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Lou Dobbs Tonight
Terrible Cost of Hurricane Ivan; Targeting Corporate Tax Dodgers
Aired September 17, 2004 - 18:00 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.
KITTY PILGRIM, GUEST HOST: Tonight: the terrible cost of Hurricane Ivan, a rising death toll, two million people without power, thousands more homeless.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some of us don't have a home to go to. It looks like I lost everything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PILGRIM: We'll have a live report from one of the worst-affected communities. Lieutenant Governor Lucy Baxley of Alabama is my guest.
Targeting corporate tax dodgers, the Senate says companies that move their headquarters to foreign countries should not receive homeland security contracts.
More controversy tonight after Kofi Annan says the war in Iraq is illegal. Critics say he is encouraging this country's enemies and putting American troops' lives at risk. Nile Gardiner of the Heritage Foundation will join me.
And in "Exporting America," the assault on middle-class families by American companies that employ most of their workers in cheap overseas labor markets.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're a company that does a little under a billion dollars a year with 93 people currently.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PILGRIM: Tonight, the documentary "American Jobs."
ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT for Friday, September 17. Here now for an hour of news, debate and opinion, sitting in for Lou Dobbs, who is on vacation, Kitty Pilgrim.
PILGRIM: Good evening. Tonight, the terrible impact of Hurricane Ivan. The number of people killed in the southeast United States has risen to at least 22, and some reports say the death toll could be much higher. Nearly two million people are without power in seven states tonight, and the damage from Ivan could be as much as $10 billion. Chris Lawrence reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Residents of Gulf Shores, Alabama, are not allowed to return to their homes.
CHIEF ARTHUR BOURNE, GULF SHORES POLICE: We're doing everything humanly possible. A lot of it depends on water and sewer and getting power hooked back up to the areas.
LAWRENCE: Nearly a mile of coastline washed away, and many residents are wondering, What's left?
MARTHA HOWARD, GULF SHORES RESIDENT: I'm really anxious because I don't know what's there. I think there's a house, but I don't know that for sure. And I don't know how much damage, how much water, what I'll find when I get back.
LAWRENCE: In Pensacola, some residents have their answers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everything we have is gone, ruined. There's probably three feet of water in the house that's left. In the portion that was left, it's flooded.
LAWRENCE: Search teams worked to find the driver whose cab plunged into Escambia Bay when this bridge collapsed. In Calhoun County, Florida, the damage from the deadly tornado that ripped through this mobile home park is overwhelming, as many as seven trailer homes picked up and ripped apart, some wrapped around trees. Officials have yet to determine if the tornado was an F-2 or F-3. Four people were killed, and among the dead, Nicki Dawsey's uncle and cousin.
NICKI DAWSEY, CALHOUN COUNTY RESIDENT: They were good people. They would help anybody in this world, no matter who they were, how bad they were. They were good people.
LAWRENCE: In the coastal city of Navarre, a beautiful view from the wreckage of Calvin Curtis's home. Curtis says the Gulf of Mexico came needing into his house every early Thursday morning.
CALVIN CURTIS, NAVARRE RESIDENT: On this floor, we had wood carvings and things like that, got washed out and went out through the back door and -- well, front door and back through the garage. You don't know when things are going to get straightened out, but this is a pretty hardy bunch around here. They've been through things, and they'll get together and start it back up again.
LAWRENCE: That steadfast resolve is harder to maintain, when Curtis admits he has not yet been able to reach his mother in Pensacola.
CURTIS: Well, the damage is reparable. We're alive, you know? And as long as I know my family's OK, we'll be OK.
LAWRENCE: Further north, in Georgia, flooding caused this restaurant owner in Atlanta to close down for only the second time in 14 years.
COLLEEN STANDSBURY, ATLANTA RESTAURANT OWNER: When it rains hard, the river does come over the banks, but it usually doesn't get this high and it doesn't affect our business. And at the back of the building, it's even worse. It's probably -- there's a fence that's eight feet high in the back, and it's over that fence.
LAWRENCE (on camera): Wow.
STANDSBURY: So this is pretty bad.
LAWRENCE (voice-over): Tonight, as the storm works its way through the Southeast, more than 1.5 million people in seven states remain without power.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
And you're now looking live at one of the most graphic examples of Ivan's power. This is a section of Interstate 10 in Escambia Bay which was damaged by the storm. You can see the back half of a trailer that was literally almost cut in two. Now, the cab of that truck and its driver had been missing for a couple of days. Now, we have been seeing divers out for the past two days, searching the waters right there at the break in the bridge. They had reported to us yesterday that they could not see more than five feet deep, with all the debris still in the water.
In the last hour, there have been ambulance come, an ambulance arrived and left. There was a lot of activity with boats and divers out there. And we did see the divers in a boat raise up what looked like a body bag right from the point where the police had reported the oil slick and right at the break, where the other half of the truck was missing. Of course, we will have to wait on an autopsy to identify exactly what it was that was pulled from the river -- or pulled from the bay. But from all accounts from what we saw, it looked like they pulled a body bag out of that spot -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: All right, thanks very much, Chris Lawrence..
Alabama has suffered major devastation from Hurricane Ivan, and officials say many buildings have significant structural damage, many roads are impassable. Joining me now is Lieutenant Governor Lucy Baxley of Alabama, and she is in Montgomery, Alabama. Thanks for taking the time to speak to us this evening. What kind of situation are you facing right now?
LT. GOV. LUCY BAXLEY (D), ALABAMA: Well, we still have about 665,000 residences or businesses without power. That's down from almost a million, the high of Thursday afternoon. So our people are doing a really good job at getting the power back on. We have 80 shelters open, with about 13,000 people in those shelters. That would be a combination of people who had evacuated from Florida prior to the Alabama evacuees moving northward. So we have a lot of damage.
There really hasn't been time to assess just how severe the damages are, but we're just so blessed that we don't have but one confirmed death in Alabama related to this storm. And I think it is due largely to the fact that our local first responders, the police departments, the fire departments, the county officials, had really taken every precaution. We have many people in Alabama that live in substandard housing, so to have this preparation and have this minimum loss of lives, we think that we are just very blessed to have achieved this.
PILGRIM: Governor Bob Riley and President Bush have promised that FEMA will help residents get back to normal, as fast as possible. What kind of services are you hoping for from FEMA?
BAXLEY: Well, FEMA has a strong presence in the state. And already, they are distributing to distribution centers ice and water, and they have generators that are being delivered on a priority basis. They will set up disaster centers in the different areas. This is wonderful because people with so many different needs can go to one source to inquire about what assistance is available to them. I think they're offering a wonderful reinforcement for our city, county and state people. And they have a short-term plan, and a long-term plan, and even down the road, there's a possibility of grants to replace public buildings and to some non-profit organizations.
So we feel very fortunate. And of the -- we will have an amount of money allocated to the state for this disaster, and then it is my understanding that FEMA will make available 7.5 percent of that amount to protect against future disasters of this type. So I don't think we can complain about the assistance we're getting from FEMA. And I would add that to my unending praise for the local people and our state law enforcement and all of the people on the local level that have done such a wonderful job protecting our citizens and will continue to do so while they're trying to recover from this.
PILGRIM: We're almost out of time, but I understand your evacuation was a great success. How do you plan on moving everyone back with equal ease and without incident?
BAXLEY: Well, you know, we certainly hope it will be without incident. That is one thing that the people are being cautioned against, that in the confusion and in the effort to hurry to get back home and maybe not be as safe about live electrical wires and maybe even in such a hurry and frustration in the traffic, we really want to remind the people that if we have come through this horrible disaster, then we really need to take our time to just be careful getting back to the homes.
And then we will start hearing further reports, like some of the interviews you've already had, that people that got home and they had no home to go home to. And I think this is going to be a long-term recovery where we just have to see the needs of the different people.
But our folks did such a good job just prior to this storm actually hitting. There was this great effort to move veterans out of a veterans' home down in Baldwin County near the coastal area. There was a lot of effort that had to go into moving prisoners out of county jails in that area. It took a big, concerted effort to keep all of our people safe. And we will -- we just don't need to get weary and frustrated with the effort it's going to take to get us restored to normal. People in Alabama are really people of faith, and I bet we've had more praying going on in this state in the last few days than in a long time. And I think that's what we have to rely on now, just to -- just to have faith that we will get back to a good life and that we're blessed. You heard the man earlier say that as long as his family was OK.
A lot of people in Alabama got hit twice. They have vacation homes down in the gulf, and then the storm path came on up through Montgomery and Birmingham, where those people possibly incurred damage a second time, so -- but that's, that's small compared to the person out there that had inadequate living, to begin with, and does not know how they're going to put a roof over their head. I understand that FEMA will make available tarp and temporary plastic roofing to help these people until they see what they can do.
And we just urge people to reach out, to certainly go every mile you can to see what kind of help is available. And I would urge our churches and all our civic leaders and our leaders in all the cities to continue to try to be there to help the people, the way they have all done in helping them prepare for this. We will get through with this. And hopefully, we will be people with a more grateful heart and more of a sense of community, the fact that we know we need each other. And I hope, in some ways, we'll be enriched by it.
PILGRIM: Well, we certainly wish you every success and applaud your efforts. Lieutenant Governor Lucy Baxley, thank you.
BAXLEY: Thank you.
PILGRIM: President Bush will visit Alabama and Florida Sunday to tour the areas most badly damaged by Hurricane Ivan. Today, the president spent the day raising campaign funds in Washington and North Carolina. Now, the president did not comment on a draft report saying Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction before the war in Iraq. Suzanne Malveaux reports from Charlotte, North Carolina -- Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kitty, President Bush making two stops today to raise more than $3 million for the Republican Party as he continues to campaign across the country, emphasizing, of course, his domestic agenda, but also making the case to the American people that the administration is on the right course when it comes to the war on terror. But you are absolutely right, the president did not mention the administration's own draft report from the Iraq Survey group, which, sources say, concludes that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction immediately prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, but that he did have the intention of acquiring those weapons. It goes on to say, sources say, that he continued to deceive the U.N. inspectors, importing a banned materials, as well as trying to get ahold of long-range missiles.
Now, President Bush made the case, as he does often, that he thought there were weapons of mass destruction, that they have not been found, that everyone thought the weapons were there. But he still says that the world and the country is better off with Saddam Hussein in jail. And he goes on to say that he would still remain -- he stands by his decision to go to war with Iraq. The president looking ahead, as well, made the case that the one person who would know the situation on the ground, that is the prime minister of Iraq, Iyad Allawi -- that is the person the president is going to sit down and meet with at the U.N. in New York next week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE WALKER BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: These people are indiscriminately killing because they want to cause us to leave and they want the Iraqis to grow weary of trying to be a free society. Listen to Allawi. He'll talk about what it means to be free.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: And the president will continue to make that case not only to the world, of course, before the United Nations next week, but also to the American voters -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: All right, thanks very much, Suzanne Malveaux.
Senator John Kerry today launched a new attack on the Bush administration's policies in Iraq. Senator Kerry said Vice President Cheney's former company, Halliburton, has profited from Iraq at the expense of American troops and taxpayers. Frank Buckley has the report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Senator John Kerry went after Vice President Dick Cheney on what one senior strategist called the most radioactive issue of the campaign, Halliburton, Cheney's former employer. Kerry said the company has received billions in no-bid contracts, and the Bush administration hasn't provided adequate oversight of the money.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: As commander-in- chief, I've got two words for companies like Halliburton that abuse the American taxpayer and the trust: You're fired! That simple.
BUCKLEY: The criticism coincides with a new ad from the Kerry campaign suggesting the vice president is still profiting from his previous work for Halliburton.
RICHARD CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind and haven't had now for over three years.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The truth? As vice president, Dick Cheney received $2 million from Halliburton.
BUCKLEY: Vice President Cheney was campaigning in Portland, Oregon, and didn't address the Halliburton issue, but Bush-Cheney spokesman called it, "a tired, old, baseless accusation." Kerry strategists say the reemergence of the Halliburton issue in their campaign is part of an overall criticism of the Bush administration's handling of Iraq. And on Iraq, Senator Kerry accused the president of quietly planning additional National Guard and Reservist call-ups.
KERRY: He won't tell us what congressional leaders are now saying, that this administration is planning yet another substantial call-up of Reservists and Guard units immediately after the election. Hide it from people through the election, then make the move.
BUCKLEY: A spokesman for the Bush campaign said, quote, "John Kerry's conspiracy theory of a secret troop deployment is completely irresponsible. John Kerry didn't launch this attack when he spoke to the National Guard because he knows they know it is false and ridiculous."
(on camera): Bundling the Halliburton and Iraq issues together is part of the Kerry campaign's effort to portray the president as out of touch with average Americans and dishonest about the war in Iraq. They are themes we will hear repeatedly over the next 46 days. Frank Buckley, CNN, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PILGRIM: Still ahead tonight: The Pentagon has just released more records about President Bush's military service. We'll have a report.
Another deadly day in Iraq. Suicide bombers target U.S. troops and Iraqi police in the streets of Baghdad.
Also tonight, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's outrageous statement on the Iraq war. Nile Gardiner of the Heritage Foundation calls Annan's comment, quote, "an attack on the coalition." He will be my guest.
And another war of words on the campaign trail, Senator Kerry and President Bush on the offensive. But is an attack strategy an effective one? Three leading journalists will join us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PILGRIM: Now to some news just in. The White House has just released more documents about President Bush's service in the Air National Guard. Senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre has the story. Jamie, what do these new documents say?
JAMIE MCINTYRE, SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, Kitty, these document are the result of the Pentagon being asked to cast a wider net and find documents that not only were in President Bush's personnel file but any documents relating to him. What they don't show is, they don't answer any more questions about whether President Bush showed up for duty after 1972, when he moved to Alabama to work on a senatorial campaign.
What they do show is that Bush, who was at the time of a son of a congressman, was the subject of some interest in the unit, to the extend that a two-star general sent Congressman Bush a letter about his son. We know that because in the file is the response from then- Congressman Bush, later to become Bush 41, saying that he appreciated the attention, the fact that his young son got by a major general. He said, I was pleased to read your comments. He's looking forward to flight school, and he said he thought he'd be a gung-ho member of the squadron.
Also included are some press releases about then-Lieutenant Bush to his hometown newspaper. Ironically, one of them notes the drug culture of the '70s, saying, quote, "George Walker Bush is one member of the younger generation who doesn't get his kicks from pot or hashish or speed." It notes that he is a fighter pilot training on the F-102 -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: Jamie, I understand there's also news into the investigation into Senator Kerry's Naval awards.
MCINTYRE: That's right. A complaint by Judicial Watch requested that the Navy go back and review the Vietnam-era awards awarded to Senator John Kerry. The Navy has taken a look at the awards, decided that they were properly awarded and declined to do any further investigation. A memo obtained by CNN says, "The passage of time would make reconstruction of the facts and circumstances unreliable." So therefore, Senator Kerry's medals stand. No further review is going to be undertaken, and the Navy has determined they were properly awarded.
PILGRIM: All right, thanks very much, Jamie McIntyre.
In Iraq today, a bloody new attack on Iraqi police officers working with American troops in Baghdad. Now, the attack came as American fighter jets bombarded insurgent positions in Fallujah. Walter Rodgers reports from Baghdad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These Iraqi police vehicles bore the brunt of the latest suicide car bomb that killed three policemen and five civilians in central Baghdad. Earlier in the morning, two other suicide bombers tried to attack a U.S. Army checkpoint further up the same street, but soldiers opened fire and the suicide bombers were killed before they could hurt others. In between these two checkpoints, Iraqi children fled continuing gun battles between the U.S. military and the insurgents, this as the Americans try to weed out stubborn urban resistance here in Baghdad.
But they get no credit from the Iraqis. A woman complained, The Americans have been here for 24 hours, and there are so many wounded. The Americans were also denounced amid the rubble of another U.S. air strike in Fallujah, this Iraqi calling President Bush a criminal who should stop boasting about freedom. U.S. Warplanes targeted another Abu Musab Zarqawi meeting site in Fallujah. U.S. military sources claim 60 of his supporters were killed, but Iraqi police say 20 civilians died in the air strike.
(on camera): No matter which death toll you choose to believe, the numbers continue to jump upward for both Iraqis and Americans, challenging, at least in the eyes of many Iraqis, the premise this war has been a success story. Walter Rodgers, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: More outrage today after U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan declared the war in Iraq was illegal. Secretary of State Colin Powell told "The Washington Times" that Annan's assertion was, quote, "not a very useful statement to make at this point," unquote. Annan made his remarks in a BBC interview earlier this week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL: I have made it -- I have stated clearly that it was not in conformity with the Security Council, with the U.N. charter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was illegal?
ANNAN: Yes, if you wish.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PILGRIM: Now, critics say Annan's comments undercut efforts to stabilize Iraq, and one of those critics is Nile Gardiner, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation. He joins me now from Washington. Thanks for coming on the show, Nile.
NILE GARDINER, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: A pleasure.
PILGRIM: Your reaction to Secretary General Kofi Annan's remarks?
GARDINER: Well, I thought his comments were gratuitous. They were rather silly in the extreme, I think, and deeply unhelpful to the situation in Iraq at a time when the United States and its allies are trying to build up a high level of international support for the reconstruction and security situation in Iraq. I think that Kofi Annan is really undermining even his own organization's effort to assist, for example, in the creation of a successful democratic society in Iraq and also preparing Iraq for elections to be held in January.
PILGRIM: Now, how would you describe the international reaction to these comments?
GARDINER: Well, Kofi Annan has been fiercely condemned by leaders across the world, including leaders in Poland, Great Britain, Australia and Japan. I think that most of America's key allies have rallied around President Bush at this time. They have called for Kofi Annan to clarify his comments. There have also been calls for Kofi Annan to apologize for his remarks.
PILGRIM: Do you think that's appropriate?
GARDINER: Oh, I think so. I think that Kofi Annan, in fact, has been a spectacular failure as U.N. leader. He has consistently been biased, I think, in his interpretation of U.N. Security Council resolutions. He has frequently sided against the United States and Great Britain. He's supposed to be a neutral international servant. I think his credibility is swiftly running out at the moment.
PILGRIM: Now, do you read anything to the timing of these comments?
GARDINER: Yes, the comments come just ahead of a forthcoming speech by President Bush to the U.N. General Assembly. They also come ahead of a forthcoming speech by Iyad Allawi, the new leader of Iraq, to the United Nations and to Congress. The timing simply could not be worse. Also, significantly, they come just weeks ahead of the U.S. presidential election. I think the remarks are poorly timed. They are political in nature and deeply unhelpful, I think, to U.S.-led efforts to establish a peaceful democratic society in Iraq.
PILGRIM: All right, thanks very much, Nile Gardiner. Thank you.
GARDINER: Thank you.
PILGRIM: Still ahead here tonight, dramatic new election developments in Florida over whether Ralph Nader should be on the ballot. The Florida supreme court has just made a decision. And we'll talk to one of the many people fighting to put Nader on the ballot next.
And then, the governor of the most populous state has a chance to keep American jobs in this country, but critics are betting Governor Schwarzenegger will be gun-shy about fighting off-shore outsourcing. That and much more still ahead here tonight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: LOU DOBBS TONIGHT continues with more news, debate and opinion. Here now Kitty Pilgrim.
PILGRIM: This just in: Florida's supreme court has just ruled that Ralph Nader will be on the state's presidential ballot in November. My next guest is one of the many people who fought to put Nader on the ballot. Trevor Potter is general counsel for the Reform Institute, and that is a non-partisan election reform group whose chairman is Republican senator John McCain of Arizona. Trevor Potter joins me from Washington.
Thanks for being here. Your reaction...
TREVOR POTTER, THE REFORM INSTITUTE: Glad to be here.
PILGRIM: ... to the decision, Trevor?
POTTER: Well, obviously, it's a significant victory for, I think, democracy, for getting candidates who have shown significant public support on the ballot. And what the Florida supreme court said is that an overriding value in our system is allowing ballot access, so voters can make their own decisions. PILGRIM: In 2000, Mr. Nader got 97,000 votes in Florida. How do you think this changes the election mix in Florida?
POTTER: Well, you know, that's a political question, rather than a legal one. I don't think we're going to know yet. Clearly, the Democrats, by fighting hard to keep him off the ballot, are concerned that he's going to siphon off some votes that might otherwise go to the Democratic nominee. But one of the problems we're having in this whole situation is it's become political, rather than a fairness question of put the candidates on the ballot and let the people make their choice. Instead, you've got a nationwide campaign going on to keep Nader off the ballot using rules that aren't applied to the Republican and Democratic nominees, so that voters aren't going to have the option of voting for him, if they want. And that's our concern, as a pro-democracy group.
PILGRIM: Let me ask you a legal question, then. One of the objections was there was no convention for Mr. Nader. How do you address that legally?
POTTER: Well, Florida Supreme Court's found that not to be correct as a factual matter, the Reform Party did hold a convention in Texas. It did certify Nader as their nominee. The attack from the people who wanted to keep him off is that the Reform Party is disintegrating. It's no longer the sort of major party it was. It had a very small convention in Texas.
What the Florida court found is that those are really subjective factual issues and shouldn't be used whether it was a big convention or a small convention. It shouldn't matter when you're raising the issue of whether someone's allowed on the ballot or not.
PILGRIM: Senator McCain has been very active on this issue, why?
POTTER: He's been active because starting in the 2000 election, as you may recall, he himself had trouble getting on state ballots. He was kept off the New York ballot until he sued and spent literally tens and thousands dollars and a lot of time to get the courts to say he had a right to appear on the primary ballot.
Since then, for the last couple of years on a nationwide basis, he and the Reform Institute, which he's the honorary chair of, had been working hard to reform ballot access laws across the country on a nonpartisan base. This shouldn't be pro-Democrat or pro-Republican, this ought to be in a democracy, people who show significant popular support, and whether you like Nader or not, he got a couple of million votes in the election. Someone like that ought to have access to the ballot. They shouldn't be kept off by a campaign to file lawsuits all across the country and force the candidate to be in a courtroom all the time, rather than out talking to the electorate.
PILGRIM: Senator McCain, though, is a big supporter of President Bush's. Doesn't this help the Bush strategy?
POTTER: He is. But again, this is something he has been concentrating on for the last three years. The Reform Institute published a nationwide survey of the ballot access laws in all 50 state, indicating which ones were really the hardest to get on. Nader is one example of how that works. McCain himself, again, was an example in 2000, and there will be others. This is a broader, legal issue where lawyers and up controlling who gets on the ballot through the weapon of lawsuits.
PILGRIM: All right. Thanks very much for joining us tonight. Trevor Potter.
POTTER: You are welcome.
PILGRIM: Thank you.
In "Exporting America" tonight, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has a golden opportunity to take a stand against the exporting of American jobs. The California legislature has passed several anti-outsourcing bills that are now on the governor's desk, but there's a good chance Governor Schwarzenegger will veto them. Peter Viles reports from Los Angeles.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Will he or won't he? That's the question in Sacramento, where Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has a choice to make: Does he sign legislation limiting overseas outsourcing, or does he side with the business lobby and veto it.
ALLAN ZAREMBERG, CALIFORNIA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: I believe the governor has a strong agenda to improve California's economy. These bills are inconsistent with improving California's economy. They create trade barriers. And I hope that the governor takes that into strong consideration. and I hope that the governor vetoes these bills.
VILES: Bills now on the governor's desk would require that all work on state contracts be done in the United States. Would require overseas's call centers employees to disclose their locations if a California customer wants to know where they are. And prohibit outsourcing to work-related to private information for homeland security.
FABIAN NUNEZ, (D) SPEAKER CALIF. ASSEMBLY: Some of his advisers have clearly stated, I think publicly as well as privately, that they don't think the governor intends on signing this legislation. I'm hopeful that the governor's compassion side, his compassionate side, will win the day and that he'll do the right thing.
VILES: Despite Schwarzenegger's reputation for straight talk, he hasn't taken a position on any of the bills, although he did memorably criticize those who worry about the economy.
GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, (R) CALIFORNIA: And to those critics who are so pessimistic about our economy, I say don't be economic girlie man. VILES: It's a great line, but Schwarzenegger has never made clear his thoughts on how government should respond to overseas outsourcing.
(on camera): Now, Schwarzenegger has positioned himself as a populist. He's urged state residents to buy California products, but now he has to decide whether his administration will buy American. Peter Viles, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: And we reported extensively on American companies that relocate their headquarters to offshore tax havens. Several of those companies have received lucrative government contracts, and now some lawmakers are fighting back. But so far, they're having very little success. Lisa Sylvester reports from Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The consulting and technology firm Accenture was award a $10 billion Homeland Security Department contract this summer, the largest contract ever for that agency. Not bad for a company whose corporate offices are in this building in Bermuda. But new legislation approved by the Senate would bar companies who set up shell headquarters in tax havens from biding on future department of Homeland Security contracts. A similar bill passed the house in June.
REP. ROSA DELAURO, (D) CONNECTICUT: We lose about $5 billion in revenue, a serious amount of money, it's staggering the amount of money. And to think, then, that we would reward those companies, that we reward them with federal contracts, is equally as staggering.
SYLVESTER: This week, a House amendment by Congresswoman Rosa Delaura tried to prohibit these companies, dubbed Benedict Arnold's, from receiving government contracts from two other federal department, Treasury and Transportation. That amendment was defeated along party lines. Opponents argue shutting out companies from the bidding process drives up costs for taxpayers.
CHRISTOPHER PREBLE, CATO INSTITUTE: Because you are paying more, because you are reducing the number of eligible bidders, and you're perhaps getting less service or a less effective product, whatever the case may be, because you are somewhat arbitrarily ruling certain competitors out of the process.
SYLVESTER: Both sides are carefully watching what happens with the Homeland Security Appropriations Bill. It still has to go to a congressional conference committee. Where even though the language is identical in the House and the Senate bills, it could still be stripped.
SEN. CARL LEVIN, (D) MICHIGAN: We've seen these kind of games played before in conference, where conferees drop provisions which they should not drop when they're both in the House and the Senate bills. SYLVESTER: And even if it is in the final version of the bill, President Bush will have the last say.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SYLVESTER: The Homeland Security Department appropriations bill will likely move through conference committee quickly, and could be on the president's desk by the end of this month. Both the White House and the Republican congressional leadership have opposed banning corporate expatriates from receiving government contracts -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: Thanks very much, Lisa Sylvester.
Still ahead here tonight, fighting words on the campaign trail. The candidates sharpen their attacks with less than seven weeks to go before election day. We'll examine the new attacks with our panel of newsmakers next.
And then, "Heroes." An 18-year veteran of the National Guard is struggling to rebuild his future after he nearly lost his life in Iraq. We'll have his remarkable story just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PILGRIM: This week, the attacks on the presidential campaign focus not on Vietnam, but on Iraq. Senator Kerry said President Bush is living in a, quote, "fantasy world of spin" on Iraq. President Bush said Senator Kerry appears to have eight different positions on the war.
And joining me now for more on the campaign and whether these are new attacks, or whether they're working for either candidate, are our "Newsmakers" -- Ron Brownstein is the national political correspondent for "The Los Angeles Times," Roger Simon, political editor for "U.S. News & World Report," and Mark Morrison, managing editor for "BusinessWeek." Gentlemen, thanks so much.
We've certainly seen a change in attack tactics and tone. Let's start with you, Ron, let's start with you.
RON BROWNSTEIN, "LOS ANGELES TIMES": Well, clearly Senator Kerry has made, as we've talked about in the last couple of weeks, a major correction or change in his strategy for most of the spring and summer. They felt that there was a narrow majority ready to change. They didn't have to make a strong case for persuasion for the country to fire Bush. They really had to reassure people that Kerry was an acceptable alternative.
That clearly did not work, Kitty. I think what Kerry has finally acknowledged is that the job of the challenger is to challenge the record of the incumbent. And you're seeing now an aggressive effort to do that on a wide variety of fronts. Perhaps too wide a variety in the sense that the attack is changing almost from day to day, but they have made a fundamental reversal in course.
PILGRIM: Roger, we have a new team on the Kerry advising team. Is that the difference? Is that what we are seeing as the effect of that?
ROGER SIMON, "U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT": It may be. I think they're going to need a bigger plane if they keep adding this many people especially since they going to add Ted Kennedy, there is a row of seats right there. But while we, in general, in the media overrate the effect of staff and staff changes, there does seem, as Ron has said to be a definite shift in the campaign. And I'm sure if you're a Democrat, you're happy that John Kerry is finally fully awake and has decided to make a campaign of this. And I'm sure spirits are buoyed by this in the Democratic party.
PILGRIM: Mark?
MARK MORRISON, "BUSINESSWEEK": Well, I agree with the other guys that Senator Kerry was very much stronger on message this week. He did very well. He was drowned out a bit by the huge news in Florida with Hurricane Ivan and of course Hurricane Dan over at CBS hogged a lot of space on the front pages as well.
PILGRIM: Let's take a look, though, and see whether this is working. And the latest poll would suggest maybe not. Thirteen-point spread between President Bush and Senator Kerry. Why no gain in the polls? In fact, that's a fairly wide spread.
Let's start with you, Ron.
BROWNSTEIN: Kitty, well, you know, as you know, there are a wide range of polls. That's the widest margin currently out there. There's a Pew poll that came out the same day that was tied in the race. I think both campaigns feel that we're probably somewhere in the middle of, if you look at what is going on in all of the different states, a five or six-point advantage, four, five, six, something like that for President Bush.
The real key I think for voters, or for viewers to watch at this point, the horse race is very volatile. It moves around a lot from poll to poll. What is more stable is attitudes about President Bush's performance, and those are probably more telling about where this race going. Right now he's just over 50 percent in his approval rating in almost all polls and that suggests to me that he has a clear -- you know, a modest but clear advantage at this point in the race.
PILGRIM: Roger, would you agree with that?
SIMON: I would agree with that. The approval rating is the rating watched by political professionals especially the Gallup approval rating. Because history teaches us that an incumbent president who runs again generally gets in the final vote what his approving rating was on the eve of the election. So if Bush stays at above 50 percent, he'll probably be re-elected. If he goes below 50 percent, he will probably lose.
PILGRIM: That 13-point spread wasn't a Gallup poll. Let's get Mark's thought.
MORRISON: Well, I think the analysis we just heard is pretty right. I watch the stock market which is also a pretty good indicator in this particular race because of the big differences on the economic issues, and we've seen the stock market gain several hundred points, really going back about the same time before the G.O.P. convention as Bush has looked stronger.
So again, it doesn't look like the kind of rally that says he's a sure thing but definitely picking up momentum and leading at the moment.
PILGRIM: We've had news just now that Nader will be on the Florida ballot. Let's get your reaction to that, Ron?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, right now, Senator Kerry has to close up the race to worry about Ralph Nader to have -- in fact, he's got to make it closer. But if he does, clearly this is a setback for Democrats. I mean certainly many people on the left side of the political spectrum feel that Nader by running again is endangering many of the things that he has purported to support over his career, the causes that he's advanced and they're at war against him. They're making, as your guest before noted, a serious effort to keep him off the ballot and this is a setback for Democrats, if Kerry can make it close enough to matter.
PILGRIM: We've also seen John Edwards a little bit out of the picture, are we likely to see him re-emerge, Roger?
SIMON: I think he will. I'm not sure people will pay much attention though. We tend not to pay much attention to the second place on the ticket and John Edwards has been criticized this week notably in the "New York Times" for not attacking enough but attack is not what John Edwards does. He did as well as he did in the primaries by saying he didn't like to attack. It's going to get down to his debate with Dick Cheney where he'll have a big audience. And I suspect he'll be very vigorous in that debate.
PILGRIM: So, speaking of attack, we see the new Halliburton- Cheney ad. The 527s still very much operating. Is this going to be a reality for the rest of this election, do you think, Mark?
MORRISON: I'm afraid so. The nasties keep coming for both sides and I think that will continue. And that's not the economic issue that most people are interested in. There's actually some fairly weak economic numbers this week. The inflation number was very good. But there are very weak sectors out there -- technology, airlines, a whole bunch of them and it doesn't bode well for the job's market, consumer confidence is suffering a little bit, and so I think if Kerry can get his message straight on the economy, that then he starts to close the gap.
PILGRIM: All right, Ron...
BROWNSTEIN: Kitty, one very quick point Halliburton brings to mind. The Republicans and President Bush have been pretty consistent about what they are attacking John Kerry about all year. Flip-flop, liberal on taxes, et cetera. The Democrats seem to be in a mode a little bit of throwing things up against the wall. Yesterday a very strong argument on Iraq but today we kind of switched subjects to Halliburton. And I think there are some Democrats worried that -- are happy, are glad, as Roger said, that Kerry is being more aggressive, they might want it to be more focused as well.
PILGRIM: All right. We are out of time, gentleman. Thank you for joining us. Ron Brownstein, Roger Simon, and Mark Morrison. Always a pleasure.
Coming up, some of your thoughts and also "American Jobs," the first documentary film on the exporting of America.
Tonight, classic American brands wiped out by cheap foreign competition. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PILGRIM: All this week, we've shown you the excerpts of the first-ever documentary film on the exporting of American jobs. Tonight, the devastating effect of cheap foreign labor and low-priced imported goods on American businesses and consumers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If Wal-Mart was a country, it would be one of China's top ten trading partners. I asked (UNINTELLIGIBLE) if they saw a connection between their roles as producers and as consumers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We go to dollar stores, we go to Dollar General. We go to Family Dollar. Most of those places are things that are shipped in here. We're defeating our purpose. Overseas took our jobs.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So we're supporting them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But right now -- but we can't afford to go like (UNINTELLIGIBLE) or Winn-Dixie to buy household products when we can get it for a dollar apiece.
CHARLES FISHMAN, AUTHOR, UPCOMING BOOK ON WAL-MART: Part of the way they deliver everyday low prices is by camouflaging the costs, particularly of manufactured goods, and camouflaging what's required to get those low prices.
STEPHEN BROTHERS, V.P., APEX DIGITAL: Wal-Mart is always pushing to drive the cost down even lower, and that is something that probably will never change. But they bring -- they pass those cost savings onto the consumer.
FISHMAN: Wal-Mart has a principle, a philosophy that is part of the way they operate. That an ordinary consumer good, a toothbrush, a flashlight, an umbrella, a cordless drill, if it doesn't fundamentally change year over year, the price needs to go down 5 percent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every year?
FISHMAN: Every year. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Price pressure from the major retailers is one of the reasons why so many great American products are no longer made in the USA.
From Mr. Coffee to Etch-a-Sketch, from Levi's to Masterlock, classic American brands have been closing their domestic plants in search of cheap labor.
Charles Fishman recently interviewed the CEO of Masterlock for a magazine article.
FISHMAN: Randall Lariemore said, look, the people in Bentonville are smart. And I was getting the same kind of pressure from Home Depot and from Lowe's and all kinds of other superstores, and it's a reasonable question. Why should a consumer pay $12 or even $9 for the Masterlock when they can get a similar lock for $6?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of Wal-Mart's most successful new suppliers is Apex Digital, a Californian company that was created to bring low-price Chinese DVD players to the American market.
BROTHERS: We were determined from the beginning to be a good supplier to Wal-Mart. We are a very low overhead company. Our overheads are tiny compared to larger Japanese companies. So we can just afford to operate on a much lower cost base. We can make money selling a million of something. We haven't figured out how to make money selling 10,000 of something.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Apex Digital's California staff handles sales and marketing, logistics and accounting. Virtually every other corporate function is outsourced to Asian vendors, including manufacturing, product design and engineering.
BROTHERS: We have in our California offices only five engineers and we have about 12 engineers in China.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Free traders always point to American innovation as a job creation engine. But Apex Digital suggests that an innovative American start-up can be wildly successful with a very small core group of American employees.
BROTHERS: We're a company that does a little under $1 billion a year with 93 people currently.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: Let's take a look now at some of your thoughts.
And George Bain of Port Ewen, New York writes: "Our government of the people, by the people, for the people seems to have switched to in spite of the people in many cases, and we need to get it back from big business."
And Robert Pounders of Astoria, Oregon, writes: "We must secure our borders. If we don't stop playing politics with border security, we will have another catastrophe coming." Do send us your thoughts, include your name and address, and for each e-mail we will send you -- that we read, we'll send you a free copy of Lou's new book, "Exporting America."
Still ahead, "Heroes."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PILGRIM: In "Heroes" tonight, the story of an 18-year-old National Guard veteran who served in both Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Casey Wian has his story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mark Seifried never imagined he'd come home from Iraq to work in his wife's gift shop. Now the family is depending on it.
STAFF SGT. MARK SEIFRIED (RET.), OKLAHOMA NATIONAL GUARD: I just took it that when something happens to you in a situation, especially a wartime situation, that you'd be took care of. I was wrong.
WIAN: Seifried went to Iraq in February of 2003, leaving his civilian job at this Dayton tire plant to drive trucks delivering bombs to Baghdad. During a sandstorm, his vehicle hit a huge hole in the road. Seifried was thrust hard into the roof of the cab and then slammed down into his seat. For three months, he endured severe pain, until an X-ray finally showed he had a fractured spine.
M. SEIFRIED: It was July 14 when they've actually finally done the surgery on my back. Put six screws, two rods and a cage in my back. My right leg, ever since surgery has been on fire. It burns. I have a pain in my back that stays there.
WIAN: The military discharged him, but awarded only a 10 percent disability rating, not enough to qualify for a pension. Seifried is appealing, but it could take two years to be decided.
M. SEIFRIED: Finance companies and people don't wait two years to get their money when you are paying mortgage and stuff like that.
WIAN: The next setback came when he tried to go back to work at Dayton tire.
M. SEIFRIED: They said, well, we don't have anything for you. I said, what?
WIAN: With his medical condition, he couldn't do his old job. But he doesn't have any seniority in the plant to get an easier job. In the meantime, money is tight.
DORIS SEIFRIED, WIFE: We had everything set, retirement from work, retirement from the military. He gets hurt. The military says, so long, see you. And his work says, so long, see you, and here we are sitting with nothing. M. SEIFRIED: If my country called me to go again, I'd do it. But I also expect our country to take care of us when we come home. And I don't feel that that was done.
WIAN: While they work, the Seifrieds worry about losing their battles with the Army and Dayton tire, about losing everything.
Casey Wian, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PILGRIM: Thanks for being with us. Please join us Monday. Bill Gertz, author of "Treachery," will join us. Have a wonderful weekend. "ANDERSON COOPER 360" is next.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired September 17, 2004 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KITTY PILGRIM, GUEST HOST: Tonight: the terrible cost of Hurricane Ivan, a rising death toll, two million people without power, thousands more homeless.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some of us don't have a home to go to. It looks like I lost everything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PILGRIM: We'll have a live report from one of the worst-affected communities. Lieutenant Governor Lucy Baxley of Alabama is my guest.
Targeting corporate tax dodgers, the Senate says companies that move their headquarters to foreign countries should not receive homeland security contracts.
More controversy tonight after Kofi Annan says the war in Iraq is illegal. Critics say he is encouraging this country's enemies and putting American troops' lives at risk. Nile Gardiner of the Heritage Foundation will join me.
And in "Exporting America," the assault on middle-class families by American companies that employ most of their workers in cheap overseas labor markets.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're a company that does a little under a billion dollars a year with 93 people currently.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PILGRIM: Tonight, the documentary "American Jobs."
ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT for Friday, September 17. Here now for an hour of news, debate and opinion, sitting in for Lou Dobbs, who is on vacation, Kitty Pilgrim.
PILGRIM: Good evening. Tonight, the terrible impact of Hurricane Ivan. The number of people killed in the southeast United States has risen to at least 22, and some reports say the death toll could be much higher. Nearly two million people are without power in seven states tonight, and the damage from Ivan could be as much as $10 billion. Chris Lawrence reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Residents of Gulf Shores, Alabama, are not allowed to return to their homes.
CHIEF ARTHUR BOURNE, GULF SHORES POLICE: We're doing everything humanly possible. A lot of it depends on water and sewer and getting power hooked back up to the areas.
LAWRENCE: Nearly a mile of coastline washed away, and many residents are wondering, What's left?
MARTHA HOWARD, GULF SHORES RESIDENT: I'm really anxious because I don't know what's there. I think there's a house, but I don't know that for sure. And I don't know how much damage, how much water, what I'll find when I get back.
LAWRENCE: In Pensacola, some residents have their answers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everything we have is gone, ruined. There's probably three feet of water in the house that's left. In the portion that was left, it's flooded.
LAWRENCE: Search teams worked to find the driver whose cab plunged into Escambia Bay when this bridge collapsed. In Calhoun County, Florida, the damage from the deadly tornado that ripped through this mobile home park is overwhelming, as many as seven trailer homes picked up and ripped apart, some wrapped around trees. Officials have yet to determine if the tornado was an F-2 or F-3. Four people were killed, and among the dead, Nicki Dawsey's uncle and cousin.
NICKI DAWSEY, CALHOUN COUNTY RESIDENT: They were good people. They would help anybody in this world, no matter who they were, how bad they were. They were good people.
LAWRENCE: In the coastal city of Navarre, a beautiful view from the wreckage of Calvin Curtis's home. Curtis says the Gulf of Mexico came needing into his house every early Thursday morning.
CALVIN CURTIS, NAVARRE RESIDENT: On this floor, we had wood carvings and things like that, got washed out and went out through the back door and -- well, front door and back through the garage. You don't know when things are going to get straightened out, but this is a pretty hardy bunch around here. They've been through things, and they'll get together and start it back up again.
LAWRENCE: That steadfast resolve is harder to maintain, when Curtis admits he has not yet been able to reach his mother in Pensacola.
CURTIS: Well, the damage is reparable. We're alive, you know? And as long as I know my family's OK, we'll be OK.
LAWRENCE: Further north, in Georgia, flooding caused this restaurant owner in Atlanta to close down for only the second time in 14 years.
COLLEEN STANDSBURY, ATLANTA RESTAURANT OWNER: When it rains hard, the river does come over the banks, but it usually doesn't get this high and it doesn't affect our business. And at the back of the building, it's even worse. It's probably -- there's a fence that's eight feet high in the back, and it's over that fence.
LAWRENCE (on camera): Wow.
STANDSBURY: So this is pretty bad.
LAWRENCE (voice-over): Tonight, as the storm works its way through the Southeast, more than 1.5 million people in seven states remain without power.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
And you're now looking live at one of the most graphic examples of Ivan's power. This is a section of Interstate 10 in Escambia Bay which was damaged by the storm. You can see the back half of a trailer that was literally almost cut in two. Now, the cab of that truck and its driver had been missing for a couple of days. Now, we have been seeing divers out for the past two days, searching the waters right there at the break in the bridge. They had reported to us yesterday that they could not see more than five feet deep, with all the debris still in the water.
In the last hour, there have been ambulance come, an ambulance arrived and left. There was a lot of activity with boats and divers out there. And we did see the divers in a boat raise up what looked like a body bag right from the point where the police had reported the oil slick and right at the break, where the other half of the truck was missing. Of course, we will have to wait on an autopsy to identify exactly what it was that was pulled from the river -- or pulled from the bay. But from all accounts from what we saw, it looked like they pulled a body bag out of that spot -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: All right, thanks very much, Chris Lawrence..
Alabama has suffered major devastation from Hurricane Ivan, and officials say many buildings have significant structural damage, many roads are impassable. Joining me now is Lieutenant Governor Lucy Baxley of Alabama, and she is in Montgomery, Alabama. Thanks for taking the time to speak to us this evening. What kind of situation are you facing right now?
LT. GOV. LUCY BAXLEY (D), ALABAMA: Well, we still have about 665,000 residences or businesses without power. That's down from almost a million, the high of Thursday afternoon. So our people are doing a really good job at getting the power back on. We have 80 shelters open, with about 13,000 people in those shelters. That would be a combination of people who had evacuated from Florida prior to the Alabama evacuees moving northward. So we have a lot of damage.
There really hasn't been time to assess just how severe the damages are, but we're just so blessed that we don't have but one confirmed death in Alabama related to this storm. And I think it is due largely to the fact that our local first responders, the police departments, the fire departments, the county officials, had really taken every precaution. We have many people in Alabama that live in substandard housing, so to have this preparation and have this minimum loss of lives, we think that we are just very blessed to have achieved this.
PILGRIM: Governor Bob Riley and President Bush have promised that FEMA will help residents get back to normal, as fast as possible. What kind of services are you hoping for from FEMA?
BAXLEY: Well, FEMA has a strong presence in the state. And already, they are distributing to distribution centers ice and water, and they have generators that are being delivered on a priority basis. They will set up disaster centers in the different areas. This is wonderful because people with so many different needs can go to one source to inquire about what assistance is available to them. I think they're offering a wonderful reinforcement for our city, county and state people. And they have a short-term plan, and a long-term plan, and even down the road, there's a possibility of grants to replace public buildings and to some non-profit organizations.
So we feel very fortunate. And of the -- we will have an amount of money allocated to the state for this disaster, and then it is my understanding that FEMA will make available 7.5 percent of that amount to protect against future disasters of this type. So I don't think we can complain about the assistance we're getting from FEMA. And I would add that to my unending praise for the local people and our state law enforcement and all of the people on the local level that have done such a wonderful job protecting our citizens and will continue to do so while they're trying to recover from this.
PILGRIM: We're almost out of time, but I understand your evacuation was a great success. How do you plan on moving everyone back with equal ease and without incident?
BAXLEY: Well, you know, we certainly hope it will be without incident. That is one thing that the people are being cautioned against, that in the confusion and in the effort to hurry to get back home and maybe not be as safe about live electrical wires and maybe even in such a hurry and frustration in the traffic, we really want to remind the people that if we have come through this horrible disaster, then we really need to take our time to just be careful getting back to the homes.
And then we will start hearing further reports, like some of the interviews you've already had, that people that got home and they had no home to go home to. And I think this is going to be a long-term recovery where we just have to see the needs of the different people.
But our folks did such a good job just prior to this storm actually hitting. There was this great effort to move veterans out of a veterans' home down in Baldwin County near the coastal area. There was a lot of effort that had to go into moving prisoners out of county jails in that area. It took a big, concerted effort to keep all of our people safe. And we will -- we just don't need to get weary and frustrated with the effort it's going to take to get us restored to normal. People in Alabama are really people of faith, and I bet we've had more praying going on in this state in the last few days than in a long time. And I think that's what we have to rely on now, just to -- just to have faith that we will get back to a good life and that we're blessed. You heard the man earlier say that as long as his family was OK.
A lot of people in Alabama got hit twice. They have vacation homes down in the gulf, and then the storm path came on up through Montgomery and Birmingham, where those people possibly incurred damage a second time, so -- but that's, that's small compared to the person out there that had inadequate living, to begin with, and does not know how they're going to put a roof over their head. I understand that FEMA will make available tarp and temporary plastic roofing to help these people until they see what they can do.
And we just urge people to reach out, to certainly go every mile you can to see what kind of help is available. And I would urge our churches and all our civic leaders and our leaders in all the cities to continue to try to be there to help the people, the way they have all done in helping them prepare for this. We will get through with this. And hopefully, we will be people with a more grateful heart and more of a sense of community, the fact that we know we need each other. And I hope, in some ways, we'll be enriched by it.
PILGRIM: Well, we certainly wish you every success and applaud your efforts. Lieutenant Governor Lucy Baxley, thank you.
BAXLEY: Thank you.
PILGRIM: President Bush will visit Alabama and Florida Sunday to tour the areas most badly damaged by Hurricane Ivan. Today, the president spent the day raising campaign funds in Washington and North Carolina. Now, the president did not comment on a draft report saying Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction before the war in Iraq. Suzanne Malveaux reports from Charlotte, North Carolina -- Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kitty, President Bush making two stops today to raise more than $3 million for the Republican Party as he continues to campaign across the country, emphasizing, of course, his domestic agenda, but also making the case to the American people that the administration is on the right course when it comes to the war on terror. But you are absolutely right, the president did not mention the administration's own draft report from the Iraq Survey group, which, sources say, concludes that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction immediately prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, but that he did have the intention of acquiring those weapons. It goes on to say, sources say, that he continued to deceive the U.N. inspectors, importing a banned materials, as well as trying to get ahold of long-range missiles.
Now, President Bush made the case, as he does often, that he thought there were weapons of mass destruction, that they have not been found, that everyone thought the weapons were there. But he still says that the world and the country is better off with Saddam Hussein in jail. And he goes on to say that he would still remain -- he stands by his decision to go to war with Iraq. The president looking ahead, as well, made the case that the one person who would know the situation on the ground, that is the prime minister of Iraq, Iyad Allawi -- that is the person the president is going to sit down and meet with at the U.N. in New York next week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE WALKER BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: These people are indiscriminately killing because they want to cause us to leave and they want the Iraqis to grow weary of trying to be a free society. Listen to Allawi. He'll talk about what it means to be free.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: And the president will continue to make that case not only to the world, of course, before the United Nations next week, but also to the American voters -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: All right, thanks very much, Suzanne Malveaux.
Senator John Kerry today launched a new attack on the Bush administration's policies in Iraq. Senator Kerry said Vice President Cheney's former company, Halliburton, has profited from Iraq at the expense of American troops and taxpayers. Frank Buckley has the report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Senator John Kerry went after Vice President Dick Cheney on what one senior strategist called the most radioactive issue of the campaign, Halliburton, Cheney's former employer. Kerry said the company has received billions in no-bid contracts, and the Bush administration hasn't provided adequate oversight of the money.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: As commander-in- chief, I've got two words for companies like Halliburton that abuse the American taxpayer and the trust: You're fired! That simple.
BUCKLEY: The criticism coincides with a new ad from the Kerry campaign suggesting the vice president is still profiting from his previous work for Halliburton.
RICHARD CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind and haven't had now for over three years.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The truth? As vice president, Dick Cheney received $2 million from Halliburton.
BUCKLEY: Vice President Cheney was campaigning in Portland, Oregon, and didn't address the Halliburton issue, but Bush-Cheney spokesman called it, "a tired, old, baseless accusation." Kerry strategists say the reemergence of the Halliburton issue in their campaign is part of an overall criticism of the Bush administration's handling of Iraq. And on Iraq, Senator Kerry accused the president of quietly planning additional National Guard and Reservist call-ups.
KERRY: He won't tell us what congressional leaders are now saying, that this administration is planning yet another substantial call-up of Reservists and Guard units immediately after the election. Hide it from people through the election, then make the move.
BUCKLEY: A spokesman for the Bush campaign said, quote, "John Kerry's conspiracy theory of a secret troop deployment is completely irresponsible. John Kerry didn't launch this attack when he spoke to the National Guard because he knows they know it is false and ridiculous."
(on camera): Bundling the Halliburton and Iraq issues together is part of the Kerry campaign's effort to portray the president as out of touch with average Americans and dishonest about the war in Iraq. They are themes we will hear repeatedly over the next 46 days. Frank Buckley, CNN, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PILGRIM: Still ahead tonight: The Pentagon has just released more records about President Bush's military service. We'll have a report.
Another deadly day in Iraq. Suicide bombers target U.S. troops and Iraqi police in the streets of Baghdad.
Also tonight, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's outrageous statement on the Iraq war. Nile Gardiner of the Heritage Foundation calls Annan's comment, quote, "an attack on the coalition." He will be my guest.
And another war of words on the campaign trail, Senator Kerry and President Bush on the offensive. But is an attack strategy an effective one? Three leading journalists will join us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PILGRIM: Now to some news just in. The White House has just released more documents about President Bush's service in the Air National Guard. Senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre has the story. Jamie, what do these new documents say?
JAMIE MCINTYRE, SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, Kitty, these document are the result of the Pentagon being asked to cast a wider net and find documents that not only were in President Bush's personnel file but any documents relating to him. What they don't show is, they don't answer any more questions about whether President Bush showed up for duty after 1972, when he moved to Alabama to work on a senatorial campaign.
What they do show is that Bush, who was at the time of a son of a congressman, was the subject of some interest in the unit, to the extend that a two-star general sent Congressman Bush a letter about his son. We know that because in the file is the response from then- Congressman Bush, later to become Bush 41, saying that he appreciated the attention, the fact that his young son got by a major general. He said, I was pleased to read your comments. He's looking forward to flight school, and he said he thought he'd be a gung-ho member of the squadron.
Also included are some press releases about then-Lieutenant Bush to his hometown newspaper. Ironically, one of them notes the drug culture of the '70s, saying, quote, "George Walker Bush is one member of the younger generation who doesn't get his kicks from pot or hashish or speed." It notes that he is a fighter pilot training on the F-102 -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: Jamie, I understand there's also news into the investigation into Senator Kerry's Naval awards.
MCINTYRE: That's right. A complaint by Judicial Watch requested that the Navy go back and review the Vietnam-era awards awarded to Senator John Kerry. The Navy has taken a look at the awards, decided that they were properly awarded and declined to do any further investigation. A memo obtained by CNN says, "The passage of time would make reconstruction of the facts and circumstances unreliable." So therefore, Senator Kerry's medals stand. No further review is going to be undertaken, and the Navy has determined they were properly awarded.
PILGRIM: All right, thanks very much, Jamie McIntyre.
In Iraq today, a bloody new attack on Iraqi police officers working with American troops in Baghdad. Now, the attack came as American fighter jets bombarded insurgent positions in Fallujah. Walter Rodgers reports from Baghdad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These Iraqi police vehicles bore the brunt of the latest suicide car bomb that killed three policemen and five civilians in central Baghdad. Earlier in the morning, two other suicide bombers tried to attack a U.S. Army checkpoint further up the same street, but soldiers opened fire and the suicide bombers were killed before they could hurt others. In between these two checkpoints, Iraqi children fled continuing gun battles between the U.S. military and the insurgents, this as the Americans try to weed out stubborn urban resistance here in Baghdad.
But they get no credit from the Iraqis. A woman complained, The Americans have been here for 24 hours, and there are so many wounded. The Americans were also denounced amid the rubble of another U.S. air strike in Fallujah, this Iraqi calling President Bush a criminal who should stop boasting about freedom. U.S. Warplanes targeted another Abu Musab Zarqawi meeting site in Fallujah. U.S. military sources claim 60 of his supporters were killed, but Iraqi police say 20 civilians died in the air strike.
(on camera): No matter which death toll you choose to believe, the numbers continue to jump upward for both Iraqis and Americans, challenging, at least in the eyes of many Iraqis, the premise this war has been a success story. Walter Rodgers, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: More outrage today after U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan declared the war in Iraq was illegal. Secretary of State Colin Powell told "The Washington Times" that Annan's assertion was, quote, "not a very useful statement to make at this point," unquote. Annan made his remarks in a BBC interview earlier this week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL: I have made it -- I have stated clearly that it was not in conformity with the Security Council, with the U.N. charter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was illegal?
ANNAN: Yes, if you wish.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PILGRIM: Now, critics say Annan's comments undercut efforts to stabilize Iraq, and one of those critics is Nile Gardiner, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation. He joins me now from Washington. Thanks for coming on the show, Nile.
NILE GARDINER, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: A pleasure.
PILGRIM: Your reaction to Secretary General Kofi Annan's remarks?
GARDINER: Well, I thought his comments were gratuitous. They were rather silly in the extreme, I think, and deeply unhelpful to the situation in Iraq at a time when the United States and its allies are trying to build up a high level of international support for the reconstruction and security situation in Iraq. I think that Kofi Annan is really undermining even his own organization's effort to assist, for example, in the creation of a successful democratic society in Iraq and also preparing Iraq for elections to be held in January.
PILGRIM: Now, how would you describe the international reaction to these comments?
GARDINER: Well, Kofi Annan has been fiercely condemned by leaders across the world, including leaders in Poland, Great Britain, Australia and Japan. I think that most of America's key allies have rallied around President Bush at this time. They have called for Kofi Annan to clarify his comments. There have also been calls for Kofi Annan to apologize for his remarks.
PILGRIM: Do you think that's appropriate?
GARDINER: Oh, I think so. I think that Kofi Annan, in fact, has been a spectacular failure as U.N. leader. He has consistently been biased, I think, in his interpretation of U.N. Security Council resolutions. He has frequently sided against the United States and Great Britain. He's supposed to be a neutral international servant. I think his credibility is swiftly running out at the moment.
PILGRIM: Now, do you read anything to the timing of these comments?
GARDINER: Yes, the comments come just ahead of a forthcoming speech by President Bush to the U.N. General Assembly. They also come ahead of a forthcoming speech by Iyad Allawi, the new leader of Iraq, to the United Nations and to Congress. The timing simply could not be worse. Also, significantly, they come just weeks ahead of the U.S. presidential election. I think the remarks are poorly timed. They are political in nature and deeply unhelpful, I think, to U.S.-led efforts to establish a peaceful democratic society in Iraq.
PILGRIM: All right, thanks very much, Nile Gardiner. Thank you.
GARDINER: Thank you.
PILGRIM: Still ahead here tonight, dramatic new election developments in Florida over whether Ralph Nader should be on the ballot. The Florida supreme court has just made a decision. And we'll talk to one of the many people fighting to put Nader on the ballot next.
And then, the governor of the most populous state has a chance to keep American jobs in this country, but critics are betting Governor Schwarzenegger will be gun-shy about fighting off-shore outsourcing. That and much more still ahead here tonight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: LOU DOBBS TONIGHT continues with more news, debate and opinion. Here now Kitty Pilgrim.
PILGRIM: This just in: Florida's supreme court has just ruled that Ralph Nader will be on the state's presidential ballot in November. My next guest is one of the many people who fought to put Nader on the ballot. Trevor Potter is general counsel for the Reform Institute, and that is a non-partisan election reform group whose chairman is Republican senator John McCain of Arizona. Trevor Potter joins me from Washington.
Thanks for being here. Your reaction...
TREVOR POTTER, THE REFORM INSTITUTE: Glad to be here.
PILGRIM: ... to the decision, Trevor?
POTTER: Well, obviously, it's a significant victory for, I think, democracy, for getting candidates who have shown significant public support on the ballot. And what the Florida supreme court said is that an overriding value in our system is allowing ballot access, so voters can make their own decisions. PILGRIM: In 2000, Mr. Nader got 97,000 votes in Florida. How do you think this changes the election mix in Florida?
POTTER: Well, you know, that's a political question, rather than a legal one. I don't think we're going to know yet. Clearly, the Democrats, by fighting hard to keep him off the ballot, are concerned that he's going to siphon off some votes that might otherwise go to the Democratic nominee. But one of the problems we're having in this whole situation is it's become political, rather than a fairness question of put the candidates on the ballot and let the people make their choice. Instead, you've got a nationwide campaign going on to keep Nader off the ballot using rules that aren't applied to the Republican and Democratic nominees, so that voters aren't going to have the option of voting for him, if they want. And that's our concern, as a pro-democracy group.
PILGRIM: Let me ask you a legal question, then. One of the objections was there was no convention for Mr. Nader. How do you address that legally?
POTTER: Well, Florida Supreme Court's found that not to be correct as a factual matter, the Reform Party did hold a convention in Texas. It did certify Nader as their nominee. The attack from the people who wanted to keep him off is that the Reform Party is disintegrating. It's no longer the sort of major party it was. It had a very small convention in Texas.
What the Florida court found is that those are really subjective factual issues and shouldn't be used whether it was a big convention or a small convention. It shouldn't matter when you're raising the issue of whether someone's allowed on the ballot or not.
PILGRIM: Senator McCain has been very active on this issue, why?
POTTER: He's been active because starting in the 2000 election, as you may recall, he himself had trouble getting on state ballots. He was kept off the New York ballot until he sued and spent literally tens and thousands dollars and a lot of time to get the courts to say he had a right to appear on the primary ballot.
Since then, for the last couple of years on a nationwide basis, he and the Reform Institute, which he's the honorary chair of, had been working hard to reform ballot access laws across the country on a nonpartisan base. This shouldn't be pro-Democrat or pro-Republican, this ought to be in a democracy, people who show significant popular support, and whether you like Nader or not, he got a couple of million votes in the election. Someone like that ought to have access to the ballot. They shouldn't be kept off by a campaign to file lawsuits all across the country and force the candidate to be in a courtroom all the time, rather than out talking to the electorate.
PILGRIM: Senator McCain, though, is a big supporter of President Bush's. Doesn't this help the Bush strategy?
POTTER: He is. But again, this is something he has been concentrating on for the last three years. The Reform Institute published a nationwide survey of the ballot access laws in all 50 state, indicating which ones were really the hardest to get on. Nader is one example of how that works. McCain himself, again, was an example in 2000, and there will be others. This is a broader, legal issue where lawyers and up controlling who gets on the ballot through the weapon of lawsuits.
PILGRIM: All right. Thanks very much for joining us tonight. Trevor Potter.
POTTER: You are welcome.
PILGRIM: Thank you.
In "Exporting America" tonight, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has a golden opportunity to take a stand against the exporting of American jobs. The California legislature has passed several anti-outsourcing bills that are now on the governor's desk, but there's a good chance Governor Schwarzenegger will veto them. Peter Viles reports from Los Angeles.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Will he or won't he? That's the question in Sacramento, where Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has a choice to make: Does he sign legislation limiting overseas outsourcing, or does he side with the business lobby and veto it.
ALLAN ZAREMBERG, CALIFORNIA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: I believe the governor has a strong agenda to improve California's economy. These bills are inconsistent with improving California's economy. They create trade barriers. And I hope that the governor takes that into strong consideration. and I hope that the governor vetoes these bills.
VILES: Bills now on the governor's desk would require that all work on state contracts be done in the United States. Would require overseas's call centers employees to disclose their locations if a California customer wants to know where they are. And prohibit outsourcing to work-related to private information for homeland security.
FABIAN NUNEZ, (D) SPEAKER CALIF. ASSEMBLY: Some of his advisers have clearly stated, I think publicly as well as privately, that they don't think the governor intends on signing this legislation. I'm hopeful that the governor's compassion side, his compassionate side, will win the day and that he'll do the right thing.
VILES: Despite Schwarzenegger's reputation for straight talk, he hasn't taken a position on any of the bills, although he did memorably criticize those who worry about the economy.
GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, (R) CALIFORNIA: And to those critics who are so pessimistic about our economy, I say don't be economic girlie man. VILES: It's a great line, but Schwarzenegger has never made clear his thoughts on how government should respond to overseas outsourcing.
(on camera): Now, Schwarzenegger has positioned himself as a populist. He's urged state residents to buy California products, but now he has to decide whether his administration will buy American. Peter Viles, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: And we reported extensively on American companies that relocate their headquarters to offshore tax havens. Several of those companies have received lucrative government contracts, and now some lawmakers are fighting back. But so far, they're having very little success. Lisa Sylvester reports from Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The consulting and technology firm Accenture was award a $10 billion Homeland Security Department contract this summer, the largest contract ever for that agency. Not bad for a company whose corporate offices are in this building in Bermuda. But new legislation approved by the Senate would bar companies who set up shell headquarters in tax havens from biding on future department of Homeland Security contracts. A similar bill passed the house in June.
REP. ROSA DELAURO, (D) CONNECTICUT: We lose about $5 billion in revenue, a serious amount of money, it's staggering the amount of money. And to think, then, that we would reward those companies, that we reward them with federal contracts, is equally as staggering.
SYLVESTER: This week, a House amendment by Congresswoman Rosa Delaura tried to prohibit these companies, dubbed Benedict Arnold's, from receiving government contracts from two other federal department, Treasury and Transportation. That amendment was defeated along party lines. Opponents argue shutting out companies from the bidding process drives up costs for taxpayers.
CHRISTOPHER PREBLE, CATO INSTITUTE: Because you are paying more, because you are reducing the number of eligible bidders, and you're perhaps getting less service or a less effective product, whatever the case may be, because you are somewhat arbitrarily ruling certain competitors out of the process.
SYLVESTER: Both sides are carefully watching what happens with the Homeland Security Appropriations Bill. It still has to go to a congressional conference committee. Where even though the language is identical in the House and the Senate bills, it could still be stripped.
SEN. CARL LEVIN, (D) MICHIGAN: We've seen these kind of games played before in conference, where conferees drop provisions which they should not drop when they're both in the House and the Senate bills. SYLVESTER: And even if it is in the final version of the bill, President Bush will have the last say.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SYLVESTER: The Homeland Security Department appropriations bill will likely move through conference committee quickly, and could be on the president's desk by the end of this month. Both the White House and the Republican congressional leadership have opposed banning corporate expatriates from receiving government contracts -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: Thanks very much, Lisa Sylvester.
Still ahead here tonight, fighting words on the campaign trail. The candidates sharpen their attacks with less than seven weeks to go before election day. We'll examine the new attacks with our panel of newsmakers next.
And then, "Heroes." An 18-year veteran of the National Guard is struggling to rebuild his future after he nearly lost his life in Iraq. We'll have his remarkable story just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PILGRIM: This week, the attacks on the presidential campaign focus not on Vietnam, but on Iraq. Senator Kerry said President Bush is living in a, quote, "fantasy world of spin" on Iraq. President Bush said Senator Kerry appears to have eight different positions on the war.
And joining me now for more on the campaign and whether these are new attacks, or whether they're working for either candidate, are our "Newsmakers" -- Ron Brownstein is the national political correspondent for "The Los Angeles Times," Roger Simon, political editor for "U.S. News & World Report," and Mark Morrison, managing editor for "BusinessWeek." Gentlemen, thanks so much.
We've certainly seen a change in attack tactics and tone. Let's start with you, Ron, let's start with you.
RON BROWNSTEIN, "LOS ANGELES TIMES": Well, clearly Senator Kerry has made, as we've talked about in the last couple of weeks, a major correction or change in his strategy for most of the spring and summer. They felt that there was a narrow majority ready to change. They didn't have to make a strong case for persuasion for the country to fire Bush. They really had to reassure people that Kerry was an acceptable alternative.
That clearly did not work, Kitty. I think what Kerry has finally acknowledged is that the job of the challenger is to challenge the record of the incumbent. And you're seeing now an aggressive effort to do that on a wide variety of fronts. Perhaps too wide a variety in the sense that the attack is changing almost from day to day, but they have made a fundamental reversal in course.
PILGRIM: Roger, we have a new team on the Kerry advising team. Is that the difference? Is that what we are seeing as the effect of that?
ROGER SIMON, "U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT": It may be. I think they're going to need a bigger plane if they keep adding this many people especially since they going to add Ted Kennedy, there is a row of seats right there. But while we, in general, in the media overrate the effect of staff and staff changes, there does seem, as Ron has said to be a definite shift in the campaign. And I'm sure if you're a Democrat, you're happy that John Kerry is finally fully awake and has decided to make a campaign of this. And I'm sure spirits are buoyed by this in the Democratic party.
PILGRIM: Mark?
MARK MORRISON, "BUSINESSWEEK": Well, I agree with the other guys that Senator Kerry was very much stronger on message this week. He did very well. He was drowned out a bit by the huge news in Florida with Hurricane Ivan and of course Hurricane Dan over at CBS hogged a lot of space on the front pages as well.
PILGRIM: Let's take a look, though, and see whether this is working. And the latest poll would suggest maybe not. Thirteen-point spread between President Bush and Senator Kerry. Why no gain in the polls? In fact, that's a fairly wide spread.
Let's start with you, Ron.
BROWNSTEIN: Kitty, well, you know, as you know, there are a wide range of polls. That's the widest margin currently out there. There's a Pew poll that came out the same day that was tied in the race. I think both campaigns feel that we're probably somewhere in the middle of, if you look at what is going on in all of the different states, a five or six-point advantage, four, five, six, something like that for President Bush.
The real key I think for voters, or for viewers to watch at this point, the horse race is very volatile. It moves around a lot from poll to poll. What is more stable is attitudes about President Bush's performance, and those are probably more telling about where this race going. Right now he's just over 50 percent in his approval rating in almost all polls and that suggests to me that he has a clear -- you know, a modest but clear advantage at this point in the race.
PILGRIM: Roger, would you agree with that?
SIMON: I would agree with that. The approval rating is the rating watched by political professionals especially the Gallup approval rating. Because history teaches us that an incumbent president who runs again generally gets in the final vote what his approving rating was on the eve of the election. So if Bush stays at above 50 percent, he'll probably be re-elected. If he goes below 50 percent, he will probably lose.
PILGRIM: That 13-point spread wasn't a Gallup poll. Let's get Mark's thought.
MORRISON: Well, I think the analysis we just heard is pretty right. I watch the stock market which is also a pretty good indicator in this particular race because of the big differences on the economic issues, and we've seen the stock market gain several hundred points, really going back about the same time before the G.O.P. convention as Bush has looked stronger.
So again, it doesn't look like the kind of rally that says he's a sure thing but definitely picking up momentum and leading at the moment.
PILGRIM: We've had news just now that Nader will be on the Florida ballot. Let's get your reaction to that, Ron?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, right now, Senator Kerry has to close up the race to worry about Ralph Nader to have -- in fact, he's got to make it closer. But if he does, clearly this is a setback for Democrats. I mean certainly many people on the left side of the political spectrum feel that Nader by running again is endangering many of the things that he has purported to support over his career, the causes that he's advanced and they're at war against him. They're making, as your guest before noted, a serious effort to keep him off the ballot and this is a setback for Democrats, if Kerry can make it close enough to matter.
PILGRIM: We've also seen John Edwards a little bit out of the picture, are we likely to see him re-emerge, Roger?
SIMON: I think he will. I'm not sure people will pay much attention though. We tend not to pay much attention to the second place on the ticket and John Edwards has been criticized this week notably in the "New York Times" for not attacking enough but attack is not what John Edwards does. He did as well as he did in the primaries by saying he didn't like to attack. It's going to get down to his debate with Dick Cheney where he'll have a big audience. And I suspect he'll be very vigorous in that debate.
PILGRIM: So, speaking of attack, we see the new Halliburton- Cheney ad. The 527s still very much operating. Is this going to be a reality for the rest of this election, do you think, Mark?
MORRISON: I'm afraid so. The nasties keep coming for both sides and I think that will continue. And that's not the economic issue that most people are interested in. There's actually some fairly weak economic numbers this week. The inflation number was very good. But there are very weak sectors out there -- technology, airlines, a whole bunch of them and it doesn't bode well for the job's market, consumer confidence is suffering a little bit, and so I think if Kerry can get his message straight on the economy, that then he starts to close the gap.
PILGRIM: All right, Ron...
BROWNSTEIN: Kitty, one very quick point Halliburton brings to mind. The Republicans and President Bush have been pretty consistent about what they are attacking John Kerry about all year. Flip-flop, liberal on taxes, et cetera. The Democrats seem to be in a mode a little bit of throwing things up against the wall. Yesterday a very strong argument on Iraq but today we kind of switched subjects to Halliburton. And I think there are some Democrats worried that -- are happy, are glad, as Roger said, that Kerry is being more aggressive, they might want it to be more focused as well.
PILGRIM: All right. We are out of time, gentleman. Thank you for joining us. Ron Brownstein, Roger Simon, and Mark Morrison. Always a pleasure.
Coming up, some of your thoughts and also "American Jobs," the first documentary film on the exporting of America.
Tonight, classic American brands wiped out by cheap foreign competition. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PILGRIM: All this week, we've shown you the excerpts of the first-ever documentary film on the exporting of American jobs. Tonight, the devastating effect of cheap foreign labor and low-priced imported goods on American businesses and consumers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If Wal-Mart was a country, it would be one of China's top ten trading partners. I asked (UNINTELLIGIBLE) if they saw a connection between their roles as producers and as consumers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We go to dollar stores, we go to Dollar General. We go to Family Dollar. Most of those places are things that are shipped in here. We're defeating our purpose. Overseas took our jobs.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So we're supporting them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But right now -- but we can't afford to go like (UNINTELLIGIBLE) or Winn-Dixie to buy household products when we can get it for a dollar apiece.
CHARLES FISHMAN, AUTHOR, UPCOMING BOOK ON WAL-MART: Part of the way they deliver everyday low prices is by camouflaging the costs, particularly of manufactured goods, and camouflaging what's required to get those low prices.
STEPHEN BROTHERS, V.P., APEX DIGITAL: Wal-Mart is always pushing to drive the cost down even lower, and that is something that probably will never change. But they bring -- they pass those cost savings onto the consumer.
FISHMAN: Wal-Mart has a principle, a philosophy that is part of the way they operate. That an ordinary consumer good, a toothbrush, a flashlight, an umbrella, a cordless drill, if it doesn't fundamentally change year over year, the price needs to go down 5 percent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every year?
FISHMAN: Every year. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Price pressure from the major retailers is one of the reasons why so many great American products are no longer made in the USA.
From Mr. Coffee to Etch-a-Sketch, from Levi's to Masterlock, classic American brands have been closing their domestic plants in search of cheap labor.
Charles Fishman recently interviewed the CEO of Masterlock for a magazine article.
FISHMAN: Randall Lariemore said, look, the people in Bentonville are smart. And I was getting the same kind of pressure from Home Depot and from Lowe's and all kinds of other superstores, and it's a reasonable question. Why should a consumer pay $12 or even $9 for the Masterlock when they can get a similar lock for $6?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of Wal-Mart's most successful new suppliers is Apex Digital, a Californian company that was created to bring low-price Chinese DVD players to the American market.
BROTHERS: We were determined from the beginning to be a good supplier to Wal-Mart. We are a very low overhead company. Our overheads are tiny compared to larger Japanese companies. So we can just afford to operate on a much lower cost base. We can make money selling a million of something. We haven't figured out how to make money selling 10,000 of something.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Apex Digital's California staff handles sales and marketing, logistics and accounting. Virtually every other corporate function is outsourced to Asian vendors, including manufacturing, product design and engineering.
BROTHERS: We have in our California offices only five engineers and we have about 12 engineers in China.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Free traders always point to American innovation as a job creation engine. But Apex Digital suggests that an innovative American start-up can be wildly successful with a very small core group of American employees.
BROTHERS: We're a company that does a little under $1 billion a year with 93 people currently.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: Let's take a look now at some of your thoughts.
And George Bain of Port Ewen, New York writes: "Our government of the people, by the people, for the people seems to have switched to in spite of the people in many cases, and we need to get it back from big business."
And Robert Pounders of Astoria, Oregon, writes: "We must secure our borders. If we don't stop playing politics with border security, we will have another catastrophe coming." Do send us your thoughts, include your name and address, and for each e-mail we will send you -- that we read, we'll send you a free copy of Lou's new book, "Exporting America."
Still ahead, "Heroes."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PILGRIM: In "Heroes" tonight, the story of an 18-year-old National Guard veteran who served in both Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Casey Wian has his story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mark Seifried never imagined he'd come home from Iraq to work in his wife's gift shop. Now the family is depending on it.
STAFF SGT. MARK SEIFRIED (RET.), OKLAHOMA NATIONAL GUARD: I just took it that when something happens to you in a situation, especially a wartime situation, that you'd be took care of. I was wrong.
WIAN: Seifried went to Iraq in February of 2003, leaving his civilian job at this Dayton tire plant to drive trucks delivering bombs to Baghdad. During a sandstorm, his vehicle hit a huge hole in the road. Seifried was thrust hard into the roof of the cab and then slammed down into his seat. For three months, he endured severe pain, until an X-ray finally showed he had a fractured spine.
M. SEIFRIED: It was July 14 when they've actually finally done the surgery on my back. Put six screws, two rods and a cage in my back. My right leg, ever since surgery has been on fire. It burns. I have a pain in my back that stays there.
WIAN: The military discharged him, but awarded only a 10 percent disability rating, not enough to qualify for a pension. Seifried is appealing, but it could take two years to be decided.
M. SEIFRIED: Finance companies and people don't wait two years to get their money when you are paying mortgage and stuff like that.
WIAN: The next setback came when he tried to go back to work at Dayton tire.
M. SEIFRIED: They said, well, we don't have anything for you. I said, what?
WIAN: With his medical condition, he couldn't do his old job. But he doesn't have any seniority in the plant to get an easier job. In the meantime, money is tight.
DORIS SEIFRIED, WIFE: We had everything set, retirement from work, retirement from the military. He gets hurt. The military says, so long, see you. And his work says, so long, see you, and here we are sitting with nothing. M. SEIFRIED: If my country called me to go again, I'd do it. But I also expect our country to take care of us when we come home. And I don't feel that that was done.
WIAN: While they work, the Seifrieds worry about losing their battles with the Army and Dayton tire, about losing everything.
Casey Wian, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PILGRIM: Thanks for being with us. Please join us Monday. Bill Gertz, author of "Treachery," will join us. Have a wonderful weekend. "ANDERSON COOPER 360" is next.
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