Public health advocates applauded the verdict, saying it is high time that the industry be held accountable for decades of deception about the dangers of smoking. But this anti-tobacco verdict seems to have triggered a major backlash against anti-tobacco causes -- and against litigation against tobacco companies in particular.

Among political commentators, it is not just the Rush Limbaughs of the world who are irate. Wrote Kathleen Parker, a columnist for the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel, "It's sad, but [Boeken] made a choice, and now he's trying to blame someone with big pockets for his poor judgment. Juries should not help people like this pick those pockets."

An editorial in the Salt Lake Tribune complained: "Where was this guy living when he puffed all those packs -- a deserted island? Certainly he was not living in the United States, where, for almost 40 years, cigarette packs have carried government warnings that tell smokers probably the only thing more harmful to your health than smoking would be standing in the middle of a high-level nuclear waste dump for 40 years."

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