Distutil install problem

[Derek Croxton]

I just installed a new Linux distribution (MEPIS) and went to install 
PDO and got the error

Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "setup.py", line 2, in ?
     from distutils.core import setup
ImportError: No module named distutils.core

Undaunted, I downloaded the Distutils package, which is supposed to be 
able to install itself with the usual "python setup.py install." 
However, when I tried this I got a different error:

   File "setup.py", line 30, in ?
     packages = ['distutils', 'distutils.command'],
   File "/root/Downloads/Distutils-1.0.2/distutils/core.py", line 101, 
in setup
     _setup_distribution = dist = klass(attrs)
   File "/root/Downloads/Distutils-1.0.2/distutils/dist.py", line 130, 
in __init__
     setattr(self, method_name, getattr(self.metadata, method_name))
AttributeError: DistributionMetadata instance has no attribute 'get___doc__'

I'm still a newbie to Linux and mostly a newbie to Python (5 months 
experience).  I have a general idea of what this error means, but I have 
no idea how to go about fixing it.  I would appreciate any solutions 
people could offer.

Sincerely,
Derek