Today, TIME published a story by Jay Newton-Small called, “Congress’s New Love Affair with Twitter, for Better or Worse.”

I encourage you to read the story for yourself, but here is a quick summary…the story begins by sharing a story about Representative Pete Hoekstra from Michigan (@petehoekstra) and how sent tweets about his recent trip to Baghdad. Congratulations Rep. Hoekstra! Here’s to a new generation of political leaders truly engaging with their constituents – transparent, engaged in conversation & readily available!

Following this pattern (next generation of politicians), the story leads into President Obama’s remarkable use of social media during his presidential campaign. Surprisingly, the story suggests that there are a total of 65 Representatives on Twitter but most have various staffers managing these profiles (perhaps more of a one-way conversation than preferred).

The story continues on to share the various ways that Twitter is being used by various political entities and politicians. During the recent closed meetings with President Obama & Congress to discuss our nation’s stimulus package to the recent Alfalfa Club Dinner attended by Gov. Sarah Palin, President Obama & SC Chief Justice John Roberts. Such a great story concluded by this paragraph:

“Of course, if you’ve ever spent any time on Facebook or Twitter, you know that much of what people post is simply the boring minutia of daily life. Did we really need to know what Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley was doing for New Year’s? (“I didn’t stay up to see Ball drop. I will watch Hawkeyw ftball. Otherwise read. Not a very exciting new year celebration but tradition for me.”) Or that McCaskill broke her diet on Saturday and had a chocolate mousse with raspberry sauce? Probably not, but if Americans really want an unvarnished look at their elected Representatives, perhaps such mundane details are the price of admission.”

I applaud each politician actually leveraging Twitter & encourage each of your to ask your Representatives to join the party:)