The Week on Politwoops: A Halloween Dog, Inside a Caucus Meeting and Much More

by
A photo of a dog wearing a cowboy hat that was deleted from the Twitter feed of Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick.
Deleted dog photo via Politwoops

It was a busy and image-filled week on Politwoops! Here’s your review of the recent notable deleted tweets from politicians captured and archived by the project.

Governor Deval Patrick, D-Mass., deleted an adorable picture of dog in a hat that was tweeted from his official @MassGovernor account on Halloween that read: “Happy Halloween from Woody! @jessemermell where’s Isabella’s costume?” The @jessemermell account mentioned in the deleted message belongs to his communications director who we discovered after some important research, shares cute pictures of her dog, Isabella, also named in the deleted tweet.

In the Virginia Governor’s race, the press account for libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis deleted a retweet of someone who reached out to him with an unusual image attachment. The tweet read “Hey @RobertSarvisVA, check this out” and included an illustration that is better seen than described. The image originally comes from the cover art made by Ed Harrington for a feature in Richmond’s Style Weekly entitled “Can Anyone Stop Ken Cuccinelli? Here’s how Virginia’s radical, pro-life, pro-gun attorney general will take over the Governor’s Mansion.”

Rep.  Linda T. Sánchez's account shares an image from inside a Ways and Means Caucus meeting.
Deleted photo via Politwoops

The Twitter account of Rep. Linda T. Sánchez, D-Calif., deleted a tweet saying “At Ways and Means Caucus meeting working on strengthening Medicare. So many acronyms so little time. #SGR” and a behind-the-scene image inside the meeting seen to the left.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote about a deletion found on Politwoops from Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., that was a retweet celebrating U.N. Day from the official United Nations Twitter account. The article mentioned how Rep. Kingston is running for Senate against Rep. Paul Broun, R-G., who has made calls for the U.S. to leave the U.N. and for the U.N. to leave U.S. soil. The author of the piece, Jim Galloway, suspects this deletion from Rep. Kingston is out of political caution as Broun’s anti-U.N. stance has “set a fresh bar for what can and can’t be said in a GOP primary.” Other mentions of Politwoops include Twitchy writing about Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., rethinking a tweet saying Winston Churchill was the “!ohner Lgreatest friend AmerM ever had” and Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, deleting a mix-up of Bangors’s City Hall with Portland’s and his response to the Twitter user who pointed the mistake out.

In case you miss it, yesterday we covered the systematic deletions of old tweets from the account of Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and now it looks like that policy is no longer in place following our inquiry. Politwoops will serve as the only archive of what was deleted and it’s always interesting to see how congressional offices grapple with social media usage.

Keep your eyes on Politwoops to catch the latest messaging changes and perhaps more cute dog photos from politicians. Latest additions to our tracking system include Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., who was somehow left out and Chris McDaniel, a Mississippi Republican state senator now running for the U.S. Senate.