Now that was weird. If you watched the State of the Union — and really, why would you? — you might have wondered what the hell Ted Turner was doing in the front row of the Congressional chamber, rubbing elbows with our so-called president.
At least I thought Teddy Ranch Hand was sitting front and center.
Turns out that the look-alike was the brand-new U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer, the former governor of North Dakota. His first job is to iron on details of the five-year, $286-billion U.S. Farm Bill, which G.W. Bush has threatened to veto if it raises taxes or fails to end crop subsidies to the wealthiest Americans.
Here’s an excerpt on Schafer from the World Wide Agricultural Network.
“Schafer has had a lifelong interest in conservation and helped arrange the U.S. Forest Service’s May 2007 purchase of the 5,200 acre Elkhorn ranch in North Dakota. The site was where Theodore Roosevelt had his home and operated a cattle ranch in the 1880s. It is near the preserved town of Medora-the state’s leading tourist attraction,” according to a Associated Press report.
