Congress on Twitter: Yay, or nay?

A new Web site is tracking which U.S. House and Senate members have discovered the joy of tweeting—and which haven't. 

The L.A. Times tech blog has the scoop on Tweet Congress, the aptly named site that lets you search for Twitter-savvy House representatives and Senators by name or location.

You can also find out who's the most followed (John Culberson, R-TX, with an impressive 5,932 Twitter followers, and counting) and the most active (yep, ditto). Indeed, Republican tweeters outnumber Democrats almost two-to-one (41 to 24), while Independents—I'm looking at you, Lieberman—are still in the dark when it comes to the red-hot microblogging service. (Speaking of which ... click here for a quick Twitter primer.)

Pop quiz: Which state is leading the pack when it comes to best Twitter representation? If you guessed California, New York, or Washington state (home of Microsoft, right?), well, you guessed wrong. Instead, try South Carolina, with four of its eight U.S. representatives tweeting away. Up next: New Mexico (two of five) and Ohio (seven of 20). Among the many zilches: New York, the District of Columbia, Washington—and yes, Alaska.

Also interesting, but a little harder to quantify: Finding out which representatives are actually tweeting themselves, and who's just staffing it out. Rep. Culberson of Texas looks like he's really getting into it ("you will always be talking to me not staff," he tweeted last week). Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill also seems to be getting into the spirit: "What a game. Found myself pulling for the underdog", she Twittered during the Super Bowl.

On the other hand, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi needs to loosen up, if her recent tweets ("On The Senate Passage of the State Children's Health Insurance Program [link]") are any indication.

Related:
Tweet Congress tracks politicians on Twitter, heckles ones who aren't [L. A. Times tech blog]