A four-year old tweet is coming back to haunt the PM.

Sometimes four-years isn’t such a long time – in politics.

Never tweet.

That’s the advice being given to the Prime Minister by social media today.

Just never tweet.

Four-years ago the PM did tweet – and his words, which many are calling sage – have now come back to haunt him.

Just as he might have begun to imagine the furore over former-Speaker Bronwyn Bishop’s misuse of her travel entitlements was dying down a tweet he sent out while Leader of the Opposition has resurfaced.

The tweet, referring to the resignation of another former Speaker Harry Jenkins in 2011, has been re-tweeted much to the angst of supporters of Mr Abbott.

Harry Jenkins resigned as Speaker in 2011 – providing an extra vote to the Gillard government, and seeing Peter Slipper take on the speaker’s role.

At the time Mr Abbott tweeted:

In a timely reminder to be careful what you tweet the freakishly ominous tweet has been re-tweeted:

And re-tweeted:

Thousands and thousands of times.

Some users followed it up with the simple message “Never tweet”.

Mr Abbott admitted yesterday that Bronwyn Bishop, who resigned on Sunday, had done “the wrong thing” with her expenses – after he indicated on Sunday that it wasn’t her fault but the system.

“What has become apparent is that the problem is not any particular individual, the problem is the entitlements system more generally,” he said on Sunday.

Yesterday he turned that around saying that yes, she had stuffed up.

“Obviously, she had done the wrong thing on a number of previous occasions, but she did the right thing yesterday and she did the right thing unprompted,” he said.

It is now up to the party room to pick next Speaker when they meet on Monday.

The Australian reports that the PM is not planning on repeating another “Captain’s Pick” instead allowing an open contest in the party room.

“I think Tony Abbott has been chastened and he’s not going to make a captain’s pick — and MPs certainly don’t want one,” an un-named Liberal told the newspaper.

Front runners are Phillip Ruddock and Victorian backbencher Russell Broadbent who have both expressed an interest in the coveted role – while, Victorian Liberal Tony Smith and South Australian Liberal Andrew Southcott along with Queensland Liberal Teresa Gambaro are also being named as potential candidates.

The lucky victor will reap a $341,000 a year, a 75 per cent increase on a backbench salary of around $195,000 and a big plush office.

Sharman Stone who was yesterday being touted as a front-runner has announced she was not interested in Bronwyn Bishop’s former role.

Meantime the Prime Minister’s social media minders are furiously combing his accounts to make sure there aren’t any other ghosts lurking in the history books of Twitter.

Want more?

“Bronwyn Bishop isn’t sorry for what she did. She’s just sorry she got caught.”

Lord Sewel is so very, very Bad, our politicians look like angels.