BY PAUL BARTON
Enquirer Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- As he prepares to visit Kentucky tobacco farms Thursday, President Clinton is receiving generally high grades from anti-tobacco forces. He's exerting political force on Congress to develop a bill to cut youth smoking and reshape the future of tobacco farmers and companies.
Many see enactment of a comprehensive tobacco policy as part of the historical legacy Mr. Clinton wants to accomplish in his second term in order overcome the constant talk of scandal that has bedeviled him.
"From a public health standpoint we think the president has taken a strong lead. He really does see it as a legacy issue," said Bill Novelli, president of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
"This is a nice way of redeeming his promise to do something for the American people on health and a nice way to do something substantive in the wake of all the scandals," added Christopher Foreman, specialist on public health issues at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
Mr. Clinton's visit to Kentucky will come one week after the Senate Commerce Committee passed legislation that is widely viewed as much tougher on the tobacco industry than the settlement it negotiated with state attorneys general and announced June 20.
The bill, crafted by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., increases tobacco industry payments to $516 billion over 25 years instead of the settlement's $368 billion, and raises the price per pack of cigarettes by $1.10 over five years.
Key for Kentucky is that the McCain bill incorporates a proposal drafted by Sen. Wendell Ford, D-Ky., for taking $28 billion of tobacco company monies and providing long-term economic assistance for the farm families and communities that must seek a new future.
That the legislation easily cleared committee -- and many think could be toughened on the Senate floor -- is a sign that the political climate has turned strongly against the industry.
Increasingly, key Republicans in Congress, including House Speaker Newt Gingrich, chastise the tobacco companies for the way they have conducted themselves over the years.
"There is no question that the politics of tobacco is light years different, even than it was 10 years ago," Mr. Foreman said. Mr. Clinton, who has used the bully pulpit to move the tobacco policy issue forward, sent a strong signal to the industry last year, many contend, when he did not immediately embrace the settlement states reached with the industry.
Instead, Mr. Clinton reviewed it and came out three months later calling for even stronger provisions to halt youth smoking.
And now the president is talking about being even tougher than the McCain bill in terms of "look-back" provisions that would penalize the industry if reduction in youth smoking goals are not met.
But the industry is saying the insistence on massive increases in cigarette prices could ultimately backfire on the desire to cut youth smoking.
"That will create a black market for cigarettes in this country that could ultimately obliterate all the best efforts to control underage tobacco consumption," said industry spokesman Scott Williams.
In general, Mr. Williams said, the president has added to a sentiment that calls for penalizing the industry rather than producing a "productive" bill.
"He (the president) can articulate and set the tone for a cooperative environment that looks forward, not backward. He has not done that," he said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Novelli said, with contentious issues like legal liability still out there, "there are too many ways this thing can go off the track."
