How the Tobacco War on Congress Was Won

By Frank Pellegrini Friday, June 19, 1998
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No one gave Big Tobacco much of a chance on April 8 when it declared war on Congress. Least of all John McCain. The Arizona senator was the good guy, after all, a war-forged Republican rebel with an unsold conscience and an unassailable cause: saving America's children from the demon's weed for just $1.10 a pack. And for a while, most Republicans were too scared to argue.

Big Tobacco's longtime allies in the Senate had stopped taking the tobacco lobby's calls . . . Continued.