Another nation heard from

MANIFESTO

Under the umbrella of causing a problem by creating a solution, the do-gooders in Hartford who'd like to ban smoking in Connecticut's casinos might not have thought this through fully.

The Mohegan Indian tribe is threatening to withhold as much as $200 million in slot machine payments annually if the state legislature bans smoking at casinos, a potential major blow to the state budget.

In strongly worded letters to Gov. M. Jodi Rell and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, tribal officials said Wednesday that a pending bill to ban smoking at the state's two casinos is unconstitutional and would violate the compact between the Mohegan Tribe and the state.

The letters were delivered after a bill was passed this week by the legislature's public health committee, on a 28-2 bipartisan vote, to ban smoking at the casinos.

Some commenters on the Courant's web site are of the opinion that smoking should be banned anyway—seeing the issue as entirely health-related. Their benighted opinions aren't unlike the earnest legislator's of a few days ago who wanted a tax created only for AIG personnel. Ignore the notion of a bill of attainder? No problem! Ignore the contractual obligations the state has with a sovereign nation? No problem!

This story still has a way to go, but it certainly won't be as easy a process as the state's impetuous legislators apparently thought it would.