Thrown into reverse

The December 2 issue of The Hill informs us that

Rep. Ernest Istook (R-Okla.) sent a written apology this morning to GOP lawmakers whose transportation projects he stripped from the omnibus appropriations bill in retaliation for their endorsement of additional funding for Amtrak.

Istook, chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on transportation, treasury and independent agencies, apologized for not communicating better with his colleagues and promised to rectify the situation.

"In the FY 05 appropriations cycle, I hoped to keep Amtrak from draining transportation funds from every Congressional district. I should have communicated with you better before I treated your request for major additional Amtrak funding as a higher priority than your other projects. I apologize," Istook wrote.

"I will do everything in my power to rectify this as promptly as possible, and to give your other requests every proper consideration," the letter continued.

It's really a non-apology apology since Isakook didn't apologize for screwing colleagues to punish them for supporting Amtrak and he still labels Amtrak as one among "your other projects," that is, as if it were a request for funding for a project in the screwees home districts. But the meaning remains abundantly clear: The projects slashed will be at least mostly restored.

Isakook's office insists, however, that he did this all by himself, with no, uh, prodding from others. And I suppose that is possible; after all,

[i]n December, Istook will have to face [Reps. Curt] Weldon [(R-PA)] and [John] McHugh [(R-NY)], both of whom sit on the House Republican Steering Committee, to plead his case for remaining a cardinal.

Several sources said that McHugh had to be physically restrained from Istook when he learned that his projects were struck from the bill.

Still, I wondered last Sunday if this was a sign of overreaching by the rightists and said

it will be interesting to see if in the wake of these two incidents the GOP House leadership will take any steps to rein in Isakook - which it appears they should do for their own, if not the country's, good.

Despite the assurances, I still kinda wonder if Isakook had to stand at his desk to write the notes.