The tobacco issue has become a political football where politicians try to score points. But so much smoke is being produced that it's awfully difficult to see what's really going on down on the field.

Here are some facts:

• The recent court settlements have cost the tobacco companies almost $250 billion dollars, yet it doesn't seem to be hurting them. When the settlement was announced tobacco stocks went up, not down.
• The politicians claim smoking costs our society billions of dollars, but even using their own tortured analysis, the fact is smokers pay $2.41 in taxes for every $1 in supposed cost to society.
• The tobacco settlement has a provision that protects the biggest four tobacco companies from losing more than 2 percent of their market share.
• The attorneys involved in the case are getting legal fees of tens of millions, more than $7,500 per hour of work. And a swarm of politically-connected lawyers were added to the cases without any sort of competitive bidding.

Amidst the smoke, politicians are making out like bandits and the tobacco industry is doing fine, all while the victims of tobacco-the smokers themselves-pay high taxes, suffer diseases and premature deaths, and now will pay higher cigarette prices as the companies simply pass it on.

Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that when politicians make a deal with tobacco, the victims pay the price and the public gets nothing but smoke. Teach both the politicians and the tobacco companies a lesson-quit smoking.