readline error?

[Alan Mead <adm ipat com>]

In certain programs (notably ftp [ftp-0.15-1] and ci [rcs-5.7-10]) on my RH
6.1 machine my backspace stops working as such:

[amead hera assess]$ ftp ftp.ipat.com
Connected to conan.ipat.com.
220 conan.ipat.com FTP server (Version wu-2.5.0(1) Tue Jun 8 11:19:44 EDT
1999) ready.
Name (ftp.ipat.com:amead): an^H^H^[[4~

the '^H' is from backspace and the '[[4~' is from delete.

I only seem to be able to use ^U to erase backwards.  I don't know much
about terminals.  Anyone solve this or can offer me a pointer?  It almost
seems like readline (or whatever these programs use) flips out.  
---
Alan D. Mead  /  Research Scientist  /  adm ipat com
Institute for Personality and Ability Testing
1801 Woodfield Dr  /  Savoy IL 61874 USA
217-352-4739 (v)  /  217-352-9674 (f)