. John Culberson (R-Tex.), spotting the US Airways pilot in the gallery.

Then there was Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.), in whose name this text message was sent at about the time the president spoke of the need to pull the country together: "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." A few minutes later, another message came through: "Disregard that last Tweet from a staffer."

Milbank thinks this makes Congress look like "a support group for adults with attention-deficit disorder." And I suppose that's true, but it does enrich the documentary record, doesn't it? How many historians have a real-time report on the aimless thoughts passing through a legislature's heads? Barton—sorry, Barton's staffer—just ensured his immortality.

NEXT: The Two Faces of Barack Obama

Books Editor Jesse Walker is the author of Rebels on the Air and The United States of Paranoia.

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  1. Episiarch

    This could become a source of vast embarrassment for some politicians, which would be a source of vast entertainment for me.

  2. stubby

    I completely concur with Barton’s staffer, although I never watch any Presidential speeches, no matter who the President is at the time.

    I just can’t f***ing stand the sight of Nancy Pelosi.

  3. I can’t wait for the first Twitter sex scandal. “yng bois 4 a2m plz”

  4. Episiarch

    “u bring teh live bois i bring teh ded girlz”

  5. Obama’s speech may be even more boring than college basketball. I didn’t know that was possible.

  6. Xeones

    Barton should own up to that comment. I’d like to see more overt snark amongst our legislature.

  7. Elemenope

    “u bring teh live bois i bring teh ded girlz”

    ROFL.

    This could become a source of vast embarrassment for some politicians, which would be a source of vast entertainment for me.

    Bonus: No more professional historians bitching about how they would have insight if only they could glimpse what decision-makers were thinking at the time.

  8. R C Dean

    Barton should own up to that comment.

    I agree. It was a genuine constituent service.

  9. Stagman

    It cuts out the middleman in getting news. Of course a reporter would be against this.

  10. Elemenope

    I just realized that my second comment was entirely anticipated by Mr. Walker, and I was in essence dumbly repeating him. That’s what I get for not reading the entire post before I post.

    [Sigh.]

  11. Russ 2000

    Milbank thinks this makes Congress look like “a support group for adults with attention-deficit disorder.”

    He’s just realizing this now?

  12. ed

    Aren’t all these betrayals of confidence another reason not to “twitter” in the first place?

  13. Anonymouse

    If you’re going to italicize pens?e, at least get the accent mark right.

  14. I dont need no pansy punctuation

  15. alisa

    Ha. Kind of strips them of their gravitas, don’t it?

    This is like when I first read the transcripts of Nixon conversations and realized that he swore like a particularly nasty frat boy. I suddenly realized, “Wow … these people … aren’t serious.”

  16. ed

    They also fart, and beneath their clothing, they’re naked!

  17. plutosdad

    ” can’t wait for the first Twitter sex scandal”

    We already had it. Mark Foley. Another one of those “sex scandals” that did not actually involve sex.

    I remember when Clinton was President, once someone booed him during a state of the union speech – it was a freshman Republican congressman, and the scuttlebutt is afterwards the Republican House leadership took him aside and told him in no uncertain terms to never boo a President during the state of the union. Those were the days.

    Soon our decorum will be lowered so much we’ll be just like the English Parliament “rabble rabble rabble!”

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