Today we're proud to unveil Politwoops, the only comprehensive collection of deleted tweets by U.S. politicians. From minor typos to major gaffes, Politwoops is now there to offer a searchable window into what they hoped you didn't see.

The project follows the official Twitter accounts of members of Congress, President Obama and the slew of presidential candidates to track whenever they delete a Tweet and record the elapsed time before removal. The growing collection of more than 3,000 tweets in the past six months includes screenshots of included links and has individual pages for each politician. The Politwoops archive serves as an illuminating rough draft of how politicians and campaigns hone their social media messaging and amend their record. The collection includes previously-reported episodes like Senator Chuck Grassley's hacked account and other deletions that slipped by unnoticed, like Representative Jeff Miller tweeting a link to a Facebook poll asking, "Was Obama born in the United States?"

There are humorous instances such as Representative Stephen Fincher comparing reality television show The Bachelor to the popular Hunger Games book series and embarrassingly honest moments like Senator John McCain mocking the tears of recently re-elected Russian president Vladimir Putin. There are humanizing typos sent from mobile devices and errant missives from staffers, such as Newt Gingrich's campaign account tweeting in the third person...or maybe that really was from Newt? Take some time to browse the current collection and check back often to find newly deleted tweets. What are the best ones you found?

The original version of Politwoops was developed by the Open State Foundation of The Netherlands to follow the country’s members of parliament and town council representatives. Twelve other international versions of the site exist, though not operated by Sunlight.

Image via flickr user Alex E. Proimos.

In the middle of December 2010 Andrew McKechnie, the top health care policy advisor to Senate Finance Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley, left Congress to join the lobbying firm Peck, Madigan, Jones & Stewart.

Grassley was the top Republican involved in the behind the scenes "Gang of Six" talks that ultimately led to the final template for health care reform enacted last year. The Peck, Madigan press release touts McKechnie's history of involvement in this process, "he brings the unique perspective of having been in the room for all the negotiations as well as Republican strategy sessions."

Peck, Madigan's client list from 2010 includes many health industry heavy weights who will benefit from McKechnie's knowledge of the law as it is implemented by the federal bureaucracy. Amgen, AstraZeneca, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Leon Medical Centers, Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers and WellPoint will all benefit from McKenchnie's knowledge and access.

We are another step closer to the end of secret holds in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has placed the Secret Holds Elimination Act on the Senate calendar making it easy for Reid to call the bill up for a vote. The Secret Holds Elimination Act would require senators to publicly disclose all holds placed on nominations and legislation. Here's the press release from Sen. Claire McCaskill's office:

Legislation authored by U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Chuck Grassley, (R-Iowa) and Claire McCaskill (D- Mo.) to eliminate a senator's ability to obstruct legislation in secret was placed on the Senate calendar today, opening the door for a definitive up or down vote on the legislation. The modified version of the "Secret Holds Elimination Act"- previously introduced by Wyden and Grassley - will require that all holds be submitted in writing and disclosed after one legislative day. ... The three have now joined forces to introduce a new version of the Secret Holds Elimination Act. The legislation will require that all holds on legislation and nominees be submitted in writing and automatically printed in the Congressional Record after one legislative day, whether the bill or nomination has been brought up for floor consideration or not. The latter provision will eliminate the all-too-common practice of secret holds being used to indefinitely prevent bills from reaching the Senate floor.

This is a nice piece of legislation from Sens. Ron Wyden and Chuck Grassley:

The Secret Holds Elimination Act would eliminate a Senator’s ability to indefinitely hold legislation in secret by requiring Senators to submit their holds to leadership in writing and to publically disclose all holds within two days whether or not the bill or nomination has been brought to the floor for consideration.  Leadership will only honor holds that they have in writing and that comply with the two day rule.

The Senate Agriculture Committee will take up a bill to regulate trading in derivatives in a markup today. The committee is a primary location for companies and individuals employed in the finance, insurance and real estate sector (FIRE) to send their campaign contributions. In 2009, members of the committee received a total exceeding $4.7 million, according to data obtained from the Center for Responsive Politics.

The leading recipient of contributions from the FIRE sector in 2009 is the junior Senator from New York, Kirsten Gillibrand. Gillibrand pulled in $1.2 million from the FIRE sector in 2009. Since New York is the home to the majority of finance and insurance companies, this comes as little surprise. Gillibrand is also raising money for her first Senate election campaign in 2010.

Appointed Senator Michael Bennet, of Colorado, received the second largest amount with a yield of $782,846 from the FIRE sector. Bennet faces a tough election race in both the primary and general elections. He also serves on the Banking Committee, which is the other Senate committee with oversight of financial regulation.

Committee chair Blanche Lincoln received the third most money from the FIRE sector with a haul of $691,500. Lincoln is facing one of the most difficult roads to reelection in the country this year and has been rapidly raising money. The bill being marked up in committee today was introduced by Lincoln, much to the dislike of the financial sector, last Friday.

South Dakota Senator John Thune pulled down $445,500 from the FIRE sector in 2009, making him the fourth biggest recipient on the committee. Thune pulled in this exceptional amount of money despite South Dakota Democrats not fielding a candidate to run against him.

Rounding out the top five is another candidate for reelection in 2010, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, who received $324,949 from the FIRE sector.

The Agriculture Committee occupies a special place in the world of finance as it maintains jurisdiction over the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which oversees and regulates futures and derivatives trading.

Since the end of July the Senate Finance Committee has been the focus of health care reform discussions. More specifically, the bipartisan "Gang of Six," organized by Sen. Max Baucus, has been working to formulate a health care compromise that some Republicans may be able to support. An analysis of voting agreement between the six senators involved in these discussions shows the likely futility of this effort as only one Republican shares similar voting patterns with the majority Democrats.

Sen. Olympia Snowe (subject of a voting agreement analysis here) is the only Republican in the "Gang of Six" with a substantial voting agreement with the Democrats involved. Snowe's agreement with the three Democrats, Sens. Baucus, Jeff Bingaman and Kent Conrad, is above 60% for all three, but below 60% for the other two Republicans, Sens. Mike Enzi and Chuck Grassley. This continues to underline the key role that Snowe can play in the health care reform plan's final structure.

Neither Grassley nor Enzi shares much in voting agreement with the Democrats in the "Gang". They both have voting agreements of 35% or less with the three Democrats. The lowest voting agreement for both is with Sen. Bingaman (23.4% for Enzi, 25.8% for Grassley).

Recently, Democrats have focused on only attracting one or two Republicans, Snowe being the highest target, to vote for the bill rather than pursuing the strategy that Baucus sought with the "Gang of Six" talks. These voting agreement numbers show that, aside from Sen. Snowe, the "Gang of Six" is intensely polarized in their voting patterns. The likelihood of bipartisan compromise was unlikely from the start of this process.

The above graphic was created using the New York Times Congress API and based on Nodebox code from Juice Analytics.

Yesterday, I posted about the mountain of health and insurance PAC money pouring into the 2010 reelection coffers of Sen. Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the ever-important Senate Finance Committee. That money came into his account like a flooding river, but the real torrent of funds comes in the waning days of June. Could this be because of these two fundraisers held for Sen. Grassley on June 22 and June 24?

From June 22 to the end of the month Sen. Grassley raised a total of $44,700. During this time he was the beneficiary of two fundraisers, one held by the lobbyist for an alternative health organization that has lampooned reform efforts, whose invites can be found at Sunlight's Party Time web site. Back in June, Nancy Watzman, at the helm of the Party Time blog, wrote about the June 24 event hosted by Sam Brunelli, lobbyist for the Whitaker Health Freedom Foundation:

Sam Brunelli, who works for the Whitaker Health Freedom Foundation, the political arm of the Freedom of Health Foundation, and his wife, Robin Read, are feting Grassley at a breakfast on June 24 at the Capitol Hill Club. The Foundation, headed by Dr. Julian Whitaker of dietary supplement fame, states it opposes the government and the pharmaceutical industry whenever they “suppress the truth about alternative medical therapies and/or nutritional supplementation.” Read is president and CEO of the Foundation for Women Legislators, which includes Dr. Whitaker on its board. The Freedom of Health Foundation did not return a call inquiring about the event. Brunelli is introduced as a lobbyist on the organization’s Web site, here; however there are no official records of his work at least as a federal lobbyist here, according to lobbyist disclosure reports. The most recent available tax forms filed by the Whitaker Health Freedom Foundation, the political arm, claim a budget of just $34,000 and make no mention of payments to staff. (See the organization’s 1998 990 form here.) Brunelli formerly served as executive director of the conservative group the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which works to advance conservative state legislators. He left the group in 1995 over charges of mismanagement and personal enrichment, according to a 1995 National Journal report.

The majority of the contributions coming in during this high water mark for Sen. Grassley's PAC fundraising came from health professional organizations, all of whom paid equal to or above the amount required for PACs to gain entrance to the fundraising parties on June 22 and June 24.

The amount raised over the final eight days in June accounts for over one-quarter of the health and insurance PAC money raised by Sen. Grassley in the second quarter. The other three quarters came over the course of 83 days. Knowing this, it appears that the two fundraisers had the desired effect.

As the debate over health care reform legislation has heated up over the spring and summer months, the Senate Finance Committee has found itself at the center of the debate. Leading this debate has been the duo of Max Baucus, committee chair, and Chuck Grassley, committee ranking member. According to campaign finance records filed with the FEC, the duo raised $219,000 from health and insurance political action committees (PACs) from April to June of this year.

The majority of that money was raised by Sen. Grassley, who is up for reelection in 2010 and could face a Republican primary battle. During the height of the debate over health care, Grassley pulled in $165,100 from health and insurance PACs. At the same time, Grassley's language turned from the cautious but open words about reform in 2008 to the abrasive Twitter rants of 2009.

Earlier in the year, Grassley teamed with Baucus to pass an extension of benefits in the State Childrens Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP). Now, the ranking Republican, while involved in bipartisan talks over a health reform bill, has become a forceful voice in opposition to all plans that have already passed out of other congressional committees and has taken to Twitter to attack President Obama and his call to get a bill completed sooner rather than later. Max Baucus, chair of the Finance Committee, to the chagrin of congressional Democrats has heeded Grassley's plea to slow down the health reform process. The Finance Committee is currently the only congressional committee still debating a bill. This is after holding ten hearings on health care reform in 2008 in preparation for the 2009 debate and holding eight hearings this year. Baucus, despite a pledge to not take health care PAC money after June 1 was still able to raise $55,000 from health care PACs in April and May alone. This is without being up for reelection until 2014.

The majority of the money to the two senators comes from health professionals and pharmaceutical companies. The biggest contributors include Aetna, American Academy of Family Physicians, National Health Underwriters and Healthsouth Corporation.

As the committee continues to debate into the fall, we'll have to wait and see if the PAC contribution continue to pour in. The next reporting date is October 15. By then, a compromise may have already been crafted or the bipartisan talks could have fallen apart.

Sen. Grassley's 2nd Quarter Contribution Total by Date (Dollars Over Time):

To see more on health care sector influence in the Senate Finance Committee, see our coverage here.

Sen. Grassley's 2nd Quarter Contributions: