Somewhere in between calling Shirley Sherrod while she was on her way to work, and telling her to pull over to the side of the road, right now, and resign, and deciding that they owed her an apology, the Agriculture Department seems to have managed to lose her phone number.

This is Robert Gibbs at yesterday’s White House press briefing:

Well, let me — Secretary Vilsack is — has tried and is trying to reach Ms. Sherrod. When the Secretary reaches her, he will apologize for the events of the last few days and they will talk about their next steps.
[...]
A review is taking place and the Secretary is trying to reach Ms. Sherrod to apologize for the exact injustice that you talk about.
[...]
Hold on, let me — can I — if you don’t mind, let me finish a few of my answers. As I said, a disservice was done, for which we apologize. I think the next step that has to happen is the Secretary needs to speak with her. And he’s tried to reach her and we hope that that –
[...]
And let me — the Secretary is trying to reach her. I hope that the Secretary reaches her soon and they have an opportunity to talk. The Secretary will apologize for the actions that have taken place over the past 24 to 36 hours…
[...]
I think that the Secretary made a decision based on the information that he had, and is in the process of trying to reach Ms. Sherrod to apologize for having made that decision on that incomplete information.

Funny how sometimes you can reach out and touch somebody so easily, and sometime you can’t.