This just in, the House is limiting constituent email because the huge crush of email (due to the interest generated by the economic bailout legislation) is causing systems to go down. Here’s the error message constituents will get when they send their email to a House member:

“The House of Representatives is currently experiencing an extraordinarily high amount of e-mail traffic. The Write Your Representative function is therefore intermittently available. While we realize communicating to your Members of Congress is critical, we suggest attempting to do so at a later time, when demand is not so high. System engineers are working to resolve this issue and we appreciate your patience.”

What a fascinating scenario. The power of a shifting technology put into the hands of interested citizens is a wonderful thing to watch.