WHEN IT COMES TO TOBACCO LEGISLATION, WHO WINS IN NOVEMBER MAY MATTER A LOT : It's the Nicotine, Stupid

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On March 21 the Supreme Court held unanimously that tobacco use is "perhaps the single most significant threat to public health in the United States." Unfortunately, five of the Justices also found that Congress had deliberately withheld from the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco products. The four-member minority argued that Congress's intent was far from clear, and that it would defy reason for the Court to rule that the FDA had plenary authority to police the safety of all drugs but the single most lethal and addictive one. Neither majority nor minority expressed any doubt that Congress had the power and the responsibility to act. And so it must.

What happens now? This year, only talk, tobacco smoke and mirrors if Senate majority leader Trent Lott and other Republican leaders indentured to big-tobacco campaign cash get their way. Lott has already proclaimed that he opposes legislation giving the FDA jurisdiction, saying, "I don't think they're doing a very good job of what they are supposed to be doing now." But based on the two major presidential candidates' instant responses to the Supreme …