Parker Surprised By Obama Voice Mail

Houston mayor Annise Parker told Michelangelo Signorile, during an interview Tuesday on Signorile's Sirius/XM radio show, that she was surprised when President Obama left her a voice mail message congratulating her on her election in December. And, she said, she was especially surprised that someone from the White House didn't call a few minutes earlier to alert her that the president would be calling.

But, Parker told Signorile, the voice mail gave her a "very cool souvenir" that she was happy to share. And she shared it so much that a recording ended up on the Internet. That fact, she said, didn't thrill the White House.

Annise Parker: I got a curt call from someone in the White House wanting to know how the president's voice mail got up on YouTube. And I said, "I have no earthly idea how it got up on YouTube. It's not something I would know how to do." And he said, "Well, when the president leaves a private communication it should stay private." And I said, "Then he shouldn't have left it on my voice mail [laughing]."

Houston, with Parker's swearing-in this month, became the largest U.S. city with an openly gay mayor. You can hear a portion of Signorile's interview with Parker on his blog, The Gist.