Meghan McCain Says Karl Rove and HuffPo are 'Twitter Creeps'

And I, apparently, am not.

Meghan McCain, the darling of the Twitter set, writes today at The Daily Beast that certain of her Twitter followers creep her out. The first one she mentions is, surprisingly, Karl Rove. The surprise is that it took Twitter to show her that Rove is creepy. From Daily Beast, with a hat tip to The College Politico:

Karl Rove follows me on Twitter. That's creepy. I joined Twitter a few months ago; so far, it has been a liberating way to transition from political to personal blogging. It's allowed me to share the less serious aspects and humorously uncensored moments of my life. But there's also been a downside: I am now being followed by Karl Rove, and my local sheriff, and God knows how many other political pundits. We need to take Twitter back from the creepy people.

Meg's local sheriff is Joe Arpaio, which shows that Meg is an excellent judge of her creeps.

She also lashes out at media outlets that blast her Tweets in headlines. OK, that's a little uncomfortable. She singles out Huffington Post:

Certain media outlets seem to want to ruin it for the rest of us, too. I was shocked when Think Progress and The Huffington Post reported on one of my Tweets-and even more shocked when HuffPo made it their front-page story. I replied "Hey HuffPo, I am Twittering in bed in my pajamas, wanna report that too?" It went unanswered, of course.

I'm assuming I am exempt from this category, since Meg read and enjoyed my story several hours before writing this one. Admittedly, neither HuffitPo nor Think Progress had that awesome picture of Brit Ekland, which makes the whole thing worthwhile.

As I've said before, I like Meghan McCain, I think she's good for America and good for Republicans. I disagree with her assessment of Twitter journalism a little. I think you have to evaluate these things on the merits.

Think Progress and HuffPo were reporting her response to Laura Ingraham's ridiculous slam on Meg's weight. That's unquestionably newsworthy. Perhaps it was Jason Linkins' dissection of her later Tweets that got under her skin:

Okay, now Meghan is Twittering, "Song of the Day: "Milkshake" by Kelis :-) in honor of girls who work it!" Look, Megs, you've got a good thing going right now, but let's not OVERPLAY OUR HAND, okay?

When you have to put up with heaps of abuse from your own side, you can be forgiven a little bit of sensitivity, I think.

Still, in defense of Twitter journalism, these 140 character blurts are part of the permanent record, and while not always earth-shattering, Twitter stories can be revealing.

For example, I did a story about Newt Gingrich's cynical and gutless attempt to score political points from Barack Obama's refusal to endanger an American hostage with a gun at his head. If Newt wants to blast the President on this public forum, I get to call him out for it. I don't know if he got my response, but he sure toned it down on TV the next day.

Markos Moulitsas repeated a joke that shamed the liberal movement that he figureheads, and again, I reported it because, as a liberal, I wanted people to know that we don't march in lockstep when one of our own does something wrong.

As for Meg, I just loved the attitude of her Tweet. I thought it summed up nicely the fact that simply being herself has become an act of defiance. Just as I've been saying that the Democrats need to at least listen to the Tea Partiers with whom they disagree, so should the Republicans listen to Meghan McCain.

Tommy on: Daily Dose:

• Newt Gingrich Nailin' Sarah Palin's Political Coffin Shut
• New York Times: Ann Coulter's Makeup Takes 40 Minutes

Tommy on: Twitter