In 140 characters: “Social media is absolutely a pain in the a—,” a Capitol Hill aide confessed to POLITICO recently. “But that’s the nature of our business.”…

One staffer says she spends an average of an hour and 30 minutes of her day trolling her member of Congress’s social sites, deleting obscenities, moderating inner-commenter squabbles and posting responses to random questions pointing her to hyperlinks throughout the great Internet abyss.

Others say they spend similar amounts of time wading through hundreds of e-mails forwarded through Facebook, most of which lack key identification, making the communication of little use to the office.

“It is a constant and never-ending battle,” said one House Democratic staffer.