Clueless GOP Insider Spills Party Secret

Posted by Tana Ganeva, AlterNet at 3:44 AM on February 12, 2009.

Apparently baffled by a technology that has been mastered by most 12-year-olds, Republicans continue to embarrass themselves on Twitter.

Last week, it was Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., who blabbed about a secret  trip to Iraq on the online social network.

And yesterday, Virginia Republican Party Chairman Jeff Frederick spoiled a GOP plot to gain a tie in the state Senate by "tweeting" about it. From Talking Points Memo, via the Not Larry Sabato blog:

Yesterday, the Virginia GOP came very close to taking control of the state Senate, nearly luring a Democratic senator to switch parties and put them at a 20-20 tie, which would have been broken by the Republican lieutenant governor. Then Jeff Frederick, a state legislator and the party chairman, ruined it all by Twittering this:

"Big news coming out of Senate: Apparently one dem is either switching or leaving the dem caucus. Negotiations for power sharing under way."

The Dems then read the message, quickly mobilized to talk the renegade out of it, and stopped the GOP coup before it could happen.

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Tagged as: democrats, republicans, gop, twitter, virginia