Tobacco and 1994
2009-06-22 - by
Big Tobacco’s big defeat in Congress this month just goes to show that in politics there are no final victories.
Turn the page back to 1994.
That’s the year Congressman Henry Waxman hauled the top tobacco-company executives before Congress – lining them up and administering the oath like they were Mafia dons.
It’s also the year Big Tobacco decided to get even politically. The companies put their money and muscle behind the Gingrich Revolution. The strategy worked – for a while.
The companies got a friendly Congress. FDA regulation was dead, for the time being.
Enter Dick Morris.
The Sleazemaster persuaded then-client Bill Clinton that tobacco was a great political target. A politically desperate Clinton picked up the issue, paying no mind to how it might affect his allies in North Carolina like Jim Hunt.
Protecting kids from tobacco – like school uniforms and vacationing in the Rockies – was one of the micro-issues Clinton used to restore his political standing and win reelection in 1996.
Eventually, Gingrich self-destructed. But the Supreme Court made George W. Bush President. Tobacco was protected by the presidential veto pen.
All the while, Big Tobacco became a bigger and bigger target for Democrats. After 2006 and 2008, the companies’ fate was sealed.
It’s often tempting – especially to corporations – to line up with one party or the other. But it’s rarely a good long-term strategy.
Tobacco and 1994
2009-06-22/
Big Tobacco’s big defeat in Congress this month just goes to show that in politics there are no final victories.
Turn the page back to 1994.
That’s the year Congressman Henry Waxman hauled the top tobacco-company executives before Congress – lining them up and administering the oath like they were Mafia dons.
It’s also the year Big Tobacco decided to get even politically. The companies put their money and muscle behind the Gingrich Revolution. The strategy worked – for a while.
The companies got a friendly Congress. FDA regulation was dead, for the time being.
Enter Dick Morris.
The Sleazemaster persuaded then-client Bill Clinton that tobacco was a great political target. A politically desperate Clinton picked up the issue, paying no mind to how it might affect his allies in North Carolina like Jim Hunt.
Protecting kids from tobacco – like school uniforms and vacationing in the Rockies – was one of the micro-issues Clinton used to restore his political standing and win reelection in 1996.
Eventually, Gingrich self-destructed. But the Supreme Court made George W. Bush President. Tobacco was protected by the presidential veto pen.
All the while, Big Tobacco became a bigger and bigger target for Democrats. After 2006 and 2008, the companies’ fate was sealed.
It’s often tempting – especially to corporations – to line up with one party or the other. But it’s rarely a good long-term strategy.