Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Examining the Arnold Mystique; Insensitive to Pain
Aired November 17, 2004 - 08:30 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. 8:30 here in New York. How you doing today?
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Never better, and you?
HEMMER: As my old friend, Donna Kelly used to say, if I were any better, I'd have to be two people.
All right, good morning, everyone. A huge merger this morning to talk about in the retail world. Sears and K-mart joining forces to take on the other giants of the industry. Andy's back in a few moments, telling us and explain to us what changes may be coming to the stores in your town. So stay tuned for more on that today.
O'BRIEN: Also this morning, we're going to meet a little girl who goes through life feeling no pain whatsoever. You might think that sounds actually nice, but medically it creates all kinds of complications. It's very confusing for the little girl. She's really very brave, though, and we're going to show you how she deals with it.
HEMMER: All right.
O'BRIEN: Let's get to our top stories, though, first this morning -- Heidi Collins at our newsdesk, hello.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you guys and good morning, everybody.
Now in the news this morning, President Bush urging quick confirmation of Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state. The president officially nominated Rice to the position yesterday, replacing Colin Powell, of course. He says Rice will represent the strength, the grace and the decency of the United States.
Russia may soon have access to nuclear missiles not available in any other country. That's according to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said Russia is conducting research and testing of the most up-to-date nuclear missiles expected to be ready in the near future.
Here in the United States, former President Bill Clinton says he hopes his library will teach Americans what it's like to be president. These are new images now from inside the library taken just a few hours ago. A dedication ceremony for the $165 million presidential center is set for tomorrow in Clinton's old hometown, in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Tonight, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will sit down with Larry King. She's going to talk about the significance of the library. That will come your way at 9:00 tonight.
And trying to lose weight? Fluff up your pillow. A new study suggests a strong link between the amount of sleep people get and their risk of becoming obese. It has to do with how the body regulates food intake. Dr. Sanjay Gupta will have more on this in the next hour.
And you know, I don't claim to be a doctor, but I'm thinking, the more you sleep, the less opportunity you have to fill your face.
O'BRIEN: Yes, because we're all eating, like, four breakfasts, and three lunches and two dinners everyday.
Thanks, Heidi.
President Bush restocking his cabinet, but is he surrounding himself with too many people who all share the same vision? On this single-minded question, we've got two views this morning. In Washington D.C., Democratic strategist Julian Epstein joins us.
Nice to see you, Julian. Thanks for being with us.
JULIAN EPSTEIN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Thanks for having me, Soledad.
COLLINS: My pleasure.
Cliff May is the former RNC communications director. He is now with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Nice to see you, Cliff. Thanks for being with us.
CLIFF MAY, FMR. RNC COMM. DIR.: Good morning.
COLLINS: We're going to begin with you. Let's talk about these cabinet changes. They're being read as big victory for the neocons and the hardliners. There are many people who would say not a lot of debate in these cabinet meetings now the way the president is stocking the cabinet. Do you think that's a fair assessment?
MAY: No, I really don't. I think the president, from what we know, welcomes a very open debate. But at the end of the day, he's going to make a decision, and when he makes that decision, he would like those in his cabinet, those who advise him, to say, OK, we'll do it your way, rather than we'll do it our way. I think that's very important that it be like that.
But sure, after four years, the president knows who he likes to work with and who he wants to work with and what policies he wants to implement. There's no confusion about that. I think it's natural, and normal and exactly what he should be doing in the second term.
O'BRIEN: Julian, is it natural, is it normal?
EPSTEIN: Well, I thank Cliff for the humor with my morning coffee. I mean, you know, the president likes debate inside the administration? Ask Paul O'Neill, ask Richard Clarke, ask the CIA senior staff who are now leaving in droves, ask all of the moderates in this administration, from Colin Powell on down, who seem to be headed for the hills.
No, even the administration officials are saying to reporters that the president doesn't really want a lot of debate. He wants mostly yes people in this administration, and that's because -- and I think this is the rap on this president, is that he really makes a lot of decisions based on blind faith. And that's OK in a lot of situations, but it's not really a great idea when you're the leader of the free world. And if you want an example of that, all you have to do is look at the decision making behind the number of troops that we have in Iraq. The administration was repeatedly warned that they were going to need three times the amount of troops. They blew off those warnings, and now we find ourselves in a mess because we haven't had the troop strength and proper preparation. So it's a problem.
O'BRIEN: Cliff is shaking his head, no, no, no.
MAY: Look, there's a couple of things you got to understand. One, Don Rumsfeld has strong opinions, and he voices them. Colin Powell has strong opinions, for four years as secretary of state, he has strong opinions, he voices them.
There's another problem here that we're missing, and it goes back to what's happening at the CIA. The CIA is meant to provide intelligence to the president, who is elected to make policy. The CIA is not in the business of making policy.
And by the way, when people have disagreements with the president on policy, and they don't support his policy, they have a choice. They can say, hey, I put my two cents in, now I follow the president's plan, or I guess I have to do something else.
MAY: It's an interesting segue.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: Thank you, Julian, because I'm going to pick up there. Let's talk a little bit about the CIA and this memo from the new chief, Porter Goss, and here's what it says -- here's part at least: "As agency employees, we do not identify with, support or champion opposition to the administration or its policies."
O'BRIEN: Isn't that kind of partisan, considering...
MAY: Not at all. The job of the intelligence agencies is to provide intelligence to the president. The job is not to say, here's the policies we prefer, please adopt them. It's very important we understand that distinction.
What's more, we've seen something unprecedented, scandalous over the past months, which is that the CIA was out there leaking stories meant to damage the president. And a top CIA analyst on the payroll was writing a book attacking the president. It's a never happened before in American history. We need an intelligence agency. And if the CIA doesn't want to do it, we're going to have to find some other one.
O'BRIEN: So what you're saying is, the memo says, the memo then, doesn't it essentially say, get with the program, agree with this president, or get out of here.
MAY: No, it says get with the program, which go out and get the best possible intelligence you can, don't try to be a policymaking shop.
EPSTEIN: No, that's not really what the memo says.
MAY: That's exactly what it says.
EPSTEIN: The memo says much more than that, Cliff, and you know it. The memo says that your job as CIA employees is to support this administration. And look...
MAY: Support the president's policies.
O'BRIEN: Cliff, let Julian finish.
EPSTEIN: It's fine to say, look, to the OMB, or the Department of Treasury, you need to fall in line and salute the flag, but the job of the CIA is not be a cheerleader for the administration; the job of the CIA is to help us prevent from having a dirty bomb exploded in Time Square in New York.
MAY: And they're not doing that. They're not doing that. They're working on policy instead of intelligence.
EPSTEIN: Can I finish my point.
MAY: Go ahead.
EPSTEIN: OK, the mere virtue of the fact this memo is in "The New York Times" today means that the senior staff inside the CIA, who I assume leaked this, means they interpret this memo as a shot over the bow from the new director, Porter Goss, a close ally of this president, to say, look, you guys fall into line. When then there's intelligence information that conflicts with the administration policy, we don't want to hear about it, we don't want any information that's going to conflict with what this administration wants to do. This is a very clear direction of the CIA -- you fall in line and forgot about the independence thing.
MAY: Julian, if you and I are running a company, we expect people in that company to provide advice...
EPSTEIN: This is different.
MAY: And to provide alternatives.
No, the CIA is not supposed to be the opposition.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: Gentlemen, we're obviously not going to resolve this morning.
You know you all, we're out of time, which means you two, we'll hook you up, and you can fight about it by yourselves.
MAY: We're going to do that right after the show, we're going to go fight.
O'BRIEN: You guys, as always, thanks, appreciate the debate -- Bill.
HEMMER: Twenty-two minutes now before the hour.
In his first year as the man in charge in California, the former bodybuilder turned actor turned Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger has tackled some major issues in that state, and his popularity continues to grow.
Frank Buckley this morning examines the Arnold mystique.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They shrieked for Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was running for governor. He still gets the star treatment a year into the job. And whether he's selling California products to Japan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: And again, I can taste the California-grown product right in there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BUCKLEY: Or trying to lure back California companies that fled to Nevada, Schwarzenegger does with it showman's flare.
When Charlie Le Duff interviewed him for "The New York Times," this is the picture that went into the paper. Le Duff to keep up with a governor riding a hog.
CHARLES LE DUFF, "NEW YORK TIMES": He's a very competent biker.
(on camera): Is the honeymoon over?
LE DUFF: No. We're here talking about him.
BUCKLEY (voice-over): For sure, he rubbed a few the wrong way, like some legislators who's learned Schwarzenegger will skewer them in public if he doesn't get his way.
SCHWARZENEGGER: I call them girlie men. We should go back to the table, and we should fix the budget.
BUCKLEY (on camera): Comments like that haven't hurt his popularity here. In this month's election, Schwarzenegger endorsed 14 ballot initiatives in California. Eleven of them passed. (voice-over): Even a few supporters are pushing a constitutional amendment to make it possible for Schwarzenegger and others born outside of the U.S. to run for president.
On "LARRY KING LIVE," Schwarzenegger expressed qualified support.
SCHWARZENEGGER: I think it's a good debate to have. I think it's good that America is talking about it, that, you know, in Washington, they're talking about it. But I think it's important to leave me out of that discussion, because otherwise, it becomes a political discussion, because I'm not thinking about running for president.
BUCKLEY: In fact, he says, he doesn't yet know if he'll run for re-election as California's governor. Schwarzenegger says his first year in office was a terrific ride.
Frank Buckley, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: One year and counting, Governor Schwarzenegger says his top priority in California is balancing that state's budget -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Former Van Halen rocker David Lee Roth moving ahead with his career. Roth is now 50 years old, and he is training to be an emergency medical technician right here in New York City.
Take a look at him back in the day. Yes, you know, all that spandex and tacky outfits. Roth is still finishing his training includes, though. Now it includes riding along on ambulance trips to emergencies. I wonder if he's still in good shape.
HEMMER: At the age of 50. See, there's life after 40 after all.
O'BRIEN: Don't worry, Bill, It's going to be OK. Go talk to someone about it.
(WEATHER REPORT)
O'BRIEN: Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, Apple's iPod might be the hottest gadget out there. So why does the NBA have a big problem with it? Andy's "Minding Your Business," just ahead.
HEMMER: Also, everyday for five-year-old Ashland Blocker is painless, and that poses a huge problem. Why she's the most closely watched little girl in all of Patterson, Georgia. Her story in a moment as we continue right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Welcome back, everyone.
Many may think feeling no pain would be a blessing, but for one little girl, it's a rare disorder that's extremely serious, and it could be deadly.
From Georgia this morning, Sara Dorsey explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA DORSEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ashland Blocker is getting ready for school.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Got a kiss for me? Love you. Be good.
DORSEY: The 5-year-old is off to kindergarten. It's not her first day, but her parents still worry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, have a good day. I love you guys.
See you later, Ashland. Be careful.
DORSEY: That's a warning she gets a lot.
(on camera): Ashland, can you tell me why we're here to talk to you?
ASHLAND BLOCKER: Because I can't feel my boo-boos.
DORSEY (voice-over): In fact, Ashland can't feel pain at all. At six months old, and ongoing problem with her eye led to a rare diagnosis, congenital insensitivity to pain or CIPA.
TARA BLOCKER, MOTHER: They put the dye in her eye, and it revealed a massive corneal abrasion. And everybody was, like, what in the world, you know, why isn't she feeling this? And that is essentially where our journey began.
DORSEY: And Ashland's journey has been a bumpy one. She's already knocked out eight teeth.
T. BLOCKER: In a way, her knocking her teeth out was truly, you know, somewhat of a blessing, because her hands have scars, her fingers have scars, but she would just literally put her hand and her finger in her mouth and just rip the skin off.
DORSEY (on camera): One of the most dangerous times of the day for Ashland is during recess. Her teachers say because she can't feel pain, she's nearly fearless. Because of that, they've had to implement some new rules to help try to keep her safe.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She can't play on the monkey bars. Miss Patty (ph) had to hold her and help her. She can't play on that little igloo thing over there. After recess, a rigorous inspection, from her feet to her eyes. Her mom calls it her little NASCAR pit stop, but what worries about her the most is the road ahead.
S. BLOCKER: We're worried about her joints. We've been told that joint destruction can occur at an early age.
DORSEY: Ashland's parents are saving for a pool, hoping that will take the pressure off her little joints. But the enormous pressures of safeguarding their daughter remain.
Sara Dorsey, CNN, Patterson, Georgia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Sara, thanks for that.
It is not known how many people actually have CIPA, just 17 confirmed cases in this country.
More now with Sanjay Gupta. The good doctor with us from the CNN Center.
Good morning to you, Sanjay.
First of all, what exactly is the disorder that we're talking about here?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, CIPA, Bill -- good morning -- it stands for congenital insensitivity to pain and anhydrosis, basically a very rare disorder as you mentioned. About 17 people in the United States, 60 or 70 cases around the world. Very difficult diagnose to make.
Basically, the children cannot feel any pain whatsoever. The nerves coming from their body do not send a signal to the brain saying, ouch, there's pain here. They do not feel hot or cold temperatures, and they do not sweat either. They can feel pressure or touch. But again, a very rare disorder here.
What it is a genetic disorders really, and scientists have been able to localize where specifically the genetic problem is. It's on chromosome No. 1. They haven't come up with any treatment or cure for it, but they know where the problem is. Abnormal genes are inherited from both parents. There's no good form of this particular problem, and there's no cure for it as well.
Scientists, again, know where the problem is on chromosome No. 1. They also know that this problem can lead to all sorts of different issues with the child. As we saw there with this little girl, self- mutilation can also be a problem. Pain can be a natural protective device. These kids don't have it, Bill.
HEMMER: With no cure, Sanjay, how dangerous is this? Fatal?
GUPTA: It can be fatal. What happens typically is that children will develop significant infections because they're self-mutilating. They can lose fingers. They can lose toes. We saw some case examples where children actually bit off parts of their tongues. They just don't feel pain whatsoever, and subsequently that can lead to infections, possibly even death. Again, a very rare problem, so it's hard to follow the natural history of this, but a scary one as well.
HEMMER: Given all that, what is a parent to do?
GUPTA: You know, the parent actually has to act sort of as the pain device for the child. You have to really watch these kids like hawks. If they fall down, the wounds have to be examined. Their fingers, their toes, their mouth has to be examined everyday to make sure they're not developing any problems that can be treated -- Bill.
HEMMER: Especially when you talk about the possibility for infection, too.
GUPTA: Exactly.
HEMMER: Sanjay, thanks.
GUPTA: Thank you, Bill.
HEMMER: Sanjay Gupta at the CNN Center -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, a big name retailer goes shopping in the Sears catalog, decides it wants to buy Sears itself. Andy is "Minding Your Business," just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.
CAFFERTY: More on that monster merger between Sears and Kmart, and the iPod invasion comes to the NBA. Andy Serwer is here "Minding Your Business."
Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE": Morning. Kind of unhappy invasion. We'll get to that.
First of all, the big story of the day, of course, is that Kmart is buying Sears. And it's kind of shocker but it's true. Both of these companies not in the best of shape these days because they're getting beaten up and eaten alive by Wal-Mart, by Target.
Let's take a look at the total number of stores here that these two companies will have when they combine versus Wal-Mart (ph) and Sears. And here's the interesting thing, Jack. You see Sears -- that's the new company, Sears and Kmart together, Sears Holding. They have got three times as many as Target, yet Target has a little bit more in sales. So what does that tell you?
CAFFERTY: What do they think they are going to accomplish by putting these two companies together?
SERWER: You lash two wallowing ships together and they're supposed to float better.
CAFFERTY: Yes. It's like putting a chain between the Lusitania and the Titanic.
SERWER: Well, maybe not quite that bad.
CAFFERTY: Well, you know, in a manner of speaking. SERWER: You know, Kmart actually...
O'BRIEN: Which one would be the Titanic and which one is the Lusitiania?
SERWER: I'm not going there. Kmart actually had been a real stock market star since it emerged from bankruptcy in May of 2003. It went from about 12 to 100. But that's mostly because it was seen as a big real estate play. The stock had gone up a lot. They are going to have a press conference at 9:30 today. We may not be able to show you that, though, and that's a story in itself. We'll talk about that later in the program.
CAFFERTY: Interesting.
SERWER: Yes. That's developing. We'll get to that.
CAFFERTY: You need to get some embedded reporters in that Sears- Kmart deal.
SERWER: I'm not going there with you on that one.
OK. Let's talk about this iPod thing. This is pretty amusing. He may be half man, he may half amazing, but he got no tunes. The National Basketball Association has told Vince Carter that he cannot wear an iPod during warmups. There he is to the rack. Oh, Chris Wilcox looking bad there.
Vince Carter says he likes to the iPod, the hottest product on the planet, while he's warming up. The NBA says, no, it's violates the dress code.
O'BRIEN: Oh, it's a dress code.
(CROSSTALK)
CAFFERTY: So the NFL doesn't let Terrell Owens and that gal from "Desperate Housewives" frolic in the rocker room. The NBA doesn't want Vince Carter wearing -- I mean, they're getting a little...
SERWER: They're prudes.
CAFFERTY: They're getting a little tight, aren't they?
SERWER: Yes, they are. We don't like it.
HEMMER: You know what else the NFL did? They told Jake Plummer, a friend of Pat Tillman's, to take the number of Pat Tillman off of his helmet.
SERWER: Oh really?
HEMMER: It violated dress code.
SERWER: Dress code.
O'BRIEN: They always go back to that dress code thing, don't they?
SERWER: Dress code is big, yes. Thank goodness they're not doing that to us.
O'BRIEN: What's in the "File."
CAFFERTY: Wednesday, "Things People Say," beginning with this: "The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved." John Ashcroft in his resignation letter to President Bush, really? One of those "mission accomplished" deals.
And then there's this: "I don't like sexy, I'm very much a tomboy." Janet Jackson. Have you ever seen Janet's videos? Come on.
Or this: "Don't answer yes to that question." Tony Blair after President Bush was asked during a joint press conference at the White House last week if he thought of Blair as his poodle.
And moving along on the same theme: "I have a dog biscuit face." That would be actor Jude Law.
SERWER: What does that mean?
CAFFERTY: I'm not sure. But my producer disagreed strongly with that characterization, they said he's a pretty fellow.
O'BRIEN: He protests a little too much. In fact, he's so pretty that it kept him from getting jobs for a long time because he's...
CAFFERTY: Dog biscuit face. I'll tell you something, Jude, I have a dog biscuit face, OK?
SERWER: And I know dog biscuits.
CAFFERTY: Yes, I know dog biscuit. You ain't it.
(LAUGHTER)
CAFFERTY: And this one: "He drinks more than the baby. It doesn't hurt but it's a little bit ticklish." New Zealand mother Kura Tumanako on breast-feeding her puppy so that she doesn't waste the breast milk.
O'BRIEN: That is just so icky on so many levels.
HEMMER: No takers on that.
SERWER: A little wrong.
O'BRIEN: So wrong.
SERWER: Just a little bit. Well, so wrong? Actually, OK. So wrong.
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.
O'BRIEN: Thank you, Jack. Good quotes today.
CAFFERTY: Any time.
HEMMER: In a moment here, today's top stories and a preview of the 109th Congress. The Democrats have their hands full in the Senate. The new minority leader, Harry Reid, is our guest. We'll talk about his matters, climbing uphill in a moment. He's from Nevada.
CAFFERTY: Not from Nevada.
HEMMER: Jack's home state of Nevada.
CAFFERTY: He's from Nevada.
HEMMER: Also talk to him about working with the other team on the other side of the aisle. Back in a moment here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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 November 17, 2004 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. 8:30 here in New York. How you doing today?
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Never better, and you?
HEMMER: As my old friend, Donna Kelly used to say, if I were any better, I'd have to be two people.
All right, good morning, everyone. A huge merger this morning to talk about in the retail world. Sears and K-mart joining forces to take on the other giants of the industry. Andy's back in a few moments, telling us and explain to us what changes may be coming to the stores in your town. So stay tuned for more on that today.
O'BRIEN: Also this morning, we're going to meet a little girl who goes through life feeling no pain whatsoever. You might think that sounds actually nice, but medically it creates all kinds of complications. It's very confusing for the little girl. She's really very brave, though, and we're going to show you how she deals with it.
HEMMER: All right.
O'BRIEN: Let's get to our top stories, though, first this morning -- Heidi Collins at our newsdesk, hello.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you guys and good morning, everybody.
Now in the news this morning, President Bush urging quick confirmation of Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state. The president officially nominated Rice to the position yesterday, replacing Colin Powell, of course. He says Rice will represent the strength, the grace and the decency of the United States.
Russia may soon have access to nuclear missiles not available in any other country. That's according to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said Russia is conducting research and testing of the most up-to-date nuclear missiles expected to be ready in the near future.
Here in the United States, former President Bill Clinton says he hopes his library will teach Americans what it's like to be president. These are new images now from inside the library taken just a few hours ago. A dedication ceremony for the $165 million presidential center is set for tomorrow in Clinton's old hometown, in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Tonight, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will sit down with Larry King. She's going to talk about the significance of the library. That will come your way at 9:00 tonight.
And trying to lose weight? Fluff up your pillow. A new study suggests a strong link between the amount of sleep people get and their risk of becoming obese. It has to do with how the body regulates food intake. Dr. Sanjay Gupta will have more on this in the next hour.
And you know, I don't claim to be a doctor, but I'm thinking, the more you sleep, the less opportunity you have to fill your face.
O'BRIEN: Yes, because we're all eating, like, four breakfasts, and three lunches and two dinners everyday.
Thanks, Heidi.
President Bush restocking his cabinet, but is he surrounding himself with too many people who all share the same vision? On this single-minded question, we've got two views this morning. In Washington D.C., Democratic strategist Julian Epstein joins us.
Nice to see you, Julian. Thanks for being with us.
JULIAN EPSTEIN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Thanks for having me, Soledad.
COLLINS: My pleasure.
Cliff May is the former RNC communications director. He is now with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Nice to see you, Cliff. Thanks for being with us.
CLIFF MAY, FMR. RNC COMM. DIR.: Good morning.
COLLINS: We're going to begin with you. Let's talk about these cabinet changes. They're being read as big victory for the neocons and the hardliners. There are many people who would say not a lot of debate in these cabinet meetings now the way the president is stocking the cabinet. Do you think that's a fair assessment?
MAY: No, I really don't. I think the president, from what we know, welcomes a very open debate. But at the end of the day, he's going to make a decision, and when he makes that decision, he would like those in his cabinet, those who advise him, to say, OK, we'll do it your way, rather than we'll do it our way. I think that's very important that it be like that.
But sure, after four years, the president knows who he likes to work with and who he wants to work with and what policies he wants to implement. There's no confusion about that. I think it's natural, and normal and exactly what he should be doing in the second term.
O'BRIEN: Julian, is it natural, is it normal?
EPSTEIN: Well, I thank Cliff for the humor with my morning coffee. I mean, you know, the president likes debate inside the administration? Ask Paul O'Neill, ask Richard Clarke, ask the CIA senior staff who are now leaving in droves, ask all of the moderates in this administration, from Colin Powell on down, who seem to be headed for the hills.
No, even the administration officials are saying to reporters that the president doesn't really want a lot of debate. He wants mostly yes people in this administration, and that's because -- and I think this is the rap on this president, is that he really makes a lot of decisions based on blind faith. And that's OK in a lot of situations, but it's not really a great idea when you're the leader of the free world. And if you want an example of that, all you have to do is look at the decision making behind the number of troops that we have in Iraq. The administration was repeatedly warned that they were going to need three times the amount of troops. They blew off those warnings, and now we find ourselves in a mess because we haven't had the troop strength and proper preparation. So it's a problem.
O'BRIEN: Cliff is shaking his head, no, no, no.
MAY: Look, there's a couple of things you got to understand. One, Don Rumsfeld has strong opinions, and he voices them. Colin Powell has strong opinions, for four years as secretary of state, he has strong opinions, he voices them.
There's another problem here that we're missing, and it goes back to what's happening at the CIA. The CIA is meant to provide intelligence to the president, who is elected to make policy. The CIA is not in the business of making policy.
And by the way, when people have disagreements with the president on policy, and they don't support his policy, they have a choice. They can say, hey, I put my two cents in, now I follow the president's plan, or I guess I have to do something else.
MAY: It's an interesting segue.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: Thank you, Julian, because I'm going to pick up there. Let's talk a little bit about the CIA and this memo from the new chief, Porter Goss, and here's what it says -- here's part at least: "As agency employees, we do not identify with, support or champion opposition to the administration or its policies."
O'BRIEN: Isn't that kind of partisan, considering...
MAY: Not at all. The job of the intelligence agencies is to provide intelligence to the president. The job is not to say, here's the policies we prefer, please adopt them. It's very important we understand that distinction.
What's more, we've seen something unprecedented, scandalous over the past months, which is that the CIA was out there leaking stories meant to damage the president. And a top CIA analyst on the payroll was writing a book attacking the president. It's a never happened before in American history. We need an intelligence agency. And if the CIA doesn't want to do it, we're going to have to find some other one.
O'BRIEN: So what you're saying is, the memo says, the memo then, doesn't it essentially say, get with the program, agree with this president, or get out of here.
MAY: No, it says get with the program, which go out and get the best possible intelligence you can, don't try to be a policymaking shop.
EPSTEIN: No, that's not really what the memo says.
MAY: That's exactly what it says.
EPSTEIN: The memo says much more than that, Cliff, and you know it. The memo says that your job as CIA employees is to support this administration. And look...
MAY: Support the president's policies.
O'BRIEN: Cliff, let Julian finish.
EPSTEIN: It's fine to say, look, to the OMB, or the Department of Treasury, you need to fall in line and salute the flag, but the job of the CIA is not be a cheerleader for the administration; the job of the CIA is to help us prevent from having a dirty bomb exploded in Time Square in New York.
MAY: And they're not doing that. They're not doing that. They're working on policy instead of intelligence.
EPSTEIN: Can I finish my point.
MAY: Go ahead.
EPSTEIN: OK, the mere virtue of the fact this memo is in "The New York Times" today means that the senior staff inside the CIA, who I assume leaked this, means they interpret this memo as a shot over the bow from the new director, Porter Goss, a close ally of this president, to say, look, you guys fall into line. When then there's intelligence information that conflicts with the administration policy, we don't want to hear about it, we don't want any information that's going to conflict with what this administration wants to do. This is a very clear direction of the CIA -- you fall in line and forgot about the independence thing.
MAY: Julian, if you and I are running a company, we expect people in that company to provide advice...
EPSTEIN: This is different.
MAY: And to provide alternatives.
No, the CIA is not supposed to be the opposition.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: Gentlemen, we're obviously not going to resolve this morning.
You know you all, we're out of time, which means you two, we'll hook you up, and you can fight about it by yourselves.
MAY: We're going to do that right after the show, we're going to go fight.
O'BRIEN: You guys, as always, thanks, appreciate the debate -- Bill.
HEMMER: Twenty-two minutes now before the hour.
In his first year as the man in charge in California, the former bodybuilder turned actor turned Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger has tackled some major issues in that state, and his popularity continues to grow.
Frank Buckley this morning examines the Arnold mystique.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They shrieked for Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was running for governor. He still gets the star treatment a year into the job. And whether he's selling California products to Japan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: And again, I can taste the California-grown product right in there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BUCKLEY: Or trying to lure back California companies that fled to Nevada, Schwarzenegger does with it showman's flare.
When Charlie Le Duff interviewed him for "The New York Times," this is the picture that went into the paper. Le Duff to keep up with a governor riding a hog.
CHARLES LE DUFF, "NEW YORK TIMES": He's a very competent biker.
(on camera): Is the honeymoon over?
LE DUFF: No. We're here talking about him.
BUCKLEY (voice-over): For sure, he rubbed a few the wrong way, like some legislators who's learned Schwarzenegger will skewer them in public if he doesn't get his way.
SCHWARZENEGGER: I call them girlie men. We should go back to the table, and we should fix the budget.
BUCKLEY (on camera): Comments like that haven't hurt his popularity here. In this month's election, Schwarzenegger endorsed 14 ballot initiatives in California. Eleven of them passed. (voice-over): Even a few supporters are pushing a constitutional amendment to make it possible for Schwarzenegger and others born outside of the U.S. to run for president.
On "LARRY KING LIVE," Schwarzenegger expressed qualified support.
SCHWARZENEGGER: I think it's a good debate to have. I think it's good that America is talking about it, that, you know, in Washington, they're talking about it. But I think it's important to leave me out of that discussion, because otherwise, it becomes a political discussion, because I'm not thinking about running for president.
BUCKLEY: In fact, he says, he doesn't yet know if he'll run for re-election as California's governor. Schwarzenegger says his first year in office was a terrific ride.
Frank Buckley, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: One year and counting, Governor Schwarzenegger says his top priority in California is balancing that state's budget -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Former Van Halen rocker David Lee Roth moving ahead with his career. Roth is now 50 years old, and he is training to be an emergency medical technician right here in New York City.
Take a look at him back in the day. Yes, you know, all that spandex and tacky outfits. Roth is still finishing his training includes, though. Now it includes riding along on ambulance trips to emergencies. I wonder if he's still in good shape.
HEMMER: At the age of 50. See, there's life after 40 after all.
O'BRIEN: Don't worry, Bill, It's going to be OK. Go talk to someone about it.
(WEATHER REPORT)
O'BRIEN: Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, Apple's iPod might be the hottest gadget out there. So why does the NBA have a big problem with it? Andy's "Minding Your Business," just ahead.
HEMMER: Also, everyday for five-year-old Ashland Blocker is painless, and that poses a huge problem. Why she's the most closely watched little girl in all of Patterson, Georgia. Her story in a moment as we continue right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Welcome back, everyone.
Many may think feeling no pain would be a blessing, but for one little girl, it's a rare disorder that's extremely serious, and it could be deadly.
From Georgia this morning, Sara Dorsey explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA DORSEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ashland Blocker is getting ready for school.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Got a kiss for me? Love you. Be good.
DORSEY: The 5-year-old is off to kindergarten. It's not her first day, but her parents still worry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, have a good day. I love you guys.
See you later, Ashland. Be careful.
DORSEY: That's a warning she gets a lot.
(on camera): Ashland, can you tell me why we're here to talk to you?
ASHLAND BLOCKER: Because I can't feel my boo-boos.
DORSEY (voice-over): In fact, Ashland can't feel pain at all. At six months old, and ongoing problem with her eye led to a rare diagnosis, congenital insensitivity to pain or CIPA.
TARA BLOCKER, MOTHER: They put the dye in her eye, and it revealed a massive corneal abrasion. And everybody was, like, what in the world, you know, why isn't she feeling this? And that is essentially where our journey began.
DORSEY: And Ashland's journey has been a bumpy one. She's already knocked out eight teeth.
T. BLOCKER: In a way, her knocking her teeth out was truly, you know, somewhat of a blessing, because her hands have scars, her fingers have scars, but she would just literally put her hand and her finger in her mouth and just rip the skin off.
DORSEY (on camera): One of the most dangerous times of the day for Ashland is during recess. Her teachers say because she can't feel pain, she's nearly fearless. Because of that, they've had to implement some new rules to help try to keep her safe.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She can't play on the monkey bars. Miss Patty (ph) had to hold her and help her. She can't play on that little igloo thing over there. After recess, a rigorous inspection, from her feet to her eyes. Her mom calls it her little NASCAR pit stop, but what worries about her the most is the road ahead.
S. BLOCKER: We're worried about her joints. We've been told that joint destruction can occur at an early age.
DORSEY: Ashland's parents are saving for a pool, hoping that will take the pressure off her little joints. But the enormous pressures of safeguarding their daughter remain.
Sara Dorsey, CNN, Patterson, Georgia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Sara, thanks for that.
It is not known how many people actually have CIPA, just 17 confirmed cases in this country.
More now with Sanjay Gupta. The good doctor with us from the CNN Center.
Good morning to you, Sanjay.
First of all, what exactly is the disorder that we're talking about here?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, CIPA, Bill -- good morning -- it stands for congenital insensitivity to pain and anhydrosis, basically a very rare disorder as you mentioned. About 17 people in the United States, 60 or 70 cases around the world. Very difficult diagnose to make.
Basically, the children cannot feel any pain whatsoever. The nerves coming from their body do not send a signal to the brain saying, ouch, there's pain here. They do not feel hot or cold temperatures, and they do not sweat either. They can feel pressure or touch. But again, a very rare disorder here.
What it is a genetic disorders really, and scientists have been able to localize where specifically the genetic problem is. It's on chromosome No. 1. They haven't come up with any treatment or cure for it, but they know where the problem is. Abnormal genes are inherited from both parents. There's no good form of this particular problem, and there's no cure for it as well.
Scientists, again, know where the problem is on chromosome No. 1. They also know that this problem can lead to all sorts of different issues with the child. As we saw there with this little girl, self- mutilation can also be a problem. Pain can be a natural protective device. These kids don't have it, Bill.
HEMMER: With no cure, Sanjay, how dangerous is this? Fatal?
GUPTA: It can be fatal. What happens typically is that children will develop significant infections because they're self-mutilating. They can lose fingers. They can lose toes. We saw some case examples where children actually bit off parts of their tongues. They just don't feel pain whatsoever, and subsequently that can lead to infections, possibly even death. Again, a very rare problem, so it's hard to follow the natural history of this, but a scary one as well.
HEMMER: Given all that, what is a parent to do?
GUPTA: You know, the parent actually has to act sort of as the pain device for the child. You have to really watch these kids like hawks. If they fall down, the wounds have to be examined. Their fingers, their toes, their mouth has to be examined everyday to make sure they're not developing any problems that can be treated -- Bill.
HEMMER: Especially when you talk about the possibility for infection, too.
GUPTA: Exactly.
HEMMER: Sanjay, thanks.
GUPTA: Thank you, Bill.
HEMMER: Sanjay Gupta at the CNN Center -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, a big name retailer goes shopping in the Sears catalog, decides it wants to buy Sears itself. Andy is "Minding Your Business," just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.
CAFFERTY: More on that monster merger between Sears and Kmart, and the iPod invasion comes to the NBA. Andy Serwer is here "Minding Your Business."
Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE": Morning. Kind of unhappy invasion. We'll get to that.
First of all, the big story of the day, of course, is that Kmart is buying Sears. And it's kind of shocker but it's true. Both of these companies not in the best of shape these days because they're getting beaten up and eaten alive by Wal-Mart, by Target.
Let's take a look at the total number of stores here that these two companies will have when they combine versus Wal-Mart (ph) and Sears. And here's the interesting thing, Jack. You see Sears -- that's the new company, Sears and Kmart together, Sears Holding. They have got three times as many as Target, yet Target has a little bit more in sales. So what does that tell you?
CAFFERTY: What do they think they are going to accomplish by putting these two companies together?
SERWER: You lash two wallowing ships together and they're supposed to float better.
CAFFERTY: Yes. It's like putting a chain between the Lusitania and the Titanic.
SERWER: Well, maybe not quite that bad.
CAFFERTY: Well, you know, in a manner of speaking. SERWER: You know, Kmart actually...
O'BRIEN: Which one would be the Titanic and which one is the Lusitiania?
SERWER: I'm not going there. Kmart actually had been a real stock market star since it emerged from bankruptcy in May of 2003. It went from about 12 to 100. But that's mostly because it was seen as a big real estate play. The stock had gone up a lot. They are going to have a press conference at 9:30 today. We may not be able to show you that, though, and that's a story in itself. We'll talk about that later in the program.
CAFFERTY: Interesting.
SERWER: Yes. That's developing. We'll get to that.
CAFFERTY: You need to get some embedded reporters in that Sears- Kmart deal.
SERWER: I'm not going there with you on that one.
OK. Let's talk about this iPod thing. This is pretty amusing. He may be half man, he may half amazing, but he got no tunes. The National Basketball Association has told Vince Carter that he cannot wear an iPod during warmups. There he is to the rack. Oh, Chris Wilcox looking bad there.
Vince Carter says he likes to the iPod, the hottest product on the planet, while he's warming up. The NBA says, no, it's violates the dress code.
O'BRIEN: Oh, it's a dress code.
(CROSSTALK)
CAFFERTY: So the NFL doesn't let Terrell Owens and that gal from "Desperate Housewives" frolic in the rocker room. The NBA doesn't want Vince Carter wearing -- I mean, they're getting a little...
SERWER: They're prudes.
CAFFERTY: They're getting a little tight, aren't they?
SERWER: Yes, they are. We don't like it.
HEMMER: You know what else the NFL did? They told Jake Plummer, a friend of Pat Tillman's, to take the number of Pat Tillman off of his helmet.
SERWER: Oh really?
HEMMER: It violated dress code.
SERWER: Dress code.
O'BRIEN: They always go back to that dress code thing, don't they?
SERWER: Dress code is big, yes. Thank goodness they're not doing that to us.
O'BRIEN: What's in the "File."
CAFFERTY: Wednesday, "Things People Say," beginning with this: "The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved." John Ashcroft in his resignation letter to President Bush, really? One of those "mission accomplished" deals.
And then there's this: "I don't like sexy, I'm very much a tomboy." Janet Jackson. Have you ever seen Janet's videos? Come on.
Or this: "Don't answer yes to that question." Tony Blair after President Bush was asked during a joint press conference at the White House last week if he thought of Blair as his poodle.
And moving along on the same theme: "I have a dog biscuit face." That would be actor Jude Law.
SERWER: What does that mean?
CAFFERTY: I'm not sure. But my producer disagreed strongly with that characterization, they said he's a pretty fellow.
O'BRIEN: He protests a little too much. In fact, he's so pretty that it kept him from getting jobs for a long time because he's...
CAFFERTY: Dog biscuit face. I'll tell you something, Jude, I have a dog biscuit face, OK?
SERWER: And I know dog biscuits.
CAFFERTY: Yes, I know dog biscuit. You ain't it.
(LAUGHTER)
CAFFERTY: And this one: "He drinks more than the baby. It doesn't hurt but it's a little bit ticklish." New Zealand mother Kura Tumanako on breast-feeding her puppy so that she doesn't waste the breast milk.
O'BRIEN: That is just so icky on so many levels.
HEMMER: No takers on that.
SERWER: A little wrong.
O'BRIEN: So wrong.
SERWER: Just a little bit. Well, so wrong? Actually, OK. So wrong.
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.
O'BRIEN: Thank you, Jack. Good quotes today.
CAFFERTY: Any time.
HEMMER: In a moment here, today's top stories and a preview of the 109th Congress. The Democrats have their hands full in the Senate. The new minority leader, Harry Reid, is our guest. We'll talk about his matters, climbing uphill in a moment. He's from Nevada.
CAFFERTY: Not from Nevada.
HEMMER: Jack's home state of Nevada.
CAFFERTY: He's from Nevada.
HEMMER: Also talk to him about working with the other team on the other side of the aisle. Back in a moment here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
