Once Again, Bush Slows Farm Bill Progress

Does President Bush want a Farm Bill? We wish we knew.

What we do know is that "compromise" is an important skill, and we applaud Senate AG Chair Tom Harkin, House Ag Chair Collin Peterson and the conference committee members as a whole for their hard work in finding the compromises that allowed last night's committee session to come to agreement. Meanwhile, President Bush is once again dragging his feet, with both his senior appointees -- USDA Secretary Schafer and Deputy Secretary Conner having admitted to Peterson that they have no authority to negotiate alterations to administration demands.

And the Bush demands seem to be centered on contrariness -- his way or the highway -- with his "required" changes designed specifically to hold up what has already been a hard process.

Next step is for Senate Ranking Member Saxby Chamblis to go to the White House with a message centering on, "We've got a Farm Bill you can sign."

When Chambliss comes back, we'll learned whether Bush understands that this is a democracy -- not a dictatorship, and even the President must take a turn at compromise.