Spread out in their pastel-toned conference rooms at a Washington Park Hyatt hotel last week, the tobacco lobbyists were grumpy. As they negotiat-ed with state attorneys general, they'd already had to swallow a thick cloud of concessions. A so-called global settlement would force them to shell out billion for the medical ravages of smoking, bid farewell to Joe Camel, slap warning labels the size of Texas on their products and accept more speech restrictions than Howard Stern. Adding insult to injury was the room-service crisis. The chocolate torte and grilled chicken that tobacco-company lobbyists had arrayed for themselves were getting nibbled away by the opposing attorneys general. "One more price to pay," sighed a tobacco ally.
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