(CNN) – The partial federal government shutdown may be over, but the drunk dialing is just beginning.
The creators of DrunkDialCongress.Org said in a statement that the service would continue, facilitating the inebriated and sober to call their Congressional representative to thank them for ending the shutdown and press for action on other issues facing the country.
In one of the more bizarre footnotes to the 16-day shutdown, DC-based progressive digital agency Revolution Messaging originally created the website where individuals could enter their phone number online to “drunk dial.” The individual would then receive an automated phone call that would connect them to a random member of Congress, encouraging the caller to express their ire at the partisan brinksmanship fueling the saga.
“Drinks are not essential. But they help,” DrunkDial said in the statement Thursday.
Site developers claim more than 100,000 phone calls to members of Congress were facilitated and more are coming.
“Our team is proud, once again, to donate our calling technology via DrunkDialCongress.org and help Americans communicate with elected officials who are supposedly working for us,” Scott Goodstein, Revolution Messaging’s founder and chief executive, said in the statement.
“Our hope is that these calls will remind Members that their job is to solve problems, not create unnecessary new ones that just piss us off.”
Now, callers enter in their zip code in order to be connected with their own member of Congress.
To empower the calls, DrunkDial, which is a progressive website, offers several cocktail recipes under names like “The Legislative-Ade,” “The Fancy Statesman” and “The Sleepy Senator.” Also included among the cocktails is “The Poor Intern,” a drink that comes with an asterisk saying “Thanks to all the staffers that answered our calls and told your bosses!”
“Everyone at Revolution Messaging has been thrilled by the number of people interested in drunk dialing Congress,” Goodstein said in the statement.
“As was our hope all along, what started as a funny idea in office became a way to engage a new breed of activists. We hope people continue to use this site as a way to stay engaged.”
