Bring Down the Govenment; They Don't Speak for Us OR Après Scooter, le deluge!

No, I'm not advocating treason or anything of the sort, in spite of what President Bush did yesterday. But I am advocating a free speech exercise to shut down the White House for a Day. It's (almost) as simple as 10 numbers:

202-456-1414

That's the White House Switchboard Number. But don't say you're leaving a comment. Ask for one of these people - that's the National Journal White House staff list.

Say something specific to their office. Ask Tony Snow if he can answer questions now. Ask for Dick Cheney, and say you're supporting H.RES. 333. Say you don't support a pardon in addition to commuting the sentence. I'm almost willing to say that you should give the Leahy treatment, but since you're going to be talking to a staffer, I won't endorse that course of action.

Now, why should we call the White House when other (well-written and otherwise great) diaries are telling us to do the opposite? Well, the switchboard is back on, and this is Answer 1 of many:

President George W. Bush on Tuesday refused to rule out a pardon for former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a day after sparing him from prison in a case that helped seal his Iraq legacy and gave ammunition to Democrats.

I'll give credit where credit was due: I was inspired by an e-mail sent by Sen. Joe Biden last night:

Hours after a federal appeals court ruled that I. "Scooter" Lewis Libby would to have to begin serving his prison sentence while appealing his conviction for crimes of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators, President Bush commuted his sentence.

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.

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.

Après Scooter, le deluge! Please post comments and direct numbers below. We need to reach everyone in the White House over and over again.

And think about helping out Dennis Kucinich. After this latest abuse of executive power, we need to keep him in the race.