Blogger posts internal White House numbers after 2008 hopeful called for 'flood'

Michael Roston
Raw Story
Jul. 04, 2007

After President George W. Bush commuted the sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, his former adviser and one-time Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, a contender for the Democratic nomination for president in 2008 encouraged citizens to flood the White House with phone calls. A blogger raised the ante, and linked to an internal White House telephone directory so callers could reach beyond the White House's switchboard.

"Last week Vice President Cheney asserted that he was beyond the reach of the law. Today, President Bush demonstrated the lengths he would go to, ensuring that even aides to Dick Cheney are beyond the judgment of the law," Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE), a 2008 long shot, said in a statement he issued after Bush made his move. "It is time for the American people to be heard. I call for all Americans to flood the White House with phone calls tomorrow expressing their outrage over this blatant disregard for the rule of law."

One blogger followed up on Biden's suggestion and took it a step further. Lambert Strether at the blog CorrenteWire posted a link to the White House's full internal telephone directory in a Monday night entry.

"I figure the regular switchboard might be busy tomorrow, but if you�ve got the White House phone directory, you can just work your way down until somebody picks up," he wrote.

From all over the country, phone calls have flooded Washington in recent weeks. According to various news reports, part of the US Senate's phone system crashed in the wake of the contentious debate over immigration reform legislation.

"So many Senators' offices were inundated with calls, mostly in opposition, that the Senate telephone switchboard was shut down," Silia Brush reported in a June 29 US News and World Report article.

While Strether hoped that individuals in the White House would hear from citizens, he encouraged them to be polite.

"Naturally, if you call the White House to express your disapprobation in the matter of I. Lewis Libby, you will be courteous, and remember that our public servants have important work to do," he wrote.

At press time, RAW STORY was awaiting feedback from Strether on whether readers were in fact calling individual White House staff.












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