"Obama's Attempt To Tap an Agrichemical-Industry Flack Runs Into Trouble"

"Last month, President Obama nominated Islam 'Isi' Siddiqui, vice president for governmental affairs at pesticide industry trade group Croplife America, to the post of chief agricultural negotiator at the U.S. Trade Office.

If Siddiqui takes office, he will solidify his position as a textbook case of the 'revolving door' between government and industry. Before going to work for the nation's most prominent agrichemical trade group, he had spent a long career as an ag official, first for the state of California, later with the Clinton USDA, where he served as Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs.

At the time of his nomination last month, I cynically assumed that Siddiqui would skate through Congress ....

Now I'm not so sure."

Tom Philpott reports in Grist October 27, 2009.