Sometimes it feels as if the Bush administration has invented astounding time-warp technology, because the news so often appears to be caught in a loop. In shocking news, a non-scientist political appointee forced the scientists around her to alter their data on climate change. Wait, wait. That's not it. It was promoting creationism. Hold on, endangered species. That's where we were.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said yesterday that it will review eight endangered species decisions that were "inappropriately influenced" by a political appointee of the Interior Department, throwing a lifeline to 18 species that scientists had deemed to be in need of protection.

In this case, some decisions made by Julie A. MacDonald, who Bush made deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, will be reviewed because (say it with me now) she altered the scientific data to fit administration policy. That's good news for the white-tailed prairie dog, arroyo toad, and other species involved in those cases, but it's also just the tip of the iceberg.

First as a special assistant and later as deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, MacDonald was involved in more than 200 endangered-species rulings between 2002 and May 2007, when she resigned after an inspector general's report that found that she had improperly leaked information to private organizations, bullied staff scientists and broken federal rules.

So, a handful of the two hundred rulings stomped on by MacDonald will be reviewed. The list was larger, but right up until the day before the announcement, the list was still being trimmed.

"It's not inappropriate to take the science and then apply policy decisions to it," Hall said in a conference call with reporters.

In other words, if MacDonald actually went in and changed the numbers, it gets a review. If she tossed a species out of the ark for political reasons, but didn't mess with the data, it's time for that species to visit with trilobites and dodo birds.

Julie MacDonald Fun Facts

In 2005, MacDonald got a special bonus to thank her for exceptional work.

The Endangered Species and Wetlands Report has obtained documents through the Freedom of Information Act showing that Julie MacDonald, the disgraced and recently retired Deputy Secretary of Interior, was given a cash award of $9,628 in 2005 for her work in 2004. ... 2004 was a banner year for MacDonald. She: stripped 80 percent of protected areas from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service critical habitat proposal for the bull trout (a threatened fish from CA, OR, and WA);

stripped thousands of acres from agency critical habitat proposals for the Topeka shiner (an endangered Midwestern fish), Peirson's milk-vetch (an endangered CA plant), and the California tiger salamander;

overruled and rewrote scientists' reports in order to deny endangered species protection to the greater sage grouse (a western high plains bird);

passed memos to industry lawyers in litigation to remove the Delta smelt from the endangered species list;

aided Craig Manson, Assistant Secretary of Interior, in overruling agency scientists in order to push the marbled murrelet (a Northwest old-growth dependent bird) off the threatened list.

She's also quite the little office cut up.

She said she had made her feelings clear in an array of documents; overruled scientists' conclusions in areas where she has authority, such as designating critical habitat; and mocked rank-and-file employees' recommendations. ... "A lot of times when I first read a document I think, 'This is a joke, this is just not right.'" ... In several instances, MacDonald wrote sarcastic comments in the margins of the documents, questioning why scientists were portraying a species' condition as so bleak.

Come on, guys, it's only extinction. Lighten up!