One of the modern day dynamics of the House Speaker transition between Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner is the handing over of something much more far-reaching than the Speaker’s gavel: the “Speaker” handle on Twitter.
Late Tuesday evening, hours before the Wednesday kick-off of the 112th Congress, Rep. Pelosi dutifully ceded the use of @SpeakerPelosi in exchange for @NancyPelosi. Meanwhile, @JohnBoehner remains to be actively used by the entering Speaker (he also used @GOPLeader, but that account has been handed over to Majority Leader-elect Eric Cantor), while @SpeakerBoehner appears to be locked for eventual use by the Ohio congressman became the Ohio congressman’s active account Wednesday morning.
Pelosi, tweeting about the shift in Twitter handle, celebrated the occasion by declaring the two character shortening a victory for “RTers” (retweeters, or someone who copies another’s tweet to their own feed):
“I’m now @NancyPelosi – 2 characters shorter than @SpeakerPelosi. RTers rejoice!”
“RTers” won’t be the only ones rejoicing. Twitter users wishing to send a message directly to the Minority Leader-elect now have two more characters to use.
Follow Vince Coglianese on Twitter
