What do Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel and Senate President Steve Sweeney have in common?
If you believe what you read on Twitter, they’re both foul-mouthed backstabbers with no filter on their 140 character thoughts.
But what the two politicos really have in common is that each has a fake tweeter who purports to be the real deal. The twitter handle @SenSweeney has been unleashing a tirade this morning on fellow Democrats, reporters and Lt. Gov Kim Guadagno.
The pseudo-Sweeney began his day professing his love for rapper 50 Cent, but asks his followers not to tell the folks at the union hall. He then moved on to his own profile picture, saying his choice was between a “GQ” picture of himself that the Lt. Governor is particularly fond of and another where he is sporting a moustache.
Fake Sweeney said he had decided on the ‘stache picture until senate Democratic staffer Kevin Hagan waved him off.
“When a guy worked for McGreevey gives you fashion advice, you take it my friends,” tweeted the faux senate president.
The tweeter then moves on to redistricting where he tells his sole follower, “I’m like just give me a map that “F***s Codey and we’ll call it a day.”
The latest tweet is a shot at a Star Ledger reporter over a story published yesterday on Sweeney’s healthcare bill. “…articles like this are how you wind up a night editor in Salina, KS,” fake Sweeney said.
The tweets are riddled with typos and misspellings, which the account holder attributes to his “ironworker sausage fingers.”
But if the poser thinks he’s the first to come up with the idea, he’s off by a long shot.
In January, a twitter account with the handle MayorEmanuel appeared on the scene and began tweeting expletive filled missives purporting to be from the ex-presidential chief of staff. The account gained thousands of followers in a matter of days. As of this morning the account had nearly 50,000 followers.
That account became the topic of fierce speculation over who was behind it. Emanuel offered to donate $5,000 to charity if the masked mayor revealed himself. @Mayor Emanuel eventually outed himself as Dan Sinker, a Columbia College journalism professor. The real Emanuel and the impostor appeared together earlier this month on WLS Radio in Chicago.
Emanuel reportedly thought the account was “hilarious.”
We’ll see if Sweeney, who has told reporters he’s no fan of Twitter, feels the same.
A spokesman for the senate president had no comment.
