Nothing like a good Oliver Cromwell (Lord Protector of England) quote:

From, who else? Eugene Robinson. Washington Post. Today. Portions I enjoyed, and particularly agreed with are bolded.

Former speaker Newt Gingrich suggested over the weekend that House leaders may have worried last year that if they pursued the Foley matter, they'd be "accused of gay-bashing." Clearly, in terms of his spinning skills, Gingrich has lost a step. The issue was whether a congressman was having improper communications with a child, not whether the congressman was gay; it would have been just as troubling if the e-mail had been sent to a female page. And anyway, it's a little late for the Republicans to denounce gay-bashing after raising it to an art form.

I don't know whether the Republicans will lose control of the House this fall, but I know that they deserve to. That judgment has nothing to do with party politics; there have been times when the Democrats were in control and allowed Congress to sink to a similar level of corruption. But that's surely where we are now, and since the Republicans are the ones in charge, they're the ones who deserve the blame.

We've had the Jack Abramoff scandal. We've had the Randy "Duke" Cunningham scandal. Congress -- especially the House -- has made immigrants into scapegoats. House Republicans didn't even clear their throats in objection when the White House demanded, and eventually won, the right to decide what is and isn't torture. For years now the House has legislated primarily to shovel pork, pork and more pork to the folks back home.

And now, however it happened -- either because of a deliberate political decision or because the institution is so degraded that it couldn't stir itself to action, like an overstuffed aristocrat crippled by gout -- we learn that the House has countenanced a congressman's sick advances toward teenagers.

Congressional pages tend to be idealistic, patriotic young people who wholeheartedly believe in America. Many are contemplating a career in politics, and they are thrilled to have the chance to come to the U.S. Capitol and witness the workings of our great democracy.

Those who came in contact with Mark Foley certainly got a lesson, didn't they?

Famous quotations are the last refuge of newspaper columnists and other scoundrels, so I try to avoid them, but at the moment I can't help thinking of what Oliver Cromwell said to the so-called Rump Parliament in 1653. Voters would do well to send the same message to the House of Representatives next month:

"You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!"