Note to Charlie Angus: Don't blame the medium for the message

Apparently emboldened by the public response to his comments in the House yesterday after the Dean del Mastro/Michelle Simson kerfuffle, he told the Globe that he's planning to ask the chair of the Canadian Heritage committee to impose a Twitter blackout during future meetings -- presumably on the honour system, since it doesn't sound like even Angus would be willing to turn over his BlackBerry to the clerk while the committee is in session. 

While it's easy to sympathize with his desire to shut down the "inane little games" that some parliamentarians end up playing when they venture into the twitterverse -- and Simson is far from the only (or even the worst) offender, as far as that goes -- it would be a shame if a blanket ban on twitter deprived the rest of us of its unique ability to give us a periscopic peek inside the minds of our elected officials. 

What do you think, commenters? Should the committee table be a tweet-free zone? Or should MPs be encouraged to share their idle musings on whatever strikes their fancy, whether the affairs of the day or the look on the face of the MP on the other side of the committee table?