You’ve heard of smoking guns and smoking ’em if you’ve got ’em, but what about smoking tweets?
If you’re confused, you can thank our U.S. Senate. As the health care debate raged on last week, U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., pulled a procedural move on an amendment offered by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Trying to ensure Dems understood the entirety of the health care bill, Coburn claimed that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was proceeding with legislation that was only broadly comprehended, according to The Associated Press. After Republican Leader Mitch McConnell gave the go-ahead to Coburn, a reading commenced Dec. 16 when a clerk sent a Senate page to locate copies of the amendment.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., held a press conference the same day to announce the discovery of a “smoking tweet” that proved a GOP strategy to slow down the bill, CNN reported. Durbin read aloud the following comments posted at Republican Sen. Jim DeMint’s Twitter account:
“Coburn forced Dems to read 767 pg Sanders amendment, we’ll do everything we can to stop this government takeover of health care,” DeMint, R-S.C., tweeted.
“If Reid won’t slow down this debate, we will do it for him.”
What was DeMint’s response (via Twitter, of course)?
“I’m glad Sen. Durbin reads Twitter but he should be reading the bill,” DeMint wrote. “And by the way, smoking tweets has been banned in the Capitol.”
This article appears in Dec 23-29, 2009.