A farm bill that has been stuck on the Senate floor for more than a week appeared to be on its last breath Thursday, with Senate Democrats and Republicans blaming each other over the impasse.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) told reporters this would make it difficult to finish a new farm bill before next year’s elections, a point also made by several lobbyists who have been frustrated with the partisan fighting.

“I really think we’ll be doing a farm bill in 2009,” one veteran agriculture lobbyist said.

Senate Democrats and Republicans have been unable to reach a deal on how to handle amendments to the farm bill for more than a week, with GOP members crying foul over Reid’s use of a parliamentary trick known as “filling the tree.” This procedural move prevented Republicans from offering their own amendments to the bill.

Reid and Harkin argue Republicans are to blame for the impasse for seeking to amend the farm bill with non-germane amendments, including measures related to driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants and other “hot-button” issues, according to Harkin.

Harkin said he believes the White House, which has threatened to veto the Senate bill, has pushed Republican leaders to delay Senate debate in the hope that this will prevent a final measure from reaching President Bush in order to avoid a veto that could hurt Republicans in rural America.

The farm lobbyist, however, said GOP senators have little choice but to oppose cloture on Friday given Reid’s move to fill the tree. If they do not, it would embolden Reid to fill the tree on other Senate measures.

Lobbyists said members of both parties are likely to get blamed outside the Beltway from rural constituents unhappy over the stalemate. “I think there will be a free-for-all over who is to blame,” a second agriculture lobbyist said.