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Throw a bunch of fiery politicians into the powder keg that is the Internet and it’s only a matter of time before something explodes. And so it was today on Twitter, when Sen. John McCain posted to the mini-blog service his latest Top 10 list decrying wasteful “pork” projects in the omnibus spending bill now before Congress.

The Arizona Republican posted his first anti-pork list under the Twitter name @SenJohnMcCain late last week, calling attention to projects like $650,000 for beaver management and $1.7 million for pig odor research. He brought the Top 10 list “back by popular demand” the first two days of this week. The project in the No. 1 slot today: “$951,500 for the Oregon Solar Highway.”

That dishonor didn’t sit well with Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer, whose home state stands to benefit from the earmark. Tweeting as @repblumenauer, he mocked McCain.

“McCain wasn’t familiar with a Blackberry [during the 2008 presidential campaign], right?” tweeted Blumenauer, who quickly issued a press release celebrating earmarks for Oregon when the House passed its version of the spending bill last week. “How’s he supposed to understand a solar highway utilizing right-of-way to generate solar power?”

McCain is known for a fiery temper, but he’s obviously got nothing on Blumenauer.

Blumenauer, by the way, also had this to tweet about Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal last week after Jindal delivered the GOP response to President Barack Obama’s address to Congress: “Jindal is weird. I can’t believe Jindal. Such a sad contrast with President. Doesn’t even look or sound good, to say nothing about content.”

I have a feeling it won’t be long before some lawmaker has to issue a public apology for something he or she says on Twitter.

Categories: Arizona, Louisiana, Oregon, Technology, Sen. John McCain, Energy, Budget, Earl Blumenauer, Bobby Jindal, Hill Tweet News

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Wanna know what lawmakers are doing today? What they’re saying in committee, on the floor, on the news shows and elsewhere? What articles, shows, Internet videos and more grab their attention? Who’s sniping at whom, and why? Get the inside scoop at “Hill Tweet News,” a Twitter-based service of AirCongress.

Here are today’s Top 5 tweets, with a complete recap of the latest edition of “Hill Tweet News” in the extended entry:

• Today’s #1 pork project is $951,500 for the Oregon Solar Highway. See @SenJohnMcCain for the rest of the list.
• RT @repblumenauer McCain wasn’t familiar with a Blackberry right? How’s he supposed to understand a solar highway.
• RT @clairecmc Voted yes on McCain amendment. Awkward when I disagree with party leadership but I think McCain is right.
• RT @donmanzullo I will continue to help lead coalition fighting latest US job-killing “patent reform” bill.
• @ChuckGrassley wants you to read this article about him: tinyurl.com/cosyyw. The lead: “You cannot escape the man.”

More after the jump »

Categories: Arizona, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Oregon, Sen. John McCain, Energy, Budget, Economy, Earl Blumenauer, Intellectual Property, Claire McCaskill, Hill Tweet News, Don Manzullo, Chuck Grassley

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AirCongress today began tracking the best “tweets” that members of Congress post to Twitter, a mini-blog service that limits posts to 140 characters. Some of the AirCongress posts will be word-for-word “retweets” of what the lawmakers wrote (the abbreviation for a retweet is RT); others will summarize the content of one or more tweets on the same subject.

This new feature is called “Hill Tweet News,” or HTN for short.

As part of the service, each day at AirCongress.com I will post a sample of the latest tweets from @AirCongress and a button so readers can subscribe to @AirCongress in order to access the full version of HTN via Twitter.

Here are the samples from today’s first edition of the new weekday feature:

@askgeorge is dining with Obama on Wednesday and soliciting questions. Topics — economy, health care, education.

RT @TomCoburn Was just shut out from offering amendments on the Floor to the omnibus.

RT No. 1 pork project for today is $951,500 for Sustainable Las Vegas. See @SenJohnMcCain for the other nine.

Click the button below to subscribe to “Hill Tweet News” and get access to the other news and information available through @AirCongress, including links to the YouTube channels for members of Congress.

It’s free for the first week, and after that, the introductory rate is only $3 a month. But subscribe now before the fee increases!

Categories: AirCongress, Arizona, California, Oklahoma, Health, Tom Coburn, Sen. John McCain, Budget, Education, Economy, George Miller, Hill Tweet News

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That’s what Republican presidential candidate John McCain said about Russian President Vladimir Putin, just named “Person Of The Year” by Time magazine, back in 2000 when both McCain and Putin were running for president of their respective countries.

“Yeah, I would meet with him as a candidate,” McCain said in a South Carolina primary debate with then-candidate George W. Bush, “but I think what I would really like to do is send a message to Mr. Putin that we expect certain behavior out of the Russians.”

The video clip was posted to YouTube this week and has earned McCain praise from some bloggers as a foreign policy prophet of sorts. “I have my problems with McCain on domestic policy issues,” wrote Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit, “but on national security and foreign policy he’s good, and this video makes you wonder how he would have done had he won in 2000.”

Bloggers at Eye On ‘08, RedState and Townhall.com also commented on the video.

Categories: Arizona, Sen. John McCain, John McCain, Foreign Affairs

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TechCrunch today added John McCain to its list of blogger “gets” in the Republican presidential field, interviewing the Arizona senator about the activities of technology firms in China and visas for high-skilled foreigners, among other topics.

The interview with McCain followed one several days ago with Mitt Romney, one of McCain’s rivals for the GOP nomination.

Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine sees TechCrunch’s series of interviews with presidential candidates as a noteworthy milestone for new media.

“It’s just a blog. It’s just a tech blog,” Jarvis said. “But it’s powerful and has an important audience in a critical industry. So candidates are paying attention. That and 10Questions and the YouTube debates are evidence of a political process that’s just beginning to open up.

Next on TechCrunch’s list is Democrat John Edwards, but he apparently agreed to only a written question-and-answer session with the tech Web site. How very 20th century of him.

Categories: Arizona, Labor, Technology, Sen. John McCain, Civil Liberties, Taxes, John McCain, Trade, Foreign Affairs, Intellectual Property, Crime, 10Questions

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