Senator Twitters Obama’s inauguration

McCaskill laments she can’t call her friend ‘Barack’ anymore

Inauguration 2009

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updated 1:52 p.m. ET Jan. 20, 2009

Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri used her close friendship with Barack Obama to give her constituents a front-row seat at the new president’s inauguration Tuesday.

McCaskill, not heretofore known as an early adopter of new technology, was using the Twitter Internet service to post updates throughout the day. She has been updating followers since Sunday's concert at the Lincoln Memorial — according to McCaskill, the highlight was the finale, featuring Pete Seeger.

The senator apparently has not taken quickly to Net-speak. Twitter.com limits users to 140 characters per message, accelerating the rise of text-message abbreviations, but McCaskill was resolutely plowing on in full sentences, complete with capitalization and the odd spelling error or two.

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McCaskill, who accompanied her friend “Barack” to a private prayer service at St. John’s Episcopal Church in the morning, lamented that the trip was the “last time I can cal [sic] him that.”

In other posts on her running feed, she identified Sens. Jim Webb, D-Va., and Jon Tester, D-Mont., as “my best buds.” When the combustible new White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, came into view, lawmakers greeted him with shouts of “Rahmbo!” McCaskill reported.

And the crowds in the city, she said, made Washington look like “Mardi Gras with no beads or nudity.”