Ohio GOP House Speaker’s Twitter account hacked

• Tweet
• 
• 

• Tweet

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) isn’t the only politician to fall victim to a prank on Twitter recently.

Ohio state Republican House Speaker William G. Batchelder found out Monday that his Twitter account had also been hacked.

Mike Dittoe, communication director for the House Republican caucus, told The Columbus Dispatch that he got a call from a supporter Monday night telling him that there were unusual tweets from Batchelder’s account.

The liberal group ProgressOhio captured the hoax tweets before they could be deleted.

Republican Ohio Gov. “John Kasich’s many ‘half-truths’ reveal disturbing pattern of lies,” one tweet said.

Former Democratic Ohio “Governor Ted Strickland Celebrates Auto Industry Success, Calls Out Republicans on MSNBC,” another posting said.

“Wow!! Suddenly Bill Batchelder Supports @plunderbund @ohiodems @progressohio!?! #SB5 #standupoh #wearewohio,” ProgressOhio noted.

Twitter deleted the phony tweets after being contacted by House GOP legal counsel Michael Lenzo.

Batchelder said that he wasn’t even aware that he had a Twitter account.

“Well, I won’t do any more of this… Twittering?” he told reporters. “We’ll avoid that at all cost. I didn’t know I had such a device.”

But Dittoe said that the Twitter account was too valuable to give up and would most likely be reactivated soon.

“It’s growing in its importance,” he explained. “There are some people who, when they first heard of Twitter, they didn’t know what to make of it. But now, so many people are engaged with what is going on, and it’s as simple as sending a text message.”

Batchelder, who admits he is technologically “inept,” has been known to refer to laptops on lawmakers’ desks as “little televisions.”