Number Told, White House Swamped

Thousands of telephone calls clogged the White House switchboard after Secretary of State James A. Baker III gave out the phone number Wednesday in a public hearing, a spokesman said today.

During a time period when the White House might typically receive 100 or 200 calls, between 6,000 and 8,000 callers dialed the presidential mansion after Baker sarcastically recited the number in a Senate hearing.

“The switchboard was finally blocked to the point where it couldn’t handle it anymore. And they had to put it on automatic thank-you tape,” White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said.

Baker gave out the number, (202) 456-1414, as he prodded Israel on its commitment to the Mideast peace process. He said that when the Israeli government was ready to talk seriously about peace, it could call the President’s number.

Baker’s unusually blunt statements did not produce any calls from Israel’s new conservative government, Fitzwater said.

But the broadcast of his remarks on television and radio news programs all day Wednesday prompted thousands of calls from the public.

Apparently the White House operators tired of taking calls prompted by Baker, who works several blocks away at the State Department.

A reporter from Israel, Yaacov Eilon, said that when he phoned and said he was calling in response to Baker’s comment, the operator told him: “You would have to call the State Department. . . . That number is 647-4000.”