WASHINGTON INSIGHT

IS COTTON PICKING? A prominent lobbyist is working to plant his former boss in some tall cotton at the Agriculture Department. . . . Bill Gillon used to work for the Senate Agriculture Committee and now lobbies for the Cotton Council, an industry group. Sources say he is promoting his ex-boss--James M. Cubie, the Senate panel’s chief counsel--to be assistant secretary of agriculture for natural resources and the environment. Agribusiness likes Cubie for the key post because he is no environmental hard-liner on pesticides, timber-cutting and such. . . . Has Gillon spoken to Clinton officials about Cubie? “I don’t know if I have or not,” he said. “But you can’t move around town without people pushing and gouging to force opinions out of you.” Cubie, he added, is “extremely competent.” . . . Another top prospect is James R. Lyons, a House Agriculture Committee aide with a Yale degree in forestry. He is backed by environmental groups and six House committee chairmen, including Interior head George Miller (D-Martinez). . . . Fellow aides say Cubie and Lyons blazed a middle road between environmentalists and commodity groups on two tricky issues in the 1990 farm bill: wetlands and clean water.