Congress a-Twitter with comments on speech

WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Members of Congress, personal digital assistants in hand, provided running commentary on U.S. President Barack Obama's speech on the social network Twitter.

U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, among the first congressional members to embrace Twitter.com's technology, not only "tweeted" from the chamber but also loaded video updates to the site Qik.com as he made his way to the Capitol for Obama's address to the joint session of Congress, CNN reported.

Tech-savvy members offered their opinions -- some substantive, some sarcastic -- in the first-of-its-kind, multiple-source running commentary that took users of the social networking site inside the chamber, CNN said.

Montana Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg said the chamber was electric before Obama delivered his speech Tuesday.

After reviewing Obama's remarks as prepared for delivery, Texas Republican Rep. Michael C. Burgess tweeted, "Not much healthcare in tonight's speech it seems."

"Hold onto your wallet America," Culberson wrote about Obama's plans to extract the country out of a recession, CNN said.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., wrote just before the speech, "One doesn't want to sound snarky, but it is nice not to see (former Republican Vice President Dick) Cheney up there."

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., expressed excitement on seeing U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg attend the session following her pancreatic cancer operation.

"I did big wooohoo ... ," McCaskill wrote. "She looks good."