Thomas Daschle: “First of all, our caucus is united, as we have been throughout this debate, on this very important issue. I hope the…”

“First of all, our caucus is united, as we have been throughout this debate, on this very important issue. I hope the American people will see it for what it is. We are not deceived, and they shouldn't be either. This will be an effort, this afternoon, to kill this bill. The gun is on the other side. They will shoot it dead. It will be dead if those votes occur this afternoon as we predict they will vote. That is a tragedy. That is a tragedy. Three thousand kids a day start smoking; 1,000 kids a day die early because they started too early. That is what is at stake. I hope it is more than just a coincidence that, a night after we raised $10 million downtown, they raised $10 million downtown. We vote today to kill the tobacco bill. I am amazed, really, at the logic of some of our colleagues on the other side. How many colleagues have come to the floor to say we cannot pass this legislation until we include the marriage penalty, until we include the drug amendment, until we include some cap on lawyers' fees. Guess what. We spent the last 4 weeks doing just that: We passed a marriage penalty; we passed a drug enforcement amendment; we passed, now, some limit on legal fees.”