Farmers Can Increase Their Influence

American farmers could capitalize on an identity crisis that both Democrats and Republicans are suffering after the election, a political commentator said Wednesday.

Irreverent and sarcastic, Detroit News pundit Tony Snow told 1,000 people attending a chemical and crop protection conference at the Spokane Convention Center that they have a chance to seize the “high moral ground” from environmentalists on issues such as food safety as the parties try to redefine themselves under changing leadership.

“There’s a wholesale battle going on for who ought to be in charge of making this country a better place,” Snow told members of the Far West Fertilizer & AgriChemical Association and the Western Crop Protection Association. “Right now environmentalists own the high moral ground, saying ‘if you’re not with us, you must want everyone to die.’ You could seize that ground.”

Snow, a syndicated columnist to The Spokesman-Review and other newspapers, was a speech writer for President George Bush. The conservative also appears on TV talk shows: Crossfire, The McLaughlin Group and Inside Politics.

Referring to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott as “wonderfully mean,” and suggesting that Vice President Al Gore may have plagiarized the Unabomber’s manifesto on the environment, Snow predicted a White House that will be distracted by federal investigations. Congress, meanwhile, will force President Clinton to take the lead on the controversial programs such as welfare and Medicare reform.

“Don’t just sit around complaining about the government, get involved,” he added. “Congress is looking for new ways to do things because it realizes big government can’t do it all anymore.”

, DataTimes