Germany's Twittergate scandal

The German political establishment is all atwitter over Twitter. Senior members of parliament will launch an investigation today of an incident already dubbed "Twittergate" in which parlimantarians leaked news of German President Horst Kohler's reelection last Saturday before it had been made public:

Julia Klöckner, of chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU, told her Twitter “followers” on that afternoon: “People, you can watch the football in peace. The vote was a success.”

She later apologised for the “somewhat premature timing” of a message.

Ulrich Kelber, of the SPD, was even more specific, prematurely uploading the result of the vote-count to his micro-blog: “The count is confirmed: 613 votes. Köhler is elected.”