TOBACCO COMPANIES SING DIFFERENT TUNE

What a difference a few years and billions of dollars can make. Just a few short years ago, the top executives of U.S. tobacco companies testified during congressional hearings that nicotine wasn't addictive and cigarettes didn't cause health problems. They were under oath at the time, and they were responding to point-blank questions on both of those issues. They didn't bat an eye while giving their answers.

Now we know, of course, that those responses directly contradicted decades of tobacco research by those same companies. Much of what the tobacco companies know -- and have known for a long time -- is contained in internally generated documents such as study reports and memos. Those have been made public as the result of the Minnesota lawsuit that seeks to force the companies to pay for the cost of health care for thousands of Minnesotans whose illnesses are related to tobacco.

Minnesota isn't alone in claiming the tobacco companies bear a huge financial responsibilty for health problems related to smoking. But it is one of only a few states pursuing a remedy in court. Forty other states have agreed to a $368 billion settlement, which must be approved by Congress. That approval is why the nation's tobacco executives -- not necessarily the same ones who appeared before -- were back in Washington.

The motivation for changing their story is crystal clear: If approved, the settlement with the 40 states would be paid over a period of years. Moreover, the tobacco companies would receive immunity from many future lawsuits whose total bite could be substantially more than the settlement billions, not to mention the ongoing legal costs.

Fortunately, there doesn't seem to be much sympathy for the tobacco companies' plight in Congress. Given the overwhelming evidence that tobacco is harmful and that the companies knew it all along but diligently worked at secrecy and subtrefuge, neither Democrats nor Republicans are showing any inclination to jump at the proposed settlement. Instead, federal legislators are appropriately considering what steps should be taken to protect the American public from the consequences of smoking.