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American Morning
Condoleezza Rice Prepares for Hearings; Day Two of "New You Revolution"
Aired January 18, 2005 - 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: ... We'll look at her record the last four years, her strengths and her weaknesses and what they tell us about the job she might do as secretary of state.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Also, in a few moments, Sanjay's back here in New York. The "New You Revolution" comes your way for the second day today. We'll meet a minister trying to fight temptation. She wants her cigarette, she wants her junk food. She needs exercise. She knows all of this. Her story's coming up in a moment. Who doesn't?
O'BRIEN: The junk food, maybe not the cigarette. Headlines first, though, with Heidi Collins. Good morning.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you guys and good morning once again, everybody. "Now in the News" this morning, Iraq is boosting security ahead of the January 30th elections. Officials at the Ministry of Interior announcing today they will close the country's borders from January 29th until the 31st. They may also bar some travel within the country and impose a nighttime curfew. The measures are meant to encourage a high voter turnout.
Nearly 2 million Muslims across the world are flocking to the holy city of Mecca. They're taking part in the Hajj, a once in a lifetime pilgrimage to the city. Security is tight as Saudi officials try to prevent stampedes and possible terrorist attacks.
In New York, the re-trial begins of former Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski. He and another former top executive are accused of taking some $600 million from the company. The original case ended in a mistrial back in April amid accusations a juror had been threatened. Jury selection for the re-trial is set to begin this morning.
And the man who unknowingly plunged a nail into his head says he still can't believe it happened. 23-year-old Patrick Lawler shot a four-inch spike into his mouth when his nail gun backfired, plunging an inch and a half into his brain. Lawler spoke out just moments ago at a news conference about the accident.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PATRICK LAWLER, NAIL GUN VICTIM: We just thought it was like a big contusion. Got punched or something. Your eye swells up, jaw swells up or whatever. Get hit with something in the face, you know. We didn't think a nail was hanging out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
The nail was removed in a four-hour operation at a Denver area hospital.
Still pretty amazing he didn't know it happened.
O'BRIEN: Wow.
COLLINS: Right?
HEMMER: You know, the guys on the crew here think he was less than sober when that thing went down.
O'BRIEN: A little less than sober?
HEMMER: I think they're on to something.
O'BRIEN: Still, that's unbelievable.
COLLINS: I know, it's amazing.
O'BRIEN: Oh my goodness.
COLLINS: He got that taken out actually at the hospital that I had my child at. I don't know what that had to do with it, but, you know.
O'BRIEN: Hopefully you both had lots of drugs is all I'll say -- Bill.
HEMMER: Condoleezza Rice is on Capitol Hill in about 30 minutes now, starting her confirmation hearing for secretary of state. It may go one day, it may go two.
Ed Henry is there live now this morning. Ed, good morning.
ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill. As national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice did not have to testify under oath to Congress. That's why Democrats are so eager now to get her on the record about the past and the future.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY (voice-over): Condoleezza Rice is such a big football fan, she's toyed with the idea of some day becoming commissioner of the NFL. For now, she just wants to be secretary of state. And Rice's love of the grid iron may be good practice for her confirmation hearings.
SEN. GEORGE ALLEN (R), VIRGINIA: While they will try to play this bump and run, try to knock her off stride, ultimately they're going to be voting for her to be secretary of state.
HENRY: Senator John Kerry will be among the Democrats grilling Rice on everything from her handling of terror warnings before 9/11 to her role in faulty intelligence reports leading up to the war in Iraq. SUSAN RICE, FMR. KERRY ADVISER: I think it will be a robust questioning of her record, looking backwards, as well as, of course, the president's record. But it will also be an opportunity to try to pin her down on where she sees foreign policy going in the course of the second term.
HENRY: Rice can also expect tough questions from Republican Richard Lugar, who wants to hear her vision on hotspots like Iran, North Korea, HIV/AIDS in Africa and Mideast peace. Allies say Rice will preview the theme of President Bush's inaugural address, spreading democracy around the world. And they say the personal story of Rice, who grew up in the segregated South, will help her carry that banner on the world stage.
ALLEN: As we try to advance freedom for all people in the world, regardless of their race or their gender or their ethnicity or religious beliefs, I think her own life experiences makes her an even stronger person to advocate the concepts of freedom.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY: We have new pictures now of Dr. Rice leaving the White House a short while ago on her way to the Hill, where her confirmation hearing will begin just under 30 minutes from now right behind me. Democrats are saying they think Dr. Rice may be too close to the president, unlike outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell. But Republicans say that she'll make her voice heard as secretary of state, she will stand up to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and they also say she'll be confirmed very easily, possibly as early as Thursday -- Bill.
HEMMER: You took us through a few things in your piece there, Ed. Take us through what her introduction is today to say what kind of a secretary of state she will be for the U.S.
HENRY: Well, we actually have a copy of her opening statement. It has just come out. And she is going to talk a lot about 9/11. Now Democrats are going to try to use 9/11 to say that Dr. Rice as national security adviser was not aggressive enough before 9/11 in dealing with Osama bin Laden and the threat. She uses 9/11 to say that she believes that she and the president acted very decisively, aggressively after 9/11 and that has reshaped the world and that will shape her vision as secretary of state.
She also is going to talk a lot about issues like Iran, North Korea and she's going to also talk about how she believes that public diplomacy and institutions like the U.N. are important. That's partly to show and reassure the world that she as secretary of state will put a value on the U.N., will put a value in allies, unlike what some critics have been saying -- Bill.
HEMMER: Good preview. Ed, thanks. Again, we expect it about 30 minutes from now, back to you there.
The confirmation may be a foregone conclusion, but how will Condoleezza Rice fare as America's top diplomat? Michael O'Hanlon's a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, my guest now down in D.C.
Good morning, welcome back here. She will say a number of things that Ed just described here. Is she the best choice, do you believe, for secretary of state?
MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: Bill, I think she is a very good choice in the sense that everybody's going to have certain limits in their resume. And Brent Scowcroft himself said Rice is stronger in some parts of the world, like Russia, than others. But she's very experienced, certainly in this administration. She's young and energetic, by comparison with many who have had the job. She's obviously very close to the president.
It remains to be seen, as you pointed out, whether she will stand up to Rumsfeld and Cheney when necessary. But I think she probably will grow into that job and she may be able to do it in a more effective way than Colin Powell, who was always sort of lager heads and a little bit the odd man out. Rice will never be the odd woman out with this president, and that may set her up pretty well.
HEMMER: Is that why she could be more effective?
O'HANLON: I think so. I think if she sort of has a backbone and finds her legs, challenging Rumsfeld and Cheney when they need to be challenged, I think it could be a more effective sort of counter to their very hard-line conservatism than Colin Powell was able to muster in the first term. I'm optimistic.
HEMMER: That's the point you come back to considerably, talking with our producers last night. Will she be able to stand up to the Pentagon? Why do you believe that so is critical over the next four years?
O'HANLON: Well, one reason is the Pentagon really has some big mistakes on its track record now in the last couple of years in Iraq, especially in the period after Saddam fell. And Condoleezza Rice deserves some blame for that herself, because she was in a position to coordinate policy and they didn't do a great job. In one sense, that of course weakens Mr. Rumsfeld's image around town and perhaps makes it easier for him to be challenged.
I don't know if Iraq is going to be the place where Rice is going to be most in need of confronting the Pentagon, or if it will be over North Korea policy or Iran policy. But Mr. Rumsfeld has shown himself to be a very, very creative man, but like many creative people, he gets things wrong a lot, even if he also comes up with very good ideas. And that's why we really need someone to challenge him when he may have an idea that's intriguing, yet not really good.
HEMMER: Michael, from the "Washington Post" today, Richard Holbrooke, who campaigned against this president in favor of John Kerry, wrote this today, regarding Condoleezza Rice. He talked about "Rice...whose close relationship with the president will give her enormous credibility with foreign governments and greater standing within the administration." No friend of this administration, but complimentary words there, do you believe? O'HANLON: I think he's right. And Mr. Holbrooke also pointed out that a lot of the people Rice wants to bring in, starting with Bob Zoellick her deputy, are very, very, experienced, professional and non-ideological individuals. And that's one more thing that looks pretty good from this point of view.
HEMMER: Thank you, Michael. One other thing she's expected to say today, regarding public diplomacy, our interaction with the rest of the world must be a conversation and not a monologue. We will look for those theme, again, in 30 minutes today in Washington. Michael, good to talk to you. We'll speak again.
Live coverage starts at 9:00 a.m. Eastern time, down there in Capitol Hill. We'll be there live for you.
Also later in the week, Thursday morning, join us for a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING. We are live on Capitol Hill then, as we get ready for the inauguration, the second term of President Bush. 7:00 a.m. Eastern time is when our coverage starts there on Thursday -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Well, that's when the coverage starts. And we'll be outside, which means we're going to be cold.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: Supersizing the skies. Andy's got the lowdown on that new jumbo-sized double-decker jet and its connection to a hall of fame quarterback. Andy has that in a moment.
O'BRIEN: Plus the "New You Revolution" rolls on. Today we're going to meet a woman who's getting fit for herself and her entire congregation. Her story is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: It is day two of our "New You Revolution," where we're helping five participants break some bad habits.
O'BRIEN: You saw his picture there a moment ago, the very handsome Dr. Sanjay Gupta joining us to introduce Reverend Leigh Ann Raynor. I like that shot.
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That was not in the prompter.
O'BRIEN: No.
GUPTA: You wrote it.
O'BRIEN: I just went crazy all by myself. Good morning.
GUPTA: Good morning, both of you.
Listen, Leigh Ann Raynor, her application caught our attention because she wants to improve her health and also to be a role model to her congregation. Really interesting story. She's tried before, but a misdiagnosed heart condition kept Leigh Ann from exercising for a long time. Not anymore, though.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA (voice-over): Meet Leigh Ann Raynor. It's a big year for Reverend Leigh Ann Raynor. She turns the big 5-0 and finally wants to make some changes.
LEIGH ANN RAYNOR, "NEW YOU" PARTICIPANT: If I shrink as I get older, it's not going to be all that long before I look like SpongeBob.
GUPTA: In her 25 years as a minister, Leigh Ann has packed on about 60 pounds, which she blames on two bad habits: not exercising and being a junk food junkie.
She has another bad habit, one she doesn't like to talk about: smoking. A habit she says she can't tackle yet.
RAYNOR: I just can't do it. You know, I mean, I can cut down, I can't change my eating habits and start exercising and lose weight and completely quit smoking. I just know myself.
GUPTA: But breaking bad habits and starting good ones won't be easy for Leigh Ann, because she has a potentially dangerous heart condition.
RAYNOR: I get dizzy. I start sweating. My heart would hurt.
GUPTA: After years of misdiagnosis, doctors finally realized she had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. That's an excessive thickening of the heart muscle, which inhibits blood flow. This condition has kept her from exercising up until now. A new heart procedure and medication brought her relief.
RAYNOR: I've had almost no pain. Almost no pain for the first time in 20 years. It's like a miracle to me.
GUPTA: So now, Leigh Ann feels ready to start her "New You Revolution."
RAYNOR: If you think that I'm going to be on CNN and have Dr. Gupta say, unfortunately, one of our five participants, Reverend Raynor, gained 12 pounds.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: That's not going to happen.
RAYNOR: It's not going to happen?
O'BRIEN: Absolutely not.
HEMMER: It's great to have you as part of the program. We talked last hour about the fact that people in our congregation make a lot of food for you. Do they ever make healthy food for you?
RAYNOR: You know, there are those people who cook for me who have said, OK, no more. We have gone out -- people have actually gone out and bought the South Beach Diet cookbook and have started cooking healthy for me. Said we will bring you food, but none of the stuff that we used to bring you. So they're very supportive and I like that.
O'BRIEN: Yes, but we saw pictures of you driving yourself to the fast food place, right?
RAYNOR: Right.
O'BRIEN: You don't need them for that. What's going to be the toughest thing, you think, to break? Is it the fast food habit, is it just the love of sort of good, rich food?
RAYNOR: The fast food habit is simply because I just never learned to cook. I never needed to. Never got married, never had any kids. There's just me. I make sandwiches. I go to fast food. So the hardest thing is going to be planning menus, really learning to cook, cooking ahead of time, making sure that when I get off work at 7:00 or get out of a meeting at 8:00, there's food there instead of at the Dairy Queen. That's going to be the hardest part.
GUPTA: And we're going to help you with all of that, Leigh Ann. Your cardiologist and internist have come up with your "New You" prescription.
RAYNOR: Great.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RAYNOR: I have a kitchen, but I don't spend a lot of time there.
GUPTA (voice over): Leigh Ann, to get you into your "New You Revolution," we're going to teach you how to eat healthy. Cooking 101 with a registered dietitian.
But there is more. You'll participate in a cardio rehab program. From four to five times a week, you'll do light exercise, walking on a treadmill at no more than three miles an hour. That's because of your pre-existing heart condition.
Finally, we want you to tackle one more bad habit: your smoking. A counselor will help you get on the road to quitting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: That smoking thing, Leigh Ann. We're going to talk more about that. Best of luck to you from all of us here at CNN and your congregation. Everyone's going to be rooting for you. Remember to take it easy, OK?
RAYNOR: Thank you.
GUPTA: Eight weeks, you'll be with us.
RAYNOR: There'll be less of me.
GUPTA: That's right.
Tomorrow we're going to meet Sandra Garth. She's a grandmother who's also acting as a mom for her grandson.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDRA GARTH, "NEW YOU REVOLUTION" PARTICIPANT: I want to be fabulous and 50. And I want to be fit and 50.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA: While her son is stationed in Iraq, she's hoping the "New You Revolution" will help her be fit enough to keep up with her grandson. That comes to you tomorrow, 7:00 a.m. Eastern. Of course, follow along as well here on cnn.com/am.
HEMMER: Thank you, Reverend.
RAYNOR: Thank you.
HEMMER: Good luck. Thou shalt not be tempted.
RAYNOR: Exactly.
(CROSSTALK)
HEMMER: Condoleezza Rice, getting ready for her grilling on Capitol Hill. Could her biggest problem be that she is too agreeable? That's ahead and don't forget about -- well, less than 15 minutes from now, we'll have live coverage of the confirmation hearings, day one today. That's ahead when we continue after this on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. This is a shot of the hearing room. We're expecting Condoleezza Rice's confirmation hearings as secretary of state to begin really in the next eight or nine minutes or so, although these things don't always on schedule. Of course, we're going to bring that to you live when it happens.
Before that, though, let's get back to Jack and Andy. Good morning, guys.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Soledad. A preview of today's Wall Street action. A massive shindig for the newest, biggest commercial airliner in history. Andy Serwer is here "Minding Your Business".
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE": Good morning, Jack. A giant French airliner, right up your alley, no doubt, this morning, unveiled in Toulouse, France. The biggest airliner ever made by Airbus -- ever made by any company. The A380. Here it is rolled out. No, that's not the Blue Man Group. Looks like it. It's just a big ceremony offer there in Toulouse, 239 feet long, that's eight feet longer than a Boeing 747. Don't you think they didn't know that too. What else...
CAFFERTY: It's a lot taller, though.
SERWER: It's a lot taller. Look at that. That is a monster plane. It carries 555 passengers, that's opposed to -- there's French President Jacques Chirac there, Jack.
CAFFERTY: I see that.
SERWER: Say hello. That's a whole lot more than the 415 passengers that a 747 can carry. And here's the interiors. Stardate 3815 here. I mean, look at that. Unbelievable. A spa, a restaurant, a bar. It's unbelievable, isn't it?
CAFFERTY: They've kind of gotten Boeing's lunch box on this deal a little bit, didn't they?
SERWER: I think so. And they're on schedule, they say, 2006 they're going to be to roll this out. The stairways. You know, of course, this is a prototype. And in actuality, very often they don't have all this stuff in their planes.
O'BRIEN: Yes. There will be no spa, there will be no...
SERWER: No, no. You know, the prototype. Anyway, and on just another note here with regard to Airbus. Their parent company is looking for an engineering center here in the United States and they have hired a certain real estate company in that search. Guess what company? Yes, the Staubach Company.
CAFFERTY: Come on.
SERWER: Roger Staubach is looking around to do some work.
CAFFERTY: He's selling out to some French airline company? I'm very disappointed.
SERWER: I knew you'd put it that way. And interesting, of course, the Airbus people mention that he was the quarterback of America's team, they keep saying that.
CAFFERTY: Yes, he was.
SERWER: America's team and a midshipman and all of that.
CAFFERTY: Now he's shilling for some French airline company.
SERWER: French airline company, Jack.
CAFFERTY: Is he in the Hall of Fame yet? This may be grounds to remove him if he is.
SERWER: Yes, all right. You can't rescind that, I don't think, but we'll check it out.
Anyway, quickly on the market here, let's take a look at the inauspicious beginning to the year. Yes, we're down. And futures are down this morning because of higher oil prices. So that's your report.
CAFFERTY: Thanks, Andy, very much.
The question we asked a couple hours ago: At $40 million, is the inauguration too expensive?
Quickly here are some of the responses we got. Pamela in Michigan writes: "For the millions without jobs and health care, for the thousands that died in Asia, those who died in floods or mudslides, those who are homeless, for the thousands lost in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq this amount of money spent on this inauguration isn't too expensive, it's insensitive and disrespectful.
Sarah Marie writes: "How much did Bill Clinton's first and second inaugurations cost? How many stories did CNN do about those? Do costly celebrations only look bad when it's Republicans being sworn in?"
Dick in Forest Hills, New York writes: "Why should the Republicans cut back on their celebrations of Bush's reelection? who else is cutting back? Let the Republicans have their party, it's their money."
Reg in Thunder Bay, Ontario: "Whenever I think it's a waste of taxpayers money, I think about the fact that part of those taxes come from Michael Moore and I feel better.
And Brian in Georgetown, South Carolina: "Spent: $40 million in contributions. Return on investment: Laura's dress becomes an historical artifact. Spent: $80 billion in taxpayer money. Return on investment: Monica's dress becomes an historical artifact. I'd say we're getting off cheap."
SERWER: Wow. Crunching the numbers there, huh?
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack. This just in to us out of Europe. Out of Madrid, Spain, the story originates from the Associated Press. They're saying a car bomb has exploded in the town of Bilbao, this is the Basque region. Not a whole lot of information. CNN's Al Goodman working our bureau in Madrid does confirm that an explosion has occurred there. But we're not quite on our part whether or not it was a car bomb or some other type of explosive device. There one policeman was injured apparently. More on this when we get it here on AMERICAN MORNING.
Break here. In a moment, just a few minutes away from the top of the hour and the big story of the day, Condoleezza Rice will be in this room any minute now. We'll have it for you live when it begins right after this 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 January 18, 2005 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: ... We'll look at her record the last four years, her strengths and her weaknesses and what they tell us about the job she might do as secretary of state.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Also, in a few moments, Sanjay's back here in New York. The "New You Revolution" comes your way for the second day today. We'll meet a minister trying to fight temptation. She wants her cigarette, she wants her junk food. She needs exercise. She knows all of this. Her story's coming up in a moment. Who doesn't?
O'BRIEN: The junk food, maybe not the cigarette. Headlines first, though, with Heidi Collins. Good morning.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you guys and good morning once again, everybody. "Now in the News" this morning, Iraq is boosting security ahead of the January 30th elections. Officials at the Ministry of Interior announcing today they will close the country's borders from January 29th until the 31st. They may also bar some travel within the country and impose a nighttime curfew. The measures are meant to encourage a high voter turnout.
Nearly 2 million Muslims across the world are flocking to the holy city of Mecca. They're taking part in the Hajj, a once in a lifetime pilgrimage to the city. Security is tight as Saudi officials try to prevent stampedes and possible terrorist attacks.
In New York, the re-trial begins of former Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski. He and another former top executive are accused of taking some $600 million from the company. The original case ended in a mistrial back in April amid accusations a juror had been threatened. Jury selection for the re-trial is set to begin this morning.
And the man who unknowingly plunged a nail into his head says he still can't believe it happened. 23-year-old Patrick Lawler shot a four-inch spike into his mouth when his nail gun backfired, plunging an inch and a half into his brain. Lawler spoke out just moments ago at a news conference about the accident.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PATRICK LAWLER, NAIL GUN VICTIM: We just thought it was like a big contusion. Got punched or something. Your eye swells up, jaw swells up or whatever. Get hit with something in the face, you know. We didn't think a nail was hanging out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
The nail was removed in a four-hour operation at a Denver area hospital.
Still pretty amazing he didn't know it happened.
O'BRIEN: Wow.
COLLINS: Right?
HEMMER: You know, the guys on the crew here think he was less than sober when that thing went down.
O'BRIEN: A little less than sober?
HEMMER: I think they're on to something.
O'BRIEN: Still, that's unbelievable.
COLLINS: I know, it's amazing.
O'BRIEN: Oh my goodness.
COLLINS: He got that taken out actually at the hospital that I had my child at. I don't know what that had to do with it, but, you know.
O'BRIEN: Hopefully you both had lots of drugs is all I'll say -- Bill.
HEMMER: Condoleezza Rice is on Capitol Hill in about 30 minutes now, starting her confirmation hearing for secretary of state. It may go one day, it may go two.
Ed Henry is there live now this morning. Ed, good morning.
ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill. As national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice did not have to testify under oath to Congress. That's why Democrats are so eager now to get her on the record about the past and the future.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY (voice-over): Condoleezza Rice is such a big football fan, she's toyed with the idea of some day becoming commissioner of the NFL. For now, she just wants to be secretary of state. And Rice's love of the grid iron may be good practice for her confirmation hearings.
SEN. GEORGE ALLEN (R), VIRGINIA: While they will try to play this bump and run, try to knock her off stride, ultimately they're going to be voting for her to be secretary of state.
HENRY: Senator John Kerry will be among the Democrats grilling Rice on everything from her handling of terror warnings before 9/11 to her role in faulty intelligence reports leading up to the war in Iraq. SUSAN RICE, FMR. KERRY ADVISER: I think it will be a robust questioning of her record, looking backwards, as well as, of course, the president's record. But it will also be an opportunity to try to pin her down on where she sees foreign policy going in the course of the second term.
HENRY: Rice can also expect tough questions from Republican Richard Lugar, who wants to hear her vision on hotspots like Iran, North Korea, HIV/AIDS in Africa and Mideast peace. Allies say Rice will preview the theme of President Bush's inaugural address, spreading democracy around the world. And they say the personal story of Rice, who grew up in the segregated South, will help her carry that banner on the world stage.
ALLEN: As we try to advance freedom for all people in the world, regardless of their race or their gender or their ethnicity or religious beliefs, I think her own life experiences makes her an even stronger person to advocate the concepts of freedom.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY: We have new pictures now of Dr. Rice leaving the White House a short while ago on her way to the Hill, where her confirmation hearing will begin just under 30 minutes from now right behind me. Democrats are saying they think Dr. Rice may be too close to the president, unlike outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell. But Republicans say that she'll make her voice heard as secretary of state, she will stand up to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and they also say she'll be confirmed very easily, possibly as early as Thursday -- Bill.
HEMMER: You took us through a few things in your piece there, Ed. Take us through what her introduction is today to say what kind of a secretary of state she will be for the U.S.
HENRY: Well, we actually have a copy of her opening statement. It has just come out. And she is going to talk a lot about 9/11. Now Democrats are going to try to use 9/11 to say that Dr. Rice as national security adviser was not aggressive enough before 9/11 in dealing with Osama bin Laden and the threat. She uses 9/11 to say that she believes that she and the president acted very decisively, aggressively after 9/11 and that has reshaped the world and that will shape her vision as secretary of state.
She also is going to talk a lot about issues like Iran, North Korea and she's going to also talk about how she believes that public diplomacy and institutions like the U.N. are important. That's partly to show and reassure the world that she as secretary of state will put a value on the U.N., will put a value in allies, unlike what some critics have been saying -- Bill.
HEMMER: Good preview. Ed, thanks. Again, we expect it about 30 minutes from now, back to you there.
The confirmation may be a foregone conclusion, but how will Condoleezza Rice fare as America's top diplomat? Michael O'Hanlon's a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, my guest now down in D.C.
Good morning, welcome back here. She will say a number of things that Ed just described here. Is she the best choice, do you believe, for secretary of state?
MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: Bill, I think she is a very good choice in the sense that everybody's going to have certain limits in their resume. And Brent Scowcroft himself said Rice is stronger in some parts of the world, like Russia, than others. But she's very experienced, certainly in this administration. She's young and energetic, by comparison with many who have had the job. She's obviously very close to the president.
It remains to be seen, as you pointed out, whether she will stand up to Rumsfeld and Cheney when necessary. But I think she probably will grow into that job and she may be able to do it in a more effective way than Colin Powell, who was always sort of lager heads and a little bit the odd man out. Rice will never be the odd woman out with this president, and that may set her up pretty well.
HEMMER: Is that why she could be more effective?
O'HANLON: I think so. I think if she sort of has a backbone and finds her legs, challenging Rumsfeld and Cheney when they need to be challenged, I think it could be a more effective sort of counter to their very hard-line conservatism than Colin Powell was able to muster in the first term. I'm optimistic.
HEMMER: That's the point you come back to considerably, talking with our producers last night. Will she be able to stand up to the Pentagon? Why do you believe that so is critical over the next four years?
O'HANLON: Well, one reason is the Pentagon really has some big mistakes on its track record now in the last couple of years in Iraq, especially in the period after Saddam fell. And Condoleezza Rice deserves some blame for that herself, because she was in a position to coordinate policy and they didn't do a great job. In one sense, that of course weakens Mr. Rumsfeld's image around town and perhaps makes it easier for him to be challenged.
I don't know if Iraq is going to be the place where Rice is going to be most in need of confronting the Pentagon, or if it will be over North Korea policy or Iran policy. But Mr. Rumsfeld has shown himself to be a very, very creative man, but like many creative people, he gets things wrong a lot, even if he also comes up with very good ideas. And that's why we really need someone to challenge him when he may have an idea that's intriguing, yet not really good.
HEMMER: Michael, from the "Washington Post" today, Richard Holbrooke, who campaigned against this president in favor of John Kerry, wrote this today, regarding Condoleezza Rice. He talked about "Rice...whose close relationship with the president will give her enormous credibility with foreign governments and greater standing within the administration." No friend of this administration, but complimentary words there, do you believe? O'HANLON: I think he's right. And Mr. Holbrooke also pointed out that a lot of the people Rice wants to bring in, starting with Bob Zoellick her deputy, are very, very, experienced, professional and non-ideological individuals. And that's one more thing that looks pretty good from this point of view.
HEMMER: Thank you, Michael. One other thing she's expected to say today, regarding public diplomacy, our interaction with the rest of the world must be a conversation and not a monologue. We will look for those theme, again, in 30 minutes today in Washington. Michael, good to talk to you. We'll speak again.
Live coverage starts at 9:00 a.m. Eastern time, down there in Capitol Hill. We'll be there live for you.
Also later in the week, Thursday morning, join us for a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING. We are live on Capitol Hill then, as we get ready for the inauguration, the second term of President Bush. 7:00 a.m. Eastern time is when our coverage starts there on Thursday -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Well, that's when the coverage starts. And we'll be outside, which means we're going to be cold.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: Supersizing the skies. Andy's got the lowdown on that new jumbo-sized double-decker jet and its connection to a hall of fame quarterback. Andy has that in a moment.
O'BRIEN: Plus the "New You Revolution" rolls on. Today we're going to meet a woman who's getting fit for herself and her entire congregation. Her story is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: It is day two of our "New You Revolution," where we're helping five participants break some bad habits.
O'BRIEN: You saw his picture there a moment ago, the very handsome Dr. Sanjay Gupta joining us to introduce Reverend Leigh Ann Raynor. I like that shot.
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That was not in the prompter.
O'BRIEN: No.
GUPTA: You wrote it.
O'BRIEN: I just went crazy all by myself. Good morning.
GUPTA: Good morning, both of you.
Listen, Leigh Ann Raynor, her application caught our attention because she wants to improve her health and also to be a role model to her congregation. Really interesting story. She's tried before, but a misdiagnosed heart condition kept Leigh Ann from exercising for a long time. Not anymore, though.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA (voice-over): Meet Leigh Ann Raynor. It's a big year for Reverend Leigh Ann Raynor. She turns the big 5-0 and finally wants to make some changes.
LEIGH ANN RAYNOR, "NEW YOU" PARTICIPANT: If I shrink as I get older, it's not going to be all that long before I look like SpongeBob.
GUPTA: In her 25 years as a minister, Leigh Ann has packed on about 60 pounds, which she blames on two bad habits: not exercising and being a junk food junkie.
She has another bad habit, one she doesn't like to talk about: smoking. A habit she says she can't tackle yet.
RAYNOR: I just can't do it. You know, I mean, I can cut down, I can't change my eating habits and start exercising and lose weight and completely quit smoking. I just know myself.
GUPTA: But breaking bad habits and starting good ones won't be easy for Leigh Ann, because she has a potentially dangerous heart condition.
RAYNOR: I get dizzy. I start sweating. My heart would hurt.
GUPTA: After years of misdiagnosis, doctors finally realized she had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. That's an excessive thickening of the heart muscle, which inhibits blood flow. This condition has kept her from exercising up until now. A new heart procedure and medication brought her relief.
RAYNOR: I've had almost no pain. Almost no pain for the first time in 20 years. It's like a miracle to me.
GUPTA: So now, Leigh Ann feels ready to start her "New You Revolution."
RAYNOR: If you think that I'm going to be on CNN and have Dr. Gupta say, unfortunately, one of our five participants, Reverend Raynor, gained 12 pounds.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: That's not going to happen.
RAYNOR: It's not going to happen?
O'BRIEN: Absolutely not.
HEMMER: It's great to have you as part of the program. We talked last hour about the fact that people in our congregation make a lot of food for you. Do they ever make healthy food for you?
RAYNOR: You know, there are those people who cook for me who have said, OK, no more. We have gone out -- people have actually gone out and bought the South Beach Diet cookbook and have started cooking healthy for me. Said we will bring you food, but none of the stuff that we used to bring you. So they're very supportive and I like that.
O'BRIEN: Yes, but we saw pictures of you driving yourself to the fast food place, right?
RAYNOR: Right.
O'BRIEN: You don't need them for that. What's going to be the toughest thing, you think, to break? Is it the fast food habit, is it just the love of sort of good, rich food?
RAYNOR: The fast food habit is simply because I just never learned to cook. I never needed to. Never got married, never had any kids. There's just me. I make sandwiches. I go to fast food. So the hardest thing is going to be planning menus, really learning to cook, cooking ahead of time, making sure that when I get off work at 7:00 or get out of a meeting at 8:00, there's food there instead of at the Dairy Queen. That's going to be the hardest part.
GUPTA: And we're going to help you with all of that, Leigh Ann. Your cardiologist and internist have come up with your "New You" prescription.
RAYNOR: Great.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RAYNOR: I have a kitchen, but I don't spend a lot of time there.
GUPTA (voice over): Leigh Ann, to get you into your "New You Revolution," we're going to teach you how to eat healthy. Cooking 101 with a registered dietitian.
But there is more. You'll participate in a cardio rehab program. From four to five times a week, you'll do light exercise, walking on a treadmill at no more than three miles an hour. That's because of your pre-existing heart condition.
Finally, we want you to tackle one more bad habit: your smoking. A counselor will help you get on the road to quitting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: That smoking thing, Leigh Ann. We're going to talk more about that. Best of luck to you from all of us here at CNN and your congregation. Everyone's going to be rooting for you. Remember to take it easy, OK?
RAYNOR: Thank you.
GUPTA: Eight weeks, you'll be with us.
RAYNOR: There'll be less of me.
GUPTA: That's right.
Tomorrow we're going to meet Sandra Garth. She's a grandmother who's also acting as a mom for her grandson.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDRA GARTH, "NEW YOU REVOLUTION" PARTICIPANT: I want to be fabulous and 50. And I want to be fit and 50.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA: While her son is stationed in Iraq, she's hoping the "New You Revolution" will help her be fit enough to keep up with her grandson. That comes to you tomorrow, 7:00 a.m. Eastern. Of course, follow along as well here on cnn.com/am.
HEMMER: Thank you, Reverend.
RAYNOR: Thank you.
HEMMER: Good luck. Thou shalt not be tempted.
RAYNOR: Exactly.
(CROSSTALK)
HEMMER: Condoleezza Rice, getting ready for her grilling on Capitol Hill. Could her biggest problem be that she is too agreeable? That's ahead and don't forget about -- well, less than 15 minutes from now, we'll have live coverage of the confirmation hearings, day one today. That's ahead when we continue after this on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. This is a shot of the hearing room. We're expecting Condoleezza Rice's confirmation hearings as secretary of state to begin really in the next eight or nine minutes or so, although these things don't always on schedule. Of course, we're going to bring that to you live when it happens.
Before that, though, let's get back to Jack and Andy. Good morning, guys.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Soledad. A preview of today's Wall Street action. A massive shindig for the newest, biggest commercial airliner in history. Andy Serwer is here "Minding Your Business".
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE": Good morning, Jack. A giant French airliner, right up your alley, no doubt, this morning, unveiled in Toulouse, France. The biggest airliner ever made by Airbus -- ever made by any company. The A380. Here it is rolled out. No, that's not the Blue Man Group. Looks like it. It's just a big ceremony offer there in Toulouse, 239 feet long, that's eight feet longer than a Boeing 747. Don't you think they didn't know that too. What else...
CAFFERTY: It's a lot taller, though.
SERWER: It's a lot taller. Look at that. That is a monster plane. It carries 555 passengers, that's opposed to -- there's French President Jacques Chirac there, Jack.
CAFFERTY: I see that.
SERWER: Say hello. That's a whole lot more than the 415 passengers that a 747 can carry. And here's the interiors. Stardate 3815 here. I mean, look at that. Unbelievable. A spa, a restaurant, a bar. It's unbelievable, isn't it?
CAFFERTY: They've kind of gotten Boeing's lunch box on this deal a little bit, didn't they?
SERWER: I think so. And they're on schedule, they say, 2006 they're going to be to roll this out. The stairways. You know, of course, this is a prototype. And in actuality, very often they don't have all this stuff in their planes.
O'BRIEN: Yes. There will be no spa, there will be no...
SERWER: No, no. You know, the prototype. Anyway, and on just another note here with regard to Airbus. Their parent company is looking for an engineering center here in the United States and they have hired a certain real estate company in that search. Guess what company? Yes, the Staubach Company.
CAFFERTY: Come on.
SERWER: Roger Staubach is looking around to do some work.
CAFFERTY: He's selling out to some French airline company? I'm very disappointed.
SERWER: I knew you'd put it that way. And interesting, of course, the Airbus people mention that he was the quarterback of America's team, they keep saying that.
CAFFERTY: Yes, he was.
SERWER: America's team and a midshipman and all of that.
CAFFERTY: Now he's shilling for some French airline company.
SERWER: French airline company, Jack.
CAFFERTY: Is he in the Hall of Fame yet? This may be grounds to remove him if he is.
SERWER: Yes, all right. You can't rescind that, I don't think, but we'll check it out.
Anyway, quickly on the market here, let's take a look at the inauspicious beginning to the year. Yes, we're down. And futures are down this morning because of higher oil prices. So that's your report.
CAFFERTY: Thanks, Andy, very much.
The question we asked a couple hours ago: At $40 million, is the inauguration too expensive?
Quickly here are some of the responses we got. Pamela in Michigan writes: "For the millions without jobs and health care, for the thousands that died in Asia, those who died in floods or mudslides, those who are homeless, for the thousands lost in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq this amount of money spent on this inauguration isn't too expensive, it's insensitive and disrespectful.
Sarah Marie writes: "How much did Bill Clinton's first and second inaugurations cost? How many stories did CNN do about those? Do costly celebrations only look bad when it's Republicans being sworn in?"
Dick in Forest Hills, New York writes: "Why should the Republicans cut back on their celebrations of Bush's reelection? who else is cutting back? Let the Republicans have their party, it's their money."
Reg in Thunder Bay, Ontario: "Whenever I think it's a waste of taxpayers money, I think about the fact that part of those taxes come from Michael Moore and I feel better.
And Brian in Georgetown, South Carolina: "Spent: $40 million in contributions. Return on investment: Laura's dress becomes an historical artifact. Spent: $80 billion in taxpayer money. Return on investment: Monica's dress becomes an historical artifact. I'd say we're getting off cheap."
SERWER: Wow. Crunching the numbers there, huh?
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack. This just in to us out of Europe. Out of Madrid, Spain, the story originates from the Associated Press. They're saying a car bomb has exploded in the town of Bilbao, this is the Basque region. Not a whole lot of information. CNN's Al Goodman working our bureau in Madrid does confirm that an explosion has occurred there. But we're not quite on our part whether or not it was a car bomb or some other type of explosive device. There one policeman was injured apparently. More on this when we get it here on AMERICAN MORNING.
Break here. In a moment, just a few minutes away from the top of the hour and the big story of the day, Condoleezza Rice will be in this room any minute now. We'll have it for you live when it begins right after this on AMERICAN MORNING.
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