The website The Politico ranks Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley as one of the top ten "Most Influential Twitterers" in the nation’s capitol. Twitter is a high-tech means by which information, in 140 characters or less, can be zapped from one person to thousands, even millions.
Grassley, who’s 75, says he’s quickly adapted to the new mode of mass communication and swears it’s himself, not a staff member, making the posts. "I do it through my Blackberry and I carry my Blackberry with me all the time and I don’t have staff with me much of the time and so what you see is Chuck Grassley," he says. "I do know how to spell but I use short cuts. Once in a while, I hit the wrong key and I don’t correct it."
Grassley says he was surprised to hear that he ranks seventh on the top ten Twitter list, alongside other political powerhouses like Barack Obama, Karl Rove, Al Gore and Newt Gingrich.
"I do it because it’s possible for me to give an instantaneous impression or thought that I have to other people that might be interested," Grassley says. Today, for example, he’s Twittering about being on CNBC and some people might want to take a look.
Yesterday, Grassley says, he posted some thoughts about things Iowans brought up during a series of town hall meetings last week. Politico-dot-com says Grassley’s "tweets" are "personal in an Iowan way: friendly but dry." Grassley says he tries to latch on to ways that help him keep in touch with the people who elected him.
Grassley says: "It helps me to make the process of representative government work. I’m one half of that process. My constituents are the other one-half. Anything I can get them to think about the governmental process I think strengthens our system of government." If you’d like to be included in Grassley’s next post, log on to: " www.twitter.com/chuckgrassley ".