WASHINGTON -- Ed Schafer hustles across his spacious Department of Agriculture office to open white curtains. He takes a few steps backward and peers out tall windows, gazing at the Washington Monument that punctuates the horizon and is basked in warm morning sunlight.
Schafer is a presidential Cabinet member and U.S. agriculture secretary, but he can't hide his enthusiasm for a room with a view.
"That's what I look at every day," Schafer says, a hint of awe remaining months after President Bush made the former North Dakota governor his ag chief. As a recent Bush appointee, Schafer inherited a position that not only provided him comfortable Capitol Hill surroundings, but a year-long opportunity to put an imprint on an array of federal agriculture, food and trade issues.
The timing of Schafer's January confirmation was a mixed bag.
Senators confirmed Schafer in time for him to attend Bush's final State of the Union speech and to begin tilling a new field of priorities for an agency with broad authority and nearly 100,000 employees.
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Yet Mr. Secretary -- "It's Ed," he insists -- acknowledged the year-long stint will leave him unable to finish some of the agency's most pressing work.
Despite speaking against the legislation, Schafer said he will spend the remainder of his term focused on putting new farm policy in place. He also wants to prod his large agency to start thinking about the emerging intersection of agriculture and energy.
"That's a big deal, to kind of shake the department to step forward now in a new path that includes energy," he said in an interview. "It's not something I can do, but I can get it moving in the right direction."
Some who know Schafer and the realities of what an administration can accomplish in its final months said he can make progress, albeit limited.
"On the one hand, Secretary Schafer is the short-term appointment of a lame-duck president. That would indicate the influence would be limited," said Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., who with the state's two Democratic senators backed the Republican Schafer's appointment.
"On the other hand, we just passed a farm bill" that Schafer's agency must implement, Pomeroy added. "I think he has certainly an adequate period to still make his mark."
Schafer oversees a department with widespread administrative responsibilities - from managing food programs for the nation's poor to overseeing food safety to distributing payments to crop farmers. His professional background is in business, with a failed fish farm as his major agricultural venture, but he said time as North Dakota governor - 1992 to 2000 - was "immensely helpful" in preparing him to lead the Department of Agriculture.
"You administer and manage as a governor similar as you do here," he said, sitting at a shiny conference table in his ornate second-floor office overlooking the National Mall, a park-like area between the Capital and the Lincoln Memorial.
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That business and executive background will be important as Schafer steers the agency through difficult issues, said one of his predecessors.
"I think it helps," said Bob Bergland, President Carter's agriculture secretary and a former northwestern Minnesota congressman. "He had to manage it to get things done and that's true with the Department of Agriculture as well. ... Otherwise, things are going to get bogged down."
"He's going to be the heart and soul of the place."
Schafer's legacy, Bergland predicted, will be tied to how he handles tough issues like trade and even an ongoing controversy over corn-based ethanol's impact on rising feed costs for livestock farmers.
Despite an ambitious agenda, Schafer insisted his days leading the agency are limited. He said he is not interesting in lobbying to stay on as ag chief for another presidential administration should GOP Sen. John McCain be elected.
Schafer said he and his wife left Fargo so he could work for the Bush White House.
"When we came here, Nancy and I made the commitment to detach from our family and our home to be here for 14 months or so, and we're going to see that through," he said. "What comes next we don't know, but we're not planning on being here."
Schafer allowed for a caveat. He said he would consider staying on the job beyond Jan. 20 to help with the transition to a new administration - should the next president ask for that.
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"That might be of interest," he said, "but I just don't anticipate a four- or eight-year commitment for this job into another administration."
