And another thing …

Crayola commentary to fade. Great news! In four years, Republicans will be blue and Democrats will be seeing red. No, that’s not a political prediction. And, no, the parties aren’t trading philosophies. They’re just trading colors, which will bring an end to the annoyingly simplistic red state/blue state punditry.

Allow us to explain. In an effort to make sure neither party gets a favorable color (whatever that is), television networks alternate the color of the incumbent party on their Election Day maps, according to the Washington Monthly’s political Web log. For instance, the states President Clinton won in 1996 were colored red. In 2000, the incumbent’s party became blue (in more ways than one). In 2004, the incumbent’s party switched back to red.

So, in 2008, we can take sinister delight in commentators turning purple as they try to explain the complexity of America without that chromatic shorthand. Who knows, they might even acknowledge the differences within states, within counties, within cities and within neighborhoods.

Just a matter of housekeeping. The House Ethics Committee has scolded Majority Leader Tom DeLay for political activities that crossed the line, and a Texas grand jury has indicted some of the Texas Republican’s friends over contributions to a political committee associated with him.

There are no indications DeLay himself is going to be indicted, but his colleagues in the House are taking no chances. On Wednesday, they amended a rule that previously would have stripped an indicted member of leadership positions. Now such action is at the discretion of the House.

Criticism of the change wasn’t limited to Democrats. Rep. Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican known as a champion of good government, opposed the rule. As Shays noted, it was put in place a decade ago by Republicans who were concerned about ethical lapses by Democrats in the House. Wednesday’s change was introduced by Rep. Henry Bonilla, whose Texas district was made more reliably Republican under a redistricting plan engineered by DeLay.

“There are too many new members who don’t remember how we got here,” said Shays. Bonilla seems to remember.