Because enough nay votes today will give President Bush the margin he needs to sustain a veto and pursue one last effort to press for reform of the scandalously broken crop subsidy system and curb abuses by the mega-farms that dominate it.

The only thing more shameful than the income "caps" in the Conference Bill is their embrace by Democrats as "reform."

What Bush's veto, in turn, will not mean, is a simple extension of the 2002 bill and it won't mean we exhume the 1949 law. Neither one is a viable option for the administration or congress. They need a new bill, and a post-veto version will be better.

And a veto also won't mean the loss of the nutrition and conservation funding and reforms everyone's so excited about--everyone but us. We think on both areas--and on organic, fruit and vegetable programs, dealing with hunger abroad--this farm bill doesn't even measure up to being called pathetic, and we'll be writing about that a lot in the days to come.

So again, we urge a nay vote today.

UPDATE: The House approved the farm bill with an apparently veto-proof margin, 318-106.