How it goes

Above: Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., briefs reporters last night after a closed door meeting of Senate conference members. He said the Senate was ready to pitch a few ideas to the House today.


The farm bill conference first scheduled for 9:30 today, then pushed back to 2 p.m. and then postponed to 5 p.m. eventually was cancelled altogether. Whether that is a good or bad sign may be open for interpretation. At 5 p.m., word came that the members were meeting privately and - if you want to dream a little - working out funding issues.

There is no word yet about a rescheduled hearing for tomorrow.

Aldi in Russia

Aldi - the chain of hard discount grocery outlets - is coming to Russia. So says this story from a Russian Web site that notes Aldi registered its brand trademark in St. Petersburg in late February. Aldi has about 8,000 stores and about 7,000 in Europe alone.

Here is an insightful blog post about Aldi from a person who experienced Aldi as a status concious child and a penny pinching Mom. From Amy Clark:

My mom laughs at me praising Aldi at the top of my lungs because as a child I was completely mortified and embarrassed that our family had to shop there. I would pray that I would not run into a classmate, ironically who was probably shopping there for the same exact reason as our family, and felt such shame that we could not shop at "normal" stores like other families.

TK: It helps being older and wiser (not to mention richer or poorer) to appreciate the merits of Aldi.

Here is a Business Week story from 2004 asking if Aldi is "the next Wal-Mart?" Aldi clearly isn't done with the U.S.

Aldi aims to open 40 stores a year until 2010, bringing the U.S. total to 1,000. Aldi is even buying up sites from retailers trampled by Wal-Mart. "It is an uncharacteristic weakness of Wal-Mart that it has not recognized how formidable a foe Aldi is," warns Burt P. Flickinger III of New York City-based Strategic Resource Group, a retailing and consumer goods consultant. He expects Aldi to have as much as 2% of the U.S. grocery market by the end of the decade, up from 0.65% now.

Potatoes and WIC

While the USDA has not officially clarified what "white potatoes" are for the purposes of their interim final rule, the National Potato Council and others are making the case that the exclusion of white potatoes for the new WIC fruit and vegetable vouchers - whether those "white" potatoes represent purple fingerlings and all colorful varieties or just "white" potatoes like round whites - is wrong and should be reversed.


I talked with Keeling today and he is sensitive to position that potatoes are in relative to the balance of the fresh produce department. He doesn't want to bring down the mood, as it were. Still, Keeling presents a powerful argument that the USDA's "fig leaf" - reliance on the Institute of Medicine report that recommended exclusion of "white potatoes" - may be clouding their better judgement. Keeling and the potato industry want to work behind the scenes to see if a farm bill fix or USDA revision will happen. If not, Keeling and the potato industry could call into question the USDA's fig leaf.

Waiting in line with linestanders

At about 12:30, I'm waiting for the doors to open to Hart 216 for the farm bill conference hearing and so far the two people waiting with me are with Washington Express. Washington Express is a courier company that provides line-standing services for lobbyists and lawyers in DC. Sue Fraser has been doing this since last fall and is a political junkie, so she likes getting out and seeing what's going on.

Demand to get in the farm bill conference will be high today. I will be able to bypass the line because of my press pass, which gives me a seat at the dais above the committee. Lucky me. But the limited number of seats - perhaps 20 or 30 - for the publc will go quickly.

Like college students waiting to get in a basketball game, sometimes the wait can get pretty long for linestanders. Sue related that sometimes line-standing involves waiting overnight outside Senate or House buildings. That means bringing lawn chairs, sleeping bags and other gear to make the wait more tolerable.

Some in Congress feel that lobbyists should have to wait like everyone else, and a couple of lawmakers - notably Claire McCaskill of Missouri - have tried to attach a bill that would put line-standers out of business. Yet I can see the argument that line-standing serves a purpose for the lobbyist and for the linestanders. Both can use their time profitably.