WASHINGTON -- The Big Country congressional delegation doesn't tweet or Twitter.

Indeed, U.S. Rep. Mike Conaway even goes so far as to avoid another Texas congressman who regularly posts status updates -- tweets -- of 140 characters or less to the popular microblogging site at Twitter.com.

"He's a dangerous guy to go stand beside to talk," Conaway, R-Midland, said. "You never know if he's got an open Twitter thing going at the same time."

But Conaway, of the 11th Congressional District, has a Facebook page, a podcast and a blog. He and two other West Texans, U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry and U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer, were vocal about House members' rights to communicate via the Internet.

Members are increasingly turning to the Web and social sites such as Qik, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to get their messages out. Some contend those members are Internet outlaws, charging they're violating rules for mass communications as elections approach and becoming embroiled in conflicts of interest because of online advertising.

Rules for members' taxpayer-funded communications are supposed to ensure they're nonpolitical and are strictly in the name of constituent service.

U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, seems Twitter-bent on breaking rules requiring approval from the House Administration Committee for communications to 500 or more -- whether that's pieces of mail, e-mails or telephone calls.

"I break the rules every day when I send a Qik or a Twitter or post on a blog," Culberson said in a recent interview. "In fact, as soon as we hang up, I'm going to commit an illegal act."

Culberson is the tweet poster who Conaway sometimes avoids. Culberson has embraced social networking media, even turning the tables on a television reporter left mute while the congressman chattered at him in a Qik video post.

"It was fun," Culberson said. "I'm not an expert interviewer. I realized I talked too much."

It probably wasn't so fun when partisan conflict flared this summer.

The House Administration Committee is looking into new rules to govern video postings on outside Web sites. Republicans cried violation of free speech rights.

Conaway posted a note on his Facebook page asking supporters to sign a petition protesting this "shockingly Orwellian move" on the part of Democrats.

Some Republicans floated "laughably inaccurate assertions" about efforts to modernize rules, said the chairman of the Congressional Commission on Mailing Standards.

The bipartisan commission -- commonly known as the Franking Commission -- is reviewing an update to antiquated rules originally written to oversee members' use of postage for letters to constituents.

"They have not updated the franking regulation for the 21st Century with the emergence of new technology," said Michael Frohlich, a former staff member of the Franking Commission and spokesman for Neugebauer, R-Lubbock.

Neugebauer of the 19th Congressional District believes members should be able to use their Web sites as communication tools, Frohlich said.

Some think it's too late to make new rules stick to the ever-changing, slippery surface of the Internet.

Web avenues to communicate are too numerous for the members of Congress to legislate, said Paul Fabrizio, political science professor at McMurry University.

"I don't see them disarming themselves when those rules would not be imposed on their challengers," Fabrizio said.

Conaway is challenged by Libertarian John R. Strohm of Austin in the Nov. 4 general election. Neugebauer faces Democrat Dwight Fullingim and Libertarian Richard "Chip" Peterson of Lubbock. Thornberry's opponent is Democrat Roger Waun of Wichita Falls.

Thornberry, R-Clarendon, of the 13th Congressional District, said it's heavy-handed for the Franking Commission, handpicked by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to "tell me where I can and cannot communicate with my constituents and with the American people."