Oh, the irony

The Delta Farm Press reported last week on the occasion of the "Champion of Arkansas Agriculture" being given to Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AS) at a dinner benefitting the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance. In her speech, Senator Lincoln said, “I was particularly proud of the tremendous investment the bill makes to reduce food insecurity among our children and our elderly, and others in need,” Lincoln said. “It represents the largest amount of funding for nutrition programs in our nation’s history.”

Yes folks, this is the same Blanche Lincoln who threatened her own party leadership that she would filibuster the Dorgan-Grassley payment limits amendment to the 2008 Farm Bill, (thereby forcing the Dem leadership to create a new 60 vote minumum rule --on themselves--for the Dorgan-Grassley amendment, in order to even prevent the possibility of a filibuster). As we know, the amendment, therefore, did not pass, despite the fact that it had 56 votes.

She threatened to filibuster the entire food assistance-laden farm bill, because this amendment posed such a threat to her cotton and rice farmers, who are now applauding "the work of Sen. Lincoln and the Arkansas rice industry for their generous efforts and contributions toward helping eradicate hunger in America,” (said by USA Rice President and CEO Betsy Ward).

So, when Senator Lincoln said, at the dinner, that many of the opponents of the farm bill failed to recognize the benefits of the bill--“Instead, I received a considerable amount of criticism for some of the work I did to ensure that our family farmers and producers can remain competitive in today’s global marketplace," she meant her "work" in torturing the democratic process to continue bringing home the bacon to the 26 farms in her state who received $250,000 or more in 2005. And implying that they couldn't have actually understood what was really in the bill, if they dared to stand up and utilize the democratic process to prevent a few wealthy farmers from continuing to use the American taxpayers as sugar daddies.