Adam Pagnucco of the Maryland Politics blog, in the fourth and so-far funniest part of his opus on the proposed widening of Interstate 270, outlines the truly outrageous strategy being adopted by some Montgomery County Council folks to sell their pet $4.6 billion project to widen Interstate 270 between Shady Grove and Frederick: Call its transit.

Some might describe this approach as Orwellian. I see it more as Marxian -- Chico in this case. You know the old saying that if it walks likes a duck and quacks like a duck, your chances are pretty good that it's a duck? Well, the 270 project walks like a wasteful 1970s-style highway boondoggle and quacks like a wasteful  1970s-style highway boondoggle. So certain members of the Montgomery council have heeded the words of Chico: "Vy a duck? Vy not a  chicken?"

Thus, in the poultry logic of Rockville, duck is now chicken and highway is now transit.

Earth to Montgomery: You can sell a dedicated bus lane as transit, but not express toll lanes. Express toll lanes are all about the cars. More specifically, cars driven by those with the means to pay what would certainly be some of the highest tolls in the country so they can live on 5-acre lots on what is now farmland as far away as Pennsylvania.

Pagnucco, by the way, comes close to getting my position on the ICC right. I do think environmentalists ought to advocate for maximum bus use on the ICC. But the ICC is for all intents and purposes existing infrastructure. I don't see how it could be converted now to Bus Rapid Transit with dedicated lanes.