Congressional tweets

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My Congressmember, Erik Paulsen, is on twitter. And MySpace and Facebook and LinkedIn and YouTube and pretty much everywhere a person can be networked. Good for him. I'm glad to see my Representative using new media.

But how is he using it, to speak or to listen?

I tweeted him. Impressed with Obama's State of the Union call to set aside old partisan politics, I asked Paulsen how he would work with the President. No response. Paulsen (or someone in his office) had time to continue tweeting, posting a link to a newspaper story about Paulsen. Subsequent Paulsen tweets posted links to new YouTube videos, as well as a request for questions to ask at a Financial Services hearing. So I tweeted, "How will you insure banks don't use TARP money for lobbying?"

The demands of Twittering can be intense, and Congress has important work to do. But if my Congressmember has time for Facebook and LinkedIn and YouTube videos; if he makes time to offer his comments to traditional media, he can use the new technology to listen to and respond to his constitutents. I follow my Congressmember. Should my Congressmember follow me?