Tainted tomatoes cleared; Bush still to blame?

Oh you can almost hear the Lou Dobbs indignation from here. Three months after blaming an outbreak of salmonella on the robust tomato, the Food and Drug Administration has apparently decided, according to the Associated Press, that it is OK for Americans to eat tomatoes again.

Not that the government still has any idea what started the outbreak -- the FDA allows as how it could have been those April and May tomatoes after all, it's just that they're no longer in the food chain. After costing the U.S. food industry an estimated $100 million in losses, the agency has now turned its attention to Mexico, sending a team of investigators to look into hot peppers in that country.

Investigators at the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta have been saying for weeks now that the culprit could be elsewhere in the nation's food chain.

"We continue to keep an open mind about the possible source of this outbreak," said Patricia Griffin, the branch chief of the CDC's enteric diseases epidemiology section. "It's very frustrating to all of us to be so far along in an investigation and to not have an answer."

CNN's Dobbs has been on a tear about it, suggesting that the FDA's incompetence should be grounds for George W. Bush's impeachment. On a recent show, the anchor of "Lou Dobbs Tonight" said:

"You know, I have heard a lot of reasons over the years as to why George W. Bush should be impeached. But for them to leave the Food and Drug Administration in this state, its leadership in this sorry condition and to have no capacity apparently or will to protect the American consumer -– that is alone to me sufficient reason to impeach a president who has made this agency possible and has ripped its guts out in its ability to protect the American consumer."

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Matt Rourke / Associated Press

U.S. beef -- and Bush -- off to South Korea

U.S. beef is returning to South Korea for the first time in five years -- and so is President Bush.

Korean President Lee Myung-bak, visiting Bush at Camp David last April, agreed to lift the ban on U.S. beef that had been in place since mad cow disease was discovered in the United States in 2003.

Despite violent protests in Seoul, the White House said that Bush will meet with Lee when the two are in Japan for the G-8 meeting this month and again when Bush visits South Korea Aug. 5-6, on his way to the Beijing Olympics.

At Camp David, Bush served the south Korean president Texas Black Angus tenderloin. No telling what they'll be eating on this trip.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Lee Jin-man /Associated Press

Should Bush be impeached over tainted tomatoes?

Three months after the first outbreak of salmonella that has made hundreds ill and cost the U.S. food industry over $100 million, the Food and Drug Administration still has no clue as to what is causing the trouble, or where it began. At first the agency flatly blamed tainted tomatoes -- and its website is still pinning the outbreak on the vine vegetable. But investigators at the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta now say that it's possible the culprit could be elsewhere in the nation's food chain.

"We continue to keep an open mind about the possible source of this outbreak," said Patricia Griffin, the branch chief of the CDC's enteric diseases epidemiology section. "It's very frustrating to all of us to be so far along in an investigation and to not have an answer."

CNN's Lou Dobbs has been on a tear about it, suggesting that the FDA's incompetence should be grounds for George W. Bush's impeachment. On a recent show, the anchor of "Lou Dobbs Tonight" said:

"You know, I have heard a lot of reasons over the years as to why George W. Bush should be impeached. But for them to leave the Food and Drug Administration in this state, its leadership in this sorry condition and to have no capacity apparently or will to protect the American consumer -– that is alone to me sufficient reason to impeach a president who has made this agency possible and has ripped its guts out in its ability to protect the American consumer."

Now, in a front-page article on the growing scandal, the Wall Street Journal reports today that one California and Arizona produce association,  Western Growers Assn., is asking Congress to investigate the FDA for incompetence. In its letter to the House Agriculture Committee, the association's president and CEO Tom Nassif says:

"Congress must investigate this matter and determine ways to avoid this in the future and make the innocent tomato growers, packers and shippers whole. FDA’s comments to the media earlier today do not leave us confident that a progressive narrowing of the investigation through a thorough trace back process is occurring. It is very possible that we may never know if tomatoes are the source or, if they are, where they were grown or processed or how they were contaminated."

Noting that the industry has taken "dramatic steps" to prevent contamination in the food chain, Nassif argues that the FDA practice of issuing blanket warnings before it knows the cause is going to destroy the health of the nation's agricultural sector.

"The collateral damage inflicted on thousands of innocent producers in this country by FDA blanket 'advisories,' such as with spinach and tomatoes cannot go unchallenged."

Hurricane Katrina showcased the incompetence of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and brought needed reforms there. Perhaps tomatoes will do the same for the FDA. The question for the next president: If federal agencies are a mess, who gets the blame -- Bush or bureaucracy?

-- Johanna Neuman

Bush and the asparagus caper

It began last week in Germany, when a visiting President Bush thanked host Chancellor Angela Merkel for a marvelous dinner of schnitzel, asparagus and fresh strawberries.

"Laura and I loved our dinner last night," Bush said at a joint press conference the two leaders held the next morning. "For those in the German press who thought I didn't like asparagus, you're wrong. The German asparagus are fabulous."

This comment caught the attention of Washington state's Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, below, whose father grew up picking asparagus in the tri-cities area. "The president was probably just being polite when he complimented German asparagus, but just to make sure, I wanted him to have some truly great asparagus from Washington state."

So Tuesday, Murray and Washington's Republican Rep. Doc Hastings sent 10 pounds of asparagus from Gourmet Trading in Pasco, Wash., to the White House, along with a link to recipes from the Washington Asparagus Commission.

"Mr. President, if you liked the German variety, we guarantee that you will love Washington state asparagus," the two said in a letter to the White House.

No word yet from the White House on how they plan to use the gift. At least it wasn't broccoli -- the president's father was well-known for his antipathy to that vegetable.

-- Johanna Neuman and Maura Reynolds

Photo: Bush, Eric Draper/White House; Murray, Jeff T. Green/Associated Press