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American Morning
A New Tone on Campaign Trail; Martha Stewart's Last Day of Freedom
Aired October 07, 2004 - 08:00 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.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: A new tone on the campaign trail. President Bush hammering John Kerry with his sharpest attacks yet.
Martha Stewart's last day of freedom. We go live to Camp Cupcake, her home for the next five months.
Did Merck stall as evidence mounted against the drug Vioxx? A new study suggesting thousands of heart attacks never had to happen.
And a new kind of justice...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUDGE JOE BROWN: Too many of the people that you want to put in jail look at going to jail as a rite of passage and they don't get punished by it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Judge Joe Brown tells us why a little imagination goes a long way to justice, on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.
COLLINS: Good morning, everybody.
Bill and Soledad are off today.
Rick Sanchez is here, though, with us today.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Always good to be here with you, Heidi.
COLLINS: Thank you.
SANCHEZ: Let's get to some of the other stories that we're following on this day.
The woman accusing Kobe Bryant of sexual assault is going to have to go public to continue her civil suit. The judge issuing that ruling just yesterday. Jeff Toobin is going to look at whether this is unusual and what happens next in this case.
COLLINS: That's going to be pretty interesting, too. Also, we'll talk to Yoko Ono a little bit later about the recent decision to keep her husband's killer in prison and her plans to keep John Lennon's memory alive. She's been doing it for quite some time.
Meanwhile, though, Jack Cafferty off this morning.
Andy Borowitz keeping his memory alive with The Question of the Day today. We'll get to him in just a little while.
For now, though, we're going to check on the stories now in the news once again with Kelly Wallace this morning -- Kelly, good morning to you.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you.
Good morning again, everyone.
A Canadian crew on board a disabled submarine is waiting to be towed to land. The sub caught fire Tuesday morning off the coast of Ireland, injuring three sailors. One of the sailors died yesterday while being airlifted to a hospital. The secondhand ship was on its first trip as a Canadian submarine after being sold by Britain.
Congress is one step closer to approving some of the recommendations from the September 11 Commission. The Senate overwhelmingly passed its intelligence reform bill yesterday. The House is continuing to debate its version today. Both measures would create a national intelligence director and a national counter- terrorism center.
In Massachusetts, authorities may have stopped a major school bombing. Police are holding a 16-year-old accused of plotting to kill students and teachers at his high school. Local officials say the student made and tested explosives for the attack. Police say the bombing was planned for April, 2005, possibly near the anniversary of the Columbine shooting in Colorado.
And Rush Limbaugh says he'll appeal to keep his medical files private. A Florida court ruled yesterday that officials had a right to seize Limbaugh's medical records last November. Investigators used search warrants to see if Limbaugh had engaged in "doctor shopping" to get painkillers from several doctors. Limbaugh has not been charged in that case.
That gets you caught up.
Now back to Heidi and Rick.
COLLINS: All right, Kelly Wallace, thanks so much.
We'll check back a little bit later.
In the meantime, though, 26 days until the election and just one day until the presidential debate. Both campaigns picked up the pace of their attacks. President Bush campaigned in Michigan yesterday. He explained his reactions in last week's debate by ridiculing Senator Kerry's positions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He said terrorists are pouring across the Iraqi border, but also said that fighting those terrorists is a diversion from the war on terror. You hear all that and you can understand why somebody would make a face.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: While John Kerry preps for the debate, his running mate, John Edwards, responded to the president's attack.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There are no new ideas. There are no new plans. This president is completely out of touch with reality and it showed again in his speech today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The Kerry campaign also rushed out a new ad that calls the president's attacks "desperate."
SANCHEZ: President Bush stepped up his campaign attacks since last week's debate, when polls showed a significant bump for John Kerry after that debate. Is he on the right track? And what about Senator Kerry's strategy up to now? Has he been a bit too quiet?
David Gergen has advised presidents from both parties and he's joining us now from Watertown, Massachusetts.
Good morning, David.
DAVID GERGEN, JFK SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT: Good morning, Rick.
SANCHEZ: We want you to listen to this. This is a sound clip that we take from the president just yesterday, possibly as terse as he's been in his accusations of Mr. Kerry.
Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
G. BUSH: In the war on terror, Senator Kerry is proposing policies and doctrines that would weaken America and make the world more dangerous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Weaken America and make the world more dangerous, David.
GERGEN: Well, he's -- he has, I think he's punching much harder now because the race has tightened up so much and he did have a sluggish performance in that first debate. The "Washington Post" comes out with a tracking poll this morning that says that it's a two point race now. The president had two points among likely voters. That's too close for the White House and they want to push back and establish a basis for the president to come out with a much tougher and punchier defense tomorrow night against John Kerry.
And one can understand that while they're doing this, they do leave themselves vulnerable to the charge that John Edwards and John Kerry are making that they're simply not taking account of the realities on -- in Iraq.
We just had a report yesterday from a weapons inspection appointed -- inspector appointed by the president himself that says Saddam did not -- not only did not have a chemical and biological and nuclear weapons capacity, he didn't even have the factories.
SANCHEZ: But, you know, the president, when he talks about the Kerry record historically, and they've made this fact -- against the democratization of Central America, against the Reagan initiatives that many would argue led to the fall of the Wall and the Soviet Union, against Iraq 1 -- this is a valid argument, is it not?
GERGEN: I think the president is totally within bounds, as is the vice president, to argue that John Kerry opposed many of the initiatives of the Reagan administration and the Bush 1 administration which hastened the end of the cold war. There were arguments on John Kerry's side way back when. But I think that history records that Reagan and Bush 1 were often on the right side of events.
In this particular instance, in the war on Iraq, you know, the facts have not been very favorable for President Bush 2. And Kerry's pressing that case.
SANCHEZ: Should, but should, don't you think, David, the president should just come out, especially after this week -- I mean you had, what, you had Rumsfeld, you had Duelfer's report yesterday, you had Bremer come out this week -- should the president, in light of all those statements, come out and accept some fallibility in the preparation of this war?
GERGEN: I have believed for a long time that he should, that being candid about what happened would advance his case and advance his cause. It would enhance his credibility and, I think, make him seem both human and very much on top of what's happening.
But clearly the White House has made the opposite decision now. The speech yesterday, I think, drew the line and said no apologies, no excuses, we're going forward. The vice president said the night before last, if I had to do it all over again, I would have done it exactly the same way.
Now, I think what's happening here is the administration has decided the most important thing we now need to do between today and the election is to rally our base. We have to get all of our people out to the polls and we do that by convincing them that John Kerry is an awful alternative, they've got to vote for this to save the country. The same thing John Kerry is going to be doing on his side.
This speech yesterday was not aimed, if I may say so, at the undecided voters. This was aimed at mobilizing his base.
SANCHEZ: Interesting.
David Gergen, always a pleasure getting your insights.
GERGEN: Thank you, Rick.
SANCHEZ: Well, the presidential candidates are going to rev up for round two in St. Louis, as we've been mentioning. It's tomorrow night. CNN's prime time debate coverage begins at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.
And Paula Zahn is going to host a town hall meeting with undecided voters live from Racine, Wisconsin. That's tonight at 8:00 Eastern. You can ask the Bush or Kerry camps your questions. All you've got to do is this, send them to cnn.com/ontheroad -- Heidi, over to you.
COLLINS: A second rebuke for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. The House Ethics Committee unanimously concluded the Texas Republican appeared to link political donations to a legislative favor and DeLay improperly persuaded U.S. aviation authorities to intervene in a Texas political dispute. The admonishments carry no penalty.
The identity of Kobe Bryant's accuser will become public record if her civil suit goes to trial. A federal judge in Colorado has rejected the request for Bryant's accuser to remain anonymous. Last month, prosecutors dropped the criminal case against Bryant when she refused to testify.
So, what does this ruling mean for the civil case now?
Senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin joining us to talk about it.
And so, Jeffrey, the judge did reject this woman's request to remain anonymous. In fact, U.S. District Judge Matsch said this.
Let's take a look.
"The parties appear as equals before the court and that fundamental principle must be protected throughout these proceedings."
Does that decision surprise you?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: You know, it's a very unusual circumstance. I don't know of any parallel situation. But, no, it doesn't really surprise me because, you know, it's a very different situation. The rape shield law, which is the idea behind keeping an accuser's name secret, basically says a victim should not be additionally troubled, penalized, hurt by being named as the victim of a crime.
Here, there is no crime. The State of Colorado has dropped the case. Now she is aggressively seeking money, using the legal system voluntarily, and therefore I think it's understandable that she shouldn't get some sort of additional protection here.
COLLINS: You think she's putting herself out there for this?
TOOBIN: She's putting herself out there and she didn't have to file this lawsuit. It sort of implies, as Judge Matsch said in his ruling, that Kobe Bryant is guilty, is liable, if her name remains secret. So her name will not remain secret.
COLLINS: Well, the judge ordered the lawsuit, which is now titled "Jane Doe v. Kobe Bryant, " to be retitled on October 20.
Why the delay from now until October 20?
TOOBIN: I think that's mostly just an administrative matter. What's going to be interesting, though, is October 20 the name of the trial, the name of the trial case will officially include her name. What will the news media do?
COLLINS: Exactly.
TOOBIN: Will we start using her name again? I think there's going to be a lot of soul searching. And, frankly, I don't know what the answer is on that one.
COLLINS: All right, well, they say that they -- the prosecutors actually wanted to protect her identity because she had been receiving threats, and serious threats.
Did they have a right to do that only in that one trial, not this one?
TOOBIN: That's, you know, I think that's the best argument that her lawyers had for continuing to keep her name secret, that this isn't an ordinary rape case, that because of the high profile, it was necessary for her protection.
COLLINS: Right.
TOOBIN: But I think the fact that she initiated this lawsuit, no one forced her to do it, she's using the court system voluntarily, that, I think, trumps her interest in privacy.
COLLINS: Is the case ever going to go to trial?
TOOBIN: I doubt it. I think this case cries out for settlement. Kobe Bryant just signed a $100 million contract.
COLLINS: Yes.
TOOBIN: He has a lot of money to make this go away. He doesn't need this trouble anymore. She obviously wants some money. It seems to me destined for a settlement, but probably not immediately.
COLLINS: We will see once again. TOOBIN: Allrighty.
COLLINS: Jeffrey Toobin, thanks, as always -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: Let's check on the weather now from coast to coast.
Chad Myers at the CNN Center with the very latest forecast -- good morning, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Rick.
(WEATHER REPORT)
SANCHEZ: Well, still to come, TV's Judge Joe Brown, known for serving up some outlandish sentences. But does he go too far? Well, we're going to hear from him as part of our Getting Off Easy series continues.
COLLINS: And today is Martha Stewart's last day of freedom before beginning her prison sentence. We'll go live to the prison, her new home, next.
SANCHEZ: And there's more painful news about the arthritis drug Vioxx. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has the details ahead.
This is AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: And welcome back.
Today is Martha Stewart's last day of freedom. The domestic diva is supposed to report to prison by tomorrow to begin her five month sentence. One thing is certain, she will not be running her media empire from there.
Debbie Feyerick is live outside the prison in Alderson, West Virginia, the place that some folks have called Camp Cupcake -- Debbie.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, well, the inmates certainly don't see it that way. What we are told is, though, that prison rules really forbid any inmates from doing business. John Gotti wasn't allowed to, Martha Stewart won't be allowed to, either. And the prison officials acknowledge that they can screen all calls or letters. If Stewart is caught, she could lose her phone and her commissary privileges.
Now, Stewart was in the Bahamas over the weekend. She was attending the wedding reception of her publicist, the wedding of her publicist. The big question now, though, is will Stewart actually show up at the ritzy Four Seasons in New York for the really big reception or will she surrender here instead? A source tells CNN that Stewart was advised to go in before Friday's 2:00 p.m. deadline so as to cause the least amount of disruption both to herself and to the prison. Not all inmates are -- and, actually, all the inmates know that she's on her way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Martha!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Save her!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Free Martha!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FEYERICK: Yesterday, some of those inmates were yelling, "Free Martha!" and then "Free Us!" Others were not so cordial. One woman actually threatening to put Stewart into a microwave. There are microwaves within each of the cell areas and the inmates can use them to cook food for themselves. They also, at the commissary, can buy hair color products, too.
Visiting days will run from Friday through Monday. When asked about Stewart's arrival here in this small town, one woman said, "Alderson hasn't seen this much excitement since John F. Kennedy visited the local high school" -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: All right, Debbie Feyerick following that story from Alderson, West Virginia.
Thank you, Debbie.
Now let's go over to Heidi.
COLLINS: You know him as the no holds barred judge dispensing syndicated TV justice each weekday on the "Judge Joe Brown Show."
Before presiding over his electronic courtroom, the Tennessee jurist was famous for creative sentences.
Judge Joe Brown is with us from Los Angeles this morning, as we continue our look now at alternative sentencing and whether criminals are getting off easy.
Judge Brown, thanks for being with us today.
BROWN: Good morning.
Glad to be here.
COLLINS: You know, you are known for your unorthodox sentences.
Have any of them actually ever gotten you in trouble?
BROWN: No, actually, not. The Tennessee Supreme Court, as a matter of fact, has had me lecture to other judges about how to impose a proper alternative sentence.
COLLINS: Tell me about some of the sentences, then, that you chose and why, in fact, you chose them.
BROWN: Well, one of the things that got a lot of national attention was allowing the victims of burglaries to visit the homes of the perpetrators and take some of the perp's property. That hurt and the intention was to make it hurt.
You see, there is a problem. Too many of the people that you want to put in jail look at going to jail as a rite of passage and they don't get punished by it.
COLLINS: So this was not at all dangerous, to have the people go into the home without any warning to the would be burglar that they were going to come in and take something from his home?
BROWN: No. Actually, you would have six or seven deputies, a couple, three or four squad cars and a hundred or so people from the neighborhood curious and some very interesting interactive dynamics that would go on.
COLLINS: OK. Well, some critics would say that your type of sentencing, and some of the ones that you have used in the past, are really about generating more publicity than actually reducing recidivism.
Your thoughts to them?
BROWN: Actually, one of the purposes of justice is to impose a sentence so that it becomes a warning to would be perpetrators. But see, that's only the shallow look. You have to deal with rehabilitation, training, drug programs. You have to deal with requiring GEDs, dealing with family circumstances, anger management, and your alternative sentencing just becomes the tip of the iceberg to deal with pushing this guy or this woman into doing things the right way.
COLLINS: Well, if people were to watch your show, there may be some that would say a lot of times Judge Brown humiliates these folks on television. But they don't really seem to show too much remorse.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "JUDGE JOE BROWN SHOW," COURTESY NBC)
BROWN: You need to get some (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's not being foolish, you're being foolish.
BROWN: Sit down. It doesn't make any difference. My opinion is the only one that counts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: What you're talking about is allocution, and that's the duty of the judge to denounce the miscreant and advise that person of the community's ire, the standards violated and the laws violated, and attempt to get that person to see what they did in the perspective of the community. COLLINS: Judge Joe Brown, thanks so much for your time here this morning.
BROWN: Thank you.
Have a nice day.
SANCHEZ: Still to come, First Lady Laura Bush hitting the late night circuit last night. You're going to be surprised by some of the things she talks about. Her take on the first presidential debate as well, next.
This is AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: First Lady Laura Bush was Jay Leno's guest last night on "The Tonight Show." She seemed to flip-flop a bit on whether her husband was making faces during last week's debate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO, " COURTESY NBC)
JAY LENO, HOST: Everyone seemed to say he would kind of grip and...
LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: That he was scowling?
LENO: Yes, scowling, yes, yes.
L. BUSH: You know, I didn't see that. I mean I was on the very front row and that...
LENO: Yes.
L. BUSH: ... and in person that didn't really show up that much. But I think he said this morning that, you know, anyone who listened to his opponent say that many things about him would have to make a face.
LENO: Well, that's pretty good. Yes, I mean all right. Yes. And I guess when you don't have botox you can actually move your face.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: You know, it's different when you're sitting there watching the debate. I've heard so many people that come away with completely different impressions, TV versus live.
COLLINS: Oh, of course, yes. And then there was so much talk, too, about whether or not they were going to take those cutaway shots, which they ended up doing.
SANCHEZ: I think the president was just annoyed that CSI was preempted. I think that was annoying to him. COLLINS: Good point.
Andy Borowitz in for Jack Cafferty today.
ANDY BOROWITZ, HUMORIST, BOROWITZREPORT.COM: Yes, and we've got a great question. The 194 Nobel Peace Prize nominees are secret, but some of the favorites this year include the IAEA's Mohamed ElBaradei and weapons inspector chief Hans Blix.
So our question to you today is who should win the Nobel Peace Prize and why?
Peter from Houston, Texas writes: "John Paul II. No one even comes close. For 25 years, he has untiringly emphasized peace between nations, dialogue between the West and Islam, international law and non-violence."
Gary from North Carolina writes: "Who should win the Nobel Peace Prize? No one. The prize should be awarded to someone who genuinely brings peace to the world or to a group of people in the world. There are not any candidates in the world this year. Maybe we can have a true winner next year."
John from Anandale, Virginia writes: "The Nobel Peace Prize should be split between Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani, the two Iraqi Kurdish leaders who shook hands and made democracy possible in northern Iraq. As a result, Iraqi Kurdistan is the safest place in Iraq today."
And finally, Doug from Stoney Creek, Ontario writes: "Jay Leno. By announcing his successor now, a late night war is avoided in the future."
COLLINS: Thank goodness, you know?
BOROWITZ: And I'm sure Conan would agree with that. Jay is the man.
COLLINS: Yes, it was very classy.
BOROWITZ: It was.
COLLINS: That's true.
BOROWITZ: Absolutely. Peace in our times.
SANCHEZ: Great.
Thanks, guys.
Appreciate it.
Now, still to come, on terror's trail -- violence mars the campaign as Afghans prepare to vote in their first national election since the fall of the Taliban. We're going to hear from a foreign CENTCOM adviser about the situation there right now. Stay with us.
We're AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired October 7, 2004 - 08:00 Â ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: A new tone on the campaign trail. President Bush hammering John Kerry with his sharpest attacks yet.
Martha Stewart's last day of freedom. We go live to Camp Cupcake, her home for the next five months.
Did Merck stall as evidence mounted against the drug Vioxx? A new study suggesting thousands of heart attacks never had to happen.
And a new kind of justice...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUDGE JOE BROWN: Too many of the people that you want to put in jail look at going to jail as a rite of passage and they don't get punished by it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Judge Joe Brown tells us why a little imagination goes a long way to justice, on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.
COLLINS: Good morning, everybody.
Bill and Soledad are off today.
Rick Sanchez is here, though, with us today.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Always good to be here with you, Heidi.
COLLINS: Thank you.
SANCHEZ: Let's get to some of the other stories that we're following on this day.
The woman accusing Kobe Bryant of sexual assault is going to have to go public to continue her civil suit. The judge issuing that ruling just yesterday. Jeff Toobin is going to look at whether this is unusual and what happens next in this case.
COLLINS: That's going to be pretty interesting, too. Also, we'll talk to Yoko Ono a little bit later about the recent decision to keep her husband's killer in prison and her plans to keep John Lennon's memory alive. She's been doing it for quite some time.
Meanwhile, though, Jack Cafferty off this morning.
Andy Borowitz keeping his memory alive with The Question of the Day today. We'll get to him in just a little while.
For now, though, we're going to check on the stories now in the news once again with Kelly Wallace this morning -- Kelly, good morning to you.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you.
Good morning again, everyone.
A Canadian crew on board a disabled submarine is waiting to be towed to land. The sub caught fire Tuesday morning off the coast of Ireland, injuring three sailors. One of the sailors died yesterday while being airlifted to a hospital. The secondhand ship was on its first trip as a Canadian submarine after being sold by Britain.
Congress is one step closer to approving some of the recommendations from the September 11 Commission. The Senate overwhelmingly passed its intelligence reform bill yesterday. The House is continuing to debate its version today. Both measures would create a national intelligence director and a national counter- terrorism center.
In Massachusetts, authorities may have stopped a major school bombing. Police are holding a 16-year-old accused of plotting to kill students and teachers at his high school. Local officials say the student made and tested explosives for the attack. Police say the bombing was planned for April, 2005, possibly near the anniversary of the Columbine shooting in Colorado.
And Rush Limbaugh says he'll appeal to keep his medical files private. A Florida court ruled yesterday that officials had a right to seize Limbaugh's medical records last November. Investigators used search warrants to see if Limbaugh had engaged in "doctor shopping" to get painkillers from several doctors. Limbaugh has not been charged in that case.
That gets you caught up.
Now back to Heidi and Rick.
COLLINS: All right, Kelly Wallace, thanks so much.
We'll check back a little bit later.
In the meantime, though, 26 days until the election and just one day until the presidential debate. Both campaigns picked up the pace of their attacks. President Bush campaigned in Michigan yesterday. He explained his reactions in last week's debate by ridiculing Senator Kerry's positions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He said terrorists are pouring across the Iraqi border, but also said that fighting those terrorists is a diversion from the war on terror. You hear all that and you can understand why somebody would make a face.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: While John Kerry preps for the debate, his running mate, John Edwards, responded to the president's attack.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There are no new ideas. There are no new plans. This president is completely out of touch with reality and it showed again in his speech today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The Kerry campaign also rushed out a new ad that calls the president's attacks "desperate."
SANCHEZ: President Bush stepped up his campaign attacks since last week's debate, when polls showed a significant bump for John Kerry after that debate. Is he on the right track? And what about Senator Kerry's strategy up to now? Has he been a bit too quiet?
David Gergen has advised presidents from both parties and he's joining us now from Watertown, Massachusetts.
Good morning, David.
DAVID GERGEN, JFK SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT: Good morning, Rick.
SANCHEZ: We want you to listen to this. This is a sound clip that we take from the president just yesterday, possibly as terse as he's been in his accusations of Mr. Kerry.
Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
G. BUSH: In the war on terror, Senator Kerry is proposing policies and doctrines that would weaken America and make the world more dangerous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Weaken America and make the world more dangerous, David.
GERGEN: Well, he's -- he has, I think he's punching much harder now because the race has tightened up so much and he did have a sluggish performance in that first debate. The "Washington Post" comes out with a tracking poll this morning that says that it's a two point race now. The president had two points among likely voters. That's too close for the White House and they want to push back and establish a basis for the president to come out with a much tougher and punchier defense tomorrow night against John Kerry.
And one can understand that while they're doing this, they do leave themselves vulnerable to the charge that John Edwards and John Kerry are making that they're simply not taking account of the realities on -- in Iraq.
We just had a report yesterday from a weapons inspection appointed -- inspector appointed by the president himself that says Saddam did not -- not only did not have a chemical and biological and nuclear weapons capacity, he didn't even have the factories.
SANCHEZ: But, you know, the president, when he talks about the Kerry record historically, and they've made this fact -- against the democratization of Central America, against the Reagan initiatives that many would argue led to the fall of the Wall and the Soviet Union, against Iraq 1 -- this is a valid argument, is it not?
GERGEN: I think the president is totally within bounds, as is the vice president, to argue that John Kerry opposed many of the initiatives of the Reagan administration and the Bush 1 administration which hastened the end of the cold war. There were arguments on John Kerry's side way back when. But I think that history records that Reagan and Bush 1 were often on the right side of events.
In this particular instance, in the war on Iraq, you know, the facts have not been very favorable for President Bush 2. And Kerry's pressing that case.
SANCHEZ: Should, but should, don't you think, David, the president should just come out, especially after this week -- I mean you had, what, you had Rumsfeld, you had Duelfer's report yesterday, you had Bremer come out this week -- should the president, in light of all those statements, come out and accept some fallibility in the preparation of this war?
GERGEN: I have believed for a long time that he should, that being candid about what happened would advance his case and advance his cause. It would enhance his credibility and, I think, make him seem both human and very much on top of what's happening.
But clearly the White House has made the opposite decision now. The speech yesterday, I think, drew the line and said no apologies, no excuses, we're going forward. The vice president said the night before last, if I had to do it all over again, I would have done it exactly the same way.
Now, I think what's happening here is the administration has decided the most important thing we now need to do between today and the election is to rally our base. We have to get all of our people out to the polls and we do that by convincing them that John Kerry is an awful alternative, they've got to vote for this to save the country. The same thing John Kerry is going to be doing on his side.
This speech yesterday was not aimed, if I may say so, at the undecided voters. This was aimed at mobilizing his base.
SANCHEZ: Interesting.
David Gergen, always a pleasure getting your insights.
GERGEN: Thank you, Rick.
SANCHEZ: Well, the presidential candidates are going to rev up for round two in St. Louis, as we've been mentioning. It's tomorrow night. CNN's prime time debate coverage begins at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.
And Paula Zahn is going to host a town hall meeting with undecided voters live from Racine, Wisconsin. That's tonight at 8:00 Eastern. You can ask the Bush or Kerry camps your questions. All you've got to do is this, send them to cnn.com/ontheroad -- Heidi, over to you.
COLLINS: A second rebuke for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. The House Ethics Committee unanimously concluded the Texas Republican appeared to link political donations to a legislative favor and DeLay improperly persuaded U.S. aviation authorities to intervene in a Texas political dispute. The admonishments carry no penalty.
The identity of Kobe Bryant's accuser will become public record if her civil suit goes to trial. A federal judge in Colorado has rejected the request for Bryant's accuser to remain anonymous. Last month, prosecutors dropped the criminal case against Bryant when she refused to testify.
So, what does this ruling mean for the civil case now?
Senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin joining us to talk about it.
And so, Jeffrey, the judge did reject this woman's request to remain anonymous. In fact, U.S. District Judge Matsch said this.
Let's take a look.
"The parties appear as equals before the court and that fundamental principle must be protected throughout these proceedings."
Does that decision surprise you?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: You know, it's a very unusual circumstance. I don't know of any parallel situation. But, no, it doesn't really surprise me because, you know, it's a very different situation. The rape shield law, which is the idea behind keeping an accuser's name secret, basically says a victim should not be additionally troubled, penalized, hurt by being named as the victim of a crime.
Here, there is no crime. The State of Colorado has dropped the case. Now she is aggressively seeking money, using the legal system voluntarily, and therefore I think it's understandable that she shouldn't get some sort of additional protection here.
COLLINS: You think she's putting herself out there for this?
TOOBIN: She's putting herself out there and she didn't have to file this lawsuit. It sort of implies, as Judge Matsch said in his ruling, that Kobe Bryant is guilty, is liable, if her name remains secret. So her name will not remain secret.
COLLINS: Well, the judge ordered the lawsuit, which is now titled "Jane Doe v. Kobe Bryant, " to be retitled on October 20.
Why the delay from now until October 20?
TOOBIN: I think that's mostly just an administrative matter. What's going to be interesting, though, is October 20 the name of the trial, the name of the trial case will officially include her name. What will the news media do?
COLLINS: Exactly.
TOOBIN: Will we start using her name again? I think there's going to be a lot of soul searching. And, frankly, I don't know what the answer is on that one.
COLLINS: All right, well, they say that they -- the prosecutors actually wanted to protect her identity because she had been receiving threats, and serious threats.
Did they have a right to do that only in that one trial, not this one?
TOOBIN: That's, you know, I think that's the best argument that her lawyers had for continuing to keep her name secret, that this isn't an ordinary rape case, that because of the high profile, it was necessary for her protection.
COLLINS: Right.
TOOBIN: But I think the fact that she initiated this lawsuit, no one forced her to do it, she's using the court system voluntarily, that, I think, trumps her interest in privacy.
COLLINS: Is the case ever going to go to trial?
TOOBIN: I doubt it. I think this case cries out for settlement. Kobe Bryant just signed a $100 million contract.
COLLINS: Yes.
TOOBIN: He has a lot of money to make this go away. He doesn't need this trouble anymore. She obviously wants some money. It seems to me destined for a settlement, but probably not immediately.
COLLINS: We will see once again. TOOBIN: Allrighty.
COLLINS: Jeffrey Toobin, thanks, as always -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: Let's check on the weather now from coast to coast.
Chad Myers at the CNN Center with the very latest forecast -- good morning, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Rick.
(WEATHER REPORT)
SANCHEZ: Well, still to come, TV's Judge Joe Brown, known for serving up some outlandish sentences. But does he go too far? Well, we're going to hear from him as part of our Getting Off Easy series continues.
COLLINS: And today is Martha Stewart's last day of freedom before beginning her prison sentence. We'll go live to the prison, her new home, next.
SANCHEZ: And there's more painful news about the arthritis drug Vioxx. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has the details ahead.
This is AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: And welcome back.
Today is Martha Stewart's last day of freedom. The domestic diva is supposed to report to prison by tomorrow to begin her five month sentence. One thing is certain, she will not be running her media empire from there.
Debbie Feyerick is live outside the prison in Alderson, West Virginia, the place that some folks have called Camp Cupcake -- Debbie.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, well, the inmates certainly don't see it that way. What we are told is, though, that prison rules really forbid any inmates from doing business. John Gotti wasn't allowed to, Martha Stewart won't be allowed to, either. And the prison officials acknowledge that they can screen all calls or letters. If Stewart is caught, she could lose her phone and her commissary privileges.
Now, Stewart was in the Bahamas over the weekend. She was attending the wedding reception of her publicist, the wedding of her publicist. The big question now, though, is will Stewart actually show up at the ritzy Four Seasons in New York for the really big reception or will she surrender here instead? A source tells CNN that Stewart was advised to go in before Friday's 2:00 p.m. deadline so as to cause the least amount of disruption both to herself and to the prison. Not all inmates are -- and, actually, all the inmates know that she's on her way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Martha!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Save her!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Free Martha!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FEYERICK: Yesterday, some of those inmates were yelling, "Free Martha!" and then "Free Us!" Others were not so cordial. One woman actually threatening to put Stewart into a microwave. There are microwaves within each of the cell areas and the inmates can use them to cook food for themselves. They also, at the commissary, can buy hair color products, too.
Visiting days will run from Friday through Monday. When asked about Stewart's arrival here in this small town, one woman said, "Alderson hasn't seen this much excitement since John F. Kennedy visited the local high school" -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: All right, Debbie Feyerick following that story from Alderson, West Virginia.
Thank you, Debbie.
Now let's go over to Heidi.
COLLINS: You know him as the no holds barred judge dispensing syndicated TV justice each weekday on the "Judge Joe Brown Show."
Before presiding over his electronic courtroom, the Tennessee jurist was famous for creative sentences.
Judge Joe Brown is with us from Los Angeles this morning, as we continue our look now at alternative sentencing and whether criminals are getting off easy.
Judge Brown, thanks for being with us today.
BROWN: Good morning.
Glad to be here.
COLLINS: You know, you are known for your unorthodox sentences.
Have any of them actually ever gotten you in trouble?
BROWN: No, actually, not. The Tennessee Supreme Court, as a matter of fact, has had me lecture to other judges about how to impose a proper alternative sentence.
COLLINS: Tell me about some of the sentences, then, that you chose and why, in fact, you chose them.
BROWN: Well, one of the things that got a lot of national attention was allowing the victims of burglaries to visit the homes of the perpetrators and take some of the perp's property. That hurt and the intention was to make it hurt.
You see, there is a problem. Too many of the people that you want to put in jail look at going to jail as a rite of passage and they don't get punished by it.
COLLINS: So this was not at all dangerous, to have the people go into the home without any warning to the would be burglar that they were going to come in and take something from his home?
BROWN: No. Actually, you would have six or seven deputies, a couple, three or four squad cars and a hundred or so people from the neighborhood curious and some very interesting interactive dynamics that would go on.
COLLINS: OK. Well, some critics would say that your type of sentencing, and some of the ones that you have used in the past, are really about generating more publicity than actually reducing recidivism.
Your thoughts to them?
BROWN: Actually, one of the purposes of justice is to impose a sentence so that it becomes a warning to would be perpetrators. But see, that's only the shallow look. You have to deal with rehabilitation, training, drug programs. You have to deal with requiring GEDs, dealing with family circumstances, anger management, and your alternative sentencing just becomes the tip of the iceberg to deal with pushing this guy or this woman into doing things the right way.
COLLINS: Well, if people were to watch your show, there may be some that would say a lot of times Judge Brown humiliates these folks on television. But they don't really seem to show too much remorse.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "JUDGE JOE BROWN SHOW," COURTESY NBC)
BROWN: You need to get some (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's not being foolish, you're being foolish.
BROWN: Sit down. It doesn't make any difference. My opinion is the only one that counts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: What you're talking about is allocution, and that's the duty of the judge to denounce the miscreant and advise that person of the community's ire, the standards violated and the laws violated, and attempt to get that person to see what they did in the perspective of the community. COLLINS: Judge Joe Brown, thanks so much for your time here this morning.
BROWN: Thank you.
Have a nice day.
SANCHEZ: Still to come, First Lady Laura Bush hitting the late night circuit last night. You're going to be surprised by some of the things she talks about. Her take on the first presidential debate as well, next.
This is AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: First Lady Laura Bush was Jay Leno's guest last night on "The Tonight Show." She seemed to flip-flop a bit on whether her husband was making faces during last week's debate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO, " COURTESY NBC)
JAY LENO, HOST: Everyone seemed to say he would kind of grip and...
LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: That he was scowling?
LENO: Yes, scowling, yes, yes.
L. BUSH: You know, I didn't see that. I mean I was on the very front row and that...
LENO: Yes.
L. BUSH: ... and in person that didn't really show up that much. But I think he said this morning that, you know, anyone who listened to his opponent say that many things about him would have to make a face.
LENO: Well, that's pretty good. Yes, I mean all right. Yes. And I guess when you don't have botox you can actually move your face.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: You know, it's different when you're sitting there watching the debate. I've heard so many people that come away with completely different impressions, TV versus live.
COLLINS: Oh, of course, yes. And then there was so much talk, too, about whether or not they were going to take those cutaway shots, which they ended up doing.
SANCHEZ: I think the president was just annoyed that CSI was preempted. I think that was annoying to him. COLLINS: Good point.
Andy Borowitz in for Jack Cafferty today.
ANDY BOROWITZ, HUMORIST, BOROWITZREPORT.COM: Yes, and we've got a great question. The 194 Nobel Peace Prize nominees are secret, but some of the favorites this year include the IAEA's Mohamed ElBaradei and weapons inspector chief Hans Blix.
So our question to you today is who should win the Nobel Peace Prize and why?
Peter from Houston, Texas writes: "John Paul II. No one even comes close. For 25 years, he has untiringly emphasized peace between nations, dialogue between the West and Islam, international law and non-violence."
Gary from North Carolina writes: "Who should win the Nobel Peace Prize? No one. The prize should be awarded to someone who genuinely brings peace to the world or to a group of people in the world. There are not any candidates in the world this year. Maybe we can have a true winner next year."
John from Anandale, Virginia writes: "The Nobel Peace Prize should be split between Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani, the two Iraqi Kurdish leaders who shook hands and made democracy possible in northern Iraq. As a result, Iraqi Kurdistan is the safest place in Iraq today."
And finally, Doug from Stoney Creek, Ontario writes: "Jay Leno. By announcing his successor now, a late night war is avoided in the future."
COLLINS: Thank goodness, you know?
BOROWITZ: And I'm sure Conan would agree with that. Jay is the man.
COLLINS: Yes, it was very classy.
BOROWITZ: It was.
COLLINS: That's true.
BOROWITZ: Absolutely. Peace in our times.
SANCHEZ: Great.
Thanks, guys.
Appreciate it.
Now, still to come, on terror's trail -- violence mars the campaign as Afghans prepare to vote in their first national election since the fall of the Taliban. We're going to hear from a foreign CENTCOM adviser about the situation there right now. Stay with us.
We're AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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