Puffed out?

Maybe the appointee for the new US ambassador to Australia won't get up.

Senator seeks Bush nominee delay over tobacco case

A senator wants to delay consideration of President George W. Bush's nominee to serve as the ambassador to Australia until his role in the U.S. government's racketeering case against cigarette makers is thoroughly examined.

Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois said in an April 12 letter to Bush that it was premature for Associate Attorney General Robert McCallum to move to a new position of public trust until it was clear he had not engaged in any inappropriate conduct.

"He should not be promoted until the questions surrounding his role in the tobacco case are resolved," Durbin wrote.

McCallum's appointment requires confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

At issue is a decision reached by McCallum and other senior Justice Department officials in June last year to scale back the remedy sought by the government in its landmark case against the tobacco industry.

Senior officials decided to pull back from the department's initial plan to ask a federal judge force cigarette makers to fund a $130 billion, 25-year, quit-smoking program. Instead, lawyers for the department recommended a $10 billion, five-year program.

McCallum denied any political influence, saying afterward that the remedy had to be scaled down to keep it in line with an appeals court ruling in the case, which dictated that it could only address future misconduct by the tobacco companies.

McCallum could not immediately be reached for comment on Thursday. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.

Targeted in the lawsuit, filed in 1999, are Altria Group Inc. (MO.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and its Philip Morris USA unit; Loews Corp.'s (LTR.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Lorillard Tobacco unit, which has a tracking stock, Carolina Group (CG.N: Quote, Profile, Research); Vector Group Ltd.'s (VGR.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Liggett Group; Reynolds American Inc.'s (RAI.N: Quote, Profile, Research) R.J. Reynolds Tobacco unit and British American Tobacco Plc (BATS.L: Quote, Profile, Research) unit British American Tobacco Investments Ltd.

Cigarette makers deny they illegally conspired to promote smoking and say the government has no grounds to pursue them after they drastically overhauled marketing practices as part of a 1998 settlement with state attorneys general.

The racketeering trial ended in June, and U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler has yet to issue a ruling.

The last-minute decision to scale back the government's proposed remedy provoked a storm of criticism from anti-smoking activists and charges of political influence.

An investigation was subsequently launched by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility. Durbin said in his letter that the office "has not shared any information on the status or conclusions of this investigation."

Durbin said it would be "premature" to consider McCallum's nomination until the internal investigation is completed.