Political spats, petty vandalism, cleft chins and Rep. Rahm Emanuel’s (fictional) death by shark attack — Wikipedia users on House computers clearly have a lot of time on their hands.

A new online tool has made it possible to see a full archive of edits to the popular online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, organized by the computer network from which they originated. The list of categories includes major corporations, media outlets, and, of course, Congress.

There are thousands of individual edits originating from computer users on the House of Representatives network. While most of the changes are nothing more than regular Wikipedia interactions on non-government topics, a hefty number include edits to lawmakers’ entries — and some House Wikipedians might not be entirely pleased to see their handiwork exposed.

Political motives are evident in some cases. For example, in the Wikipedia entry on GOP presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a House computer user added the line that Romney “appears to be extremely homophobic.”

A moderator quickly deleted that change, and most of the other, more scurrilous, edits have been written over or deleted — especially in cases of vandalism or obvious bias.

Other attacks are broader, if more subtle than the charges of bigotry. An entry on “liberalism” put quotation marks around the phrase “social progress,” in what appears to be an attempt to call the ideology into question. That change was also deleted.

And of course, there is the falsified report of an oceanside tragedy. In December 2006, a House computer user edited the entry for Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., to note that “He recently died in a shark attack.”

Emanuel, the notoriously hard-charging chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, is alive and well, his office confirmed. “A shark would never eat Rahm,” said a spokeswoman. “Professional courtesy,” she added.

Several other edits seem meant to defend against attacks by non-finned adversaries. A recent edit by a House computer user to the entry about Rep. Alan B. Mollohan, D-W.Va., contains a lengthy rebuttal of charges levelled against Mollohan during his 2006 re-election campaign

Asked about the changes, Mollohan spokesman Gerry Griffith said that he had added the text. Griffith said he “sought to balance out erroneous information that was in the profile, but there were no edits of existing information” and he did not delete anything from Mollohan’s Wikipedia entry.

The information Griffith added has not since been deleted by Wikipedia moderators or other users. It has, however, been modified slightly to remove what one other user called “editorial” language.

Whitewashing negative information from lawmakers’ Wikipedia entries seems popular, as well.

In one recent edit, a user on the House network deleted negative information from the profile of Rep. Bobby Jindal, R-La., regarding the poor performance of the state’s health care system while Jindal was secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.

Jindal’s office did not respond to a request for comment. The congressman is running for governor; the election is Oct. 20.

The House edits cross chambers, as well. A House computer was used to remove information in Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s profile about a press conference she held in 1985 concerning the hunt for serial killer Richard Ramírez, otherwise known as the Night Stalker. The relevant passage — which has since been restored — said she revealed details about the hunt for Ramírez, angering detectives and subverting their investigation. “Ramírez left the San Francisco area to commit another murder before he was finally captured in the Los Angeles area,” the restored entry says.

It’s impossible to tell which computers are being used by those in House offices altering Wikipedia entries. While each edit to the online encyclopedia is tied to a unique Internet Protocol address, or IP address, House computer servers use a “dynamic IP” that changes the address for a computer each time it signs on. Some older networks use a “static IP” system that ties a computer permanently to one IP number, much like a traditional street address. But for dynamic IP systems, it’s more like getting a new street address for every trip to the mailbox.

Other edits are just changes to remove vandalism and misinformation. A presidential endorsement of Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, was deleted from the Wikipedia entry for Rep. John J. “Jimmy” Duncan Jr., R-Tenn.

Duncan’s spokeswoman, Amy Westmoreland, said that the office had recently received a phone call asking if Duncan had endorsed Paul, but she did not know if the two incidents were related.

“He has not endorsed Ron Paul,” Westmoreland said, adding that Duncan supports former home-state Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn. (1994-2003). Westmoreland did not know if the correction to Duncan’s profile had been made by someone in her office.

Paul’s supporters have been known to flood Internet message boards and online polls with messages and “vote for Paul.”

Some edits are just strange — or at least suggest that Wikipedia users in the House have too much time on their hands. House computer users have made 122 edits to Wikipedia’s entry on “cleft chins,” adding real and fictional persons to a long list of the strong-jawed. On the list are 22 current U.S. lawmakers, some with more prominently cleft chins than others, according to their Wikipedia photos.