The ax falls on

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The ax falls on Istook and our man Jonathan Kaplan has the story.

You’ll remember way back when, after the aptly named Rep. Ernest Istook (R) of Oklahoma got his nose in a vise over his IRS-tax-return-snooping ‘amendment‘, he went after a bunch of Northeastern Republicans by cutting off their transportation money. (Istook was chairman the Appropriations’ Committee’s Transportation Subcommittee.) You can read about it here along with the cackling remarks of his spokesman Micah Ledorf.

As we noted at the time, this was pretty foolish practice on the part of the House Republicans, since they may not be dominant in the Northeast. But they wouldn’t have a congressional majority without healthy representation throughout the region — something Istook’s shenanigans put in danger.

Within a week, the sad-sack Istook was reduced to the ignominy of writing a public letter of apology to his colleagues.

And now, reports Kaplan, Istook’s little stunt has cost him his chairmanship.

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