UPDATE: Open Left user Hopeful in NJ was right. Other media are now also reporting that Tom Vilsack will be Barack Obama’s secretary of agriculture.
A vigorous debate on the merits of the choice is going on in this thread at Daily Kos.
Natasha Chart wrote a thoughtful piece at MyDD.
Last month Vilsack told the Des Moines Register that he wasn’t being considered for any position in Obama’s cabinet.
Some sustainable agriculture advocates had lobbied against his appointment to head the US Department of Agriculture.
I thought Vilsack would have been a great Secretary of Education, but Obama just gave that job to Arne Duncan.
What do you think, Bleeding Heartland readers? Was Vilsack telling the truth when he said he wasn’t being vetted for the position? Or was that a head fake to divert the activists who were opposing his appointment?
Obama seems to have changed course several times on the Interior appointment. It’s possible that he wasn’t seriously considering Vilsack for the USDA post last month, but changed his mind in the past couple of weeks.
It would be interesting to know when Obama’s transition team first approached him about this job.
9 Comments
Yuck
No thanks!
Obama is not providing any change.
Another Clinton disciple.
bill-spencer Tue 16 Dec 6:20 PM
USDA sold to Monsanto
Wow, what an incredibly slimey move- Vilsack said he was not in the running to shut up the thousands of people who were actively working to stop his nomination, then when they weren’t looking, he slimed his way in.
I can’t think of anyone less qualified for the job.I bet he will fly to the nomination announcement on the Monsanto corporate get.
renewable-rich Tue 16 Dec 6:25 PM
Interesting
I thought Obama might go for a real reformer on Education, maybe Arne Duncan is. I was rooting for Inez Tenebaum the fantastic candidate that ran against DeMint in 2004 in South Carolina. Lord I wish she had won that race and so does the UAW.
If we’re going to have a Agriculture Secretary who isn’t for major reform we might as well go with Colin Peterson out of Minnesota even if we lose that seat. Just being from Iowa doesn’t qualify you to be Agriculture Secretary.
http://www.associatedcontent.c…
moderateiadem Tue 16 Dec 7:51 PM
Sad
This is a disaster.
Christie Vilsack would have been a better choice for this job than Tommy.
Sad pick.
bill-spencer Tue 16 Dec 8:39 PM
worse options were being considered
like PA Secretary of Agriculture Dennis Wolff.
Tom Vilsack is a good manager, a hard worker and extremely smart. He takes the time to learn the details about policy. From that perspective, he’s everything Obama could ask for in a cabinet secretary.
I do not agree with some of Vilsack’s views and priorities on agricultural policy, but I would not say this is a disaster at all.
You should read that piece by Natasha Chart at MyDD.
desmoinesdem Tue 16 Dec 8:49 PM
Collin Peterson would be worse
and as you note, it would cost us a House seat.
Vilsack is not going to take on the status quo in ag policy, but obviously that’s not what Obama was looking for. No one on his short list was a sustainable ag type.
desmoinesdem Tue 16 Dec 8:50 PM
Amen...
The more interesting thing, for me, is to see who the deputies at USDA are. They’re the ones who do the real work. The Secretary is just the manager and public face.
vox-populi Tue 16 Dec 11:37 PM
Did Vilsack Know?
Probably. But he wouldn’t be the first politician to lie about being considered. Let’s face it. Ag secretary is not a very powerful position. He implements the president’s policy. Vilsack will be helpful to alternative fuels. Maybe the big corporate farms will stop getting fed money from the farm bill. Obama had to do something for Iowa. We showed the country it was possible. It’s a reward without much controversy and without much change. No risk.
dbrog Tue 16 Dec 9:51 PM
Some Vilsack Thoughts
cross-posted from the thread at DKos:
Vilsack served with a Republican legislature most of the time he was Governor. As a result of his determination to get things done, it was necessary for him to propose relatively conservative policies.
When Vilsack became Governor, Iowa had a serious water quality problem. Des Moines water was ruled unsafe for infants a couple of different times. Simultaneously, there were major problems with air pollution from large hog confinements. Working with various groups, Vilsack achieved some success in toughening water standards, and in fact the water supply in Iowa is significantly better today than it was when he was first elected.
The hog confinement issue was addressed with a bill that attempted to balance the rights of local communities to regulate placement of smelly facilities with the right of the state to set basic statewide standards. The policies that were included in the resulting legislation are imperfect at best.
Vilsack’s position was that statewide rules needed to be in place if Iowa wanted to keep it’s hog industry, a goal which most Iowans supported. Obviously, there were corporate interests that wanted the same thing. The legislative debate on the subject was upside down from typical D vs. R positions. Republicans wanted local control, which would have resulted in Hog confinements being banished from the state by a piecemeal process of local communities deciding against allowing individual facilities to be built.
Democrats were so anxious to create jobs and to add value to the corn crops (prices were at 1950s levels – and not in adjusted dollars, but in dollars, period) that they supported rules that allowed companies to submit plans according to restrictions that applied statewide. This was, with some exceptions, what was done.
This solution is admittedly inadequate, and it is why a lot of people claim that Vilsack sold Iowa out to Monsanto and Cargill. Actually, the people of Iowa ultimately agreed with Vilsack, since they ended up giving him a Democratic Legislature, and then electing another Democrat as Governor after Vilsack’s second term.
When Chet Culver was elected, it was the first time in Iowa history a Democrat had been elected to succeed another Democrat as Governor.
Vilsack, working in an imperfect, hostile environment got things done, and I credit his willingness to to work with the Republican Legislature as one of the major factors that convinced Iowans that Barack Obama, who promised to do the same in Washington, could do what he says he will do.
iowademocrat Wed 17 Dec 1:03 AM