Eric B. at Michigan Liberal puts the punchline on Peter Hoekstra’s unconstrained Twittering by citing a 2006 op-ed column the Republican legislator wrote for the LA Times about the importance of protecting national security secrets from being released publicly. That column contained statements like this:
 

We are a nation at war. Unauthorized disclosures of classified information only help terrorists and our enemies – and put American lives at risk.

Hoekstra’s office, meanwhile, says the fact that he Twittered the actual location of the helicopter bearing a Congressional delegation in Baghdad and details of their itinerary is no big deal:

“As the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Congressman Hoekstra is fully aware of security issues when travelling abroad. He believes in giving people in West Michigan as much access as possible, and posting on Twitter allows him to provide real-time insight into the sights and sounds of his congressional activities.”

Right. And Hoekstra obviously knows better than those tasked with guarding the Congressional delegation, who specifically advised members of the delegation not to tell anyone about the trip at all, much less the exact location and itinerary. One question comes to mind though: If Hoekstra really thinks he didn’t do anything wrong and he really believes that “giving people in West Michigan as much access as possible” trumps the security of his fellow legislators traveling in a war zone, why did he remove those posts from his Twitter account? Answer: He doesn’t. He knows he screwed up, badly. He just can’t admit that.