We were really hoping that we'd be able to say today: "Third time's the charm!" as we waltzed into the White House briefing room today. Perhaps the first two days were just a test and they wanted to be sure we REALLY wanted to go to a briefing.

Nope. No such luck. It's even worse today because it appears the Media Affairs has just stopped answering the phone when we call.

A brief recap of the last three days of our quest to get a one day press pass to cover a White House briefing:

Fishbowl: 0
White House: 3

Total Phone Calls Placed: 17
Total Phone Calls Returned: 0
Total Non-Interns We've Spoken With: 0
Trips to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: 1

Humiliation Factor: Low
Frustration Factor: High

Full report after the jump. (Day One is here, and Day Two is here.)

John, Caroline, and Jenny (or is it Jon, Jeni, and Carolyn?) are the three people who answer the phone in Media Affairs. We spent most of yesterday talking with intern John.

He answered the initial query yesterday morning, and then the second time we called late morning and the third time early afternoon. The third call, after greetings, we made chit-chat for a moment before we blundered into secret territory: We asked how long he'd been there, but he abruptly cut the conversation short: "I'm not supposed to answer any questions. I'm just an intern." We mumbled something about just trying to be friendly, and he said, "I understand that, sir." He happily said he'd pass our message along.

Two phone calls late afternoon yielded nothing but an answering machine, but on our fifth call yesterday Jenny picked up.

We exchanged pleasantries. She laughed cutely when we wished her a "Happy Wednesday." Now, for the first time, after 5 p.m. on the third day of trying to talk to someone ANYONE who wasn't an intern, we resorted to begging: "We'd really, really like to speak to someone." She seemed almost sympathetic. We agreed to hold for a moment while she looked around. Alas, our mystery spokesperson had stepped away from his desk. She apologized and promised she'd place our message right on top of his desk. Again, always polite.

Before we hung up, we asked Jenny to say hi to Caroline, whom we hadn't gotten to speak with all day.

Our final call of the day also went to an answering machine, and our call this morning did too. Do they perhaps have Caller ID in the Media Affairs office and know to ignore our calls? Ugg. That'd be a whole new level of frustration.

So where do we go from here? It's obvious that the phone calls aren't working. Maybe we're going to have to a try a different tack...