Dan Glickman knows his time is running out as the longest-serving agriculture secretary in half a century. Tom Vilsack, who started on the job at the dawn of the Obama administration in 2009, will tie Glickman, who served in the Clinton era, at 2,123 days in office on Nov 13 and surpass him on Nov 14, according to a USDA tally.
“He’s doing this to spite me,” Glickman said jovially while introducing Vilsack at a Chicago Council on Global Affairs luncheon on Monday and Vilsack smilingly agreed in turn, “You’re absolutely right.”
Vilsack said Glickman ranks fourth for length of tenure at USDA. Ezra Taft Benson in the Eisenhower administration and Orville Freeman during the Kennedy-Johnson era each served eight years. The record holder is “Tama” Jim Wilson, agriculture secretary for 16 years for Presidents McKinley, Roosevelt and Taft, ending on March 5, 1913. Wilson also set the record for longest service by any cabinet member, says the Miller Center at the University of Virginia.