By Laurie Kellman
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, May 13, 1998; 11:52 a.m. EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A key conservative senator is joining the movement to kill Congress' leading tobacco bill because, he says, it contradicts the conservative principles on which the GOP won control of Congress.

``This bill is nothing more than a big government boondoggle cloaked in the language of 'protecting children,''' Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., said in a statement Tuesday.

Ashcroft's announcement, expected today, was the latest in a series of increasing attacks on the bill, which passed the Senate Commerce Committee 19-1 on April 1. Sponsored by Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., the measure would charge the tobacco industry $516 billion and approve vast new power to the Food and Drug Administration.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott plans to bring the issue to the Senate floor on Monday.

Meanwhile, a cigarette industry executive who led tobacco companies last month when they withdrew from a national tobacco settlement indicated today that negotiations should not be completely abandoned.

RJR Nabisco chairman Steven Goldstone said those who advocate abandoning any settlement attempt ``want us to go back to the war of the last 40 years. I think that's the wrong reaction to the challenge.''

But Goldstone said anti-tobacco leaders in Congress ``have not taken the time to consider the consequences if they destroy this industry.''

Many conservative Republicans say the McCain bill simply means higher taxes and bigger government bureaucracy, anathema to the GOP message as the party defends its majority in this election year.

``It amounts to the biggest tax increase in this nation's history,'' said one of the conservatives, Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho.

Spearheading the effort to kill the bill were Craig, Assistant Majority Leader Don Nickles of Oklahoma and Sen. Paul Coverdell of Georgia.

The Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday asked Lott to allow the panel to consider changes to the measure just six days before it goes to the floor for a vote. The action could kill the measure and hurt the Senate's chances to pass tobacco legislation this year.

In the closed-door session, Finance Committee Chairman William Roth Jr. handed out a document titled, ``Possible Committee Amendment,'' detailing for the first time his panel's ideas for how to spend the money in McCain's bill.

The proposals include designating $18 billion over five years and $47 billion over 10 years to health care-related tax cuts. They also would allow self-employed workers of companies that do not provide health insurance to deduct 100 percent of their premiums.

McCain said opponents of the bill were acting out of desperation.

``One could surmise that they don't have the votes to defeat it'' on the floor, McCain told reporters Tuesday night.

McCain's bill is under assault on virtually every issue, and Republican leaders still have no consensus on everything from how to spend the $500 billion it would raise to whether to give tobacco companies protection from lawsuits.

The question of how to spend at least $500 billion raised by McCain's bill remains a significant stumbling block, because the measure leaves those issues to be worked out on the floor of the Senate.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said a new analysis by his committee shows McCain's bill would cost tobacco companies as much as $840 billion over 25 years, but does not guarantee that the money be collected before it is spent.

``It's like giving a credit card to a teen-ager,'' said his spokesman, Bob Stevenson. ``You don't know if there's enough money in the account to cover what's spent on the card.''