Asbestos "reform"

If you're like me, you may have been scratching your head when you heard President Bush cite the need for tort reform in the area of asbestos litigation last January in his State of the Union address. Although I did not doubt that there may have been need for preventing frivolous law suits, I could not imagine it was enough of a problem to merit mention in such an important speech.

That was, of course, before I spent approximately two minutes on Google and found that Halliburton inherited a bulk of asbestos claims (some 300,000) through its purchase of DII Industries in 1998 under CEO Dick Cheney. Yes, this administration is that shameless.

Checking Mass Media Funk over at the Skeptic's Refuge I see that Robert Carrol is skeptical of the tort reform movement, too, and has written on the asbestos issue. What Carroll asks is why should these companies be protected "from suffering serious financial consequences for their assault upon millions of Americans."