That all being said, Robert Graves makes an important point in his historical semi-fictions about Claudius (a good summer read, by the way) – you can’t return power to the Senate when there’s no Senate to return it to. And so, as much as one might hate the Cult of the Presidency, they should have serious qualms about giving power back to an organization with esteemed leaders such as Chuck Grassley:
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, was not pleased with Barack Obama this weekend. But he didn’t issue a press release, or blast him on the Sunday shows. Instead, he hit him where it would hurt: Over Twitter.
Perhaps unaware that the White House’s computers are blocked from receiving Twitter, Grassley began tweeting around 7 a.m. (Twitter isn’t terribly exact about these things), on Sunday morning. His first missive read:
Pres Obama you got nerve while u sightseeing in Paris to tell us”time to deliver” on health care. We still on skedul/even workinWKEND.
Oh, snap! You got some nerve, Barack, coming all up n my biznazz on some shopping trip for yo’ wifey. Sheee-it. This, in so many words, is insane. Remember, this is an elected Senator of the United States of America, one of the hundred representatives of the Senate, the “saucer that cools” the legislation of the House. Well. The old dons of two-day workweeks and three-martini lunches have morphed into Twitterbots with busy skeduls/even workinWKEND. (Capitalized, you see, to highlight the abject unfairness of having to stay in the infernal Babylon for an extra few days. It’s hard out here for a agricultural pimp.)
As if this weren’t enough to keep us proles amused, Grassley shortly followed up his Wildean wit with another tweet:
Pres Obama while u sightseeing in Paris u said ‘time to delivr on healthcare’ When you are a “hammer” u think evrything is NAIL I’m no NAIL
You herd, Barack? I AIN’T NO NAIL. (Please Hammer, don’t hurt.) This is almost as inspiring as “Drill, baby, drill,” although it lacks the sexual undertones to make the Politico beat. The whole “tweeting politicians” meme is odd, but makes sense – it provides all of the benefits of social networking, without requiring the iota of thought that goes into even the most depraved of posts (cf. the last three-hundred words). It all started out so nice – remember, Michael Steele emphasized “The Message.” Now, we got Senataz Wit Attitude running the show.
Listen, I didn’t waste that much time making the image. Besides, it’ll all be worth it when Chairman Steele decides to finance the EP release.
UPDATE: Yeah, this too:




