Yesterday, the U.S. brought the largest civil racketeering suit ever by the Justice Department — it is against U.S. tobacco companies. The suit alleges that, among other things, the tobaco companies conspired to hide research linking lung cancer to cigarette smoking. The suit uses the industry’s own documents against it, and is seeking to force the industry to relinquish $280 billion in ill-gotten gains.

Although the Bush administration tried to kill the suit (which was originally filed 5 years ago under Clinton), they nevertheless patted themselves on the back yesterday, with Ashcroft saying he looked forward to the day when the tobacco companies had to pay a penalty for their deceit. Uh huh. I’m sure Bush is happy to see his buddies in the tobacco industry (who, by the way, donated $7 million to his campaign in 2000), getting their due.

I’m going to be keeping an eye on this trial — I think it is potentially very important.