Home Politics 

Story

Congress Green Lights YouTube Channels

Members Can Post Videos; Viewers Can Comment

Posted: 6:25 am PST January 13, 2009Updated: 6:50 am PST January 13, 2009

Tuesday morning's most popular videos on YouTube included actor Mickey Rourke thanking Bruce Springsteen at the Golden Globes for his song "The Wrestler" in Rourke movie of the same name, advice on how to use a blackboard eraser to cheat on a test, and the band Forever The Sickest Kids performing "She's A Lady."

Pretty soon, the list may include Rep. Barney Frank's Top 5 Wall Street bailout questions answered, Rep. Tom Tancredo's latest speech inveighing against illegal immigration, or Rep. Paul Broun recently anointing a doorway on at the U.S. Capitol because America's leaders "need to serve the Lord Jesus Christ."

Or maybe not.

But either way, a new YouTube video service being launched by Congress will give all 535 members a new platform for things like messages crafted specifically by the lawmaker to let the folks back home know what they're doing.

Viewers of the YouTube sites will then be able to leave their reactions to what they see.

To make this happen, the House and Senate adjusted their rules last week to let members, who all have their own official Web sites, post material on a third-party Web site, such as YouTube.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was the first to use YouTube nearly three years ago, and her Republican counterpart, John Boehner, is not about to be left behind. He's already posted nearly a hundred videos on his YouTube Web site.