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American Morning
New Democratic Leader Promises to Cooperate; Clinton Library to Open Tomorrow; Soldier Fights Army's Demands to Return to Active Duty; ABC Apologizes for Steamy NFL Opening
Aired November 17, 2004 - 09:00 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: The president's new team coming together. More vacancies in the cabinet set to be filled.
One of the biggest events for an ex-president happening now for Bill Clinton. A look at his brand-new and very unconventional library.
And "Monday Night Football" meets "Desperate Housewives." They may wish they'd never been introduced on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.
BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Nine o'clock here in New York. That guy's late for work. Did you see him running? Good luck!
O'BRIEN: You can make it.
HEMMER: Keep going.
Some other stories we're watching this hour.
While the president's team comes together, the same thing happening for Democrats, too, in Congress. Harry Reid of Nevada has been tapped as the new Senate minority leader. How will he do things differently from his predecessor, Tom Daschle, and how do Democrats now adapt after the defeats of two weeks ago? We'll talk to him in a moment. The senator is our guest from Capitol Hill.
O'BRIEN: Also this morning, ABC now apologizing for a little skit it used to introduce this week's Monday night game. Did you see this?
Nicolette Sheridan of the hit show, "Desperate Housewives," played a seductress with Philadelphia Eagles star Terrell Owens. A towel on the floor implied nudity. A lot of other things implied, as well. Not everybody was amused. We're going to talk this morning with "Sports Illustrated" writer Josh Elliott.
No one has mentioned -- I think this is true -- black guy, white woman issue. Come on; am I the only one who saw that? That's why people are up in arms?
JACK CAFFERTY, CO-HOST: I don't know. O'BRIEN: Jack with nothing to say on this. I'm shocked.
CAFFERTY: It's not exactly "Mandingo," but...
O'BRIEN: Then there's that. All right. We'll move on.
CAFFERTY: You brought it up.
AM@CNN.com is the e-mail address. More than 1,000 of you have written us letters on the subject of whether or not television cameras belong on the battlefield during wartime. We'll read some of the responses. Pretty terrific stuff, a lot of them. All kinds of opinions, but it's an interesting topic that's obviously touched a nerve out there.
HEMMER: All right. Thank you, Jack.
Heidi Collins back with us again with us today. Also, the gang is all here for a change. How you doing this morning?
HEIDI COLLINS, ANCHOR: Yes. Doing well, thanks. Good to see you again. Happy belated birthday. We mentioned that, haven't we, about 800 times?
HEMMER: Forty and still standing.
COLLINS: Good.
CAFFERTY: It's 41 when you have to worry.
HEMMER: Let's talk about it a little more. As you were.
COLLINS: Now to get to the news, real news. Sorry, Bill.
Hi, everybody. British leaders are condemning the apparent killing of aide worker Margaret Hassan. The Arab network Al Jazeera says it has obtained a video showing the apparent shooting of a woman identified as Hassan. The video was not aired. A memorial service in her honor was held earlier this morning in Ireland, where she was born.
Some nuclear revelations from Russia this morning. Russian President Vladimir Putin says Russia will soon have access to advanced nuclear missile systems. He said research is being done, and the nuclear missile systems could be available to the military in the near future.
Here in the United States, House Republicans are expected to change rules this morning to make sure Tom DeLay keeps his post as majority leader. DeLay is under investigation in the campaign -- campaign finance probe. His allies say it is politically motivated. A House committee is expected to vote this hour to change a requirement forcing leaders to give up their post if they've charged with a felony.
And attention K-Mart shoppers, K-Mart and Sears are merging in an $11 billion stock deal. Andy was telling about this a little bit earlier. It's going to make it the third largest U.S. retailer. The new company will be known as Sears Holdings and will be based in Chicago, as usual. But both names will still be used on stores. The deal could be finalized by the end of March next year.
Now, consternation about where you buy your deep freezer or your washing machine or whatever.
O'BRIEN: Seems like lots of people are going to Target, actually.
All right, Heidi. Thanks.
In the past week, President Bush's cabinet has been shuffling like a deck of cards. So far, six of 15 secretaries have stepped down. Others are expected to follow suit.
Last Tuesday, the White House announced the resignations of Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Don Evans. The next day, White House counsel Alberto Gonzales was nominated to replace John Ashcroft at the Justice Department.
On Monday, four more resignations were announced: Secretary of State Colin Powell, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, Education Secretary Rod Paige and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham out. Condoleezza Rice was nominated yesterday to fill the vacancy at the State Department, and a senior administration official tells CNN that the president intends to name his long-time domestic policy advisor, Margaret Spellings, as education secretary.
Senior administration sources also telling CNN that Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge plans to leave his post. That has not been officially confirmed as of yet.
HEMMER: When Tom Daschle lost his reelection bid in the Senate, Democrats there lost their leader. And now they have a new one. Nevada's Harry Reid will lead a diminished minority when the 109th Congress convenes in January. And Senator Reid my guest now on Capitol Hill.
We welcome you here now, Senator, and good morning to you.
SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MINORITY LEADER: Thank you very much, Bill. Glad to be with you.
HEMMER: I think the one quote that's coming out of Washington, more so than any other in the past 24 hours is what you said. And you said -- I'm quoting now -- that you'd rather dance than fight, "but I know how to fight."
So what did you bring to work today? Was it the tap shoes or was it the boxing gloves, Senator?
REID: We're going to do everything we can. We just finished a meeting with the president. We're going to do everything we can to work toward passing some legislation. We want to be cooperative. But we want to also make the people of America understand that we represent lots of people. Millions and millions of people are depending on what we do, and we're going to do it the best we can to make sure their wishes are fulfilled.
HEMMER: Let me and get a little more insight on your meeting with the president. When it comes to things like Social Security reform and tax cuts, the president has already talked about trying to get done in this, now his second term. Will you fight on those issues or will you dance on those issues?
REID: Well, I think we have to see what the proposals are. I don't think the president at this stage knows what he wants to do with Social Security or Medicare or the many other programs he talked about during the campaign. Those were campaigns. There was campaign rhetoric. Now, the hard part comes in putting that into legislative language. We'll see what happens when that comes before us.
HEMMER: Let's talk about the political end of this, too. Republicans now with 55 senators in that chamber of Congress. How will you now, being viewed as a new Democratic leader, lead your party forward after what many consider to be rather a devastating defeat two weeks ago?
REID: Well, first of all, Bill, I don't think that we should call the defeat devastating. We're very disappointed. We had some great Senate candidates, and they didn't win.
But if you look at the Senate races, there were 34 races. Republicans took 19 of them. We got 3.4 million more votes than they did. If you look across the country, you see the state legislatures. We picked up 74 seats. We now lead the nation with Democratic state legislators. So at the grassroots level we did great.
We understand there are millions of people, as I said earlier in the interview, that are depending on us to speak for them. And we're going to do that. In the process, though, I want to make sure that everyone understands we are willing to work with the president. We just want no surprises. We want to make sure that he gives us some knowledge of what he's trying to do and then we will see if we can work with him. If we can't, then we will do what we have to do.
HEMMER: Let me try -- let me try to get some specifics on the leadership issue. Would you support Terry McAuliffe staying in that job as head of DNC?
REID: We're -- we are working on that now. I've had a number of meetings with Nancy Pelosi. We're going to meet again soon. I met with John Kerry, who spent a year of his life dealing with the DNC. I've spoken to Governor Vilsack. I've spoken to Governor Richardson.
A lot of people are concerned about the DNC. And we're going to do our very best to have a productive DNC, not for a two-year cycle but for a four-year cycle.
HEMMER: Also, will Democrats try and block Condoleezza Rice going to secretary of state or is that considered, in basketball terms, a slam-dunk in Washington?
REID: I don't think it's a slam-dunk. I think she has to come appear before the appropriate committees. We have tremendously important committee structure that will vet this totally.
There are some things she's said, she's done, she's written we have to take a look at. But if there are no hang-ups in that process, then she should get approved. But it's up to Senator Biden to lead the charge for us.
HEMMER: Senator, one more thought here. From the home state of Nevada. You're a Mormon; you're pro-life. There is this battle on the other side with Arlen Specter, head of judiciary committee or not. Do you believe he should head up that committee, given the infighting that we've talked about over the past week?
REID: I've got a lot of things I'm working with in my own caucus. The Republicans have their problems. They can deal with their own problems. I'm not going to mess with them.
HEMMER: Thank you, Senator. Harry Reid, there, dancing and fighting on Capitol Hill. Thanks for your time. We'll talk again -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Bill Clinton's presidential library opens tomorrow in his home state of Arkansas. Kelly Wallace live for us in Little Rock this morning.
Hey, Kelly, good morning. You've had a chance to go inside. How is it?
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I have, Soledad. It is really, really interesting.
The former president, in fact, said yesterday, Soledad, that he wanted a building that would capture the imagination of people today and people for decades to come. And that's clearly what the New York- based architects had in mind when they built this bridge-like glass and steel structure that is overlooking the Arkansas River, estimated price tag, $165 million.
And its design, the architects say, definitely meant to symbolize former President Clinton's mantra, building a bridge to the 21st Century.
We got to get a sneak peek earlier this morning. And inside, you'll find features such as the presidential limo the president used during his 1993 inaugural parade. An exact replica of the Oval Office, 79,000 artifacts in all, more than two million photographs, 89,000 pages of presidential documents. We are told more than any other presidential museum.
There are exhibits capturing the highs and the lows of the Clinton presidency, and there is a brief, very brief mention of the impeachment battle in an exhibit titled "The Fight for Power." There is a brief mention of former White House intern Monica Lewinsky and also plenty of criticism for former counsel Kenneth Starr.
The former president has been in Little Rock for a couple of days and yesterday, he talked about why he wanted to bring his museum and library here to Arkansas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I very much wanted to put this library in Arkansas and turned down massive sums of money that were offered to me to put it into other places. I thought I owed it to my native state without which I would not have become president, and I wanted to make a contribution to the development of this city that I love so much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: And since he chose Little Rock in 1997, nearly $1 billion invested in the riverfront area and in downtown Little Rock. And Soledad, Little Rock will be on center stage tomorrow. President Bush will be here and former presidents Bush and Carter will be here, as well -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Kelly Wallace for us this morning. Kelly, thanks.
Also, we should mention that tonight Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will sit down with Larry King, talk about the significance of that library. That's at 9 p.m. Eastern Time right here on CNN -- Bill.
HEMMER: I don't think she's done an extended interview since the election, too, so interesting to have.
A check of the weather. Here's Chad Myers at the CNN Center. Eleven minutes past the hour.
Good morning.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: All right, Chad. Thanks for that.
O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, one of ABC's hottest shows has the network in some hot water. We'll tell you why it's saying sorry for mixing a little sex with football.
HEMMER: Also, the link between sleep and gaining weight. Dr. Gupta's back with us, telling us whether or not you're getting too many Z's or not enough.
O'BRIEN: And up next, thousands of ex-soldiers are being ordered back to duty. What happens, though, when one says no? We'll tell you how one man is fighting the Army, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: The Army is reaching way back to get soldiers to help fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; in this case, seven years back.
Major Rick Howell thought he was done with the Army in 1997. Now, at 47 years, they want him back on active duty. Rick Howell is in Tuscaloosa, Alabama for us.
Nice to see you, Rick. Thanks for being with us. Appreciate your time. Explain to me what happened after you retired at age 39 back in 1997. You got a telegram saying they wanted you back in. What exactly did it say?
MAJ. RICK HOWELL, U.S. ARMY: Basically, my wife, you know, who at that time, was 7 1/2 months pregnant, went to the mailbox, and I was out at our new house site, and opened the mail and called me on my cell phone and said, "You have this little telegram letter in the mail from the Army."
And I said, "Well, that can't be true, because, you know, I'm not in the Army anymore." And I said, "Go ahead and open it."
And you know, she opened it. And he started crying on the phone. \
And I said, "Read me what it says." And the first line of the letter says effective 31 July, 2004, you are recalled to active duty.
ZAHN: They want you to report to active duty. Have they made it clear exactly where you'd be reporting, what your role would be?
HOWELL: Yes, ma'am. The initial report date was 31 August, which was, like, 25 days before the birth of my child. But yes, the report location was Ft. Benning, Georgia, with -- and that was one week there at Ft. Benning to do some initial in processing and then Ft. Rucker for two weeks, basically, and the first National Guard or reserve unit headed to Iraq, you know, I would be assigned to them. And that's it.
O'BRIEN: In 1981, you were a commissioned officer. When you retired, the rule is you have to officially resign. Were you aware of that?
HOWELL: No, ma'am. I wasn't aware of it. I'm not really retired. I left the military in 1997 under a program called VSI. Basically, they were downsizing the military in an effort to balance the budget.
I left the military under that program. And part of that stipulation was I could not come back on active duty. I could not volunteer for the reserves, active reserves or active National Guard.
So you know, basically I assumed that if they told me I could not do that, I just assumed -- they said you would be in the IRR. But I asked what that was, and they told me that was just a list of names that they would use to track you from year-to-year and -- but no training, no -- I mean, I didn't get paid, you know, like an active reserve soldier. I mean, I was just on the rolls, as it were. O'BRIEN: Is the issue now that you have not officially resigned, and therefore, you can be open to being recalled for active duty? Is that the point?
HOWELL: That -- from what I understand, that's -- that's a big piece of it. I didn't know I was supposed to resign. Nowhere do they tell you that a commissioned officer has to resign their commission.
And you know, when you sign that duty form 214, which is basically your exit paperwork, it doesn't state anywhere on there that, if you're a commissioned officer, you have to resign your commission. I just assumed, you know, I was out of the military.
O'BRIEN: You filed an appeal. What happens now?
HOWELL: I filed an exemption, which was immediately turned down by the military. You know, I told them that, you know, a new father, my parents are aging. I have to take care of them, and I'm also 20 percent disabled. I have a service-connected disability I'm being treated for at a V.A. hospital.
So -- and they just rubber-stamped it. They turned down my request for exemption.
And the funny thing is I even -- you know, I said, look, if you really need me to come back, although I am disabled and have these issues, I mean, me and my wife had agreed that if you would send us somewhere as an instructor or a logistics planner, we would actually come back for 18 months.
And they basically said, "No, we don't want you for that. We only want you for one reason, and that's to go to Iraq."
O'BRIEN: We'll see how it ends up for you. Major Rick Howell is now battling it out.
HOWELL: Yes, ma'am.
O'BRIEN: Thanks for talking to us. Appreciate it.
HOWELL: Yes, ma'am.
O'BRIEN: At 19 minutes past the hour, similar topic, the military. Back to Jack and a question.
CAFFERTY: That's an amazing story, but they have plenty of troops, they say. Right. No need to reinstitute the draft. We've got plenty of soldiers. The guy's been out seven years; he's 47 years old. Come on.
We've been talking about the NBC footage yesterday of that Marine in Falluja. This Marine went into a mosque, where he shot and killed an insurgent who was wounded in there.
The previous day, he had been shot in the face by an insurgent. Days before that, a close friend of this Marine had been killed by a booby-trapped dead body.
The problem with pictures like these is that we on this side of the ocean see them way out of context. We don't see the violent or bloody actions leading up to that moment of encounter.
Commanders defended the Marines, saying the tactics used by the insurgents violate rules of engagement. They booby-trap corpses. They feign surrender. They hide behind civilians.
The Pentagon says it's concerned how that videotape will play in the Arab world.
The question we're fiddling with here this morning is should TV cameras follow combat troops during war?
Weldon in New Market, Ontario: "There's more than enough stress on the troops in combat as it is. Why wait for an error in judgment and show it to the world? The TV camera is a device making it possible for so many armchair critic is in our society today."
Jack in Dumphries, Virginia, writes, "No way do TV cameras belong in combat situations, walking behind our soldiers, whose first obligation is to protect themselves from being killed or injured. Where is the public outrage when one of our people gets blown up by some booby-trapped Muslim wanting to meet Allah?"
Robert in Houston writes this: "There must definitely be reporters in the battlefield. As a combat veteran I'm well aware that atrocities do take place in war. This Marine committed no atrocity. I know exactly what was going through that Marine's mind at the time and under the circumstances, would have done the same thing."
And Roger writes this: "Aren't we paying these Marines to kill the enemy? So why does everybody get upset when they see live footage of them doing their job? Get some stones, America; we're at war."
HEMMER: And a big response, too.
CAFFERTY: Yes. Well over 1,000 letters. A very emotional issue for people, I think.
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.
All right. In a moment here, a "Desperate Housewife" steamed up the locker room on Monday football before the game. ABC says it's sorry; so does NFL. How genuine is the apology?
We'll talk about that in a moment here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Welcome back, everybody. There was no wardrobe malfunction but ABC is getting plenty of heat for its opening to "Monday Night Football" this week. The segment featured Philadelphia Eagles star Terrell Owens and actress Nicolette Sheridan in a tie-in to the network's hit series, "Desperate Housewives". (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TERRELL OWENS, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES PLAYER: And I've got a game to play.
NICOLETTE SHERIDAN, ACTRESS: Terrell, wait!
OWENS: Oh, hell, the team's going to have to win this one without me.
SHERIDAN: Whoa!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God. Who watches this trash? Sex, lies, betrayal?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: And then they were ready for some football. ABC apologized after viewers of the NFL said it was out of bounds. In a statement the league said -- I'm reading now -- "ABC's opening was inappropriate and unsuitable for our Monday night football audience. While ABC may have gained attention for one of its shows, the NFL and its fans lost."
Let's talk about it with "Sports Illustrated" writer Josh Elliott, with me here in New York City.
Good morning to you.
JOSH ELLIOTT, "SPORTS ILLUSTRATED" WRITER: How are you? Is this "90-Second Pop," by the way? I'm totally confused.
HEMMER: What is your take on this? I mean, was it just publicity or P.R. where they're throwing out the segment to see, "Well, let's see how viewers respond"?
ELLIOTT: Absolutely. Look, you cannot fault ABC. They're an entertainment entity, trying to do whatever they can to increase viewership, to titillate viewers. So they don't surprise me.
But I think everybody who has issued these half-ham-handed, half- hearted "we didn't know what was going to happen," I think everybody is being a little disingenuous.
HEMMER: Stop for a second. Did the NFL say that they had no idea that this segment was going to air?
ELLIOTT: If you look at the wording, they don't come right out and say, "We had no idea." You know, "The NFL and its fans lost" -- they're -- they're really speaking in euphemisms.
However, after the Janet Jackson fiasco last year at the Super Bowl and the way the NFL came down with an iron fist on CBS and Viacom, promising that something like that would never happen again, well, it took about nine weeks into the season for it to happen. HEMMER: Les Moonves, head of CBS the other night on Letterman said, "We're going to continue to fight this fine." He doesn't believe the FCC should get CBS, the network, to the tune of about, what, a $500,000 fine.
ELLIOTT: Five hundred thousand, yes.
HEMMER: Would you expect a fine on this? Where does it go?
ELLIOTT: I have to say this. You have to, simply because that was borderline soft-core pornography. That we forget -- I mean, people have been trying to explain it away here in New York. Well, it was on at 9 p.m. That's when "Desperate Housewives" comes on. But it was 6 p.m. on the West Coast. It was 7 p.m. in the, you know, in the mountain times.
So you have to -- you have to remember, there are a lot of kids and families gathered around, waiting for their football.
HEMMER: Sure.
ELLIOTT: And no viewer discretion is advised comes up before that. So yes.
HEMMER: You want some rating -- or you want some numbers? From '03 to '04, 2003-2004, ratings down seven percent for "Monday Night Football." Not a huge drop, but it is considerable.
ELLIOTT: It's considerable. But also remember this. This is important. ABC is the one network that has not yet signed their new deal with the NFL to broadcast "Monday Night Football" in the future.
The NFL has already taken late season games starting next season away from Fox and CBS to give them to ABC to give to -- create more favorable match ups.
HEMMER: Are you saying it could be questionable now?
ELLIOTT: Well, I just have to say this. It seems -- it's an interesting bit of timing that the NFL would let ABC essentially do whatever it wants to promote its show, the network, et cetera.
HEMMER: You want some more numbers?
ELLIOTT: I do.
HEMMER: Forty-nine-21 was the final on Monday night. The Eagles beat the Cowboys, and nobody's talking about that.
ELLIOTT: And nobody's talking about it. I have to tell you, you want another number? The -- the rating for "Desperate Housewives" this Sunday will be off the charts.
HEMMER: That it will. "Monday Night Football" may follow the same.
ELLIOTT: Indeed.
HEMMER: So we'll see. Thanks, Josh.
ELLIOTT: Absolutely. You, too.
HEMMER: Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, we're serving up some "90- Second Pop."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC)
O'BRIEN (voice-over): One of the biggest fans in rock 'n' roll history could be getting back together. Will anybody care?
Plus, is Tom hanks cracking the code in his next big role?
All that straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired November 17, 2004 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: The president's new team coming together. More vacancies in the cabinet set to be filled.
One of the biggest events for an ex-president happening now for Bill Clinton. A look at his brand-new and very unconventional library.
And "Monday Night Football" meets "Desperate Housewives." They may wish they'd never been introduced on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.
BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Nine o'clock here in New York. That guy's late for work. Did you see him running? Good luck!
O'BRIEN: You can make it.
HEMMER: Keep going.
Some other stories we're watching this hour.
While the president's team comes together, the same thing happening for Democrats, too, in Congress. Harry Reid of Nevada has been tapped as the new Senate minority leader. How will he do things differently from his predecessor, Tom Daschle, and how do Democrats now adapt after the defeats of two weeks ago? We'll talk to him in a moment. The senator is our guest from Capitol Hill.
O'BRIEN: Also this morning, ABC now apologizing for a little skit it used to introduce this week's Monday night game. Did you see this?
Nicolette Sheridan of the hit show, "Desperate Housewives," played a seductress with Philadelphia Eagles star Terrell Owens. A towel on the floor implied nudity. A lot of other things implied, as well. Not everybody was amused. We're going to talk this morning with "Sports Illustrated" writer Josh Elliott.
No one has mentioned -- I think this is true -- black guy, white woman issue. Come on; am I the only one who saw that? That's why people are up in arms?
JACK CAFFERTY, CO-HOST: I don't know. O'BRIEN: Jack with nothing to say on this. I'm shocked.
CAFFERTY: It's not exactly "Mandingo," but...
O'BRIEN: Then there's that. All right. We'll move on.
CAFFERTY: You brought it up.
AM@CNN.com is the e-mail address. More than 1,000 of you have written us letters on the subject of whether or not television cameras belong on the battlefield during wartime. We'll read some of the responses. Pretty terrific stuff, a lot of them. All kinds of opinions, but it's an interesting topic that's obviously touched a nerve out there.
HEMMER: All right. Thank you, Jack.
Heidi Collins back with us again with us today. Also, the gang is all here for a change. How you doing this morning?
HEIDI COLLINS, ANCHOR: Yes. Doing well, thanks. Good to see you again. Happy belated birthday. We mentioned that, haven't we, about 800 times?
HEMMER: Forty and still standing.
COLLINS: Good.
CAFFERTY: It's 41 when you have to worry.
HEMMER: Let's talk about it a little more. As you were.
COLLINS: Now to get to the news, real news. Sorry, Bill.
Hi, everybody. British leaders are condemning the apparent killing of aide worker Margaret Hassan. The Arab network Al Jazeera says it has obtained a video showing the apparent shooting of a woman identified as Hassan. The video was not aired. A memorial service in her honor was held earlier this morning in Ireland, where she was born.
Some nuclear revelations from Russia this morning. Russian President Vladimir Putin says Russia will soon have access to advanced nuclear missile systems. He said research is being done, and the nuclear missile systems could be available to the military in the near future.
Here in the United States, House Republicans are expected to change rules this morning to make sure Tom DeLay keeps his post as majority leader. DeLay is under investigation in the campaign -- campaign finance probe. His allies say it is politically motivated. A House committee is expected to vote this hour to change a requirement forcing leaders to give up their post if they've charged with a felony.
And attention K-Mart shoppers, K-Mart and Sears are merging in an $11 billion stock deal. Andy was telling about this a little bit earlier. It's going to make it the third largest U.S. retailer. The new company will be known as Sears Holdings and will be based in Chicago, as usual. But both names will still be used on stores. The deal could be finalized by the end of March next year.
Now, consternation about where you buy your deep freezer or your washing machine or whatever.
O'BRIEN: Seems like lots of people are going to Target, actually.
All right, Heidi. Thanks.
In the past week, President Bush's cabinet has been shuffling like a deck of cards. So far, six of 15 secretaries have stepped down. Others are expected to follow suit.
Last Tuesday, the White House announced the resignations of Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Don Evans. The next day, White House counsel Alberto Gonzales was nominated to replace John Ashcroft at the Justice Department.
On Monday, four more resignations were announced: Secretary of State Colin Powell, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, Education Secretary Rod Paige and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham out. Condoleezza Rice was nominated yesterday to fill the vacancy at the State Department, and a senior administration official tells CNN that the president intends to name his long-time domestic policy advisor, Margaret Spellings, as education secretary.
Senior administration sources also telling CNN that Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge plans to leave his post. That has not been officially confirmed as of yet.
HEMMER: When Tom Daschle lost his reelection bid in the Senate, Democrats there lost their leader. And now they have a new one. Nevada's Harry Reid will lead a diminished minority when the 109th Congress convenes in January. And Senator Reid my guest now on Capitol Hill.
We welcome you here now, Senator, and good morning to you.
SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MINORITY LEADER: Thank you very much, Bill. Glad to be with you.
HEMMER: I think the one quote that's coming out of Washington, more so than any other in the past 24 hours is what you said. And you said -- I'm quoting now -- that you'd rather dance than fight, "but I know how to fight."
So what did you bring to work today? Was it the tap shoes or was it the boxing gloves, Senator?
REID: We're going to do everything we can. We just finished a meeting with the president. We're going to do everything we can to work toward passing some legislation. We want to be cooperative. But we want to also make the people of America understand that we represent lots of people. Millions and millions of people are depending on what we do, and we're going to do it the best we can to make sure their wishes are fulfilled.
HEMMER: Let me and get a little more insight on your meeting with the president. When it comes to things like Social Security reform and tax cuts, the president has already talked about trying to get done in this, now his second term. Will you fight on those issues or will you dance on those issues?
REID: Well, I think we have to see what the proposals are. I don't think the president at this stage knows what he wants to do with Social Security or Medicare or the many other programs he talked about during the campaign. Those were campaigns. There was campaign rhetoric. Now, the hard part comes in putting that into legislative language. We'll see what happens when that comes before us.
HEMMER: Let's talk about the political end of this, too. Republicans now with 55 senators in that chamber of Congress. How will you now, being viewed as a new Democratic leader, lead your party forward after what many consider to be rather a devastating defeat two weeks ago?
REID: Well, first of all, Bill, I don't think that we should call the defeat devastating. We're very disappointed. We had some great Senate candidates, and they didn't win.
But if you look at the Senate races, there were 34 races. Republicans took 19 of them. We got 3.4 million more votes than they did. If you look across the country, you see the state legislatures. We picked up 74 seats. We now lead the nation with Democratic state legislators. So at the grassroots level we did great.
We understand there are millions of people, as I said earlier in the interview, that are depending on us to speak for them. And we're going to do that. In the process, though, I want to make sure that everyone understands we are willing to work with the president. We just want no surprises. We want to make sure that he gives us some knowledge of what he's trying to do and then we will see if we can work with him. If we can't, then we will do what we have to do.
HEMMER: Let me try -- let me try to get some specifics on the leadership issue. Would you support Terry McAuliffe staying in that job as head of DNC?
REID: We're -- we are working on that now. I've had a number of meetings with Nancy Pelosi. We're going to meet again soon. I met with John Kerry, who spent a year of his life dealing with the DNC. I've spoken to Governor Vilsack. I've spoken to Governor Richardson.
A lot of people are concerned about the DNC. And we're going to do our very best to have a productive DNC, not for a two-year cycle but for a four-year cycle.
HEMMER: Also, will Democrats try and block Condoleezza Rice going to secretary of state or is that considered, in basketball terms, a slam-dunk in Washington?
REID: I don't think it's a slam-dunk. I think she has to come appear before the appropriate committees. We have tremendously important committee structure that will vet this totally.
There are some things she's said, she's done, she's written we have to take a look at. But if there are no hang-ups in that process, then she should get approved. But it's up to Senator Biden to lead the charge for us.
HEMMER: Senator, one more thought here. From the home state of Nevada. You're a Mormon; you're pro-life. There is this battle on the other side with Arlen Specter, head of judiciary committee or not. Do you believe he should head up that committee, given the infighting that we've talked about over the past week?
REID: I've got a lot of things I'm working with in my own caucus. The Republicans have their problems. They can deal with their own problems. I'm not going to mess with them.
HEMMER: Thank you, Senator. Harry Reid, there, dancing and fighting on Capitol Hill. Thanks for your time. We'll talk again -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Bill Clinton's presidential library opens tomorrow in his home state of Arkansas. Kelly Wallace live for us in Little Rock this morning.
Hey, Kelly, good morning. You've had a chance to go inside. How is it?
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I have, Soledad. It is really, really interesting.
The former president, in fact, said yesterday, Soledad, that he wanted a building that would capture the imagination of people today and people for decades to come. And that's clearly what the New York- based architects had in mind when they built this bridge-like glass and steel structure that is overlooking the Arkansas River, estimated price tag, $165 million.
And its design, the architects say, definitely meant to symbolize former President Clinton's mantra, building a bridge to the 21st Century.
We got to get a sneak peek earlier this morning. And inside, you'll find features such as the presidential limo the president used during his 1993 inaugural parade. An exact replica of the Oval Office, 79,000 artifacts in all, more than two million photographs, 89,000 pages of presidential documents. We are told more than any other presidential museum.
There are exhibits capturing the highs and the lows of the Clinton presidency, and there is a brief, very brief mention of the impeachment battle in an exhibit titled "The Fight for Power." There is a brief mention of former White House intern Monica Lewinsky and also plenty of criticism for former counsel Kenneth Starr.
The former president has been in Little Rock for a couple of days and yesterday, he talked about why he wanted to bring his museum and library here to Arkansas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I very much wanted to put this library in Arkansas and turned down massive sums of money that were offered to me to put it into other places. I thought I owed it to my native state without which I would not have become president, and I wanted to make a contribution to the development of this city that I love so much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: And since he chose Little Rock in 1997, nearly $1 billion invested in the riverfront area and in downtown Little Rock. And Soledad, Little Rock will be on center stage tomorrow. President Bush will be here and former presidents Bush and Carter will be here, as well -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Kelly Wallace for us this morning. Kelly, thanks.
Also, we should mention that tonight Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will sit down with Larry King, talk about the significance of that library. That's at 9 p.m. Eastern Time right here on CNN -- Bill.
HEMMER: I don't think she's done an extended interview since the election, too, so interesting to have.
A check of the weather. Here's Chad Myers at the CNN Center. Eleven minutes past the hour.
Good morning.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: All right, Chad. Thanks for that.
O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, one of ABC's hottest shows has the network in some hot water. We'll tell you why it's saying sorry for mixing a little sex with football.
HEMMER: Also, the link between sleep and gaining weight. Dr. Gupta's back with us, telling us whether or not you're getting too many Z's or not enough.
O'BRIEN: And up next, thousands of ex-soldiers are being ordered back to duty. What happens, though, when one says no? We'll tell you how one man is fighting the Army, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: The Army is reaching way back to get soldiers to help fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; in this case, seven years back.
Major Rick Howell thought he was done with the Army in 1997. Now, at 47 years, they want him back on active duty. Rick Howell is in Tuscaloosa, Alabama for us.
Nice to see you, Rick. Thanks for being with us. Appreciate your time. Explain to me what happened after you retired at age 39 back in 1997. You got a telegram saying they wanted you back in. What exactly did it say?
MAJ. RICK HOWELL, U.S. ARMY: Basically, my wife, you know, who at that time, was 7 1/2 months pregnant, went to the mailbox, and I was out at our new house site, and opened the mail and called me on my cell phone and said, "You have this little telegram letter in the mail from the Army."
And I said, "Well, that can't be true, because, you know, I'm not in the Army anymore." And I said, "Go ahead and open it."
And you know, she opened it. And he started crying on the phone. \
And I said, "Read me what it says." And the first line of the letter says effective 31 July, 2004, you are recalled to active duty.
ZAHN: They want you to report to active duty. Have they made it clear exactly where you'd be reporting, what your role would be?
HOWELL: Yes, ma'am. The initial report date was 31 August, which was, like, 25 days before the birth of my child. But yes, the report location was Ft. Benning, Georgia, with -- and that was one week there at Ft. Benning to do some initial in processing and then Ft. Rucker for two weeks, basically, and the first National Guard or reserve unit headed to Iraq, you know, I would be assigned to them. And that's it.
O'BRIEN: In 1981, you were a commissioned officer. When you retired, the rule is you have to officially resign. Were you aware of that?
HOWELL: No, ma'am. I wasn't aware of it. I'm not really retired. I left the military in 1997 under a program called VSI. Basically, they were downsizing the military in an effort to balance the budget.
I left the military under that program. And part of that stipulation was I could not come back on active duty. I could not volunteer for the reserves, active reserves or active National Guard.
So you know, basically I assumed that if they told me I could not do that, I just assumed -- they said you would be in the IRR. But I asked what that was, and they told me that was just a list of names that they would use to track you from year-to-year and -- but no training, no -- I mean, I didn't get paid, you know, like an active reserve soldier. I mean, I was just on the rolls, as it were. O'BRIEN: Is the issue now that you have not officially resigned, and therefore, you can be open to being recalled for active duty? Is that the point?
HOWELL: That -- from what I understand, that's -- that's a big piece of it. I didn't know I was supposed to resign. Nowhere do they tell you that a commissioned officer has to resign their commission.
And you know, when you sign that duty form 214, which is basically your exit paperwork, it doesn't state anywhere on there that, if you're a commissioned officer, you have to resign your commission. I just assumed, you know, I was out of the military.
O'BRIEN: You filed an appeal. What happens now?
HOWELL: I filed an exemption, which was immediately turned down by the military. You know, I told them that, you know, a new father, my parents are aging. I have to take care of them, and I'm also 20 percent disabled. I have a service-connected disability I'm being treated for at a V.A. hospital.
So -- and they just rubber-stamped it. They turned down my request for exemption.
And the funny thing is I even -- you know, I said, look, if you really need me to come back, although I am disabled and have these issues, I mean, me and my wife had agreed that if you would send us somewhere as an instructor or a logistics planner, we would actually come back for 18 months.
And they basically said, "No, we don't want you for that. We only want you for one reason, and that's to go to Iraq."
O'BRIEN: We'll see how it ends up for you. Major Rick Howell is now battling it out.
HOWELL: Yes, ma'am.
O'BRIEN: Thanks for talking to us. Appreciate it.
HOWELL: Yes, ma'am.
O'BRIEN: At 19 minutes past the hour, similar topic, the military. Back to Jack and a question.
CAFFERTY: That's an amazing story, but they have plenty of troops, they say. Right. No need to reinstitute the draft. We've got plenty of soldiers. The guy's been out seven years; he's 47 years old. Come on.
We've been talking about the NBC footage yesterday of that Marine in Falluja. This Marine went into a mosque, where he shot and killed an insurgent who was wounded in there.
The previous day, he had been shot in the face by an insurgent. Days before that, a close friend of this Marine had been killed by a booby-trapped dead body.
The problem with pictures like these is that we on this side of the ocean see them way out of context. We don't see the violent or bloody actions leading up to that moment of encounter.
Commanders defended the Marines, saying the tactics used by the insurgents violate rules of engagement. They booby-trap corpses. They feign surrender. They hide behind civilians.
The Pentagon says it's concerned how that videotape will play in the Arab world.
The question we're fiddling with here this morning is should TV cameras follow combat troops during war?
Weldon in New Market, Ontario: "There's more than enough stress on the troops in combat as it is. Why wait for an error in judgment and show it to the world? The TV camera is a device making it possible for so many armchair critic is in our society today."
Jack in Dumphries, Virginia, writes, "No way do TV cameras belong in combat situations, walking behind our soldiers, whose first obligation is to protect themselves from being killed or injured. Where is the public outrage when one of our people gets blown up by some booby-trapped Muslim wanting to meet Allah?"
Robert in Houston writes this: "There must definitely be reporters in the battlefield. As a combat veteran I'm well aware that atrocities do take place in war. This Marine committed no atrocity. I know exactly what was going through that Marine's mind at the time and under the circumstances, would have done the same thing."
And Roger writes this: "Aren't we paying these Marines to kill the enemy? So why does everybody get upset when they see live footage of them doing their job? Get some stones, America; we're at war."
HEMMER: And a big response, too.
CAFFERTY: Yes. Well over 1,000 letters. A very emotional issue for people, I think.
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.
All right. In a moment here, a "Desperate Housewife" steamed up the locker room on Monday football before the game. ABC says it's sorry; so does NFL. How genuine is the apology?
We'll talk about that in a moment here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Welcome back, everybody. There was no wardrobe malfunction but ABC is getting plenty of heat for its opening to "Monday Night Football" this week. The segment featured Philadelphia Eagles star Terrell Owens and actress Nicolette Sheridan in a tie-in to the network's hit series, "Desperate Housewives". (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TERRELL OWENS, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES PLAYER: And I've got a game to play.
NICOLETTE SHERIDAN, ACTRESS: Terrell, wait!
OWENS: Oh, hell, the team's going to have to win this one without me.
SHERIDAN: Whoa!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God. Who watches this trash? Sex, lies, betrayal?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: And then they were ready for some football. ABC apologized after viewers of the NFL said it was out of bounds. In a statement the league said -- I'm reading now -- "ABC's opening was inappropriate and unsuitable for our Monday night football audience. While ABC may have gained attention for one of its shows, the NFL and its fans lost."
Let's talk about it with "Sports Illustrated" writer Josh Elliott, with me here in New York City.
Good morning to you.
JOSH ELLIOTT, "SPORTS ILLUSTRATED" WRITER: How are you? Is this "90-Second Pop," by the way? I'm totally confused.
HEMMER: What is your take on this? I mean, was it just publicity or P.R. where they're throwing out the segment to see, "Well, let's see how viewers respond"?
ELLIOTT: Absolutely. Look, you cannot fault ABC. They're an entertainment entity, trying to do whatever they can to increase viewership, to titillate viewers. So they don't surprise me.
But I think everybody who has issued these half-ham-handed, half- hearted "we didn't know what was going to happen," I think everybody is being a little disingenuous.
HEMMER: Stop for a second. Did the NFL say that they had no idea that this segment was going to air?
ELLIOTT: If you look at the wording, they don't come right out and say, "We had no idea." You know, "The NFL and its fans lost" -- they're -- they're really speaking in euphemisms.
However, after the Janet Jackson fiasco last year at the Super Bowl and the way the NFL came down with an iron fist on CBS and Viacom, promising that something like that would never happen again, well, it took about nine weeks into the season for it to happen. HEMMER: Les Moonves, head of CBS the other night on Letterman said, "We're going to continue to fight this fine." He doesn't believe the FCC should get CBS, the network, to the tune of about, what, a $500,000 fine.
ELLIOTT: Five hundred thousand, yes.
HEMMER: Would you expect a fine on this? Where does it go?
ELLIOTT: I have to say this. You have to, simply because that was borderline soft-core pornography. That we forget -- I mean, people have been trying to explain it away here in New York. Well, it was on at 9 p.m. That's when "Desperate Housewives" comes on. But it was 6 p.m. on the West Coast. It was 7 p.m. in the, you know, in the mountain times.
So you have to -- you have to remember, there are a lot of kids and families gathered around, waiting for their football.
HEMMER: Sure.
ELLIOTT: And no viewer discretion is advised comes up before that. So yes.
HEMMER: You want some rating -- or you want some numbers? From '03 to '04, 2003-2004, ratings down seven percent for "Monday Night Football." Not a huge drop, but it is considerable.
ELLIOTT: It's considerable. But also remember this. This is important. ABC is the one network that has not yet signed their new deal with the NFL to broadcast "Monday Night Football" in the future.
The NFL has already taken late season games starting next season away from Fox and CBS to give them to ABC to give to -- create more favorable match ups.
HEMMER: Are you saying it could be questionable now?
ELLIOTT: Well, I just have to say this. It seems -- it's an interesting bit of timing that the NFL would let ABC essentially do whatever it wants to promote its show, the network, et cetera.
HEMMER: You want some more numbers?
ELLIOTT: I do.
HEMMER: Forty-nine-21 was the final on Monday night. The Eagles beat the Cowboys, and nobody's talking about that.
ELLIOTT: And nobody's talking about it. I have to tell you, you want another number? The -- the rating for "Desperate Housewives" this Sunday will be off the charts.
HEMMER: That it will. "Monday Night Football" may follow the same.
ELLIOTT: Indeed.
HEMMER: So we'll see. Thanks, Josh.
ELLIOTT: Absolutely. You, too.
HEMMER: Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, we're serving up some "90- Second Pop."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC)
O'BRIEN (voice-over): One of the biggest fans in rock 'n' roll history could be getting back together. Will anybody care?
Plus, is Tom hanks cracking the code in his next big role?
All that straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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