Don't Mess Around with Jim

As spring arrived on the Texas prairie last week, farmers and ranchers were fighting a range war that packed all the fury of a Panhandle twister. At the eye of the storm was Jim Hightower, the state's populist, barb-witted agriculture commissioner. Outside Texas, Hightower is best known for regaling the Democratic National Convention last year with his zingers about George Bush, who he said "was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple." Hightower provoked national attention again early this year when he urged cattlemen to grow hormone-free cattle in response to the European Community's ban on U.S. beef.

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