Nancy Pelosi. Barbara Boxer. Joe Wilson. Besides frequenting top news searches, at least as of late, what do these congresspersons have in common?

Twitter accounts -- and there's good reason why they and their fellow Congress-mates probably shouldn't be using them.

Most teachers clearly state on their syllabi that using a phone during class is a no-no. If students can't Tweet during class, Congress shouldn't be able to Tweet during sessions.

Yet this has been a chronic problem. The latest image comes as President Barack Obama delivers his health care speech. Obama stands behind the microphone, hands folded on top of the podium. The rest watch, hands on their Blackberrys.

Take a look at tweetcongress.org, a self-proclaimed "grass-roots effort" to provide everything you'd want to know about what Congress is Tweeting: The first thing that greets you, in a familiar olde tyme scrawl, is the promise to "promote transparency" -- you know, to "form a more perfect government." Journalists in particular normally cheer at the idea of providing transparency, but maybe it's this idea of being "more perfect" that rubs many people the wrong way.

Besides being impossible to be more of something that is already the best, Congress might want to take a long look around at their "perfect" government before they reach for their smartphones.

More than 45 million uninsured, 15 million unemployed and of course, more money for fewer classes. America is far from being a utopia any time soon, and instead of engaging in serious discussions or searching for serious solutions, this country's leaders are thinking of how to phrase their next thought in 140 characters or less.

Almost 31 percent of Congress -- 166 out of 539 delegates -- have a Twitter account, according to tweetcongress.org. Connectivity and instantaneousness per Twitter are blessings in this day and age, but the curse of it is that it's a distraction and it's downright rude.

This isn't to say that members of Congress should not be allowed to Tweet at all -- they just need to do it on their own time.