Scott Wartman

swartman@nky.com

A citation was needed yesterday on Wikipedia's page for Kentucky's U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell.

The free online encyclopedia that allows people to edit content identified -- briefly -- the Senate Minority Leader as a turtle, according to Congress Edits, a twitter-bot that tracks web edits to Wikipedia made from IP addresses in Congress.

"McConnell is the first openly Otherkin member of Congress. His species identity is turtle," the edit to Wikipedia said at 3:26 p.m. under the "Personal Life" heading for McConnell.

It was made from an anonymous user somewhere in Congress, according to Congress Edits.

An "otherkin" is a person who believes he or she is non-human, according to Wikipedia.

McConnell's official designation as a turtle on Wikipedia, however, lasted only two minutes, as the web page's vigilant editors removed it by 3:28 p.m. But nothing is truly erased on the Internet thanks to twitter bots.

McConnell has long endured attacks from his opponents who say he has a physical resemblance to a turtle, though it was unclear whether he's been called an otherkin before.