Reno does what she is told to do - remember, Hubbell ran her agency from the start - she's just a figurehead that does Slick's bidding.
What evil Rep is the all-time tobacco $$$ champ? Naw, it ain't no Rep - it's your mayor, WILLIE BROWN!!!!!!
...The U.S. tobacco lobby's favorite politician is now
one of the local American Cancer Society's
"humanitarians of the year."
In a move that stunned tobacco foes, the cancer
society's San Francisco unit announced that it
would give its humanitarian award to Mayor
Brown, who has received more tobacco
contributions than any other politician in U.S.
history....
Public records show that between 1981 and 1995,
then-Assembly Speaker Brown received more than
$750,000 in campaign donations, gifts and legal
fees from tobacco interests, while repeatedly voting
with the tobacco lobby on bills directly affecting the
cigarette industry's bottom line.
A 1995 study by researchers at UC-San Francisco
said Brown had taken more tobacco money than
any U.S. politician ever. It labeled him the single
most pro-tobacco member of the Legislature.
The idea that Brown is now being honored by the
cancer society is "bizarre beyond words," said
UCSF Professor Stanton Glantz, lead author of the
study and longtime critic of the mayor.
"Willie Brown is probably responsible for more
lung cancer and more kids smoking in the state of
California than any other politician, except maybe
Pete Wilson," he said Friday.
Supervisor Angela Alioto, the board's leading
anti-tobacco crusader and original proponent of
The City's lawsuit, called the affair "disheartening,
no pun intended."
"I wonder what they are doing, having a man who
has lived on tobacco money and has promoted it as
their hero," she said.
Brown responded: "The record speaks for itself as
to my achievements on behalf of citizens in relation
to cancer. Neither of these critics have come close
to being as important to the delivery system on
research as I am."
For instance, the mayor said, "the American
Cancer Society remembers that I was very
instrumental in the enactment of a tax increase on
tobacco dedicated to breast cancer research" - the
1993 Breast Cancer Act.
He noted that he is planning a San Francisco
summit on breast cancer and added, "I am a doer,
not a talker. Awards go to doers, not talkers.
Others who sound militant and make pious
statements are entitled to do that if they choose that
road as the level of their contribution."
In the past, the mayor has said that he took
tobacco donations only so he could funnel the
money to other Assembly Democrats.
In 1987, according to documents and interviews,
Brown was co-author of a bill that made it
impossible for Californians who suffer from
smoking-related illnesses to sue tobacco firms for
damages. Ironically, the law forced The City to file
its recent anti-tobacco lawsuit in federal court.
Brown was still defending that measure last year
during his campaign for mayor, writing in a letter to
The Examiner that barring product-liability suits
against tobacco firms was a matter of "bedrock
common sense."
Letting bygones be bygones
The cancer society's Weitz said The City's lawsuit
was so significant that the society essentially
decided to let bygones be bygones with Brown.
"We have a mayor now who, regardless of his past
activities, is really taking a strong leadership
position with his support of this lawsuit," she said.
"Mayor Brown is an influential person in this
community and is in a position to save lives," Weitz
added. "We certainly all wish his efforts had been
different in the past, but we have to look to the
future."
The society's rationale so enraged Edith Balback,
research fellow at the Institute for Health Policy
Studies at UCSF, that she was "spitting tacks," as
she put it.
"This award should have gone to somebody who
has stood up to the tobacco industry, year after
year," she said. She suggested Assemblywoman
Diane Watson, D-Los Angeles, or Assemblyman
Richard Katz, D-Los Angeles, longtime tobacco
opponents in Sacramento. Glantz, her colleague,
suggested Alioto.
Brown's record on tobacco issues in Sacramento is
not unique.
State records show that Gov. Wilson and 80
percent of the Legislature backed the tobacco
industry on such high-profile measures as the
attempted shutdown of an anti-smoking advertising
campaign authorized by Proposition 99, the
initiative passed by voters in 1989.
Nevertheless, anti-smoking activists say Brown
played a key role in blunting or turning back
anti-smoking legislation during his years in power.
In 1991, anti-smoking groups obtained a tobacco
industry memo showing that Brown had traveled to
New York the previous year at the expense of
Philip Morris Co. and advised industry executives
on ways to short-circuit local no-smoking laws.
The memo led to an uproar in Sacramento that
killed a weak, industry-backed smoking control bill
that Brown had backed.
The American Cancer Society was one of the
anti-smoking groups that publicized the memo.
San Francisco is the first city in the United States to
sue the tobacco industry over health care costs, but
nine states had already filed lawsuits.
In its complaint, The City argues that Philip Morris,
R.J. Reynolds, four other firms and two trade
associations should pay the public-health costs run
up by The City in treating people with cancer,
emphysema and other smoking-related ailments.
Ten other counties and the city of San Jose have
joined the suit, along with the American Cancer
Society and three other health organizations.
It has not yet come to trial.
Weitz said the cancer society's dinner is a
$150-per-plate fund-raiser. Several hundred
donors are expected.
sfgate.com
The media has done a great job hiding this from the US public, outside of SF. Hope you didn't vote for him. |
