Melville House Books

“It’s a case of Twittering while Rome burns,” according to Dana Milbank of The Washington Post. As detailed in his Post column, a slew of congressional members Twittered their way though President Obama’s speech on Tuesday. How about a sampling of some of their comments?

“ ‘One doesn’t want to sound snarky, but it is nice not to see Cheney up there,’ wrote Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.).” Or: “‘Fixed the tele-prompter, I think,’ wrote Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah).” Perhaps best of all? From Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.): “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.”

Or, to summarize, anyone paying attention (not many were) got a lot of extraneous babble from a crew Matt Taibbi once described as a “stable of thieves and perverts.” But is anyone surprised? Not really.

According to a recent article in The Times of London, (reinforced by this Gawker post) Twitter is most used by those with an underdeveloped sense of self. Sounds like most members of congress, no? According to one of the Times’ experts, Dr. David Lewis, a cognitive neuropsychologist: “We are the most narcissistic age ever… Using Twitter suggests a level of insecurity whereby, unless people recognise you, you cease to exist. It may stave off insecurity in the short term, but it won’t cure it.”

A recent Politico feature also concluded the same thing: “Vainglorious pundits and lawmakers who crave attention in print and on TV have also flocked to Twitter.”

Kelly Burdick is the executive editor of Melville House.