What is it with new congressmen in my district? Is it the curse of Tom DeLay? First Nick Lampson, now Pete Olson.

Rep. Pete Olson underwent emergency surgery today to have a cardiac pacemaker installed.

Olson, 46, R-Sugar Land, underwent the procedure after a slow heart rate caused him to faint while lifting weights in the House gym.

"It happened so fast that when it's over you're kind of going, 'Wow!''' Olson said in a telephone interview from George Washington University Hospital.

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"I went to the gym, started working out and was feeling pretty great," Olson said. "Then my head started to buzz, and I thought, 'My God what's this,' and the next thing I knew I was kind of picking myself up and wondering what happened."

Olson said his colleagues summoned an ambulance and he was transported to the hospital within minutes.

Allen Solomon, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at George Washington University Hospital, said that he installed a dual chamber pacemaker in Olson that "will continue to regulate his heartbeat."

Solomon added, in a statement released by Olson's office, that the procedure "went smoothly with no complications."

Get well quick, Pete -- we need you in the House to keep them honest.

And as a side not, I'd like to express my appreciation for Rahm Emanuel, who was apparently first to Pete Olson's side when the cardiac incident occurred. Well done, sir -- thank you for proving that some things are more important than politics.