Public Furor Overloads Capitol Phones

WASHINGTON — With the vote nearing, the suspense is building. Not simply over the question of impeachment but on the matter of which will come first: impeachment or the collapse of the phone system on Capitol Hill.

Tens of thousands of voters have been calling--or attempting to call--their lawmakers to weigh in for or against Bill Clinton, and phone lines have jammed in the 224 and 225 exchanges that cover most congressional offices.

Telephone calls to the main House of Representatives’ switchboard were double the normal volume Tuesday at more than 14,000 calls a day.

The volume, in part, is a result of orchestrated campaigns by such groups as People for the American Way, which set up a toll-free line that routed calls to the House switchboard. The liberal group, which claims credit for generating 174,000 calls over the last six days, is against impeachment. On the other side of this relentlessly partisan battle, several conservative groups similarly ginned up supporters to phone.

But most calls, by all accounts, rang through from just plain folks.

“I’m 51 years old and I’ve been through all the various upheavals, starting with 1968, and this is the first time I ever called my congressman and I think that’s pretty remarkable,” said Susan Osnos, a human rights advocate who lives in the Connecticut district of a waffling Republican, Rep. Christopher Shays.

After several failed attempts to get through to Shays’ office here--a mechanical operator kept telling her to try again because “all circuits were busy”--Osnos reached a polite young aide. Osnos told the aide to tell Shays that, if he changes his position, she--a Democrat who crossed party lines to support him--would never do so again.

Osnos also tried calling her senators but failed to get through.

One way to bypass backed up Hill lines is to call members’ district offices. Rep. Brian P. Bilbray got so many calls over the weekend that the Republican brought his mother into his San Diego office to help answer phones.

But with lawmakers drifting back into town to prepare for the most historic vote of their careers this week, the phone traffic came with them.

A spokesman for Bell Atlantic said that the local phone system was particularly stressed Tuesday morning.

The telephone tie-up has frustrated not only the civic minded but also Capitol Hill gossips, lobbyists, reporters and anyone else trying to do business with the legislature.

But Brad Smith, a spokesman for Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas), said that--as busy as his office has been with 900 calls over the weekend--he remembers an even crazier time: the days following Clinton’s Aug. 17 testimony before the grand jury and the televised address in which he admitted to an “inappropriate relationship” with Monica S. Lewinsky.

“The response was overwhelmingly negative to that speech and we heard from everybody,” Smith said. Last weekend, voters calling Dreier, who has come out against impeachment, were split over whether to impeach Clinton.

“We’re at 50-50 for and against, but that has come in waves depending on what was happening over the weekend,” Smith said.

Congressional staff members generally keep a close watch on calls and e-mail messages and which way support is going, Smith said.

“When we tell people we’re registering their opinion, we do.” he said. “We literally walk into our computer operator every half-hour and say: “Where are we at?”

An aide to another California member said that the state delegation is particularly furious with The Times for printing the e-mail addresses of each California lawmaker’s chief of staff.