Bush should endorse tobacco regulation

Let's hope President Bush doesn't decide to saw Tommy Thompson, his secretary of Health and Human Services, off at the knees in the same way he did Christie Whitman, his Environmental Protection Agency administrator.

When Bush decided against fighting global warming by regulating carbon dioxide, he broke a campaign promise and left Whitman out on a limb, arguing that to back away from the issue would be damaging both at home and abroad.

A good soldier, Whitman last week papered over her embarrassment, saying she's in complete agreement with Bush's abrupt new tack.

Now Thompson, another key Bush official, has angered White House aides by getting out in front of his boss on the issue of smoking. Pointing to an increasing lung cancer death rate for women, he said he favors giving the Food and Drug Administration regulatory authority over cigarettes.

Thompson, like Whitman and other former governors and CEOs in the Cabinet, is used to speaking his mind. The new surgeon general's annual report on smoking, introduced this week by Thompson, should be enough for any reasonable mind. Focusing on women, it indicates that 3 million of them have died from smoking-related illnesses since 1980.

There can be no doubt now that smoking is addictive, is a leading cause of cancer and heart disease, is a dirty, smelly (and expensive) habit, and millions are hooked.

The new report shows that women now account for 39 percent of all smoking deaths — more than double the rate in 1965 — and that smoking increased among both boys and girls in the 1990s.

The controversy over regulation of tobacco began in the Clinton administration, when the FDA promulgated rules to control cigarettes. But the Supreme Court ruled a year ago the FDA had overstepped its authority by attempting to regulate tobacco and to restrict tobacco advertising.

There are at least four bills pending in Congress to grant the FDA that authority. Thompson didn't endorse any of them, but said he'd be pleased to enforce whatever Congress passes.

Bush would be doing the right thing to back Thompson in attempting to rein in this deadly habit.