[Intl-tobacco] Bush admin ties to Big Tobacco
Robert Weissman
rob@milan.essential.org
Tue, 1 May 2001 18:11:28 -0400 (EDT)
Bush Administration Tobacco Industry Ties
http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/tobacco/featured/2001/rweissmanb.html
By Robert Weissman
Special to CorpWatch
April 2001
Policy making authority in the Bush
administration on tobacco issues will rest largely with the Department
of
Health and Human Services, the Justice
Department, the U.S. Trade Representative and, above all, the White
House. Many key officials in these agencies
have ties to the tobacco industry or have suggested sympathy for
positions favored by the industry.
The Players
Karl Rove
Perhaps the most important
figure in Bush's campaign, Rove landed a role as senior
advisor to the president.
Rove is one of the power centers in the White House, (along with
senior White House counselor
Karen Hughes, Chief of Staff Andrew Card and Vice
President Dick Cheney.)
Rove goes way back with
George W. Bush. He helped engineer Bush's 1994 victory
giving W. the Texas
governorship. After Bush was elected, Rove wore multiple hats. He
advised the governor,
continued his work as a political operative, and worked as a
lobbyist/consultant -- for
Philip Morris.
In a 1997 deposition, Rove
testified that he worked as a Philip Morris consultant from
1991 to 1996, taking about $175,000 in fees.
He said that Bush was aware of his Philip Morris ties beginning in
1993.
The Bush governorship was very, very good to
Philip Morris. Atop Big Tobacco's wish list are restrictions on
citizens' rights to sue the makers of harmful
products -- often known by the misleading moniker "tort reform." Tort
reform involves limits on victims' ability to
combine claims in class actions, seek punitive damages, receive
compensation pain and suffering and enter
into contingency-fee arrangements with lawyers, among other
proposals.
Rove admitted in his 1997 deposition that he
steered Bush toward pushing the tort reform issue as a central
prong in his campaigns, though Rove denied
ever misusing his ties to the governor to advance the interests of
Philip Morris. Bush did deliver a major
rollback in victims' legal rights -- highlighted in his presidential
campaign --
to the benefit of Philip Morris.
In his current post, Rove is among the most
powerful and influential White House officials, with broad authority to
help shape or influence almost all domestic
policy.
Tommy Thompson
Health and Human Services
Secretary Thompson maintained warm relations with Philip Morris
during his tenure as Wisconsin
governor.
He went to three continents on
three trips arranged by the National Governors Association
and substantially funded by
Philip Morris. "I value your loyalty and friendship," Thompson
wrote Andrew Whist, a Philip
Morris senior vice president after an Africa trip in 1995, according
to the Associated Press.
Following a 1996 visit to Australia, Thompson wrote Philip Morris
lobbyist Jack Lenzi that he
was "especially grateful you agreed to take the scuba diving
plunge with me." During his
time in politics, Thompson has collected more than $100,000 in
contributions from the tobacco
industry, affiliated firms and their executives.
As governor, Thompson's record on tobacco was
mostly poor, although not totally dismal. He signed four
tobacco tax increases and was supportive of
the state's suit against the tobacco industry. (By contrast to Bush
as governor worked, largely unsuccessfully,
to undermine the Texas suit against the industry.) But Thompson
signed a smokers' rights bill -- which gives
smokers in Wisconsin similar protected status as minorities, women, the
elderly and the disabled, vetoed a smoking
ban in general seating for the Milwaukee Brewers' new baseball
stadium, and vetoed a bill that would have
permitted cities to adopt stronger anti-smoking rules than those
maintained by the state.
As Secretary of Health and Human Services,
Thompson is the foremost health policy official in the United States.
He will have a crucial role in determining
whether the Food and Drug Administration seeks authority to regulate
tobacco, and in overseeing most of the
health-related tobacco programs carried out by the federal government,
including those run by the Centers for
Disease Control. In his confirmation hearings, Thompson told Senator Tom
Harkin, D-Iowa, "we need you to get your
legislation passed," referring to a bill proposed by Harkin that would
give the FDA jurisdiction over tobacco
advertising.
In March, Thompson spoke out forcefully
against tobacco, during the release of the surgeon general's report on
smoking. "I promised Surgeon General Satcher
that I would use the bully pulpit of the Office of Secretary to
decry the harmful affects of smoking as much
as I possibly could," Thompson pledged.
Before supporting strong controls on the
tobacco industry, Thompson noted that he was speaking for himself,
not necessarily the administration.
John Ashcroft
"I am no friend of the tobacco
industry," Attorney General John Ashcroft said during his
confirmation hearings. In a
way, this might be true. Ashcroft's religious views militate against
the use of tobacco.
But his ideological views are
compatible with those of the tobacco industry, especially in his
opposition to victims' rights
to seek redress through the civil justice system. Ashcroft served on
the advisory board of the
Washington Legal Foundation (WLF), a right-wing foundation with
strong corporate backing.
Tommy Thompson served on the foundation's legal policy advisory.
(Other WLF alumni cabinet
members include Secretary of Interior Gale Norton and Secretary
of Energy Spencer Abraham.)
"WLF has served as a mouthpiece for tobacco
companies in many battles against regulation of tobacco
products," explained the Berkeley-based
Americans for Nonsmokers Rights in a letter opposing Thompson's
nomination. An internal Philip Morris memo
described Washington Legal Foundation as follows: "A close ally of
PM for many years, WLF has been involved in
numerous aspects of the tobacco industry debate. They have filed
amicus briefs against the EPA; they have
written and promoted policy papers supporting our position on the
advertising/First Amendment issue; and, most
recently, they authored a major paper detailing why the tobacco
industry is already one of the most highly
regulated industries in America and does not need further regulatory
control."
As Attorney General, Ashcroft will have
primary decision-making authority as to whether the United States
continues its lawsuit against the tobacco
industry, and how vigorously it wages the suit if it maintains it.
Ashcroft
testified in his confirmation hearings that
he had "no predisposition" to dismiss the lawsuit. However, in an
August 24, 2000 letter to a constituent (when
Ashcroft was still a senator), he wrote, "While I am deeply troubled
by the increase in tobacco use by teenagers
today, I do not believe that this lawsuit will help in the fight to curb
teen smoking." He added, "I am concerned that
the DOJ lawsuit could set an unwise precedent leading to the
federal government filing lawsuits against
countless other legal industries."
In a move that surprised many observers, the
Ashcroft Justice Department petitioned the Supreme Court to
intervene on behalf of the state of
Massachusetts in a case coming before the court at the end of April. The
case involves an industry challenge, on
free-speech grounds, to a Massachusetts advertising regulation.
John Graham
Graham is the Bush nominee to head the Office
of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the White
House's Office of Management and Budget
(OMB). Graham's post would give him a "gatekeeper" role in
reviewing all health, safety and
environmental regulations issued by the Bush administration.
It is hard to imagine anyone more hostile to
health and safety regulation being appointed to the post.
Graham comes from a long tenure as head of
the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, an corporate-backed center
that has pushed the idea that citizens are
overly fearful of industrial risks and urging that regulations be based
on "sound science" -- a code term that
effectively means corporate-backed science.
The tobacco industry documents now available
on the internet feature Graham in a small but amusing role as a
money-grubbing academic who delivers the
right message for the tobacco industry.
A memo from a Philip Morris executive on
Graham says, "Sure, he's after $ to help support his Center, but
whether or not PM decides to contribute it's
more important to meet him and perhaps get 'looped in' better with
his activities. ...he is a key player in all
this risk analysis stuff that's currently going on in the government."
Philip Morris eventually did become a
contributor to Graham's Center, though it is unclear if payment ever
came
directly from the tobacco company (a Philip
Morris check was returned, for unclear reasons). Philip Morris'
subsidiary Kraft definitely did contribute to
the Center, though the company was a bit taken aback by Graham's
fundraising brazenness.
The Philip Morris files show Graham sending
letters to the government on secondhand smoke, arguing that
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reviews
of the issue should have been subjected to greater White
House control.
"The president has nominated someone intent
on eradicating basic government safeguards to head the very
office charged with overseeing them," says
Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook. "The public may never have
heard of John Graham, but he could
dramatically affect the quality of the air they breathe, the
wholesomeness of
the food they eat and the safety of the cars
they drive."
"Rather than being a fair-minded assessor,
Graham would continue to conspire with the chemical polluters, the
tobacco industry, automakers, the oil and gas
industries and others to stop the issuance of safety protections,"
Claybrook added.
Robert Weissman is editor of Multinational
Monitor magazine and co-director of Essential Action, a corporate
accountability group.