The Wall Street Journal has a piece today about the Federal Trade Commission’s suit against Whole Foods to block its purchase of Wild Oats Markets. But, inside the story is this revealing little nugget:

The challenge would be one of the few brought under the Bush administration, which has broadly interpreted antitrust law to allow scores of mergers of direct rivals. A recent study presented at Georgetown University Law Center found that the Bush Justice Department’s rate of merger challenges between 2002 and 2005 was the lowest of the past 20 years. The FTC, which shares antitrust enforcement, has been marginally more aggressive, the research suggests.

There has been a growing sense in corporate boardrooms that mergers once considered unthinkable now have a chance. The merger last year of Whirlpool Corp. and Maytag Corp., which united the top rivals in household appliances, was widely seen as a turning point. Administration officials have said merger-review standards haven’t changed and the Justice Department remains vigilant.

    It’s just a fact that we probably knew in our hearts but worth being reminded in any case.

    I will point out that two years ago, I urged the United Food and Commercial Workers to focus a lot more attention on Whole Foods–it is the Wal-Mart of organic foods (though the Beast of Bentonville is trying to make a big push in that market) and the longer the union waits, the harder it is going to be to unionize this quite anti-union chain.