MARCH 1, 1996 Ken Silverstein & Alexander Cockburn YOL. ~, NO. 5

• IN THIS ISSUE Critne Without Punish01ent Corporate Dream Nears Victory The Secret History of "Tort Reform" ecade alter decade the mightier Today, the corporations behind the names in the Fortune 500 have product liability campaign are on the • APCO Associates and the gnashed their teeth over the out­ verge of triumph . A hill before Congress fake grassroots campaign D to protect corporate rageous freedom permitted the suckers to -part of the GO P's Contract With Amer­ criminals strike hackand sue them for products that ica and now in conference between House maim, poison and kill Because they push and Senate - would severely prune the • Smoke and Mirrors: a product that knocks off nearly half a right of consumers to sue corporations long march of tobacco million people a year, none has gnashed whose goods result in serious injury or lords reaches climax more vigorously than the tobacco cartel death. The bill would limit punitive dam ­ • Citizens Against Lawsuit So, back in the mid-1980s three to­ ages - a primary deterrent to corporate Abuse: the corporate bacco firms, Brown & Williamson, Philip crime - to $250,000, even when a com­ crime lobby's favorite Morris and Lorillard, hired the public pany has lied about the dangers its prod­ front group relations firm of Arnold & Porter to help uct poses. Republicans are usually th~ set an early line of defense against claims most aggressive promoters of "tort reform", Missing Dollars filed by dying smokers. As part of the but Democrats - especially Senator I ay • The True Mystery of campaign, the renowned flack John ·· Rockefeller - have also been effective Scanlon began collecting newspaper allies of the corporate lobby . clippings from across the country con­ CounterPunch offers here the secret Plus: cerning "outrageous" claims in personal­ history of "tort reform", along with an injury cases, which he remitted to inside look at the web of think tanks, • Rubin's China policy influential reporters, columnists, editors public relations £inns and assorted front • Porkers' Pricks and TV producers. "There was very little groups which have pushed the campaign Decarnadined: chance of being able to turn the public's for some of America's most criminal cor­ making the red ones green mind around on the issue of smoking", porations. Reported here for the first • Free Trade: Stephen Scanlon said in a 1987 interview. "But time is the crucial role played by APCO Rosenfeld' s crisis of start, as I did, with the proposition that Associates, a Washington consulting firm conscience most 0£these liability cases are a demon­ which is largely running the "reform" strable e££ect0£ the increase in the num­ ·campaign at the behest of its corporate ber of lawyers in America. Then try to clientele, including Philip Morris. • generate a body 0£ data about lawyers' Now You Know excesses that the public can easily under­ e Scanlon took care of the "To a degree unappreci­ stand. My clients could only be the bene­ R function, the campaign's ated in New Hampshire, ficiaries 0£ that kind 0£ consciousness." W:tellectual engineering was the middle class owns Helped eagerly along by the insurance supervised by the Manhattan Institute, a corporate America, and industry, Scanlon's efforts engendered think tank founded by Ronald Reagan's CEOs are the ultimate what is now known as the "tort reform" CIA director, William Casey. The lnsti­ guardians of this genera­ movement, a thickly funded business cam­ tut~ financed by insurers such as Aetna, tion's retirement and the _paigo to shield corporations from product Allstate, Prudential and CIGNA. spon­ next generation's tuition." liability lawsuits arising from the sale 0£ sored the movement's two bibles, Walter defective or inherently unsafe products Olson's The Litigation &plosion: What - Hohnan W Jenkins, Jr., such as cigarettes, asbestos and the Happened When America Unleashed the The Wall Street Journal, "The Dalkon Shield. Soon the media began to Lawsuit, and Peter H.ilier's Galileo's Re­ Problem With 'Us'vs. 'Them'." reflect the moans of business leaders who venge: Junk Science in the Courtroom . complained that a "tort explosion" was Casey's think tank also spread the undermining Corporate America. legal "horror stories" that are now so 2/COUNTERPUNCH MARCH 1, 1996

familiar, most famously the case of the CSE spent millions of dollars on a lobby­ spontaneously among outraged citizens "foolish" jury that awarded $2. 9 million ing blitz in 60 congressional districts . In and small businesses: to a worn.au who spilled a cup of McDon­ conjunction with the American Council "In a tort reform battle, if State Farm alds coffee on her lap while sitting in her of Life Insurance, the National Federa­ [or] Nationwide is the leader of the coali­ car. 1his tale omits a few crucial details: tion of Independent Business Inc. and tion, you're not going to pa<;s the bill. during the decade prior to the incident, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, CSE Because it's so self-serving; everybody McDonalds received at least 700 reports also helped pay for ad campaigns in Roll knows that the insurance companies of bums from its coffee, which is served Call, The WashingtonPost and The Wash­ would be one beneficiary. You need to at 190 degrees - hot enough to cause a ington Times, among other publications . have credibility and that means when third degree burn in less than three seo­ you pick people to join your coalition, onds. The victim in the case, 81-year-old e public face of the product li­ make sure they're credible. And if they're Stella Liebeck, spent eight days in a hos­ ability campaign is the DGbased not credible, keep 'em [out of sight]. pital and required skin grafts. A trial American Tort Reform Associa­ You've got to make sure the leaders of the judge reduced the much ballyhooed tion, which claims demurely in a fund­ coalition are credible, and the core group . multi-million dollar award to $480,000 raising letter that it is "not a wealthy of the coalition and the spokespeople. and Liebeck later settled out of court for special-interest group backed by vast "If you contribute big money to a coa­ an undisclosed but lesser amount. cash resources ...ATRA is the homeowner lition you better be at the table when the Another think tank behind "tort re­ tired of paying exorbitant insurance pre­ decisions are made and ...it ought to be a form" is Citizens for a Sound Economy miums for minimal coverage. ATRA is card table and not a corporate [board (CSE), whose leaders include lames the average citizen looking for an end to room] table. Broad-based membership Miller, ex-budget director under Presi­ the threat of being sued." No less than six is: What does the public see?What do the dent Ronald Reagan, and C. Boyden of ATRA's directors work for insurance legislators see? Decision-making is: a core Gray, former counsel to President George companies or law finns that work for group of three or so people who have Bush. It receives enormous dispensa­ insurers. The Association also holds similar interests and who are going to get tions from Philip Morris, General Mo­ places at its table for representatives the job done." (Thanks to John Stauber, tors, Allstate and other leaders in the from the Pharmaceutical Research and co-author with Sheldon Rampton of the drive to cap corporate legal liability. Manufacturers of America, the Chemical fine book Toxic Sludge is Good for You: Over the past few years CSE has taken Manufacturers Association, Monsanto, Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relati.ons the lead in pressing for passage of a prod­ R.I. Reynolds and General Motors, Industry, who gave us Cohen's speech .) uct liability bill in Congress . During last maker of the exploding K-9 pick-up truck . Cohen has helped create "grassroots" year's House debate on the measure, APCO Associates, a prime practitio­ groups, typically called Citizens Against ner of "corporate gras~roots lobbying", Lawsuit Abuse, which push the product helped create ATRA and largely runs the liability campaign at the state level. These Editors "tort reform" campaign. ATRA's official outfits recruit hundreds of companies to KEN SILVERSTEIN "grassroots consultant" is Neal Cohen, participate in their bogus "coalitions", ALExANDER COCKBURN an APCO vice president and head of his but it is APCO - operating on the behalf firm's department of "political support of its high-paying clients - that calls the Production services" -Beltway-ese for drumming up shots . It conducts extensive polling, pays TERRY ALLEN bogus grassroots campaigns for corpora­ for "independent" research papers, runs tions . In addressing a conference of pr phone banks and otherwise oversees the Counselor flacks a few years ago, Cohen advised his operations of the state chapters . BEN SoNNENBERC colleagues to keep high-profile corporate In Mississipp~ where APCO in 1993 clients carefully hidden from the public's dreamed up Mississippians for a Fair Design view, as this would detract from the illu­ Legal System, Cohen gloated that weak DEBORAH THOMAS sion that the "tort reform" exploded disclosure laws meant opponents "didn't Published twice monthly exrept August, 22 issues a year: Rubin's China Syndrome $40 individuals, $100 institutions, The decline in Pat Buchanan's fortunes will likely deny us his full-bore assault $25 student/low-income on the Clinton administration . Scheduled as a prime target was Wall Street's man, Counter Punch. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. All rights reserved . A top flight Washington lobbyist is telling friends that Buchanan was preparing CounterPunch welcomes all tips, to ac.cuse Rubin of supervising the Administration's China policy for personal gain information and suggestions. and of still being involved in private partnerships operating in China. Certainly Please call or write our offices. Goldman, Sachs - Rubin's old firm -was at the forefront of the race to China at Counter Punch the start of the 1990s, with a big trading operation in Hong Kong. And it is also P.O. Box 18675, true that Rubin has striven to maintain control of China policy, which essentially Washington, DC 20036 means ignoring any and all human rights abuses in the name of not offending a 202/986-3665 (phone/fax) "valued trading partner". • MARCH 1, 1996 COUN'rnRPUNCH/3 really know [what business interests were] at the heart of everything . The problem The Primary Colors Mystery: they faced was we had 1,500 Mississip­ pians mixed in with who our clients How Did Dreary Fiction Become Bestseller? were ." He also boasted that the the front group had recruited Warren Hood, owner of one of the state's biggest banks e success of this thin novel by Nichols soon backed down, saying a and the one which politicians ohen relied Anonymous is the wonder of the state cop had told him he was "a dead on for campaign loans. This, he explained. age, and can be explained only by man" if he didn't. By that time Flowers made Hood someone elected officials the fact that since is without had confirmed the story and provided found especially hard to say "no" to. a challenger for the Democratic nomina­ plenty of convincing detail. Even so, the In 1994, the tort hucksters launched a tion, Primary Colors offer a retro-primary upmarket press disdained her as a self­ fierce drive in New Jersey. A Citizens - Good Bill vs. Bad Bill - by way of a aggrandizing slut. Against Lawsuit Abuse front - self--de­ substitute. This is where Primary Colorsgoes badly scribed as a coalition of hundreds of Shorn of narrative impedimenta used wrong, or at least misrepresents what small businesses - led the campaign. It to push it past 350 pages and offer a happened during Clinton's near melt­ neglected to mention the clandestine fi­ respectable slab of airplane reading time, down four years ago. Anonymous has the nancial support it received from Philip Primary Colors addresses two weeks in press as "scorps" - scorpions - eager to Morris, Brown & Williamson, Bristol­ U.S. political history: the last furlong 0£ tear down and destroy. In fact, the over­ Myers Squibb (a maker of silicon breast the Democratic primary in New Hamp­ whelming instinct of the Washington implants) and Owens-Corning Fiberglass shire in 1992. The book's candidate is press corps was to save Clinton's ass, even (a manufacturer of asbestos). "Citizens" "Jack Stanton" and his icy blonde wife though Little Rock was a mere three-hour was housed in the offices of Princeton "Susan", hut Primary Colors would not plane ride away, tapes of Gennifer and Public Affairs, a firm headed by Philip survive £or long without instant decrypt: Bill talking dirty on the phone were avail­ Morris lobbyist Dale Florio (no relation Bill and Hillary and the dramatis perso­ able, as were plenty 0£other ripe episodes to former New Jersey governor Jim nae of the 1992 campaign. of the governor's career, personal and Florio), whom the tobacco company paid Novel and history march along in lock­ public. to put through law school. step, at least in the £ormer's more divert­ Here's another problem with Primary APCO currently has field operators at ing portions. Candidate Stanton's Colors. As a roman a clef about American work in tort campaigns in Maryland, , sure-fire campaign in New Hampshire politics, it has one ludicrous deficit. · It Alabama, Florida, West Virginia, Louisi­ falters when Cashmere McLeod, his barely speaks about the fuel of all Ameri­ ana and California. In the latter, Santa wife's hairdresser in Mammoth Falls, can political life: money. Monica-based political consultant Bill says she had an affair with him. This Zimmerman - former anti-war protester recalls, of course, how Candidate Clin­ and nuclear freeze organizer - has allied ton's campaign was nearly undone by SUBSCRIPTION INFO himself with the "reformers". , whose name first Recent lobbying reforms passed by cropped up in statements by a former Enter/renew subscription here: Congress won't affect APCO or other state employee, Larry Nichols. "grassroots" practitioners. Bowing to the He put Gennifer among four women D One year individual, $40 Christian Coalition, Congress ex.empted Clinton had supposedly carried on with. D One year institution, $100 such lobbying from disclosure require­ 0 One~ studentflow-inoome,$25 ments, saying it would restrict the right of D Please send back issue(s) _____ ($.3/issue) citizens to petition the government . I-I'm C-Confused At the federal level, it's likely that Con­ 0 I am enclosing a separate sheet for gift subscriptions gress will soon agree to a compromise "Mynaturalinstinctisforengage­ bill, with the "radical" proposal from the ment and free trade, hut I have been Name, ______House being "moderated" by the cooler sobered by the human costs of the heads in the Senate - this meaning that transition we are now in and am not Address.______the upper chamber will strike a few pro­ so confident that the system is fairly visions while maintaining the measure's easing the pain . I accept the argument City/State/Zip ______primary thrust. If provided with accept­ of what seems to be a great majority of able cover, President Clinton will likely economists that the costs of free trade sign the hill while claiming that he stood are lower and the benefits are higher firm against the menace from the House. than the available alternatives. But it Payment must accompany order . In other words, win-win yet again. is not a position I would be eager to Add $10 for foreign subscriptions. A longer report on the "tort reform" defend in a hall full of people whose Makechedcs payable to: CntL"ltel'.Punch. campaign, focused on the role of the to­ jobs have been exported." • bacco companies, is in an upcoming re­ Return to: CounterPunch. - Stephen Rosenfeld, P.O. Box 18675 port by Public Citizen prepared by one of CounterPunch's editors . • Washington, DC 20036 4/COUNTERPUNCH MARCH 1, 1996

In the early pages of Primary Colors There 's nothing in the book that tor once, who later broods ungallantly the..re's a line about young Stanton not Anonymous could not have learned from about her hairspray . Jack Stanton never coming to New York to touch up the fat a pile of news clips and a couple of days meets a businessman or asks for money. cats. This instantly dooms the book as any following the governor . The hunt for In the end he's a fundamentally good guy kind of useful guide to the democratic Anonymous, thus far fruitless, got the who will do anything to get elected, which process. Out of a single zip code on New book off the ground. is how the press corps assessed him from York's Upper East Side - 10021 - pour day one . These days they all wish they had more campaign contributions than that written Primary Colors, and in a sense coming from each of 24 states . There's nothing that they all did . Go back through Clinton's gubema~ Anonymous could not The novel's greatest failing is its last rial campaigns of the 1980s and you'll third, a truly silly version of the Jerry find testimony to a hundred fundraisers have learned from news Brown challenge in the New York pri­ on the Upper East Side. The smart Wall clips and a couple of days mary, during which the Clinton crowd got Street money was putting down markers ABC to throw cocaine charges against on Clinton as early as 1984 . following the governor. Brown. The novel has the Clinton charac­ In January of 1992, The Star could ter virtuously rejecting such a path . have run photos of Bill and Gennifer cou­ It's hard to imagine that Anonymous Particularly in politics, truth is so pling in front of the State capitol and could have been a high-up in Campaign much more vivid than fiction. • what is chastely referred to as the "opin­ Clinton. There would have been at least ion-forming elites" would have either dis­ one scene of Jack Stanton on his knees counted the pix as allegations or not before the Money Power. Nor does it seem Fido's Friend talJcedabout them at all. When Gennifer likely that Anonymous is a journalist. The finally published her charming 1995 press corps is sketchily described without am writing to you on behaH of memoir, Pauion and Betrayal, with fur­ the proud .knowingness of a practitioner. "I Mr . R. Miles Handy II, President, ther intimate details about the conjunc­ Maybe some relatively lowly member of Oink-Oink Inc. According to Mr. tion of "Villard" and "Precious" (the the campaign, a hanger-on or a profes­ Handy, The Depart­ relevant physical props of their romance), sional novelist. ment of Agriculture was allowing the "respectable" press passed up an­ Anonymous isn't a had writer. It's sea Oink-Oink to purchase pork penises other opportunity to discuss how Bill got level fiction, neither rising above itself or for use as a pet treat . They were pur­ off the hook four years ago. its modest scope, nor plummeting into chasing the raw product from Iowa As Primary Colors does remark, the unendurable vulgarity. There are funny Packing Company. After several escape route for the press four years ago vignettes, particularly of a ­ months of doing so, the USDA began was to discuss the "role" of scandal in type and of Stanton's mother. The trouble­ to dye the raw penises green. As a elections, the propriety of disclosure shooter digging up dirt on Stanton's result of this, Oink-Oink is unable to rather than the precise details of what opponents - based on - is use them because of this discolora­ was being disclosed . Four years later Pri­ · overdrawn. The sex- sparsely achieved by tion . I would greatly appreciate your mary Colors has had its success but not the unconvincingly black narrator and a comments on this situation." • because of disclosures - legally safe be,.: Stanton political consultant- is the bare neath the mask of fiction - about what minimum. No V-chip needed here . - Rep. Joseph Knollenberg, Republican from Michigan, in a Feb. 5 letter really was going on behind the green In Primary ColorsSusan Stanton does to the USDA's Scott Shearer . baize door of Campaign Clinton. nothing except act cool and lay the narra-

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