Georgia Tipsheet

In the early morning hours of Wednesday, an anonymous critic of Republican Lee Anderson created a Twitter profile that, at least on first glance, was identical to the Republican’s official footprint on the microblogging network.

It had the same background, profile picture and even a similar identifier. But the 140-character missives it contained were especially nasty.

Some of the comments commended the picketing of Westboro Baptist Church, a fundamentalist group that protests the funerals of slain soldiers, while other still made bigoted comments about women and Jews.

@godhatesfagswbc When’s the next protest? Some Marines just recently died I think in the district. We can protest and then eat at @chickfila

— Lee Anderson (@voteleeanderson) August 22, 2012

@adl_national I ask you all for the sake of your eternal salvation to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Jews make God angry.

— Lee Anderson (@voteleeanderson) August 22, 2012

@reportr1 @votelee I think you should stop being a little bitch and know your place as a woman.

— Lee Anderson (@voteleeanderson) August 22, 2012

Anderson narrowly earned a majority in the Tuesday Republican runoff contest, edging rival Rick Allen by just 150 votes in uncertified returns.

UPDATE: Twitter suspended the Anderson doppelgänger overnight on Wednesday for an apparent violation of the network’s terms of service, which forbids impersonations.

Georgia’s politicians turned en masse to the popular micro-blogging platform Twitter on Friday to express horror at the Colorado shooting that claimed the lives of 12 and left nearly 40 others injured in an early morning shooting at a suburban movie theater.

An aggregation of the pols’ reax, uniformly expressing solidarity with the dead and injured and the families of both still grappling with the tragic news:

I am deeply saddened at the horrible tragedy and senseless loss of life in Colorado last night.My prayers go… fb.me/1O3jfopf3

— Saxby Chambliss (@SaxbyChambliss) July 20, 2012

Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and families of Aurora.

— Sam Olens (@samolens) July 20, 2012

Saddened to learn of the horrible tragedy in CO – my thoughts and prayers are with the victims, families and the entire community.

— Tom Price (@RepTomPrice) July 20, 2012

My thoughts and prayers are with the people affected by the tragedy in Aurora, Colorado last night.

— Tom Graves (@RepTomGraves) July 20, 2012

My thoughts and prayers are w/ the victims & their families of this tragedy in Aurora, CO. We stand ready to support you in any way we can.

— John Barrow (@repjohnbarrow) July 20, 2012

The families and people of Aurora, CO are in my thoughts and prayers on this somber morning. #theatershooting

— Kasim Reed (@KasimReed) July 20, 2012

My thoughts and prayers are with Aurora, CO.May God be your comfort and strength during this difficult time of mourning.

— Martha for Congress (@Martha4Congress) July 20, 2012

What a horrible situation in Colorado. Thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families. #theatershooting

— Herman Cain (@THEHermanCain) July 20, 2012

- James Richardson

Newt Gingrich might be having some misgivings about the shared lineup for his Wednesday appearance on “The Tonight Show,” where he’s slated to share a spot on the famed couch with MTV reality television star Snooki.

The Peach State pol tweeted a plug for the appearance alongside the “Jersey Shore” starlet on Tuesday, but only hours later deleted the note.

Fortunately the Sunlight Foundation–which captures the mini missives, especially those since expunged, of current and former members of government–catalogued it for posterity’s sake.

On a scale of 0-to-Anthony Weiner, the Georgian’s Twitter escapades registers at most a 1.

- James Richardson

U.S. Rep. Paul Broun’s GOP primary challenger Stephen Simpson fell victim on Friday to a common Twitter phishing scheme in which users are duped into sharing platform credentials.

After receiving a seemingly-personal note in which a masked link is provided, unassuming users are prompted to provide their username and password on an interface that mirrors Twitter’s web client because their “session has expired.”

The Tipsheet (@GeorgiaTipsheet) received an in-service message on Friday indicating Team Simpson had joined the legion of hoodwinked tweeters, though it’s unlikely the candidate himself fell for the scam, as his presence on the micro-blogging network relays campaign events in a third-person narrative.

But at least he’s in good company: Simpson’s campaign alerted one follower just last month that they had been deceived by one such scam.

@JeffreyHarveyFB I think that your account was hacked earlier today. You might want to change your twitter password if you haven’t already.

— Stephen Simpson (@SKSimpson2012) May 27, 2012

Even as Simpson’s Twitter travails have fizzled, his stump stingers are passing muster with the truthiness arbiters at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Politifact.

The fact-checking outfit rated as mostly true Simpson’s claim that “nothing [Rep. Broun] has introduced has ever passed.”

- James Richardson