Tobacco Magic

The New York Times is reporting this morning that political appointees at the Justice Department ordered the lawyers prosecuting the tobacco case to reduce the amount of damages they were seeking (for an anti-smoking public education campaign) by $120 billion. That's right, billion with a "b." As Senator Everett Dirksen (R-IL) famously said, "A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money."

The political hack, er, appointee, Robert McCallum, noted that an appellate court decision in another case had forced the government to argue a different -- and much smaller -- measure of damages. The lawyers actually trying the case disagreed, and probably leaked the internal debate and its documentation to the media.

I've neither the time nor inclination to read the other appellate case, review the memos, etc. With that caveat, let me say what I think will happen. The media will cover this story with its typical "he said, she said" vapidity. A small minority of Americans will pay attention long enough to hear the Administration magicians say, "See the $130 billion? Now watch me strike it with my Appeals-Court-Decision-in-Unrelated-Case Magic Wand, and -- ABRACADABRA! -- it's only $10 billion!" Those lucky few Americans will stare at the TV for a second, some vague image of their children and grandchildren becoming addicted to cigarettes flashing through their subconscious, then lower their heads back to their TV dinners. The vast majority of Americans will never know or understand how $120 billion of sanctions for unlawful misconduct got taken out of their pockets and put back into the profits of the tobacco industry.

My point is this: the appellate court decision was a pretext for making the Justice Department lawyers do what the Bush Administrations and its tobacco clients wanted them to do. This demonstrates what is, for me, the essential corruptness of the Administration. It's sad that things like this are happening right in front of our eyes, the media is complicit in it, and the vast majority of Americans will wake up tomorrow in a smaller, meaner country with smaller, meaner people and smaller, meaner ideals.