"This IP has been blocked. It belongs to Information Systems, U.S. House of Representatives and is responsible for a large amount of vandalism."

Spark that lit the news story. Digging through Congress's sorry edit history.

A slashdot poster puts it well: "What a funny reflection of the world (or at least the US) today; politicians meddle with something that belongs to the public, making it worse, using it to their own advantage, and the public has to kick them out."

Silver lining: the fact that it's news at all, that service providers will be contacted and, I hope, staffers fired or bitched out. Transparency breeding accountability. We'll see what happens as the election season draws closer.