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American Morning
Ad War; Presidential Politics; Prisoner Abuse Scandal
Aired August 24, 2004 - 9:02 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Attack ads under attack. The president slams outside groups in the presidential campaign. But it will change anything in this heated race?
Mark Geragos goes after Amber Frey on the witness stand, trying to get jurors to see a different version of the star witness.
And the labor battle in New York City that could put President Bush in a tight spot during the Republican convention.
That's all ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.
KAGAN: And good morning. Clearly, we are not they. I'm Daryn Kagan. Bill, Soledad, Heidi...
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: They're all off.
KAGAN: But they left everybody in good hands.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm here.
KAGAN: Jack's here.
COOPER: Jack's here. And I'm Anderson Cooper, also here filling in for Bill. Thanks so much for joining us.
Some of the stories we're following this morning. Republican Senator Pat Roberts is defending his plan to overhaul U.S. intelligence, saying he doesn't want the CIA dismantled, just realigned. Still, many lawmakers say the proposal goes too far. We're going to hear from Senator Roberts in just a few minutes.
KAGAN: Also, Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here continuing his "New You" checkup. Today, visiting a guy who was pretty stressed out at the beginning of the year. His name is David Peck. Looking pretty good there. We'll find out how his heart and his weight and his stress levels are doing.
COOPER: I want a new me, too. Jack, do you want a new me?
CAFFERTY: Absolutely. I'd take anything at this point.
A medal controversy at the Olympic games because, once again, the judges seem unable to do their jobs which they're asked to do, which is to pay attention for like two minutes while these athletes are performing. Should Paul Hamm have to surrender his gold medal as the all-around male gymnast at the Athens games because of the judging screw-up? Am@cnn.com if you have a thought or two. We'll read some letters.
KAGAN: All right. Jack, thank you for that.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
KAGAN: Right now, let's go to Carol Costello. She's at CNN Center with a look at what's happening "Now in the News" -- Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: That I am. Thank you, Daryn.
Within the hour, a House committee will meet on Capitol Hill to hold more discussions on the 9/11 Commission's report. The International Relations panel will look at the commission's reports on U.S. diplomacy. The House Government Reform panel is also meeting at 10:00 a.m. Eastern.
A military commission in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, begins the pretrial hearings for suspects designated as U.S. enemy combatants. This image of Salim Ahmed Hamdan just into CNN within the last five minutes. Four men will be arraigned this week, including Australian David Hicks. His charges including attempted murder and conspiracy to commit war crimes. These will be the first suspected enemy combatants to face trial since the end of World War II.
A new report is suggesting this morning that Defense Department leaders may be at least partly to blame for the abuse scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison. That's according to a new report by a Pentagon advisory panel. The findings are set for release later today. In about five minutes, CNN's Barbara Starr will join us with a preview of that report.
And thousands of workers at one of the nation's oldest HMOs are on strike in Washington State. The workers are demanding better health insurance coverage for themselves. A union representing some 1,700 nurses and other health care workers from Group Health Cooperative began the strike yesterday. It continues through Friday.
Back to New York now.
COOPER: Carol, thanks very much.
In the war over political ads, President Bush is again calling for an end to attack ads by independent groups. But he stopped short of condemning the Swift Boat ads condemning John Kerry. Here's national correspondent Kelly Wallace.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Another salvo in the Swift Boat controversy. The president calling for an end to attack ads by all independent groups.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you say that you want to stop all...
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: All of them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, I mean, do...
BUSH: That means that ad, every other ad. Absolutely. I don't think we ought to have 527s. I can't be more plain about it.
WALLACE: Sure you can, said the Democratic vice presidential candidate.
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Today, George Bush faced his moment of truth and he failed. He failed to condemn the specific attacks on John Kerry's military record.
WALLACE: Attack ads by independent groups are not new.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now, this man is running for president. President?
WALLACE: Remember 1988, the infamous Willie Horton ad by a GOP group targeting Democrat Michael Dukakis? But never have these groups called 527s, based on the section of the tax code that created them, been so powerful.
(on camera): Why? Because they are not bound by the 2002 campaign finance law, which bans political parties from accepting unlimited contributions known as soft money.
LARRY NOBLE, CENTER FOR RESPONSIVE POLITICS: So really, what you have is the McCain-Feingold law has set up a barrier to soft money and the Federal Election Commission has immediately blown loopholes into the barrier, loopholes that frankly you can drive swift boats through.
WALLACE (voice-over): The groups have raised a staggering $260 million in this race, with Democratic 527s far outpacing Republican 527s in fund-raising, spending more than $60 million since March on attack ads critical of President Bush.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The second man sailed to the top of the list on his father's name, was trained as a pilot, but failed to show up for a required physical.
WALLACE: Legally, the groups can't coordinate with either presidential campaign, but they can certainly help.
STU ROTHENBERG, POLITICAL ANALYST: It's nice for the candidates to have somebody else doing the dirty work, to have an outside group launching the attack so that, whether it's Senator Kerry or President Bush, they can say, hey, it's not my doing, I don't control these 527s.
WALLACE: They are free to raise and spend millions. And could end up playing a decisive role in this year's election.
Kelly Wallace, CNN, New York. (END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, ads by independent groups are here to stay, at least for now. The Federal Election Commission recently ruled it would not consider imposing any rules on the independent groups until after the November election.
Republicans are gearing up for their national convention in New York next week. We spoke with RNC chairman Ed Gillespie about how he thinks the GOP message will be different from that put forth by the Democrats in Boston.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ED GILLESPIE, RNC CHAIRMAN: They missed an opportunity in Boston to talk about the future and to talk about policies and talk about how Senator Kerry would -- would -- you know, how his policies would improve our schools or make health care more affordable or win the war on terror or reduce our reliance on foreign sources of oil. I think you'll see in New York City we're going to talk about President Bush's record.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: For our democratic response to that, as well as the latest from the Kerry campaign on the Swift Boat controversy, Debra Deshong is a senior adviser to the Kerry campaign. She's at the Kerry campaign headquarters in Washington.
Debra, thanks very much for being with us this morning.
DEBRA DESHONG, KERRY CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: Thank you for having me.
COLLINS: You know, hindsight is 20-20, but the Swift Boat ad aired first back on August 5. It's taken Senator Kerry several weeks to respond to it. I mean, I guess you're kind of damned if you do, damned if you don't. But in hindsight, was it a mistake not to respond sooner?
DESHONG: Actually, we were responding for -- to the Swift Boat ads from the minute they came out because we knew they were false and dishonest, just as John McCain said. And, you know, as John Edwards said yesterday, President Bush was presented with a real opportunity yesterday, and he failed.
He was presented with an opportunity to say that these ads are dishonest and dishonorable, as he said. You know, and George Bush did what he has been doing through the past three weeks when presented with that opportunity, he shrugged his shoulders and walked away.
COOPER: But you say he did respond right away, but clearly Senator Kerry was not responding. And it's really only recently that he has stepped up to the mike and actually spoken directly about these ads. Was that a mistake? DESHONG: No, absolutely not. The campaign and the veterans who served with John Kerry had been vigorously responding. And it was recently that John Kerry said, "You know, enough is enough. My record is my record, and I stand by that. And the men who stand beside me stand beside what happened on those days in Vietnam." And so...
COOPER: The other thing that Senator Kerry is saying is that this group, the so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, is basically a front for President Bush and his campaign. I mean, do you have any proof of that? Because, I mean, technically that's illegal.
DESHONG: Oh, god, you know, almost every day we're finding out more and more of the web of ties between this administration and this group. The people who fund this group have long-time ties to Karl Rove and the Bush family. The people who represent this group, one of the women who helps represent them in their PR capacity was just in the White House less than a year ago training one of the administration officials on public speaking, which is...
COOPER: But a lot of these people -- I mean, a lot of the people you named, that woman, also there's this guy Cordie (ph), who was in one of these ads who turned out to be on an advisory committee for Veterans for Bush, but those are -- that's not really proof of sort of coordination, coordinating these ads with the campaign.
DESHONG: It's impossible -- you know, it looks like a duck, it walks like a duck. If one of their national veterans advisers was actually appearing in one of the commercials, I find it hard to believe that while he's spending time being a national veterans adviser for the Bush administration, he's not going to happen to mention the fact that he's part of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth organization.
COOPER: But by that logic...
DESHONG: And you see that the Florida -- there's a -- the Florida Bush-Cheney office was handing out fliers and actually promoting a Swift Boat Veterans for Truth picnic over the weekend. I mean, how many more ties do we need to find out before we finally -- the Bush administration finally admits that their -- their friends and their family members, their friends in Texas are funding this group? They have long ties to this group. You know, like I said, it looks like a duck, walks like a duck.
COOPER: Right.
DESHONG: The American people...
COOPER: The Republicans, of course, say they have not had direct communication with those -- those fund-raisers. Karl Rove said he hasn't talked to -- I think Perry (ph) is his name, one of these chief fund-raisers, in more than a year. That being said, you put...
DESHONG: Well, Karl Rove should release his tax -- should release his phone records. Let's prove the fact that they haven't had any coordination or they haven't talked to each other. Let's prove that.
COOPER: What the president is now saying is that all these 527s should be eliminated, they should all go away. John Kerry has criticized individual ads that some pro-Democratic groups have put forth, but he hasn't called for all these 527s to go away.
In fact, I mean, he's benefited hugely financially from them. Will Senator Kerry actually entertain the idea of calling for getting rid of them all?
DESHONG: You know, this is a false argument. When there are ads that John Kerry feels are inappropriate, he says they're inappropriate, as we have done in the past.
This is not about campaign finance. This isn't about 527s or 501C-4s. They're trying to muddy this issue. This is about a specific ad that is full of lies, that is demeaning all of the veterans who served with John Kerry.
COOPER: Deborah Deshong, appreciate you being with us. Thanks very much.
DESHONG: Thank you.
KAGAN: A Pentagon report on the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison will be released today. It's expected to point a finger of blame right at the top of the Defense Department, by implication at least. Barbara Starr is live at the Pentagon with that.
Barbara, good morning.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Daryn.
Well, in the next two days, two reports long awaited on the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal. First up later today, the so-called Schlessinger report. Former Defense Secretary James Schlessinger, who last served in this building some 30 years ago, has been heading an advisory panel on Abu Ghraib for current Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
This report is looking at leadership policies, how it all might have happened. We haven't seen the report yet. That will happen this afternoon. But by all accounts, Daryn, it will be very critical of top commanders in the field.
And the Pentagon saying simply, nobody was paying enough attention to this massive prison system that the United States military was running inside of Iraq, detaining thousands of Iraqis. But tomorrow, that will be the so-called Fay report. That will be the report with some legal teeth behind it, if you will, much more than an advisory report.
An Army report looking at the intelligence system at the prison, looking at how the interrogation and intelligence policies and practices were run by all accounts, that report tomorrow will name more than two dozen people, including soldiers and contractor personnel for possible additional legal action. So a very busy week ahead indeed on all of this long-awaited report now coming out in public -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Absolutely. And Barbara, on that first report, doesn't Defense Secretary Rumsfeld find himself in a somewhat difficult position? Because didn't he ask for this report to be done?
STARR: Well, indeed, he did. It was about two months ago or so that he, in fact, named this advisory panel. He said he wanted an independent look at how everything, all of the investigations were being conducted, how the department was responding to the crisis.
We understand that the Schlessinger report has gone just a bit further, turned around and taken a real hard look at the Pentagon leadership, at the military leadership. And what appears to really be emerging as a thread, Daryn, through all of this, the bottom line, if you will, is there is much criticism of the so-called command climate, the top leaders, were they paying enough attention to how things were being run.
Most of these reports so far that are emerging are saying, no, there were problems in this so-called command climate, but nobody at the top levels apparently will be held responsible, legally responsible, if you will. For that -- that responsibility is emerging at a much lower level with soldiers. The people who are alleged to have conducted the abuse, those are the people now facing prosecution in the military justice system -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. Thank you.
And tomorrow on AMERICAN MORNING, we'll speak with Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, who was in charge of Abu Ghraib prison at the time of the abuses. That is tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. Eastern.
COOPER: And let's check back in with some weather. Chad Myers standing by at the CNN Center with the latest.
Good morning, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Anderson.
(WEATHER REPORT)
MYERS: Now back to the law firm, Kagan, Cooper and Cafferty, LLC.
KAGAN: Ack (ph), Dack (ph) and Jack.
COOPER: Thanks.
KAGAN: Thank you for that.
Still to come, Mark Geragos tries to chip away at Amber Frey's credibility yesterday, but at least one expert says his current tactic will never work. We will talk to former San Mateo County prosecutor Dean Johnson.
COOPER: Also, U.S. gymnast Paul Hamm won the all-around gold individual gold in Athens, but at the Olympics it seems the final results are not necessarily final. We're going to talk to a former coach about that.
KAGAN: And next is part two of our weeklong series on the marriage between Hollywood and politics. Poli-Wood is what we're calling it. Today, how is a celebrity qualified for office? Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: Poli-Wood, it's the word we made up. It's a mix of politics and Hollywood, a term, like I said, that we made up. But it's really a very real issue.
All week long we are taking a look at that. And today we are looking at what happens when actors run for office. Can a great on- screen performance help earn rave political reviews? Here now is Heidi Collins with part two of her series.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JESSE VENTURA, FMR. GOVERNOR OF MINNESOTA: And the American dream lives on in Minnesota.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Some famous faces have been able to use their celebrity status to toss their opponents out of the ring. Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger's movie fame helped ease their way into public office.
GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA, "TERMINATOR": I'll be back.
FRED GRANDY, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: What do you guys have against John Kerry?
COLLINS: D.C. radio host Fred Grandy knows a thing or two about being a celebrity and holding public office.
GRANDY: A celebrity status is a good initial investment. It will start you up. But it won't keep you going.
COLLINS: He became a Republican congressman after 10 years of playing Gopher on TV's "The Love Boat."
GRANDY: When I first ran for office, everybody thought I was crazy, except the people closest to my campaign who knew about the business and knew you spend 75 cents of every campaign dollar just getting people to remember your name.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Arianna Huffington!
COLLINS: Some say this gives celebrities an unfair advantage. But popular culture professor Robert Thompson says there's always been a marriage between entertainers and politics.
ROBERT THOMPSON, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY: Yes, I think it would be very difficult for a politician today, a hundred years ago, or 200 years ago, to hold a major national office without having some kind of show business instincts. Because that's exactly the game they are in.
COLLINS: Political pundit Arianna Huffington, somewhat of a celebrity herself, lost to Schwarzenegger in last year's California gubernatorial election.
SCHWARZENEGGER: I have to say that I have just realized that I have a perfect part for you in Terminator 4. I do.
COLLINS: Huffington urges voters to remember, you're not electing the actor who's playing a part, but the person behind it.
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON, AUTHOR, "FANATICS & FOOLS": You need to make a distinction between celebrities who have something to say, some really important ideas to convey to the American public, and celebrities using their celebrity to pretend that they have ideas that they want to sell to the public.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I get as annoyed as the next person when some second-tiered star of an ABC sitcom gets up and starts talking about politics. And I'm watching it on TV thinking, "What in the world do I care what said second-rate sitcom star has about -- says about politics?"
COLLINS: The voters passed their judgment about Grandy's qualifications. He served four terms in Congress.
GRANDY: My first advice to anybody in politics is, don't do it unless you are prepared to radically change your life. I had no idea what I was getting into. And I was sufficiently titillated by the idea of taking this odd gift that I had and turning that into a commodity that I could actually use for somebody's good other than my own.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: Heidi will continue her five-part Poli-Wood series tomorrow with a look at comedians and politics. These days, people often get their current events from comedians. But how does the funny business affect the campaign business? That is tomorrow, right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
And still ahead, our Olympics trivia. At the 1960s games in Rome, Ethiopian Abebe Bikila won the men's marathon. What was the memorable -- what was memorable about his victory? A, he ran it in world-record time; B, he was the first black African to win an Olympic gold medal; C, he ran it barefooted, or, D, all of the above?
That's a lot to take in. We'll talk about it when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KAGAN: Before the break, we asked you what was memorable about Ethiopian Abebe Bikila's victory at the 1960 Rome games: A, he ran it in world-record time; B, he was the first black African to win an Olympic gold medal; C, he ran it barefooted, or, D, all of the above?
Anderson, please, in the phrase of a question.
COOPER: It's got to be all of the above.
KAGAN: What is -- what is all of the above. And you won Jeopardy?
COOPER: All right. I knew it was all of the above because why would they make all those things? You know? Yes.
KAGAN: Why would someone spend all that time typing out all that? D, all the above.
COOPER: There you go.
KAGAN: Thank you. Thanks for playing.
COOPER: Any time. I also -- I guess there's more. He apparently was the first to successfully defend -- defend -- defend the marathon.
KAGAN: And yet there's more.
CAFFERTY: Tell us more.
COOPER: It goes on.
CAFFERTY: Yes. There's more about this guy, yes.
COOPER: He defended the '64 games in Tokyo.
KAGAN: And that time he wore shoes.
COOPER: Did he?
KAGAN: Yes, he did.
COOPER: There you go. More than you ever wanted to know about Abebe Bikila -- Jack.
CAFFERTY: Now he's died of old age and he's not with us anymore.
The Olympics not complete without a judging controversy. It took a week and a half, but we got one in the men's all-around gymnastics competition. It turns out a judge made a mistake judging the South Korean gymnast. And the time the mistake was made, it could have put him in first place ahead of Paul Hamm, the eventual winner of the gold medal for the United States.
So the question is, should Paul Hamm give up his gold medal? Somebody dropped a dime, and now their watch over there. Jerry in Asheville, North Carolina, "Hamm should not give back the medal. There is officiating in all sports and it's never 100 percent. Games, and even championships, are oftentimes decided by an official's judgment call. Occasionally they are wrong, even in big games."
Douglas in Boston, "The last Olympic in Salt Lake City, we had a similar controversy. They settled it by issuing a second gold medal to the Canadian skaters. And we've forgotten all about it. They should do the same now. Paul Hamm should not return his medal."
Skip in Waukesha, Wisconsin, "All the negative publicity about Paul Hamm's gold medal is so incredibly sad. He did nothing wrong. In fact, he did everything almost perfectly. In spite of that, a small number of complainers, apparently headed by a sports journalist, have irreparably tarnished what should have been the crowning achievement of this young man's gymnastic career."
And finally, Ed in Montreal writes: "Forget medals. Give them cash. And what's with the green salad they put on their heads. I've had it with the Olympics."
OK, Ed. So Ed probably doesn't participate in our little quizzes that we do.
COOPER: I guess not. No, he's not eagerly awaiting to see what happened to Abebe Bikila.
KAGAN: And did he wear shoes or not? Thank you, Jack.
Still to come, Mark Geragos goes after Amber Frey, but does he risk turning off the jury? We'll take a look at that.
COOPER: Plus, something we've been talking about all morning long with Jack, the controversy surrounding gymnast Paul Hamm. In a moment, we're going to talk to his former coach to see how this kind of thing could have happened at all.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired August 24, 2004 - 9:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Attack ads under attack. The president slams outside groups in the presidential campaign. But it will change anything in this heated race?
Mark Geragos goes after Amber Frey on the witness stand, trying to get jurors to see a different version of the star witness.
And the labor battle in New York City that could put President Bush in a tight spot during the Republican convention.
That's all ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.
KAGAN: And good morning. Clearly, we are not they. I'm Daryn Kagan. Bill, Soledad, Heidi...
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: They're all off.
KAGAN: But they left everybody in good hands.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm here.
KAGAN: Jack's here.
COOPER: Jack's here. And I'm Anderson Cooper, also here filling in for Bill. Thanks so much for joining us.
Some of the stories we're following this morning. Republican Senator Pat Roberts is defending his plan to overhaul U.S. intelligence, saying he doesn't want the CIA dismantled, just realigned. Still, many lawmakers say the proposal goes too far. We're going to hear from Senator Roberts in just a few minutes.
KAGAN: Also, Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here continuing his "New You" checkup. Today, visiting a guy who was pretty stressed out at the beginning of the year. His name is David Peck. Looking pretty good there. We'll find out how his heart and his weight and his stress levels are doing.
COOPER: I want a new me, too. Jack, do you want a new me?
CAFFERTY: Absolutely. I'd take anything at this point.
A medal controversy at the Olympic games because, once again, the judges seem unable to do their jobs which they're asked to do, which is to pay attention for like two minutes while these athletes are performing. Should Paul Hamm have to surrender his gold medal as the all-around male gymnast at the Athens games because of the judging screw-up? Am@cnn.com if you have a thought or two. We'll read some letters.
KAGAN: All right. Jack, thank you for that.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
KAGAN: Right now, let's go to Carol Costello. She's at CNN Center with a look at what's happening "Now in the News" -- Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: That I am. Thank you, Daryn.
Within the hour, a House committee will meet on Capitol Hill to hold more discussions on the 9/11 Commission's report. The International Relations panel will look at the commission's reports on U.S. diplomacy. The House Government Reform panel is also meeting at 10:00 a.m. Eastern.
A military commission in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, begins the pretrial hearings for suspects designated as U.S. enemy combatants. This image of Salim Ahmed Hamdan just into CNN within the last five minutes. Four men will be arraigned this week, including Australian David Hicks. His charges including attempted murder and conspiracy to commit war crimes. These will be the first suspected enemy combatants to face trial since the end of World War II.
A new report is suggesting this morning that Defense Department leaders may be at least partly to blame for the abuse scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison. That's according to a new report by a Pentagon advisory panel. The findings are set for release later today. In about five minutes, CNN's Barbara Starr will join us with a preview of that report.
And thousands of workers at one of the nation's oldest HMOs are on strike in Washington State. The workers are demanding better health insurance coverage for themselves. A union representing some 1,700 nurses and other health care workers from Group Health Cooperative began the strike yesterday. It continues through Friday.
Back to New York now.
COOPER: Carol, thanks very much.
In the war over political ads, President Bush is again calling for an end to attack ads by independent groups. But he stopped short of condemning the Swift Boat ads condemning John Kerry. Here's national correspondent Kelly Wallace.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Another salvo in the Swift Boat controversy. The president calling for an end to attack ads by all independent groups.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you say that you want to stop all...
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: All of them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, I mean, do...
BUSH: That means that ad, every other ad. Absolutely. I don't think we ought to have 527s. I can't be more plain about it.
WALLACE: Sure you can, said the Democratic vice presidential candidate.
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Today, George Bush faced his moment of truth and he failed. He failed to condemn the specific attacks on John Kerry's military record.
WALLACE: Attack ads by independent groups are not new.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now, this man is running for president. President?
WALLACE: Remember 1988, the infamous Willie Horton ad by a GOP group targeting Democrat Michael Dukakis? But never have these groups called 527s, based on the section of the tax code that created them, been so powerful.
(on camera): Why? Because they are not bound by the 2002 campaign finance law, which bans political parties from accepting unlimited contributions known as soft money.
LARRY NOBLE, CENTER FOR RESPONSIVE POLITICS: So really, what you have is the McCain-Feingold law has set up a barrier to soft money and the Federal Election Commission has immediately blown loopholes into the barrier, loopholes that frankly you can drive swift boats through.
WALLACE (voice-over): The groups have raised a staggering $260 million in this race, with Democratic 527s far outpacing Republican 527s in fund-raising, spending more than $60 million since March on attack ads critical of President Bush.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The second man sailed to the top of the list on his father's name, was trained as a pilot, but failed to show up for a required physical.
WALLACE: Legally, the groups can't coordinate with either presidential campaign, but they can certainly help.
STU ROTHENBERG, POLITICAL ANALYST: It's nice for the candidates to have somebody else doing the dirty work, to have an outside group launching the attack so that, whether it's Senator Kerry or President Bush, they can say, hey, it's not my doing, I don't control these 527s.
WALLACE: They are free to raise and spend millions. And could end up playing a decisive role in this year's election.
Kelly Wallace, CNN, New York. (END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, ads by independent groups are here to stay, at least for now. The Federal Election Commission recently ruled it would not consider imposing any rules on the independent groups until after the November election.
Republicans are gearing up for their national convention in New York next week. We spoke with RNC chairman Ed Gillespie about how he thinks the GOP message will be different from that put forth by the Democrats in Boston.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ED GILLESPIE, RNC CHAIRMAN: They missed an opportunity in Boston to talk about the future and to talk about policies and talk about how Senator Kerry would -- would -- you know, how his policies would improve our schools or make health care more affordable or win the war on terror or reduce our reliance on foreign sources of oil. I think you'll see in New York City we're going to talk about President Bush's record.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: For our democratic response to that, as well as the latest from the Kerry campaign on the Swift Boat controversy, Debra Deshong is a senior adviser to the Kerry campaign. She's at the Kerry campaign headquarters in Washington.
Debra, thanks very much for being with us this morning.
DEBRA DESHONG, KERRY CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: Thank you for having me.
COLLINS: You know, hindsight is 20-20, but the Swift Boat ad aired first back on August 5. It's taken Senator Kerry several weeks to respond to it. I mean, I guess you're kind of damned if you do, damned if you don't. But in hindsight, was it a mistake not to respond sooner?
DESHONG: Actually, we were responding for -- to the Swift Boat ads from the minute they came out because we knew they were false and dishonest, just as John McCain said. And, you know, as John Edwards said yesterday, President Bush was presented with a real opportunity yesterday, and he failed.
He was presented with an opportunity to say that these ads are dishonest and dishonorable, as he said. You know, and George Bush did what he has been doing through the past three weeks when presented with that opportunity, he shrugged his shoulders and walked away.
COOPER: But you say he did respond right away, but clearly Senator Kerry was not responding. And it's really only recently that he has stepped up to the mike and actually spoken directly about these ads. Was that a mistake? DESHONG: No, absolutely not. The campaign and the veterans who served with John Kerry had been vigorously responding. And it was recently that John Kerry said, "You know, enough is enough. My record is my record, and I stand by that. And the men who stand beside me stand beside what happened on those days in Vietnam." And so...
COOPER: The other thing that Senator Kerry is saying is that this group, the so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, is basically a front for President Bush and his campaign. I mean, do you have any proof of that? Because, I mean, technically that's illegal.
DESHONG: Oh, god, you know, almost every day we're finding out more and more of the web of ties between this administration and this group. The people who fund this group have long-time ties to Karl Rove and the Bush family. The people who represent this group, one of the women who helps represent them in their PR capacity was just in the White House less than a year ago training one of the administration officials on public speaking, which is...
COOPER: But a lot of these people -- I mean, a lot of the people you named, that woman, also there's this guy Cordie (ph), who was in one of these ads who turned out to be on an advisory committee for Veterans for Bush, but those are -- that's not really proof of sort of coordination, coordinating these ads with the campaign.
DESHONG: It's impossible -- you know, it looks like a duck, it walks like a duck. If one of their national veterans advisers was actually appearing in one of the commercials, I find it hard to believe that while he's spending time being a national veterans adviser for the Bush administration, he's not going to happen to mention the fact that he's part of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth organization.
COOPER: But by that logic...
DESHONG: And you see that the Florida -- there's a -- the Florida Bush-Cheney office was handing out fliers and actually promoting a Swift Boat Veterans for Truth picnic over the weekend. I mean, how many more ties do we need to find out before we finally -- the Bush administration finally admits that their -- their friends and their family members, their friends in Texas are funding this group? They have long ties to this group. You know, like I said, it looks like a duck, walks like a duck.
COOPER: Right.
DESHONG: The American people...
COOPER: The Republicans, of course, say they have not had direct communication with those -- those fund-raisers. Karl Rove said he hasn't talked to -- I think Perry (ph) is his name, one of these chief fund-raisers, in more than a year. That being said, you put...
DESHONG: Well, Karl Rove should release his tax -- should release his phone records. Let's prove the fact that they haven't had any coordination or they haven't talked to each other. Let's prove that.
COOPER: What the president is now saying is that all these 527s should be eliminated, they should all go away. John Kerry has criticized individual ads that some pro-Democratic groups have put forth, but he hasn't called for all these 527s to go away.
In fact, I mean, he's benefited hugely financially from them. Will Senator Kerry actually entertain the idea of calling for getting rid of them all?
DESHONG: You know, this is a false argument. When there are ads that John Kerry feels are inappropriate, he says they're inappropriate, as we have done in the past.
This is not about campaign finance. This isn't about 527s or 501C-4s. They're trying to muddy this issue. This is about a specific ad that is full of lies, that is demeaning all of the veterans who served with John Kerry.
COOPER: Deborah Deshong, appreciate you being with us. Thanks very much.
DESHONG: Thank you.
KAGAN: A Pentagon report on the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison will be released today. It's expected to point a finger of blame right at the top of the Defense Department, by implication at least. Barbara Starr is live at the Pentagon with that.
Barbara, good morning.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Daryn.
Well, in the next two days, two reports long awaited on the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal. First up later today, the so-called Schlessinger report. Former Defense Secretary James Schlessinger, who last served in this building some 30 years ago, has been heading an advisory panel on Abu Ghraib for current Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
This report is looking at leadership policies, how it all might have happened. We haven't seen the report yet. That will happen this afternoon. But by all accounts, Daryn, it will be very critical of top commanders in the field.
And the Pentagon saying simply, nobody was paying enough attention to this massive prison system that the United States military was running inside of Iraq, detaining thousands of Iraqis. But tomorrow, that will be the so-called Fay report. That will be the report with some legal teeth behind it, if you will, much more than an advisory report.
An Army report looking at the intelligence system at the prison, looking at how the interrogation and intelligence policies and practices were run by all accounts, that report tomorrow will name more than two dozen people, including soldiers and contractor personnel for possible additional legal action. So a very busy week ahead indeed on all of this long-awaited report now coming out in public -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Absolutely. And Barbara, on that first report, doesn't Defense Secretary Rumsfeld find himself in a somewhat difficult position? Because didn't he ask for this report to be done?
STARR: Well, indeed, he did. It was about two months ago or so that he, in fact, named this advisory panel. He said he wanted an independent look at how everything, all of the investigations were being conducted, how the department was responding to the crisis.
We understand that the Schlessinger report has gone just a bit further, turned around and taken a real hard look at the Pentagon leadership, at the military leadership. And what appears to really be emerging as a thread, Daryn, through all of this, the bottom line, if you will, is there is much criticism of the so-called command climate, the top leaders, were they paying enough attention to how things were being run.
Most of these reports so far that are emerging are saying, no, there were problems in this so-called command climate, but nobody at the top levels apparently will be held responsible, legally responsible, if you will. For that -- that responsibility is emerging at a much lower level with soldiers. The people who are alleged to have conducted the abuse, those are the people now facing prosecution in the military justice system -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. Thank you.
And tomorrow on AMERICAN MORNING, we'll speak with Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, who was in charge of Abu Ghraib prison at the time of the abuses. That is tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. Eastern.
COOPER: And let's check back in with some weather. Chad Myers standing by at the CNN Center with the latest.
Good morning, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Anderson.
(WEATHER REPORT)
MYERS: Now back to the law firm, Kagan, Cooper and Cafferty, LLC.
KAGAN: Ack (ph), Dack (ph) and Jack.
COOPER: Thanks.
KAGAN: Thank you for that.
Still to come, Mark Geragos tries to chip away at Amber Frey's credibility yesterday, but at least one expert says his current tactic will never work. We will talk to former San Mateo County prosecutor Dean Johnson.
COOPER: Also, U.S. gymnast Paul Hamm won the all-around gold individual gold in Athens, but at the Olympics it seems the final results are not necessarily final. We're going to talk to a former coach about that.
KAGAN: And next is part two of our weeklong series on the marriage between Hollywood and politics. Poli-Wood is what we're calling it. Today, how is a celebrity qualified for office? Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: Poli-Wood, it's the word we made up. It's a mix of politics and Hollywood, a term, like I said, that we made up. But it's really a very real issue.
All week long we are taking a look at that. And today we are looking at what happens when actors run for office. Can a great on- screen performance help earn rave political reviews? Here now is Heidi Collins with part two of her series.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JESSE VENTURA, FMR. GOVERNOR OF MINNESOTA: And the American dream lives on in Minnesota.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Some famous faces have been able to use their celebrity status to toss their opponents out of the ring. Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger's movie fame helped ease their way into public office.
GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA, "TERMINATOR": I'll be back.
FRED GRANDY, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: What do you guys have against John Kerry?
COLLINS: D.C. radio host Fred Grandy knows a thing or two about being a celebrity and holding public office.
GRANDY: A celebrity status is a good initial investment. It will start you up. But it won't keep you going.
COLLINS: He became a Republican congressman after 10 years of playing Gopher on TV's "The Love Boat."
GRANDY: When I first ran for office, everybody thought I was crazy, except the people closest to my campaign who knew about the business and knew you spend 75 cents of every campaign dollar just getting people to remember your name.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Arianna Huffington!
COLLINS: Some say this gives celebrities an unfair advantage. But popular culture professor Robert Thompson says there's always been a marriage between entertainers and politics.
ROBERT THOMPSON, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY: Yes, I think it would be very difficult for a politician today, a hundred years ago, or 200 years ago, to hold a major national office without having some kind of show business instincts. Because that's exactly the game they are in.
COLLINS: Political pundit Arianna Huffington, somewhat of a celebrity herself, lost to Schwarzenegger in last year's California gubernatorial election.
SCHWARZENEGGER: I have to say that I have just realized that I have a perfect part for you in Terminator 4. I do.
COLLINS: Huffington urges voters to remember, you're not electing the actor who's playing a part, but the person behind it.
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON, AUTHOR, "FANATICS & FOOLS": You need to make a distinction between celebrities who have something to say, some really important ideas to convey to the American public, and celebrities using their celebrity to pretend that they have ideas that they want to sell to the public.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I get as annoyed as the next person when some second-tiered star of an ABC sitcom gets up and starts talking about politics. And I'm watching it on TV thinking, "What in the world do I care what said second-rate sitcom star has about -- says about politics?"
COLLINS: The voters passed their judgment about Grandy's qualifications. He served four terms in Congress.
GRANDY: My first advice to anybody in politics is, don't do it unless you are prepared to radically change your life. I had no idea what I was getting into. And I was sufficiently titillated by the idea of taking this odd gift that I had and turning that into a commodity that I could actually use for somebody's good other than my own.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: Heidi will continue her five-part Poli-Wood series tomorrow with a look at comedians and politics. These days, people often get their current events from comedians. But how does the funny business affect the campaign business? That is tomorrow, right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
And still ahead, our Olympics trivia. At the 1960s games in Rome, Ethiopian Abebe Bikila won the men's marathon. What was the memorable -- what was memorable about his victory? A, he ran it in world-record time; B, he was the first black African to win an Olympic gold medal; C, he ran it barefooted, or, D, all of the above?
That's a lot to take in. We'll talk about it when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KAGAN: Before the break, we asked you what was memorable about Ethiopian Abebe Bikila's victory at the 1960 Rome games: A, he ran it in world-record time; B, he was the first black African to win an Olympic gold medal; C, he ran it barefooted, or, D, all of the above?
Anderson, please, in the phrase of a question.
COOPER: It's got to be all of the above.
KAGAN: What is -- what is all of the above. And you won Jeopardy?
COOPER: All right. I knew it was all of the above because why would they make all those things? You know? Yes.
KAGAN: Why would someone spend all that time typing out all that? D, all the above.
COOPER: There you go.
KAGAN: Thank you. Thanks for playing.
COOPER: Any time. I also -- I guess there's more. He apparently was the first to successfully defend -- defend -- defend the marathon.
KAGAN: And yet there's more.
CAFFERTY: Tell us more.
COOPER: It goes on.
CAFFERTY: Yes. There's more about this guy, yes.
COOPER: He defended the '64 games in Tokyo.
KAGAN: And that time he wore shoes.
COOPER: Did he?
KAGAN: Yes, he did.
COOPER: There you go. More than you ever wanted to know about Abebe Bikila -- Jack.
CAFFERTY: Now he's died of old age and he's not with us anymore.
The Olympics not complete without a judging controversy. It took a week and a half, but we got one in the men's all-around gymnastics competition. It turns out a judge made a mistake judging the South Korean gymnast. And the time the mistake was made, it could have put him in first place ahead of Paul Hamm, the eventual winner of the gold medal for the United States.
So the question is, should Paul Hamm give up his gold medal? Somebody dropped a dime, and now their watch over there. Jerry in Asheville, North Carolina, "Hamm should not give back the medal. There is officiating in all sports and it's never 100 percent. Games, and even championships, are oftentimes decided by an official's judgment call. Occasionally they are wrong, even in big games."
Douglas in Boston, "The last Olympic in Salt Lake City, we had a similar controversy. They settled it by issuing a second gold medal to the Canadian skaters. And we've forgotten all about it. They should do the same now. Paul Hamm should not return his medal."
Skip in Waukesha, Wisconsin, "All the negative publicity about Paul Hamm's gold medal is so incredibly sad. He did nothing wrong. In fact, he did everything almost perfectly. In spite of that, a small number of complainers, apparently headed by a sports journalist, have irreparably tarnished what should have been the crowning achievement of this young man's gymnastic career."
And finally, Ed in Montreal writes: "Forget medals. Give them cash. And what's with the green salad they put on their heads. I've had it with the Olympics."
OK, Ed. So Ed probably doesn't participate in our little quizzes that we do.
COOPER: I guess not. No, he's not eagerly awaiting to see what happened to Abebe Bikila.
KAGAN: And did he wear shoes or not? Thank you, Jack.
Still to come, Mark Geragos goes after Amber Frey, but does he risk turning off the jury? We'll take a look at that.
COOPER: Plus, something we've been talking about all morning long with Jack, the controversy surrounding gymnast Paul Hamm. In a moment, we're going to talk to his former coach to see how this kind of thing could have happened at all.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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