BREAKING: Kerry: Get rid of the Agriculture Dept (' 96)

On drudge now....make of it what you will.



**Exclusive** In 1996 Senator John Kerry proposed to "get rid of the Agriculture Department," the DRUDGE REPORT can reveal. A move -- that if successful -- would have likely resulted in subsidies cuts and programs for Iowa growers. "I think we can reduce the size of Washington," Kerry said on January 6, 1996. "Get rid of the Energy Department. Get rid of the Agriculture Department, or at least render it three-quarters the size it is today; there are more agriculture bureaucrats than there are farmers in this country"...

http://www.drudgereport.com

Hmmmm..., Hil...Nah..,couldn't be, (could it?).

You're right. It couldn't be!

was left out this time?

And good point. Best to wait and see if this is
true etc or not. He also apparently advocated the
same thing for the ENERGY dept....which is weird.

IF true....not sure how folks in Iowa will respond.

for Kerry's sake,I hope the farmers haven't saw this one

as the son-in-law of a family farmer, many farmers might agree with Kerry, especially the comment about there being more ag beurocrats (never can spell that one) than farmers. It would not necessarily mean the end of subsidies or government services, just that those thing would be consolidated into other agencies. Even block grants to states for programs to preserve family farms and build up the county agent programs.

and don't put all the blame on Drudge - it's SO obvious democrats from opposing campaigns are dropping these in his lap.....this stuff needs to stop or we're hurting our whole party (this smells like Gephardt!!)

This release quickly followed Iowa polls showing Kerry either tied with Dean or ahead of him by as many as 5 points.

I would say Dean has much more to gain by this than Clark does. This potentially affects the race in Iowa much more than it does NH.

This is the exact same thing that they tried against him last week on the voting no business. And it was the exact same response. You bet he's against all these massive agri-business subsidies and he's been fighting against it for years. As long as this is reported exactly as quoted, this will help.

Is it bad to want to eliminate waste?

"I think we can reduce the size of Washington," Kerry said on January 6, 1996. "Get rid of the Energy Department. Get rid of the Agriculture Department, or at least render it three-quarters the size it is today; there are more agriculture bureaucrats than there are farmers in this country"...

I know I don't want "more agriculture bureaucrats than there are farmers"

And yeah, cutting out whole departments is a bad idea, IMO.

Reform, yes. Eliminate? No, that doesn't sound good to me at all.

"I think we can reduce the size of Washington," Kerry said on January 6, 1996. "Get rid of the Energy Department. Get rid of the Agriculture Department, or at least render it three-quarters the size it is today; there are more agriculture bureaucrats than there are farmers in this country"...

You believe Drudge? There are full blown paranoid schizophrenics I would believe before Drudge. (edited to make sense)

he has some very negative stories/links about republicans all the time including Bush. And remember the Rush story? We've actually had 2 different threads going on at this site at the same time where we are gleeful about a Drudge story and at the same time another thread going on about a Drudge story where we say Drudge always lies. I have a republican cousin who points this out all the time and I have to admit he's right......Lets just be consistent!!

he only posts the negative stories about Bush, Rush, etc. only so he can inform his readers what is coming down the pipeline, which is exactly why I read him all day every day. Whether you like Drudge or hate him, he has some awesome connects and breaks a lot of stories first and fast.

;)

It's probably either from Dean, or the GOP who many think want Dean nominated

him in NH.

Weakening him here, weakens him there.

that's one warped argument

I doubt Lahane's behind it. Drudge takes his requests from the other side. But tactically speaking, Clark is better off with a thinned out field. The person who can best thin out the field with a victory in Iowa is Dean. Anyone else wins and we could have a brand new horse race rather than a Dean vs Clark dynamic.

From the Iowa Pulse From Dec.

Dean fights back by criticizing Kerry on farm policy
Ed Tibbetts
Date posted: December, 30th, 2003

Two days after Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean complained about rivals barking at his heels, the former Vermont governor bit back Tuesday.

Dean’s campaign accused U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., of failing Iowa farmers when floods hit the state 10 years ago. He also complained that Kerry supported the 1996 revamp of national farm policy that is roundly criticized by Democrats.


http://www.iowapulse.com/2003/story81.html

It must have to do Gingrich's Freedom to Farm law which apparently would have removed subsidies for family farmers. Harken, Kerry and Gephardt voted against it.

Dig away :evilgrin:

The timing is impeccable, considering most Iowa polls show Kerry ahead or a statistical tie.

I MUST ask: .... WHY do so many Clark supporters attack their fellow Democrats for the slightest pretenses ? ...

Cmon .... we are ALL in the same party ...

Kerry, Dean, Edwards and Gephardt are DECENT men, worthy of our collective respect, if not our direct support ...

Before someone decides to RUN a good man face down into the mud, perhaps it would actually be decent of that someone to see if their target deserved such harsh treatment by his fellow party members ....

created the current blame Clark Campaign (Lehane) first, ask questions later.

Case in point:

Grist: It's interesting to me that unlike other candidates, you've actually gone to Iowa, for instance, which has a strong United Auto Workers base, and argued for CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards, putting yourself in conflict with what we traditionally think of as anti-environmentalists.

Kerry: You have to tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may. But the truth, in this case, should be appealing to UAW's workers: I believe I can put them to work. I believe I can have them working making cars; they can just make cars that are more efficient. It's not that hard. We can make cars that use biomass ethanol, cars that use hybrid-electric engines, that get 100 miles to the gallon by just being smarter. Somebody has to lead us there.
http://www.gristmagazine.com/maindish/kerry092303.asp

And another case in point:

Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry on Monday outlined a plan to curb runoffs into the nation's river systems and put new efforts into restoring wetlands.

Kerry headed to Davenport, Iowa, to announce his clean water proposals on the banks of the Mississippi River, the main drinking water source for 18 million Americans.

In Iowa, 188 waterways are listed on the impaired registry by federal environmental officials, and 140,000 Iowans drink water with nitrate levels above recommended amounts. Kerry argued that 30 years after the federal Clean Water Act was enacted, the nation remains far short of its goals.

The Massachusetts senator said he would create incentive systems for cities along the river to control runoff that is steadily polluting the waters, and would put in place similar incentives for farmers to create buffer strips to control leaking of farm chemicals into rivers.
http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-kerry-environment,0,6304708.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines(oops, old link, doesn't work)

CAFE standards to auto workers - non point source pollution in farm country -- just like farm subsidies, these are hot-button topics. But real leadership includes being able to say the things people don't want to hear as well as what they do.

"I think we can reduce the size of Washington"

"Get rid of the Agriculture Department, or at least render it three-quarters the size it is today; there are more agriculture bureaucrats than there are farmers in this country"...

Damn Straight!! There are too goddamn many agricultural bureacrats! And they'll caucus for Kerry.

AND I just came back from Freeper land- THEY AGREE!!! I can't believe how many posters there say THEY'LL vote FOR Kerry if he does this!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1059490/posts

do not trust Drudge...there is always a little truth and a whole lot of spin. He is a tool of Ed at the RNC.

When they were absolutely certain Dean was going to be the nominee, they felt safe to smear him. Now that it is in doubt, they are pulling out their guns for Clark and Kerry, and Edwards will be next.

that would have been cancelled years ago were it not for the politicians that come pandering to Iowa every four years.

"I am an ethanol man!"

George W. Bush
2000 GOP Iowa debate

he should go straight to the White House without passing "Go."

...said it was about cutting Washington Bureaucracy and NOT farm programs.