Who's in, who's out in the new Congress

By Larry Dreiling

Talkmeisters, spinners and others have been gabbing about the changeover on Capitol Hill from Republicans to Democrats. There's not been as much yakking about what will happen to area agriculture, which is where this column kicks in.

First let's bid farewell to Republicans who lost their seats. In the Senate, Jim Talent of Missouri and Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania went down to defeat. Both were backbenchers on the Senate agriculture committee. It's unknown if their successors, Claire McCaskill and Bob Casey, respectively, will want to become Senate aggies.

There are a couple of other Senate changeovers of note. With the defeat of Conrad Burns in Montana to Jon Tester, it means that state will have just one Senator on the Senate Agriculture Committee, since Max Baucus, a Democrat, has been a member of the committee since his election in 1978.

The general rule is that a state can't have two senators from the same state and party on one committee. Watch for Tester to take a seat on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Burns's defeat is interesting because a lot of it had to do with modern technology. Burns was known for some verbal gaffes and for falling asleep at committee hearings; all of them caught on video and posted on the Internet. New Montanans, pouring in from tech-savvy blue states on the West Coast, made a lot of hay over those embarrassing moments.

Combine Burns's bloopers with George Allen's "macaca" video and you've got a difference in who's running the Senate. These prove as a warning to those members of the Senate who think they have a sense of humor that the jokes they tell on the road may get picked up somewhere for fodder by the Jon Stewarts and Chris Matthews of this country.

I've been to lots of farm meetings over the years where public officials have told jokes that we, that little bunch in agriculture, may think as funny but may be considered offensive to a wider world and could cost careers. Be careful out there incumbents. Your state is not alone in watching you; it's the whole world.

Elsewhere, Minnesota likely could be the state to watch on both committees. In the Senate, Democrat Amy Klobuchar takes over retiring Mark Dayton's seat. In the House, Tim Walz, who defeated Gil Gutknecht, makes no secret about his desire to be on the House agriculture committee. With fellow Minnesotan Collin Peterson designated to be the new chairman, the new farm bill could likely have a northern exposure.

Another new House member to watch will be Adrian Smith, the 35-year old real estate agent and state senator from Gering, Neb., who will take over Tom Osborne's seat. Climbing out of a three-way primary, Smith was in a tough general race until the final weekend when both President Bush and Vice President Cheney made stops in the state to campaign for him.

Smith's primary and general election victories were in large measure a product of what are called 527's, independent groups who can raise unlimited money primarily to run negative ads against an opponent to a candidate the group wants in that seat.

In Smith's case the Club for Growth, an organization with big backers like Kansas billionaire Charles Koch, who favor supply-side economics. That includes the David Stockman-like call for the ending of all farm supports.

Will Smith pay back his debt to the Club for Growth by wanting to slash payments or will he back the backbone of his district's economy by working for a good farm bill? This will be someone interesting to watch.

Possibly the biggest loss in Congress for the cattle industry comes with the defeat of Richard Pombo, chairman of the House Resources Committee and vice-chair of the House aggies, too.

Pombo's opponent, Jerry McNerney, also had heavy 527 support from groups like the Sierra Club, who attacked Pombo's stances on oil drilling off the California coast and on the Endangered Species Act.

This is a big loss for cattle since Pombo was the only member of Congress who considered himself a rancher. Beating McNerney by 32 percentage points two years ago, however, Pombo stumbled badly recently.

It was found he took over $30,000 in campaign donations from convicted former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associates. There also was scuttlebutt about him profiting from the sale of land for a proposed highway that would go through his ranch.

Another lesson here: Members of Congress are to serve their constituents, not themselves.

So what about the new farm bill? With Peterson running the House side, Tom Harkin of Iowa will be in charge of the Senate Agriculture Committee. An administration team led by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns also says it wants to take an active role in crafting legislation.

Considering how the administration held back last time until the bill was on the House floor, it should prove interesting.

Instead of the cotton and rice view we would have had from Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, we likely will have a corn and soybean viewpoint.

One word of note: Earlier this year, I had an interview with Harkin, who looked at me and said, "We really didn't help the Wheat farmer with that last farm bill, did we?"

"No sir, it really wasn't much at all," I replied. "Particularly with a five-year drought."

His answer was simple.

"Well, we'll have to fix that."

Will Harkin fix the problems of the last farm bill to the benefit of Wheat growers while giving corn and soybean growers what they expect and need?

We'll see.

Larry Dreiling can be reached by phone at 785-628-1117 or by e-mail at ldreiling@aol.com.

Date: 11/21/06

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