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Tobacco regulation: 'It's the smoke'

by Mark Silva

It's been said -- though we'd never suggest such a thing -- that the debate on Capitol Hill sometimes begs the question of what these guys are smoking.

This morning, the answer appears to be lettuce.

The House, debating a tobacco-regulation bill that the Senate has adopted, is poised to give the government the power to regulate tobacco like the drug that it is. President Barack Obama is ready to sign it into law.

But Rep. Steve Buyer, a Republican from Indiana, told his colleagues on the floor this morning that it's not tobacco which is to blame for millions of Americans dying, but rather the smoke they inhale at the filter end of their smokes. (See the argument above, courtesy of C-SPAN.)

""Too often we should be careful about being cute here on the House floor,'' Byyer said today. "So cute means the reference with regard to lettuce. So I'll follow your logic.

"Do you realize if you were to take that lettuce, dry it, and roll it, and smoke it. And you go ahead and you smoke your lettuce. Do you realize that you are going to end up with similar problems than if you were smoking tobaccco. It's not the nicotine that kills. It's the smoke that kills. So It's the inhalation of the smoke.

:That's what causes and is responsible for the pandemic of cancers, of heart disease, respiratory disease, and other disease. It's the smoke."

Justices May Strike Down Part Of Voting Rights Act

The law has been credited with breaking down barriers to minority voting, but some say its policies are unfair and outdated. According to sources, a team of Justice Department lawyers has been strategizing for weeks on a speedy response in case part of the act is invalidated.