"Republicans today are self-destructing at an amazing rate. Democratic election warriors are almost holding their collective breath in order to avoid making mistakes. The two things the battle-weary Dems say most often are: 1) ''My heart's been broken too many times to even hope for victory,'' and 2) ''Please, October surprises only for the Repubs.''

Republicans in Washington seem to be a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of their colleagues who are copping pleas and telling on each other.

The most recent crop in the latter category are testifying in the House ethics investigation into the matter of who knew ex-Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., was hitting on congressional pages, in writing, and why didn't they do something to stop it.

House Majority Leader John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, and Rep. Thomas A. Reynolds, R-N.Y., say they told House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., about Foley's electronic messages a long time ago. Hastert says, oh, no, they didn't.

Their staffers are testifying, too. While this can be bad news for a boss or two, it almost always is a sign of a fading political future for those who don't have an actual vote in Congress.

The ethics committee - formally, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct - protected the prior Majority Leader, DeLay, from a full-fledged investigation in the period leading up to the formal indictment on charges that he now faces in a Texas court.

The ethics chair, Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., is known in Indian country for pushing a bill that would make the world safer for grave robbers and those who would abuse dead Indians. His proposed changes to repatriation law would turn deceased American Indians into property and specimens to be studied, a nightmarish situation that was changed by the 1990 human rights act."

Get the Story:
Suzan Shown Harjo: Political animals gone wild on election eve (Indian Country Today 10/26)

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