Bill Kristol notes an unusual compromise in the stimulus bill:

One of many highlights of the stimulus bill the Democrats just rammed through Congress is $8 billion for high-speed rail. What makes this appropriation special is that there was no money for high-speed rail in the original House legislation. The Senate bill had $2 billion. The legislation coming out of conference “compromised” on $8 billion.

How did this happen? Well, some of that $8 billion, as the Washington Post reported Friday, seems intended for “a controversial proposal for a magnetic-levitation rail line between Disneyland, in California, and Las Vegas, a project favored by Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.).

Incidentally, the Washington Post article to which Mr. Kristol refers is entitled, Despite Pledges, Package Has Some Pork. How odd that the WaPo seems to have a gift for understatement in some cases but not in others.

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