Henry Bonilla & Democrats Rural Opportunity

Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-TX) is a typical corrupt politician - this much is obvious. As chairman of the powerful Agriculture Appropriations Committee he sits at the legislative fulcrum where small farmers get regularly screwed over by the GOP's pro-corporate-agribusiness policies.

Yesterday, Bonilla was in top form. CQ reports that he "added language to a fiscal 2006 spending bill that would effectively delay implementing" congressionally-mandated rules forcing companies to include country of origin labels on meats. The rules were originally passed for two reasons: 1) it helps consumers know where their food is coming from - especially important considering recent Mad Cow scares and 2) it helps small American ranchers/farmers better market their domestically-produced products in America (ie. tapping a patriotic "buy American" sentiment).

Bonilla made his controversial move to pay off the corporate agribusiness and food processing interests that finance his political campaigns. They want to be able to mix all sorts of different meats from anywhere in the world without any regulations, so as to save costs and maximize profits.

But in taking this action, Bonilla has highlighted a critical weakness for the GOP that Democrats can exploit. This is yet another example of a Republican Party that pays lip service to rural and small business interests - but uses its legislative power to run roughshod over those very same interests. The more Democrats can highlight this reality, the more they can start attracting support from the GOP's small business/rural base.

Already, some states are catching on. Out here in Montana, for instance, the Democratic legislature passed a strong country-of-origin labeling law over the objections of Big Business. The move allows Democrats to stand with the state's agricultural community and make a statement that screwing over ranchers and farmers is not the Montana way. Democrats in Congress can make a similar statement if they make this labeling fight emblematic of where the GOP's heart really is.