Dale Bumpers: “as Laurel used to say, ``We have gotten ourselves into a fine fix.'' There is something about this whole thing that…”

“as Laurel used to say, ``We have gotten ourselves into a fine fix.'' There is something about this whole thing that obviously is eluding me. I must confess that a lot of my farmers, or at least the organizations, have gone from being violently opposed to the freedom-to-farm bill to now favoring it. While I understand that--and I certainly am not in any position to criticize some of the farmers in my State who now favor freedom to farm--I still believe that the vast majority of the farmers in my State, particularly rice farmers--and there are thousands of them, as we produce 40 percent of all the rice in the country--farmers, in my opinion, would ultimately be devastated when the freedom-to-farm bill passes. Cotton and wheat are different matters. I think the best description of the freedom-to-farm bill I have heard was one that was given in caucus the other day by the senior Senator from North Dakota, Senator Conrad, when he said the freedom-to-farm bill is like the Kool-Aid that Jimmy Jones gave all his devotees when they were drinking poison. It tastes good going down, but it is fatal.…”