GOP WILL FLOAT NEW TOBACCO BILL

WASHINGTON -- One day after tobacco legislation died in the Senate, Speaker
Newt Gingrich said House Republicans will soon unveil a separate bill to
curtail teen smoking and predicted that President Clinton "is going to sign
it."

The White House and its allies in Congress dismissed the effort in advance.

"He's going to bring up a fig-leaf bill. Maybe a better word would be a
tobacco-leaf bill," retorted Rep. Dick Gephardt, one of many Democrats who
spent the day depicting Republicans as eager to do the bidding of Big
Tobacco.

Whatever the outcome -- and the eventual impact on teen smoking -- the two
sides maneuvered for political leverage on the issue a few months before
the mid-term elections.

Pollsters have told Republicans they are viewed by the public as too
closely allied with the tobacco industry but don't need to pass a broad
bill like the Senate measure to remedy the damage. They fare just as well,
in this view, by passing a smaller bill.

For their part, Democrats are eager to establish a link between Republicans
and tobacco manufacturers.

"We now have (the) GOP a full-fledged subsidiary of RJR. And for $50
million, it was a good buy," said Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.,
who joined Gephardt at a midmorning news conference. The $50 million was a
reference to an advertising campaign that the industry mounted to scuttle
the Senate bill.

Gingrich responded in biting terms a few hours later.

"I think it's a little disgusting, frankly, to see the gleeful politics of
Daschle and Gephardt, as though children's lives didn't matter, as though
addiction didn't matter.

"I would hope that they not be drawn into letting children become addicts
because they'd rather have the issue this fall."

On the Senate floor, Daschle tried, but failed in an attempt to resurrect
the bill that was sent to its death on Wednesday. He vowed to try again
"piece by piece and drip by drip."

The measure that died in the Senate would have raised the price of
cigarettes by $1.10 a pack, and raised an estimated $561 billion or more
over 25 years.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)