You couldn't get away from laundering in Leinster House yesterday, as the Dáil caught up with a week of dirty linen.
Parties reviewed the tumultuous events of recent days - from the Daz box incident to revelations about IRA plans to buy a bank - and wondered how democratic politics could get rid of the stains.
Pat Rabbitte proposed new legislation for Dáil parties that would tackle those hard-to-shift links with criminality by requiring an oath of allegiance to the State. But Sinn Féin had already moved on from the washing stage and was in full spin-cycle mode.
When Mary Harney and Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin faced each other during Leader's Questions, there was a frisson in the air, like in that ad where the guy and girl meet in the launderette and get their underclothes mixed up.
Mounting his soap-box, Mr Ó Caolain invited the Tánaiste to admire his whites. Sinn Féin was a party that "rejects criminality of any kind", he said (to unkind laughter). If there were republicans anywhere engaged in activities that "besmirch" their cause, they should desist, he added. But in the meantime, would the Tánaiste not acknowledge his party's "clear and unambiguous" commitment to democratic politics?
Ms Harney said she'd love to acknowledge this, but handing Caoimhghíback his boxer shorts, she said wasn't prepared to engage in a "convenient fiction". Casting a cool eye on the republicans' clothes basket, she saw smirches everywhere, and even questioned their taste in fashion. "For a party that doesn't recognise the Garda Síochána, you're very keen to use their uniforms," she quipped.
Mr Rabbitte had earlier chided the Taoiseach and his Minister for Justice for their differences this week, and said that in the circumstances, the Government should "speak with one voice".
But with the Taoiseach away and the Tánaiste deputising, there was only one voice yesterday and it was closer to Mr McDowell's than Mr Ahern's. It reminded the house that many Sinn Féin members "do not believe it is a crime to murder a mother". And when it added that "some of us are getting a bit sick of the antics of your party", it was too much for Sinn Féin to bear.
"You've always been sick of us," sobbed Arthur Morgan, while Mr Ó Caoláin regretted the Taoiseach's absence, and suggested the Tánaiste did not have the "skills" to deal with the peace process. She had appointed herself "judge and jury, and you'd like to be the executioner", he complained. "You're the executioners!" snapped Ruairí Quinn.
For once Michael McDowell said nothing. He just sat silently alongside his party leader and stared across at the Sinn Féiners with the look of a man who'd like to hang them all out to dry.