Congressional Moron Puts Troops' Lives At Risk

As you may have heard, Representative Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich) is in a bit of hot water right now. The Congressman, who is the ranking minority member of the House Intelligence Committee, posted a number of updates to his Twitter page while in Baghdad recently.

The Congressman's motivation? Apparently, his constituents' need to know outweighs mundane concerns like operational security:

The spokesman, Dave Yonkman, added: "He believes in giving people in West Michigan as much access as possible, and posting on Twitter allows him to provide real-time insight into the sights and sounds of his congressional activities."

The Congressional Twitt has gone on to attempt to evade responsibility by using a defense that he probably first learned on the playground: "But, Mommy, they're doing it, too!":

Rep. Pete Hoekstra says he did nothing wrong. He pointed to announcements by other high-ranking officials, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which list the countries they plan to visit.

Of course, when Members of Congress give press conferences from the combat zone, they don't typically provide minute-by-minute details about where they are, and what they're doing. I can't recall of an instance when I've seen a report in the press that includes lines like:

Just landed in Baghdad.

or:

Spelling mistakes. Sorry but riding in poor light, bouncing around,speed not accuracy.

The Congressman was clearly riding around Iraq with his thumbs disengaged from his brain. If you want proof of that, you need look no farther than this:

Hoekstra said he has "no idea" whether his military escorts knew he was updating his Twitter page and was never asked to stop.

And there's the critical difference between Hoekstra's moronitude and prior press conferences from Iraq. When a Congresscritter gives a press conference in Iraq, the people who are putting their lives on the line to provide protection know what's going on and can plan accordingly. When they don't know that you're broadcasting your movements to the world, they can't, and the risk to you and them increases.

Frankly, Congressman, if you want to increase the risk to yourself, I could give a damn. But our troops face enough risks out there without you adding to them through sheer, inexcusable stupidity. They deserve an apology. Right now, the most you've offered is an excuse.

More like this

Like many others around the blogosphere, I'm finding it quite amusing that the Congressional leadership has finally found an exercise of executive law enforcement authority frightening enough to get upset about - unfortunately, it took a raid on a Congressman's office to do it. The FBI raid on Rep…
The congresscritter in question being Sherwood Boehlert, who represented New York's 24th Congressional district (1983-2007), and chaired the House Science Committee (2001-2007). Boehlert offers this advice in a video called "Speaking for Science: Bringing Your Message to Policymakers," available…
The new classified National Intelligence Estimate on the situation in Iraq, according to sources in the government, is very pessimistic about the outcome of our policies in Iraq: The estimate outlines three possibilities for Iraq through the end of 2005, with the worst case being developments that…
I am often heard complaining that reporters, by and large, are lapdogs, not watchdogs. They sit there day after day, press conference after press conference, and dutifully report what they're told without ever bothering to tell you what they know and we all should know - that what we're being told…

Hoekstra is known around here as something of a fool (more serious than idiot). He's not very bright, clearly, although I don't consider him dishonest.

That said, I agree, I don't care if he puts himself into a little extra risk, but he's really an asshole for the fact he adds to the risk of the troops just so he can be considered popular and hip.

Once again, twitter has proven that it is useless at best and a hazard at most to society.

"Twitter: Keeping tabs on yourself so the government doesn't have to"

Also, I can't help but share his most recent twitter post. Punctuation included.

"Stimulus deal?Sounds like it.Vote tomorrow?We'll spend 800 billion without knowing what's in it.Very disappointing and uncertain."

"Twitter: Keeping tabs on yourself so the government doesn't have to"

I want that on a T-shirt.