Smoke

For the second time in four days, CommieTommie Harkin has some explaining to avoid for a possible conflict of personal interest and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Over the past four years as he repeatedly pressed for federal funding to stop smoking, Mr. Harkin has owned between $50,001 and $100,000 in stock in health products maker Johnson & Johnson, which makes the popular anti-smoking product Nicorette. Senate disclosure forms give ranges instead of exact amounts.

CommieTommie crowed he helped secure, $3 million, using his position on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee.

Last week Harkin couldn't be heard talking about the conflict of personal interest in obtaining a total of $500,000 in contributions from Cedar Rapids-based PMX Industries and CEO Jin Roy Ryu to the Harkin Institute of Public Policy at Iowa State University.

Harkin is sponsoring a bill that would transition the country away from a paper dollar bill and to a $1 coin, which he says would save taxpayers money and be better for the environment. PMX supplies metal for that coin and others to the U.S. Mint and is part of the Dollar Coin Alliance pushing for the change. Ryu is the CEO of PMX as well as its parent company, Poongsan Corp., based in Seoul.