>>When I started a traceroute just a moment ago, whitehouse.gov resolved to 96.17.202.135, assigned to Akamai out of Cambridge, Mass. The actual host at the IP looked like it was hanging off a network located in Ashburn, Va. (one of the major Eastern U.S. data centers).<<
In the olden times it was always hosted at MIT in Cambridge - my guess is there may be a European mirror.
A mirror that is a listed name server.