Ask Roll Call: Twitter Q&A Transcript

By Christina Bellantoni

Posted January 14, 2011 at 6:19am

Roll Call on Thursday did an inaugural Q & A session with staff writer Steven T. Dennis. Since it was on Twitter, of course, his answers were kept to under 140 characters.

A transcript follows.

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Roll Call

Roll Call’s @steventdennis prepares to take your questions in 3, 2, 1 … https://twitpic.com/3pqcnr

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Roll Call

Welcome to Roll Call’s first Twitter Q&A w/ @steventdennis ! He covers the Senate but covered the House for 3.5 years

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Roll Call

Thanks for all your questions — let’s get started!

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Roll Call

RT @ktcochran12: @rollcall What do you think will be the biggest issue of the 112th Congress?

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Roll Call

.@ktcochran12 Spending, deficits to be biggest issues. Health care repeal will get attention but prob. isn’t going anywhere -@steventdennis

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Q2! RT @Westendorf: @rollcall When will you have an iPad app?

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Roll Call

.@Westendorf As 1st reporter to use an iPad to record a Senator in a press scrum, not soon enough! -@steventdennis (Ed. note: Stay tuned!)

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Q3: MT @Spinsterellla: Is this the same retreat that they invited the President to last year?

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.@Spinsterellla Yup — that’s the one. Last year’s was fascinating TV but I doubt GOP wanted repeat performance. -@steventdennis

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Roll Call

Q4! RT @southernxcross1: @rollcall will they have the guts to impeach obama?

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Roll Call

.@southernxcross1 Let’s turn impeachment question around — what for? Short answer: Not happening -@steventdennis

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Roll Call

Q5! MT @song1964 Can a regular person, such as myself, speak directly to Congress…Like Richard Simmons and Mr. Rogers did?

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Roll Call

.@Song1964 It’s pretty easy to talk to Member of Congress. Stake out their DC office. If u can’t get meeting, try hallway.

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.@song1964 Also asked re: immigration bill 4 gay couples. Short A: not going to happen. Other immig. tweaks possible -@steventdennis

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Q6! RT @PartyCompassion: @rollcall What kind of anti gun legislation is expected to come out of congress, and how strong will it be?

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Roll Call

.@PartyCompassion I don’t expect any gun control to reach Obama’s desk but bill banning big clips will get Dem push -@steventdennis

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Q7! MT @BrySimpson: @rollcall Steven, what are the chances of secret holds ending? If not, who is holding it up?

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Roll Call

.@BrySimpson I think secret holds are finally going way of the dodo. Very hard for Senators to justify secrecy. -@steventdennis

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Roll Call

Final question from Roll Call’s @cbellantoni — Steve, do you think M. Udall’s bipartisan seating proposal has chance of happening for SOTU?

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Roll Call

.@cbellantoni Not really. Members like their traditions. Some stake out seats hours in advance/get same ones year after year -@steventdennis (Ed. note: Dem support for idea gaining.)

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Roll Call

Thanks so much to @steventdennis for our debut Twitter Q&A — transcript to be posted later. See you next week for next installment.

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Roll Call

Roll Call’s White House reporter @jbendery will do the Q&A next week, likely topics, the upcoming State of the Union address.

Follow @rollcall on Twitter and follow our staff list for the full complement of reporters and editors.