The Biggest Twitter Losers of 2011
With 2012 just four days away, we at The Hotline ask, Should old acquaintances be forgot? It is in this spirit that we countdown the top Twitter follies of 2011, in the realm of politics:
5. Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash.: Inslee, who is running for governor of the Evergreen State, began following an Internet pornography company earlier this year due to a "technical glitch," according to his campaign. At the time, the company had only four other followers, including @Webcamagent, @gods4legangles and @MiaDogTweets, whose profile states that Mia is "just a German Shepherd trying to run the world!"
4. Three former aides to Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash.: The three aides were fired earlier this month after they tweeted about drinking on the job, among other things. The tweets by former employee Seth Burroughs included references to Larsen as "my idiot boss," spelling "questions" as "qustions," and venting about how his mom "just yelled" at him. Don't worry taxpayers, he made sure to give you a shout out as well, tweeting "I hope you don't mind that I'm watching YouTube clips of Nirvana at my government job."
3. Massachusetts Republican strategist Eric Fehrnstrom: Fehrnstrom, an adviser to Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., was the man behind @CrazyKhazei, an account that was used to mock Alan Khazei, who at the time was a Democratic Senate candidate. As CrazyKhazei, Fehrnstrom promised to "devote all my time in office to making gay videos" and proudly announced he "just read Scott Brown's book. He isn't the only one who had it tough growing up. I once got a splinter."
Fehrnstrom's plan finally unraveled when he tweeted a "CrazyKhazei"-like tweet from his @EricFehrn account. Oops.
2. Missouri Republican Lt. Gov Peter Kinder: Kinder never seemed to learn from his social media missteps, tweeting on multiple occasions about questionable things. In November, he re-tweeted a message about free wings at Hooters on Veterans Day while he was still considering a run to challenge Missouri Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon. It was far from the first time Kinder's tweets were scrutinized. He had previously urged his followers to "vote for [a] hot wife in the Top 25 Political Mom blogs" a day after Missouri was hit by the deadliest tornado in nearly 60 years and tweeted about "hostage situation" in a government building in 2009 only to later discover the incident never occurred.
1. Former Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y.: Weiner's fall was by far the most highly-publicized Twitter-meets-politics story of the year. He resigned in June after acknowledging he engaged in inappropriate exchanges with women over Twitter, triggering a special election to fill his vacant seat.
The man who replaced Weiner -- Republican Rep. Bob Turner -- is likely to be a little bit more careful with his account. He had this to say after he was sworn in: "I do have a Twitter account. But I will use it fully clothed."
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