AirCongress The Online Voice Of Capitol Hill

The weekend news that the troubled insurance giant AIG is paying $165 million in executive bonuses despite having received federal bailout money sparked a bipartisan “tweetstorm” by outraged members of Congress today.

Lawmakers from both parties ranted in 140 characters or less, linked to longer rants that wouldn’t fit within Twitter’s textual constraints, and floated legislative trial balloons designed to punish AIG or any other company receiving federal bailout funds that might want to pay bonuses in the future. “Introduced a bill that imposes a 100% tax on any executive bonus over $100,000 that was paid by a company receiving federal bailout funds,” @RepSteveIsrael wrote.

Here is a recap of other AIG-inspired tweets from lawmakers using the mini-blog service:

• Like @RepSteveIsrael, @repblumenauer said he is working on a bill to place a tax surcharge on executive bonuses to recoup tax dollars from firms like AIG.
• On MSNBC’s “Hardball,” @DarrellIssa blasted “AIG/Bush/Obama boneheads who dropped $170 billion with no strings attached.”
• @SenChrisDodd: “A car mechanic or teacher in Connecticut shouldn’t have to subsidize the bad decisions of AIG’s executives.”
• @russfeingold wrote a letter of complaint to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.
• @gopconference called for an “exit strategy” on government bailouts after news of the AIG bonuses.
• And @SenatorMenendez posted to YouTube the clip of his MSNBC appearance to decry AIG.

AIG wasn’t the only thing on lawmakers’ minds, though. Among other things, they tweeted about earmarks, the oversight of federal stimulus projects and government contracts, “card check” legislation to govern votes for labor unions, taxes on health benefits, and public lands.

They also chatted about the NCAA basketball tournament that starts this week. And they linked to articles about lawmakers who tweet. Apparently every journalist in America is writing one of those stories these days.

To get Capitol Hill’s inside scoop from Twitter, subscribe to “Hill Tweet News.” It’s the best and quickest way to learn who sniped at whom, and why; what lawmakers did and said in committee, on the floor, on the news shows and elsewhere; and what articles, shows, Internet videos and more grabbed their attention.

Categories: Producer's Picks, Health, Labor, Budget, Taxes, Economy, Government Waste, Banking, Government Reform, Financial Services, Natural Resources, Bailouts, Hill Tweet News

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Senate Republicans on Tuesday complained about the rally atmosphere of a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on the “card check” method for forming labor union. A day later they released a video mash-up to emphasize their point.

The video showed committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, endorsing the applause and cheers of labor officials when they heard points they liked, but he drew the line at hostile vocal reactions to critics of the legislation.

“I don’t want to permit any hissing or booing or foot-stomping or throwing of things like that,” Harkin said. “I mean, there are limits as to what people can express here.”

Categories: Iowa, Tennessee, Vermont, Producer's Picks, Labor, Tom Harkin, Lamar Alexander, Bernie Sanders

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President Obama today lifted restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research that his predecessor imposed years ago. He also issued a presidential memorandum designed to prevent political interference in the scientific realm.

Categories: Producer's Picks, White House, Health, Technology, Social Policy, Culture

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UPDATE: I have moved the “Hill Tweet News” feature to Super Chirp, a service that lets Twitter users charge fees for direct messages sent through Twitter. To get Capitol Hill’s inside scoop from Twitter, please subscribe. “Hill Tweet News” is the best and quickest way to learn who sniped at whom, and why; what lawmakers did and said in committee, on the floor, on the news shows and elsewhere; and what articles, shows, Internet videos and more grabbed their attention.

The new media world is all about experimentation. Entrepreneurs are constantly testing ways of delivering information and making money to support their services. I haven’t used AirCongress as a testbed for a while, but Twitter has inspired me to launch a new media experiment.

I have had an AirCongress account on Twitter for a while now but only recently began using it. I realized that Twitter is a great venue not only for promoting blog entries on AirCongress but also for expanding the type of news information the site offers.

My first experiment was serial tweeting. Over two days, I posted to my account tweets that included the names, party identifications, states (plus districts for House members) and links to the channels of every lawmaker I could find who is currently using YouTube. Here are two samples from my Twitter profile:

GEORGIA: Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson is at www.youtube.com/Sena…

MINNESOTA: Rep. Keith Ellison (D-5th District) is at www.youtube.com/RepK…

The end result is a state-by-state list of every member of Congress currently on YouTube.

I also began “following” every member of Congress who uses Twitter. My initial goal was to more easily find their new audio and video clips to post on AirCongress. But when I realized that few tweets provide such links and that many other tweets have useful information, I decided to create a new feature on AirCongress.

It’s called “Hill Tweet News,” and I started it today.

Here’s how it will work: Each day I will read the tweets of lawmakers I follow on Twitter. I will then put my 18 years of editorial experience in covering Congress to use by picking the most insightful, informative, creative and even amusing tweets to highlight. That means anyone who follows @AirCongress will have a one-stop shop for getting a quick read on what lawmakers are saying on Twitter.

Now comes the business experiment. I will be tweeting daily, and often, so I have decided to charge for the service. Any member of Congress who wants to follow me can do so for free. But after a free, one-week test run, everyone else will have to pay a small subscription of $3 a month, or $36 a year, to subscribe. For that fee, you will get thousands of tweets, plus links to the latest blog posts at AirCongress.com.

I hope to create more features if this experiment is successful, so I encourage subscribers to share your ideas with me. Tell me what you think of this new service, and tell me how @AirCongress can add value for you.

Categories: AirCongress, Producer's Picks, Hill Tweet News

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Minority Leader John Boehner used a printout of the stimulus bill as a prop to chastise the House for voting on a measure “not one member” was given the time to read beforehand. The Ohio Democrat emphasized his point by tossing the stack of paper on the floor. See that video snippet below; Boehner’s full floor speech on the stimulus bill follows it.

Categories: Ohio, Producer's Picks, Budget, Economy, John Boehner

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