CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
– AGRICULTURE
Nov. 11, 2008 – 3:08 p.m.
Former Iowa Gov. Vilsack Frontrunner for Agriculture Post
By Aliya Sternstein, CQ Staff
Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack has emerged as the frontrunner for the post of Agriculture secretary in the Obama administration, according to people close to the presidential transition team.
Vilsack, a Democrat, has a powerful booster in fellow Iowan Tom Harkin , chairman of the Senate committee that will hold confirmation hearings for the next secretary. Harkin has been a political backer of the two-term former governor since his election in 1998 and supported Vilsack’s short-lived presidential campaign.
“Senator Harkin believes that Governor Vilsack would be a great secretary of Agriculture,” said Harkin spokeswoman Kate Cyrul.
Vilsack also got a thumbs-up from Iowa’s senior senator, Republican Charles E. Grassley .
“In administrations that I’ve known, it’s always been beneficial for our state to have another Iowan closer to the seat of power,” Grassley said in a statement.
As ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, Grassley will be a key player in deliberations about President-elect Barack Obama ’s plan to cut taxes for the middle class.
Capitol Hill aides, agriculture interest groups and people close to the transition all say Vilsack is the clear favorite for the position, though Obama is not believed to have interviewed anybody for the job yet.
After dropping his own bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in February 2007, less than three months after announcing his candidacy, Vilsack endorsed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton , D-N.Y. He became the Clinton campaign’s national co-chairman, while his wife was named co-chair of the Iowa state campaign.
After Clinton dropped out of the race in June, Vilsack endorsed Obama and campaigned for him throughout the fall. In recent weeks, Vilsack has been burnishing his credentials in a series of op-ed articles that echoed Obama’s position on the need for a cap-and-trade system to regulate carbon dioxide emissions.
“By locking up carbon through clean technologies and generating less carbon through renewable energy sources, we create home-grown carbon credits direct from the family farm,” Vilsack wrote in an Oct. 16 column in the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
Carbon credits then could be sold on the open market “just as if they were soybeans or lean hogs,” generating “a new revenue stream and creating a new ‘cash crop’ that just happens to help save the planet at the same time,” he added.
The article went on to say that Iowa is poised to take part in the new economy through investments in cellulosic ethanol, biofuel plants and wind farms that have already created jobs and fostered energy independence.
“Iowa is becoming to agricultural technology what Silicon Valley is to computers,” wrote Vilsack, an attorney with the firm Dorsey & Whitney.
Former Iowa Gov. Vilsack Frontrunner for Agriculture Post
Other names mentioned by Capitol Hill aides, lobbyists and people close to the Obama transition include Tom Buis, president of the National Farmers Union. The group represents family farmers and ranchers, and the selection of Buis would signal a significant policy shift away from the priorities of food processors and grocery manufacturers to those of small farmers and producers.
Rounding out the list of prospective nominees are House Agriculture Chairman Collin C. Peterson , D-Minn., Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius , North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. (House 1979-87; Senate 1987-2005).
Since Daschle was not tapped for White House chief of staff, he could be a candidate for the agriculture post, some aides and lobbyists say. Meanwhile, Peterson reportedly has said he is not interested in the job.
Comments
What about former Minnesota DFL Congressman Tim Penny? He certainly has the experience and has spent his entire career in a bipartisan manner.
Yeegawds! Vilsack would be an absolute disaster as Ag Secty.!! He knows virtually nothing about ANY of the salient aspects of U.S. agriculture policy, and has long been tied by the ankles to Big Ag, Big Chem, Big Livestock, etc. -- i.e., his very best buddies are Cargill, Monsanto, ADM, and Smithfield Foods (the largest pork producer worldwide)!! The ignorance of the East coast punditry and media elite is completely baffling to those of us here in the Midwest who actually KNOW the man, and who he is and what he stands for -- and none of his own interests include agriculture, never have. As Iowa's governor for 8 whole years he consistantly left the non-corporate farmer as his last concern, and did zero to protect Iowa's waters, air and topsoil from the excesses of the ever-growing livestock industry. He eagerly promoted GMO crops on trade trips overseas, since their acceptance in European and Asian markets was essential to the pockets of his pals at Monsanto and Dupont-Pioneer. And on top of all of that, would you know-it-alls in DC finally get it straight on Vilsack's presidential 'asperations'??!! He was ONLY put up to run as a favorite son candidate for the Iowa caucuses BY the CLINTONS, as a snide cover for why Hillary could tank Iowa but it wouldn't matter because all of the loyal Iowa Democrats would of course vote for their beloved Tom Vilsack. Hillary understood how disliked she was here back in 2004 -- and that's why they made sure that Vilsack was made chair/prez of the DLC for his last year as gov -- allowing him to fly all over the country making speeches to familiarize Dem audiences with his 'compelling personal story'. Gag! It was a total sham move by the Clintons, and when it became abundantly apparent that Vilsack had very little statewide support for even a phony bid for prez, his paper-thin campaign fell apart in days. Look, Tom Vilsack is not a 'bad' guy -- but he is much better suited to retire as the chancellor of an elite liberal arts college than he is to be a cabinet secretary, since his whole career has pretty much been driven by his wife's political ambitions for him. As a matter of fact, we've always said that what he'd really like to be -- ideally in a centrist, DLC/Hillary Clinton administration -- is Secty. of Education, where he really does have a certain passion. But NOT Ag Secty., please!! Just because he's a Dem from Iowa, the automatic assumption is that he's the best possible selection for that post? Gimme a break! Sure, if what Obama is looking for is somebody who's never lifted a finger to protect or promote sustainable agriculture, clean water and air, soil conservation, and rural economic developement -- i.e., the Farm Bureau model. But if the Obama transition team is going to be as bold and as smart as most of the regular-folks ag community is praying for, then they'd be much better off with somebody whose values align with the Farmers Union -- either their current exec., Tom Buis, a former staffer for Tom Daschle, or Daschle himself, a lifelong member of the Farmers Union. Either one would be a balance to the corporate ag interests that have driven the family farm to the edge of existance. You want local food, safe food, fair trade policy, smart management of the nutrition programs (70% of the Ag Dept. budget) of food stamps, school and senior food programs, etc.? Then don't wish for Tom Vilsack to run those essential aspects of food security here at home. Let him deal with the Dept. of Education and No Child Left Behind. And thankfully Peterson of Minnesota isn't interested -- he's the main reason that Harkin couldn't get the payouts lowered drastically this Farm Bill, almost no different from having the GOP chair the House ag committee, geez. Sign me mystified at the promotion of a total non-ag Clintonista for Obama's Secty. of Ag, Iowa Girl
Vilsack for US Sec of Ag? Are you kidding! * Vilsack's support of pharmaceutical crops, especially pharmaceutical corn: http://www.gene.ch/genet/2002/Oct/msg00057.html http://www.organicconsumers.org/gefood/drugsincorn102302.cfm * The biggest biotechnology industry group, the Biotechnology Industry Organization, named Vilsack Governor of the Year. He was also the founder and former chair of the Governor's Biotechnology Partnership. http://www.bio.org/news/pressreleases/newsitem.asp?id=2001_0920_01 * When Vilsack created the Iowa Values Fund, his first poster child of economic development potential was Trans Ova and their pursuit of cloning dairy cows. * Vilsack was the origin of the seed pre-emption bill in 2005, which many people here in Iowa fought because it took away local government's possibility of ever having a regulation on seeds- where GE would be grown, having GE-free buffers, banning pharma corn locally, etc. Representative Sandy Greiner, the Republican sponsor of the bill, bragged on the House Floor that Vilsack put her up to it right after his state of the state address. * Vilsack has a glowing reputation as being a schill for agribusiness biotech giants like Monsanto. Sustainable ag advocated across the country were spreading the word of Vilsack's history as he was attempting to appeal to voters in his presidential bid. An activist from the west coast even made this youtube animation about Vilsack http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hmoc4Qgcm4s The airplane in this animation is a referral to the controversy that Vilsack often traveled in Monsanto's jet.
Surely, you can't be serious. Former Gov. Vilsack appeared to know relatively little about agriculture and not inclined to learn much about it either. The previous comments about his shilling for biotechnology as his main agricultural interest are, unfortunately, accurate.
Former Iowa Gov. Vilsack Frontrunner for Agriculture Post By Aliya Sternstein, CQ Staff Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack has emerged as the frontrunner for the post of Agriculture secretary in the Obama administration, according to people .. ---------------------------- williamgeorge Sale By Owner
POST A COMMENT
Oops! The following errors must be addressed: