GOP Lawmaker Twitters About Meeting with Obama

ABC News’ Matt Jaffe reports from Washington: While President Obama, behind closed doors, pitched his $825 billion stimulus bill today to House Republicans, who have been uniting opposition to it, one GOP lawmaker wasted no time in filling the rest of the world in on the developments.

As first noticed by TIME Magazine, Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., was busy sending out messages on his Twitter page, a website that allows users to post updates on what they are doing.

At the start of the meeting, Hoekstra sent out his first note on the proceedings, taking a dig at Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

"Meeting w the President. Gave a very gracious opening statement. His speech doesn’t match the process that Pelosi and Reid are implementing."

Minutes later, more from Hoekstra…

"President’s tone is very open and participative. I hope he can pull it off. He’s very good! Very engaging! I’ll post summary when its over."

And afterwards, a succinct summary from the Michigan lawmaker.

"Very impressive session with Republican House members. If President carries this on it does open door for a new tone! Let’s hope! Nice job!"

Hoekstra started using Twitter over the summer, but his site really took off in August when the lawmaker sent updates from the Capitol when Democrats turned off the lights, microphones, and cameras as part of an energy debate.

As Republicans pressed on, despite the situation, Hoekstra wrote, "Shame! Shame! Capital Hill police working under strict orders to shut Capital down at 430pm today. Speaker Pelosi wants this shut down now."

"Crwod. Vote! Vote! Vote! Vote! Vote! Vote! Vote! They got the message."

He concluded, "Standing applause for last speaker. People on the floor cheering wildly. They love it. They’re into it."

From that point on, his site’s numbers shot up. At present, Hoekstra has 1,795 followers.

- Matt Jaffe