Did tweet blow deal in Virginia Senate?

Oh, the double-edged sword of Twitter. It's not nice when it makes PR people and reporters look like asses, as Jennifer Leggio will post tomorrow.

But it's a whole new can o' beans when it affects political power. And yup, Twitter did in fact (or not - see below) alter the balance of power in Virginia (the state capital of which is Richmond, Va., for what it's worth) this week, as Talking Points Memo blogs:

Yesterday the Virginia GOP came very close to taking control of the state Senate, nearly luring a Democratic Senator to switch parties and put them at a 20-20 tie, which would have been broken by the Republican Lt. Governor. Then Jeff Frederick, a state legislator and the party chairman, ruined it all by Twittering this:

Big news coming out of Senate: Apparently one dem is either switching or leaving the dem caucus. Negotiations for power sharing underway.

The Dems then read the message, quickly mobilized to talk the renegade out of it, and stopped the GOP coup before it could happen.

Here's Frederick's exciting presence on Twitter, featuring such nail-biting updates as:

• Had great meeting; dinner @ Bookbinders; now at Lucky Strike/Cap Results party. Tired
• Meeting w/ Senator about a bill he wants me to support.

And then this intriguing post:

Meeting w/ HseMajLdr abt my senate post earlier.He gave me info, which came f/ a Senator who said it was public.

That will be a fun meeting.

At any rate Frederick pointed to a blog post from conservative Roanoke County, which says the whole Twitter story is b.s., that the Dems already knew about the rogue House member before Frederick ever Tweeted.

Even so, the strange power of Twitter is now well-established.