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American Morning

Tennessee Democrats: Tipper's Possible Senate Bid Too Late

Aired March 18, 2002 - 08:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, it's official. Tipper Gore says she won't run for Senate, at least not right now. Like a good politician, or would be politician, she's leaving the door open. Tipper tops our weekly look inside Congress with CNN's congressional duo, Kate Snow, who is on Capitol Hill this morning, and Jonathan Karl, who is in Nashville. Good morning to both of you.

KATE SNOW, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

WHITFIELD: All right, Jonathan, let's begin with you. You said earlier Tipper decided this is a very personal decision. She's bowing out for now, but thanks for the invitation. At the same time, she says she wants to, perhaps, make some room for some other Gore, whether he or she decides to throw their hat into a ring. What more do you know about that?

KARL: Well, look, Tipper Gore says that she is going to be involved in politics down here in Tennessee. We know Al Gore left the presidential race saying he was going to mend fences back home. We know they are looking at buying a house here in Nashville. But Tipper Gore herself seriously considered this run. As a matter of fact, we've talked about Al Gore finally shaving his beard, and in the "Nashville Tennessean," Tipper Gore is quoted today saying that the former vice president shaved his beard for her, and for her potential race for Senate. Both of them made a lot of calls, looked into this very seriously.

But, you know, the bottom line here, Fredricka, is that a lot of Democrats down here in Nashville really didn't welcome this because it came late. They had already moved around a consensus candidate, the son of a former governor, Bob Clement, popular representative.

Most of the major Democrats down here, by the time Tipper Gore got around to talking about possibly running, had already said they would endorse Bob Clement. They thought this was a little bit too late, so most of the enthusiasm and the excitement that you saw generated for a possible Tipper Gore candidacy was not in Tennessee, but it was in the National Democratic party. It was people like Hillary Clinton who came out and said, yes, we want to see Tipper Gore run. It was people like Donna Brazile, who, of course, was Al Gore's campaign manager. It was Democrats in Washington and around the country, but not so much Democrats in Nashville who thought the timing just wasn't right, although they would certainly welcome the idea of Tipper Gore running some other time, Al Gore running some other time, or even one of the Gore children running at some point.

WHITFIELD: And that would be Karenna, you mentioned earlier, Jonathan. All right, let's go to Kate...

KARL: Karenna is...

WHITFIELD: Go ahead, sorry.

KARL: Karenna was very active politically and was a very major and key player in Vice President Al Gore's -- former Vice President Al Gore's presidential campaign. She's somebody -- she's not old enough yet to run for Senate, she still has another year or so to go, but she's somebody, clearly, that people think will eventually look to the political arena.

WHITFIELD: All right. Kate, on the Hill, Democrats expressing relief or disappointment?

SNOW: Oh, about Tipper Gore? Well, we haven't had a chance to really gauge any reaction yet, since this just came out over the weekend, yesterday. I'm sure there will be some who are relieved, including some of those who are thinking about getting into the race. You heard John mention Mr. Clement, who is probably going to be entering into the race. Harold Ford, Jr., another Democrat from Tennessee, had been thinking about getting in, and kind of waiting to see what Tipper Gore would do. So, there may be some relief on his part. We'll have to gauge it for you a little later on today.

WHITFIELD: Okay, we'll be doing that. Now, Kate, how about the INS? We talked with the INS commissioner earlier this morning, Ziglar, he says major overhaul is in need. He does agree with that. But there are rumblings from the Hill who say it's time to eliminate the agency altogether.

SNOW: Absolutely. And you know, you asked him last hour whether he was going to come up here and talk to Congress and testify on Tuesday. Did you notice that he didn't really answer your question? He's been invited to come up on Tuesday, but he hasn't said yet whether he is going to come or not. He's under a lot of heat, a lot of pressure from Capitol Hill. They are going to hold a hearing on Tuesday. We do know that the owner of Huffman Aviation, which is the flight school down in Venice, Florida that received those visas last week for two terrorists, that they are going to be -- the owner is going to be testifying on Tuesday. So, there will be talk about this.

It's going to be interesting to see, if Mr. Ziglar does show up, how much pressure they put on him. You know, he used to work on Capitol Hill. He was a Senate Sergeant-at-Arms. So he's sort of one of them. But you mentioned, Fredricka, that there is clearly this pressure, coming from Republicans, the party of the administration, saying the INS needs some serious help. There needs to be legislation to split it in half, move part of the agency that deals with enforcement, make that one agency. The agency -- the part that deals with people who are here legitimately, make that another separate agency.

There's talk about that from Republicans, including the top guy on the judiciary committee, and then, ironically, it's Democrats who are saying, no, leave it alone, let Ziglar figure out his problems, try him try to make some changes before Congress gets involved and starts legislating what to do.

WHITFIELD: All right, Kate. Let's shift gears now. We're going to talk about Charles Pickering, that failed nomination for the U.S. Appeals Court. Jonathan, there is an awful lot of resentment, as well as some celebrations that are coming as it involves Pickering.

KARL: Well, you know, Pickering was a close personal friend of Trent Lott, he was from Trent Lott's hometown of Pascagoula, Mississippi. And in the Senate, usually you just let the majority leader or the minority get their way on nominations like this. It is very unusual to see this kind of situation. So, Trent Lott is very upset about this, he said he is not going to forget about it, and something interesting has happened.

Trent Lott, shortly after the Pickering nomination, went down, made public his opposition to Tom Daschle's pick for the Federal Communications Commission. Tom Daschle had chosen a South Dakotan, somebody who works on his own staff. His name is Jonathan Adelstein. He is 39 years old. Trent Lott came out and said, well, that's a little bit -- little bit too young. But, you know what, the chairman of the FCC, Michael Powell, is actually younger than Jonathan Adelstein.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks very much. Jonathan Karl in Nashville and Kate Snow from the Hill, thanks so much for joining us this morning.

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