"In the Halloween season that Washington wags dubbed ''Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue,'' Vice President Dick Cheney's top staffer was indicted for lying, President Bush's pick for the Supreme Court was shot down by friendly fire and the number of Americans killed in Iraq passed the 2,000 mark.

It was a week of hunker-down Fridays, and the White House was on permanent spin cycle. The Bushies were looking for anything - even the bird flu that was winging its way around the world - to offer some relief from the bad news that featured administration officials. They didn't find it.

Lewis ''Scooter'' Libby Jr. was the chief of staff to the vice president and the president's representative on national security until he was indicted for obstructing justice and lying to the grand jury about when he told what to whom about a CIA spy

That is the Washington that gives Washington a bad name.

But then came the part about Washington that is fine.

Congress rose to the occasion of the passing of an American hero with a wise and elegant decision to make Rosa Parks the first woman to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda.

I'm sure there were millions of people who forgot for a moment about those in Washington who were lying in dishonor and turned their attention to the black woman, once a seamstress by trade, who trained at the NAACP in Alabama and at the Highlander Center in Tennessee to stand up for her civil rights and to engage in nonviolent action to achieve them."

Get the Story:
Suzan Shown Harjo: The view of Washington from Scooter's head: Rosa Parks in the rearview mirror (Indian Country Today 11/10)

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