Washington in 60 Seconds: Ethics Document Bombshell; Joe Biden Laments Inheriting 'Godawful Mess'

Good morning, Capitolists! With Election Day next week and Halloween tomorrow, we're more excited than a kid in a candy store at the White House's trick or treat party. (Have you heard the Obamas will host 2,500 local students tomorrow for the blowout?)

While we decide between dressing up as Oct-o-mom or Rahm Emanuel, why don't you get up to speed on what's happening in Washington? Here's the latest and greatest, in 60 seconds flat:

* The Story Everybody's Talking About: The Washington Post's Paul Kane got his hands on an internal House Ethics Committee document with updates on every member of Congress and staff under investigation by the panel. The good: At least the committee is doing something, unlike years past when crickets and interns filled the offices. The bad: The document was accidentally put on a publicly accessible server. The ugly: More than 30 members are or have been in the committee's sights for potential offenses, including Reps. Charlie Rangel, Jane Harman, Maxine Waters and Jack Murtha.

* Not So Fast: The Washington Times reports that at Nancy Pelosi's unveiling of her health care bill, Republican staffers were turned away by Democratic staffers and Capitol Police officers who said their instructions came "from the speaker's office." Since the West Front of the Capitol is public space, we call foul, but we also feel duty bound to report that half an hour later, we witnessed a Democratic staffer ejected from the Republican leadership's press conference responding to Pelosi's bill. Once snooped out as a Democrat, the ejectee was told repeatedly by a young Republican press aide, "I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

* Quote of the Day: Via the White House pool report for Vice President Biden, speaking at a Democratic fundraiser in Boca Raton, Fla. -- "His comments were general about most of his central topics: economy, world affairs, health care. 'We inherited a Godawful mess.' "

* Who Cares? Even with a splashy and apparently exclusive pep rally to unveil Pelosi's health care reform bill, stories on the 2,000-page tome did not make the front page of this morning's Washington Post or New York Times.

* Memo to Water Moccasins: Do not, we repeat, do not, go to Muskogee, Okla., for vacation this year. In The New York Times' profile of Sen. Tom Coburn, (known as "Dr. No" around the Capitol for his propensity to spoil other senators' high-spending fun), the Republican OB-GYN-turned-lawmaker talks about his weekend to-do list at home in Oklahoma. In addition to going to church and chasing armadillos, he kills water moccasins he finds in his pool. Says Dr. No, "I kill them by slicing their heads off with the sharp edge of a shovel."