Bill Clinton: “Well, yesterday many of the Republicans Senators whom I called--and I talked to 10 of them yesterday--said that they had…”

“Well, yesterday many of the Republicans Senators whom I called--and I talked to 10 of them yesterday--said that they had been approached by Senator Lott about the prospect of putting some sort of special group together of 4 Republicans and 4 Democrats and maybe having them try just in a matter of a few days to come up with a bill they thought would actually not only pass the Senate but could be written into law. And if that's a good-faith effort they're willing to make, that's certainly one option that I would consider. But I don't intend to continue--to stop fighting for this. I think it's obvious to everybody in the world what happened. This bill was voted out of the committee 19 to 1. Some of the people who voted for it in the Republican caucus then did not vote for it on the floor, even though every major amendment which was adopted to the bill was sponsored by a Republican Senator. And I think it's pretty clear what happened. They may believe that the $40 million in advertising by the tobacco companies changed public opinion irrevocably and permanently and therefore it's safe to walk away from the biggest public health obligation that this country has today. I don't believe that. But even if the politics have changed, the merits haven't. One more day will pass today when 3,000 more children will start to smoke even though it's illegal to sell them cigarettes, and 1,000 of them will have their lives shortened because of it. And for us to sit here and do nothing in the face of evidence which has been mounting during this debate, even in the Minnesota case, during this debate, gave the freshest and in some cases the most vivid documentary evidence of all from the tobacco companies themselves that they've known about the addictive qualities of nicotine for years and that they have deliberately marketed cigarettes to children for years, even though they knew it was against the law to do it, because they needed what they call ``replacement smokers.'' Now, the bill is simple in its outline and clear in its objectives. And in terms of the complications of it, many of those were added by the people who now are criticizing it. So, on balance, I think the case is still so overwhelming that we ought to keep working on it, and I'm prepared--you know, I've been working on this for years. When we started, most people didn't think we'd get as far as we have, and I don't think that we intend to stop until we prevail. And sooner or later we will, because it's the right thing to do.”