Further contributing to an image of posing as robber barons who conduct their business in backrooms while smoking fat cigars, the Bush administration now seems to have exercised some heretofore unpublicized influence in having Justice Dept. lawyers slash by $120 billion their demands from the tobacco industry as part of a major civil racketeering trial.

In response to congressionally-expressed concerns over professional impropriety and wrongdoing in this case by government lawyers, the Office of Professional Responsibility will now begin an investigation.

Gladys Kessler, the federal judge in Washington who is hearing the case remarked of the government’s abrupt and unexpected change in demands, “Perhaps it suggests that additional influences have been brought to bear on what the government’s case is.”

Additional influences? Hey, who do you think is providing those fat cigars for the good ole’ backroom boys?