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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa caused a media stir this weekend with a few angry tweets aimed at Pres. Barack Obama.

Yes, tweets. As in electronic messages of 140 or less characters posted on Twitter, the popular social networking Web site.

Grassley of Iowa is the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee — one of four key groups that is shaping U.S. health care reform. Judging by his tweets, he was a big peeved that Pres. Obama spent the weekend in Paris while charging Congress to get the health care overhaul done back home, according to an Associated Press story in the Washington Post.

Grassley’s attitude is important because hope for a bipartisan answer to the nation’s health care woes from the Senate Finance Committee rests with him and Sen. Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, according to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required).

MedCity News follows Sen. Grassley on Twitter. He’s given us a fascinating and down-to-earth look at what it’s like to be a powerful senator in Washington during times of change. The Wall Street Journal Health blog lists a number of his health care tweets.

Since the media and the Twitter public have made such a big deal out of Grassley’s tweets, however, he’s stopped tweeting. He also appears to have wiped out his Twitter news feed. Our loss.

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