If you don't see the sucker, get up, because you're it. RJR Nabisco CEO Steven F. Goldstone just figured out that in one of the highest stakes games ever played in Washington, Big Tobacco is the sucker.
Trouble is, the industry already has hundreds of billions of dollars in the pot.
That measure would be far rougher on the industry than a settlement it reached last year with the states. There is no longer really any argument about whether Congress will impose heavy new taxes on cigarettes. The only questions now are how much, and how to divvy up the loot. Washington still pays lip service to the need to save youngsters from the dangers of smoking. But that glint in the eyes of both Congress and President Clinton isn't a tearful recognition of a kids who may die of lung cancer.