Donald Trump is reportedly nominating Sonny Perdue to head the US Department of Agriculture. Both Politico and AP are reporting the story, along with Talking Points Memo.
According to Politico:
Perdue, who served two terms as governor of Georgia (2003-11), brings agriculture credentials: He grew up on a row farm in Central Georgia and currently owns several agriculture-related businesses. However, his friendlier views on trade and immigration do not seem entirely in line with those of the president-elect, and he’s no stranger to controversy in office.
Well, that’s one way of putting it. You see, Perdue “grew up on a farm,” so he understands federal farm policy the same way that a person who drives a car understands running General Motors. Perdue’s “friendlier” views on trade are that he likes it. As governor, he shilled for it desperately, like all southern governors, and all governors in general. His position on immigration is that he opposed the more rabid “self-deportation” measures that swept through the assembly in 2011 as being bad for farm labor.
However, Perdue’s owning of “agriculture-related business” is the story, here. Sonny fits in very, very well with the Trump administration — little things like immigration notwithstanding — because he has been dogged with allegations of too close a relationship between personal and public business.
If you would like to see a monument to Perdue, go to his home town of Perry, Georgia. You can there go to Go Fish! the fishing museum. The state of Georgia pays $1,600,000 a year to subsidize this tourist attraction in the vital, centrally located town of Perry. As the New York Times reported in 2011, “local school groups come by the busload for tours of aquariums.” Every visitor is guaranteed to be given a fish.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, whose home turf this is, has been even more brutal about Go Fish. As of 2015, the state was still in the hole $15,000,000 for building Sonny’s home town fishing folly. I’m sure there will be more, especially as state skeletons begin to rattle more loudly, but Mr. Perdue’s terms were marked by generally pro-business and pro-dealing governance.
There are worse people to pick for the agency that oversees food stamps, but the one thing Sonny Perdue cannot be accused of being is an outsider.