Harry Reid joins ranks of posters on Twitter

By Lisa Mascaro

Thursday, June 11, 2009 | 9:08 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Look who’s Twittering now.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, an aficionado of the ever-brief quip, has joined those posting their thoughts in 140 characters or less.

Reid’s entrée into the Twittering class comes none too soon. At one point, he was the No. 1 lawmaker tweet lovers wanted to hear from.

Most of the tweets will be posted by the senator’s staff -- not quite the spirit of the medium, but more often the practice among lawmakers in Washington.

Republican Sen. John Ensign is a voracious tweeter. (“Just saw the premier of Night at the Museum 2. All the stars were there. It's better than the first one ... very creative, funny lines”) but most of his tweets still go through his press-office filter.

Still a slim few tweets will come from the majority leader himself. For those who enjoy Reid at his unfiltered best, look for the entries that begin, “From Reid:…”

But don’t expect too many super-Reid-isms – even those tweets will pass through staff for posting.

Reid, up for re-election in 2010, is apparently betting the reaching the masses will outweigh the risk of posting a gaffe. And he clearly is not heeding the advice of others who have suggested recently, and not too delicately, that Twittering should be left to others, lest it be a career hazard.

All of this, of course, now poses a challenge for whomever has been tweeting at the Not-Harry-Reid Twitter site.