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CNN Live At Daybreak

Assassination Attempt?; Battle Over Judges; Starry-Eyed Fans

Aired May 19, 2005 - 05:30   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.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, welcome to the second half-hour of DAYBREAK. From the Time Warner Center in New York, I'm Carol Costello, along with Chad Myers.
"Now in the News."

A new audiotape said to be that of al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al- Zarqawi justifies suicide bombings. The voice on the tape denounces the new Iraqi government and justifies the killings of innocent Muslims for the greater cause of Jihad.

In Idaho, no sign so far of two missing children. They lived in a home where three people were killed. Detectives have questioned Robert Roy Lutner. Police say he was at the house the night before the bodies were found. The children were not with Lutner when he turned himself in.

First baseball and today is pro basketball's turn to be called by Congress about steroids. NBA Commissioner David Stern has said he's against a proposed mandated uniform drug testing policy covering all sport.

To the Forecast Center now and, Chad, good morning.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I was thinking about this earlier, it doesn't seem like basketball and steroids go together. Because you know trying to be strong, although unless you're right under the basket in the paint, doesn't help you that much. You know everybody wants to be nimble and light and quick, so I don't know.

COSTELLO: Well, but endurance is a big deal. And some say that steroids help with endurance as well because you have better muscle mass.

MYERS: Sure. Right, running up and down the court, you bet.

COSTELLO: Makes you stronger.

MYERS: Hey, good morning -- Carol.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: All right, thank you -- Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Security at presidential events is being reviewed because of what may have been an assassination attempt against President Bush.

Our White House correspondent Dana Bash has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The FBI now says someone in this crowd tossed a live grenade within 100 feet of the president and only a malfunction stopped it from exploding in Georgia's Freedom Square.

BRYAN PAARMANN, FBI ATTACHE, TBILISI: We consider this act to be a threat against the health and welfare of both the president of the United States and the president of Georgia.

BASH: The FBI director briefed Mr. Bush on the agency's latest conclusion that the undetonated grenade was hidden in a dark cloth when it was hurled towards him.

PAARMANN: This hand grenade appears to be a live device that simply failed to function.

BASH: Though the FBI is on the ground working with local authorities, this report directly contradicts a statement out of the Georgian Interior Ministry last week saying the device did not contain explosives and was merely placed in the crowd, not thrown.

In fact, there are still many unanswered questions, like, how did someone toss a grenade here without the Secret Service, surveillance everywhere or even journalists on the scene seeing any disturbance? And how could the Secret Service allow that kind of device so close to the president?

JOSEPH PETRO, FRM. SECRET SERVICE AGENT: The Secret Service has the responsibility for the life of the president. But in a foreign country, they don't have the authority, or the jurisdiction, and they don't have the resources, so they have to depend on the local governments to provide those resources.

BASH: Just before the president spoke to the jam-packed thousands, U.S. officials in Tbilisi told CNN the crowd had broken through a barrier and they could no longer be sure the area was safe.

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: And those are all issues that the Secret Service will look at and take into consideration for future events.

BASH: Law enforcement experts say an exploding grenade certainly would have hurt or killed Georgians in the square and caused panic. But Mr. Bush was partially shielded by bulletproof glass and his life was probably not in danger.

(on camera): Officials in Georgia are appealing for witnesses to come forward with any information, any pictures, videotape, anything to help find the person they believe threw the grenade. And they're offering a reward equal to about $11,000 for any tip that leads to an arrest and a conviction. Dana Bash, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: In the works on Capitol Hill, a new bill to expand government powers under the Patriot Act. In the name of fighting terrorism, the new measure would let the FBI subpoena records without permission from a judge or grand jury. The Bush administration has sought this power for two years, but Congress keeps saying no.

As always, stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

Same battle, new day on Capitol Hill, the Senate fight over President Bush's judicial nominees is back on today. A compromise is in the works. It would advance some of the stalled nominations.

Our John King has a profile of one of the judges being debated this week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Janice Rogers Brown, a college liberal turned courthouse conservative, a Shakespeare and poetry-lover with a penchant for provocative words of her own.

These are "perilous times for people of faith," she warned in a speech last month, suggesting liberals want to divorce the country from its religious heritage. "It's not a shooting war," she said, "but it's a war."

JANICE ROGERS BROWN, APPEALS COURT NOMINEE: The question for you will be whether the regime of freedom, which they founded, can survive the relentless enmity of the slave mentality.

KING: She calls the New Deal, which created Social Security and Medicare, "our socialist revolution," suggesting it created reliance on big government, a new slavery, contrary to the Constitution's authors' vision of limited government.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's so radical that she says with programs like Social Security and Medicare, seniors are cannibalizing their grandchildren.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hear ye, hear ye, the honorable supreme court...

KING: Perhaps her most noteworthy judicial decision, a sweeping attack on affirmative action, saying society should be colorblind and not allow "entitlement based on group representation."

EVA PATERSON, FOUNDER, EQUAL JUSTICE SOCIETY: As a black woman I'm here to say it doesn't matter what the color of her skin is, it matters how she is going to rule. KING: Skin color very much mattered to young Janice Rogers in Laverne, Alabama. Whenever possible, her sharecropper father kept the family from establishments that had separate entrances and facilities for blacks.

STEVE MERSKSAMER, LONGTIME BROWN FRIEND: I know they didn't have indoor plumbing. I know that it was a very, very rough existence. I can only imagine what it must have been like growing up as a youngster in the segregated South.

KING: She was six when, 50 miles away in Montgomery, Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus. Fred Gray was Parks' lawyer, an African American, and to young Janice, an inspiration.

Rogers Brown graduated UCLA Law School in 1977, making her dream of becoming an attorney a reality. Raising a son as a single mother made personal responsibility a guiding theme, and her political views trended more conservative.

BILL MOUNT, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF: She believes the judiciary's single duty is to protect individuals from government overreaching.

KING: Critics see her provocative writings as evidence of ambition, including her 2000 ruling criticizing racial quotas or even goals as contrary to a society based on equal opportunity for all.

OWEN SELLSTROM, LAWYERS CMTE. FOR CIVIL RIGHTS: It was not a typical opinion that you would see of a judge looking at the facts and applying the law. It was much more something that appeared to be specifically drafted to catch the attention of ultra-right wing conservative groups.

KING: Former Chief of Staff Bill Mount says it is not personal ambition but, instead, a deliberate effort to stir debate on the evolving role of courts and government.

MOUNT: She believes that something of a wrong turn was taken, maybe half a century ago, when the welfare state grew. And I think she thinks that the national experience of African-Americans has been, in some ways, regrettable.

PATERSON: I think the Bush people are very brilliantly playing the race card.

KING: Eva Paterson's Equal Justice Society in San Francisco is one of an array of state and national civil rights organizations opposing the Brown nomination.

PATERSON: She is a sister and she has suffered many of the indignities that black women throughout history have suffered. And, so, that tends to make you want to just be quiet and not oppose her. But then my sense of political chess makes me realize that that's exactly what Karl Rove and President Bush want to have happen.

KING (on camera): Justice Rogers Brown is a regular here at the Church of Christ in Rancho Cordova, near Sacramento. Friends say her deep Christian faith is a critical part of both her personal and professional life, though some critics say that faith plays too much of a role in her judicial philosophy.

BROWN: What we ultimately pursue is a true vision of justice and ordered liberty, respectful of human dignity and the authority of God.

KING (voice-over): In a 1997 case, the state supreme court declared unconstitutional a law requiring parental consent before a minor could receive an abortion. But Justice Brown dissented, suggesting the majority's reasoning gave courts a green light "to topple every cultural icon, to dismiss all societal values, and to become the final arbiters of traditional morality."

Friend Steve Mersksamer says they have never discussed abortion.

MERSKSAMER: I don't know what her views would be. I think she views the Constitution in a fairly strict, constructionist sense, which is what the president says he wants to appoint people like that. But I also think that she is -- I think it's a big mistake to try to pigeonhole her.

KING: She is, for example, not always adverse to government power. "Sometimes beauty is fierce; love is tough; and freedom is painful," she wrote in a ruling upholding drug testing for government job applicants. She also allowed cities to disperse suspected gang members without proof of illegal conduct.

MERSKSAMER: Janice is an extremely private person. She is hard to, you know, she won't open up to just anybody.

KING: Mersksamer met with Brown recently to discuss her nomination. He says she preferred to talk about her latest intellectual pursuit.

MERSKSAMER: I couldn't believe it when she said to me, you know I really -- could you connect me with somebody who can teach -- I want to learn Hebrew. And I mean it just amazed me. I said, why? Because I want to read the Torah in the original Hebrew.

KING: Friends say two years of hearing herself labeled combative, temperamental, extremist and worse have taken a toll. But Mount says Justice Brown isn't one to flinch from a fight.

MOUNT: She told me that she went to see the Ray Charles film and she loved the line when they said, "They're scandalizing my name." And that's exactly how she feels. I think she finds it brutal, just brutal. In another sense, I think she's in the eye of the storm and she's quite calm about it all.

KING: John King, CNN, San Francisco.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Is the force with you? Just how long are you willing to wait before catching "Revenge of the Sith?" Coming up, we'll test the mettle of some diehard "Star Wars" fans. But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Thursday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Does the name Pamela Smart ring a bell? She's the New Hampshire woman who was convicted of having her 15-year-old lover kill her husband. Now she wants a pardon and wants the governor to commute her sentence of life without possibility of parole.

As we take you "Beyond the Soundbite" this morning, we see that Smart and her former father-in-law have plenty to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAMELA SMART, CONVICTED OF CONSPIRACY: I feel like my decision to get involved with Billy Flynn, to be involved with him, when I'm telling you I knew it was wrong. I'm not saying that I didn't know any better, I was 21 years old, I knew it was wrong. I remember moments when I said why are you doing this? This thing is wrong. And I still did it, OK, and I'm to blame for that.

And now he went -- separate from my relationship, would Bill have ever killed Greg? Probably not. So I have to connect myself in some way to being responsible through my horrible acts but Bill Flynn to be involved in some way and Greg being dead.

BILL SMART, GREG SMART'S FATHER: It does surprise me, because she has never admitted anything. She's never admitted that -- she's admitted she's had the affair before, but she's never taken responsibility for Greg's death because of the affair. When I'm dead, it doesn't matter. But as long as I'm alive, I'm going to use every last breath I have to fight this woman.

He was just a wonderful son. Any father would be proud to have him as a son. And I wish to God that he was here, but I can't get him back, so I have to just go forward. And I have to continue to fight her, and I'm going to do it until the day I die.

P. SMART: You might be better off saying, well, I did this and I have remorse or whatever, but that would be lying and that's just not the truth. And I feel like that -- I just don't feel like that would be the right thing to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Pamela Smart also says it isn't fair that the boy who pulled the trigger will get out of prison while she won't. Raymond Flynn, the convicted shooter, is up for parole in 2018.

Your news, money, weather and sports. It's 5:46 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning.

Police in Idaho are still looking for two missing children, even after interviewing a person of interest in the case. Detectives talked with Robert Lutner in their investigation into the triple homicide at the children's home.

A new audiotape justifies suicide bombings. A voice believed to belong to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi called for the killing of infidels by any means necessary, even if it means Muslims killing innocent Muslims.

In money news, Toyota is tops in quality. That's according to a study by JD Power. The Lexus reigned supreme. It's one of 10 vehicles from the Japanese automaker that won the highest scores in 18 segments of the market.

In culture, today is the birthday of true movie madness. It was 10 years ago today that the nation's top megaplex theater opened up in Dallas. If you're wondering, a megaplex has at least 14 separate movie screens. And today they're all playing "Star Wars."

In sports, Barry Bonds still recovering from an infection in his surgically repaired right knee. The sidelined slugger had his I.V. removed after two weeks of intravenous treatment. It's questionable when, or even if, he will return this season.

To the Forecast Center and -- Chad.

MYERS: Good morning, Carol.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Thank you, Chad.

That's a look at the latest headlines for you this morning.

It looks eerily familiar. Donald Trump unveils his own plan for what he thinks should be built at Ground Zero. We talked about this yesterday. We're going to forward the story this morning. Is anyone in New York agreeing with him on this design? We'll find out.

You're watching DAYBREAK.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Some "Entertainment Headlines" for you this morning.

Singer Kylie Minogue gets to undergo breast cancer surgery this week. The pop diva's Web site reportedly is overloaded by people trying to get information. Her "Showgirl" tour of Australia and Asia has been postponed. Minogue's cancer is said to be in the earliest of stages.

The Academy of Country Music picks Kenny Chesney as entertainer of the year. His new bride, Renee Zellweger, was off on a movie set and missed the show. Despite that, Chesney says, he is centered now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENNY CHESNEY, SINGER: To be honest with you, it's not that different. It's just I'm a little more at ease, you know I'm not searching, and that's what's great about her. And she's a great girl.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Chesney also won the CMA's entertainment of the year last November.

"Episode III" of "Star Wars" now open. Many theaters opened their doors at midnight last night to get a jump on bringing the film to fans. But there's a large group of diehard fans at one theater who are willing to wait just a little longer.

CNN Entertainment correspondent Sibila Vargas reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is where the fun begins.

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): And fans are having a lot of fun as "Revenge of the Sith" gets closer, with them quoting favorite lines...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am your father.

VARGAS: ... catching up on their reading,...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wonder if this is why they got the PG-13 rating?

VARGAS: ... or other activities.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they're making Jedi robes in the back.

VARGAS: The faithful are gathering one last time to see a "Star Wars" movie for the first time. At Grumman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, they're lining up and the movie isn't even playing there. Undaunted, these diehards are trying to convince Grumman's to honor a long-standing "Star Wars" tradition.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the home of "Star Wars." This is where it premiered in 1977. It's where it premiered in Episode I and II. And there's no other place best suited to premiere the movie.

VARGAS: But even if the film isn't showing there, fans are making the wait worthwhile by raising money for the Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation. As Yoda might say about the journey, this is not the destination.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The lineup isn't entirely just about the movie, they're here for the experience. They're here to hang out with the fans and, you know, just be a part of this great experience.

VARGAS: "Star Wars" creator George Lucas says the gathering reminds him of Woodstock.

GEORGE LUCAS, DIRECTOR, "STAR WARS": We'll see a chance for like-minded people to get together and have fun and sort of party for several weeks on a street. Once "Star Wars" is gone, I'm sure they'll find something else, another reason to gather and have fun.

VARGAS: A lot of fans refuse to believe this is really the end of the line.

(on camera): Are you kind of sad that this is the last of the installments?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So he says. In about 10 or 15 years, he'll be like, come on, let's make another one. So I'm actually waiting for...

VARGAS: You think then? He's going to get older, though, that's the thing. It took him 20 years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: George, you know you're going to make another one, you know. So we'll be here for seven, eight and nine.

VARGAS (voice-over): Let the countdown begin.

Sibila Vargas, CNN, Hollywood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And we will have more from Sibila in just a few minutes. She'll join us live from Los Angeles with fans heading into the early morning shows of "Episode III." Fans have been waiting in line, Chad, for hours and hours and hours.

MYERS: Right. And our DAYBREAK "Question of the Day," why are "Star Wars" fans so devoted? Go to DAYBREAK@CNN.com and e-mail us your answer.

We've got some good answers already this morning -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Take it away.

MYERS: Chris (ph) now says why are we so devoted, because it's a great story. It's a mystery, suspense, action-adventure, romance and thriller that's lasted for six movies.

Yes, but Rocky VI did the same thing, didn't it? Anyway.

I just don't think I get it. I would never stand in line for a week or wait for anything, well, maybe to see Anderson Cooper. That was Janet (ph) from Portland.

And, Chad, why are you such a NASCAR fan? That comes from New York.

I get the same thing.

One person here from Georgia. Jerry (ph) in Georgia says let's just say it's the Michael Jackson syndrome, some people just refuse to grow up and hold on to things, like movies, to stay young or at least stay young at heart. And James (ph) from Ohio says simple answer, they're obsessed freaks. They have -- I have a wife, a job and other responsibilities. These people are all dressed up in line for weeks, they need to get a life -- Carol.

COSTELLO: They actually make their own costumes. I mean people put a lot of time into this.

But remember the "Rocky Horror Picture Show?"

MYERS: Yes.

COSTELLO: You know, back in the day, people dressed...

MYERS: Yes. I probably saw it 15 times.

COSTELLO: Exactly.

MYERS: Yes.

COSTELLO: Did you make your own costume and dress up as the transvestite?

MYERS: No.

COSTELLO: Would you admit it if you did?

MYERS: No.

COSTELLO: Just trying to be an investigative reporter. I don't know, I mean I kind of...

MYERS: You know what, Brian (ph) in Georgia says we're all fascinated by this ever-present battle between good versus evil. And that, with the fact that it's a marvelous setting, marvelous people, it draws people in it and it engulfs them.

That's the answer there for you.

COSTELLO: Thank you for your e-mails. And, as I said, we're going to head live to Los Angeles to talk to those crazy fans in the next hour of DAYBREAK, which starts right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Straight-ahead on DAYBREAK, a bank robbed, hostages stripped down to their underwear and a pilot hijacked. A bizarre string of events in one small town.

Also, in our nation's parks, the other meaning of recreational, as forests provide a haven for drug cartels.

And the Jedi knights are out in full force this morning. It's the big day "Star Wars" fans have been waiting for.

It is Thursday, May 19. This is DAYBREAK. 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 May 19, 2005 - 05:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, welcome to the second half-hour of DAYBREAK. From the Time Warner Center in New York, I'm Carol Costello, along with Chad Myers.
"Now in the News."

A new audiotape said to be that of al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al- Zarqawi justifies suicide bombings. The voice on the tape denounces the new Iraqi government and justifies the killings of innocent Muslims for the greater cause of Jihad.

In Idaho, no sign so far of two missing children. They lived in a home where three people were killed. Detectives have questioned Robert Roy Lutner. Police say he was at the house the night before the bodies were found. The children were not with Lutner when he turned himself in.

First baseball and today is pro basketball's turn to be called by Congress about steroids. NBA Commissioner David Stern has said he's against a proposed mandated uniform drug testing policy covering all sport.

To the Forecast Center now and, Chad, good morning.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I was thinking about this earlier, it doesn't seem like basketball and steroids go together. Because you know trying to be strong, although unless you're right under the basket in the paint, doesn't help you that much. You know everybody wants to be nimble and light and quick, so I don't know.

COSTELLO: Well, but endurance is a big deal. And some say that steroids help with endurance as well because you have better muscle mass.

MYERS: Sure. Right, running up and down the court, you bet.

COSTELLO: Makes you stronger.

MYERS: Hey, good morning -- Carol.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: All right, thank you -- Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Security at presidential events is being reviewed because of what may have been an assassination attempt against President Bush.

Our White House correspondent Dana Bash has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The FBI now says someone in this crowd tossed a live grenade within 100 feet of the president and only a malfunction stopped it from exploding in Georgia's Freedom Square.

BRYAN PAARMANN, FBI ATTACHE, TBILISI: We consider this act to be a threat against the health and welfare of both the president of the United States and the president of Georgia.

BASH: The FBI director briefed Mr. Bush on the agency's latest conclusion that the undetonated grenade was hidden in a dark cloth when it was hurled towards him.

PAARMANN: This hand grenade appears to be a live device that simply failed to function.

BASH: Though the FBI is on the ground working with local authorities, this report directly contradicts a statement out of the Georgian Interior Ministry last week saying the device did not contain explosives and was merely placed in the crowd, not thrown.

In fact, there are still many unanswered questions, like, how did someone toss a grenade here without the Secret Service, surveillance everywhere or even journalists on the scene seeing any disturbance? And how could the Secret Service allow that kind of device so close to the president?

JOSEPH PETRO, FRM. SECRET SERVICE AGENT: The Secret Service has the responsibility for the life of the president. But in a foreign country, they don't have the authority, or the jurisdiction, and they don't have the resources, so they have to depend on the local governments to provide those resources.

BASH: Just before the president spoke to the jam-packed thousands, U.S. officials in Tbilisi told CNN the crowd had broken through a barrier and they could no longer be sure the area was safe.

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: And those are all issues that the Secret Service will look at and take into consideration for future events.

BASH: Law enforcement experts say an exploding grenade certainly would have hurt or killed Georgians in the square and caused panic. But Mr. Bush was partially shielded by bulletproof glass and his life was probably not in danger.

(on camera): Officials in Georgia are appealing for witnesses to come forward with any information, any pictures, videotape, anything to help find the person they believe threw the grenade. And they're offering a reward equal to about $11,000 for any tip that leads to an arrest and a conviction. Dana Bash, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: In the works on Capitol Hill, a new bill to expand government powers under the Patriot Act. In the name of fighting terrorism, the new measure would let the FBI subpoena records without permission from a judge or grand jury. The Bush administration has sought this power for two years, but Congress keeps saying no.

As always, stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

Same battle, new day on Capitol Hill, the Senate fight over President Bush's judicial nominees is back on today. A compromise is in the works. It would advance some of the stalled nominations.

Our John King has a profile of one of the judges being debated this week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Janice Rogers Brown, a college liberal turned courthouse conservative, a Shakespeare and poetry-lover with a penchant for provocative words of her own.

These are "perilous times for people of faith," she warned in a speech last month, suggesting liberals want to divorce the country from its religious heritage. "It's not a shooting war," she said, "but it's a war."

JANICE ROGERS BROWN, APPEALS COURT NOMINEE: The question for you will be whether the regime of freedom, which they founded, can survive the relentless enmity of the slave mentality.

KING: She calls the New Deal, which created Social Security and Medicare, "our socialist revolution," suggesting it created reliance on big government, a new slavery, contrary to the Constitution's authors' vision of limited government.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's so radical that she says with programs like Social Security and Medicare, seniors are cannibalizing their grandchildren.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hear ye, hear ye, the honorable supreme court...

KING: Perhaps her most noteworthy judicial decision, a sweeping attack on affirmative action, saying society should be colorblind and not allow "entitlement based on group representation."

EVA PATERSON, FOUNDER, EQUAL JUSTICE SOCIETY: As a black woman I'm here to say it doesn't matter what the color of her skin is, it matters how she is going to rule. KING: Skin color very much mattered to young Janice Rogers in Laverne, Alabama. Whenever possible, her sharecropper father kept the family from establishments that had separate entrances and facilities for blacks.

STEVE MERSKSAMER, LONGTIME BROWN FRIEND: I know they didn't have indoor plumbing. I know that it was a very, very rough existence. I can only imagine what it must have been like growing up as a youngster in the segregated South.

KING: She was six when, 50 miles away in Montgomery, Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus. Fred Gray was Parks' lawyer, an African American, and to young Janice, an inspiration.

Rogers Brown graduated UCLA Law School in 1977, making her dream of becoming an attorney a reality. Raising a son as a single mother made personal responsibility a guiding theme, and her political views trended more conservative.

BILL MOUNT, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF: She believes the judiciary's single duty is to protect individuals from government overreaching.

KING: Critics see her provocative writings as evidence of ambition, including her 2000 ruling criticizing racial quotas or even goals as contrary to a society based on equal opportunity for all.

OWEN SELLSTROM, LAWYERS CMTE. FOR CIVIL RIGHTS: It was not a typical opinion that you would see of a judge looking at the facts and applying the law. It was much more something that appeared to be specifically drafted to catch the attention of ultra-right wing conservative groups.

KING: Former Chief of Staff Bill Mount says it is not personal ambition but, instead, a deliberate effort to stir debate on the evolving role of courts and government.

MOUNT: She believes that something of a wrong turn was taken, maybe half a century ago, when the welfare state grew. And I think she thinks that the national experience of African-Americans has been, in some ways, regrettable.

PATERSON: I think the Bush people are very brilliantly playing the race card.

KING: Eva Paterson's Equal Justice Society in San Francisco is one of an array of state and national civil rights organizations opposing the Brown nomination.

PATERSON: She is a sister and she has suffered many of the indignities that black women throughout history have suffered. And, so, that tends to make you want to just be quiet and not oppose her. But then my sense of political chess makes me realize that that's exactly what Karl Rove and President Bush want to have happen.

KING (on camera): Justice Rogers Brown is a regular here at the Church of Christ in Rancho Cordova, near Sacramento. Friends say her deep Christian faith is a critical part of both her personal and professional life, though some critics say that faith plays too much of a role in her judicial philosophy.

BROWN: What we ultimately pursue is a true vision of justice and ordered liberty, respectful of human dignity and the authority of God.

KING (voice-over): In a 1997 case, the state supreme court declared unconstitutional a law requiring parental consent before a minor could receive an abortion. But Justice Brown dissented, suggesting the majority's reasoning gave courts a green light "to topple every cultural icon, to dismiss all societal values, and to become the final arbiters of traditional morality."

Friend Steve Mersksamer says they have never discussed abortion.

MERSKSAMER: I don't know what her views would be. I think she views the Constitution in a fairly strict, constructionist sense, which is what the president says he wants to appoint people like that. But I also think that she is -- I think it's a big mistake to try to pigeonhole her.

KING: She is, for example, not always adverse to government power. "Sometimes beauty is fierce; love is tough; and freedom is painful," she wrote in a ruling upholding drug testing for government job applicants. She also allowed cities to disperse suspected gang members without proof of illegal conduct.

MERSKSAMER: Janice is an extremely private person. She is hard to, you know, she won't open up to just anybody.

KING: Mersksamer met with Brown recently to discuss her nomination. He says she preferred to talk about her latest intellectual pursuit.

MERSKSAMER: I couldn't believe it when she said to me, you know I really -- could you connect me with somebody who can teach -- I want to learn Hebrew. And I mean it just amazed me. I said, why? Because I want to read the Torah in the original Hebrew.

KING: Friends say two years of hearing herself labeled combative, temperamental, extremist and worse have taken a toll. But Mount says Justice Brown isn't one to flinch from a fight.

MOUNT: She told me that she went to see the Ray Charles film and she loved the line when they said, "They're scandalizing my name." And that's exactly how she feels. I think she finds it brutal, just brutal. In another sense, I think she's in the eye of the storm and she's quite calm about it all.

KING: John King, CNN, San Francisco.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Is the force with you? Just how long are you willing to wait before catching "Revenge of the Sith?" Coming up, we'll test the mettle of some diehard "Star Wars" fans. But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Thursday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Does the name Pamela Smart ring a bell? She's the New Hampshire woman who was convicted of having her 15-year-old lover kill her husband. Now she wants a pardon and wants the governor to commute her sentence of life without possibility of parole.

As we take you "Beyond the Soundbite" this morning, we see that Smart and her former father-in-law have plenty to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAMELA SMART, CONVICTED OF CONSPIRACY: I feel like my decision to get involved with Billy Flynn, to be involved with him, when I'm telling you I knew it was wrong. I'm not saying that I didn't know any better, I was 21 years old, I knew it was wrong. I remember moments when I said why are you doing this? This thing is wrong. And I still did it, OK, and I'm to blame for that.

And now he went -- separate from my relationship, would Bill have ever killed Greg? Probably not. So I have to connect myself in some way to being responsible through my horrible acts but Bill Flynn to be involved in some way and Greg being dead.

BILL SMART, GREG SMART'S FATHER: It does surprise me, because she has never admitted anything. She's never admitted that -- she's admitted she's had the affair before, but she's never taken responsibility for Greg's death because of the affair. When I'm dead, it doesn't matter. But as long as I'm alive, I'm going to use every last breath I have to fight this woman.

He was just a wonderful son. Any father would be proud to have him as a son. And I wish to God that he was here, but I can't get him back, so I have to just go forward. And I have to continue to fight her, and I'm going to do it until the day I die.

P. SMART: You might be better off saying, well, I did this and I have remorse or whatever, but that would be lying and that's just not the truth. And I feel like that -- I just don't feel like that would be the right thing to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Pamela Smart also says it isn't fair that the boy who pulled the trigger will get out of prison while she won't. Raymond Flynn, the convicted shooter, is up for parole in 2018.

Your news, money, weather and sports. It's 5:46 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning.

Police in Idaho are still looking for two missing children, even after interviewing a person of interest in the case. Detectives talked with Robert Lutner in their investigation into the triple homicide at the children's home.

A new audiotape justifies suicide bombings. A voice believed to belong to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi called for the killing of infidels by any means necessary, even if it means Muslims killing innocent Muslims.

In money news, Toyota is tops in quality. That's according to a study by JD Power. The Lexus reigned supreme. It's one of 10 vehicles from the Japanese automaker that won the highest scores in 18 segments of the market.

In culture, today is the birthday of true movie madness. It was 10 years ago today that the nation's top megaplex theater opened up in Dallas. If you're wondering, a megaplex has at least 14 separate movie screens. And today they're all playing "Star Wars."

In sports, Barry Bonds still recovering from an infection in his surgically repaired right knee. The sidelined slugger had his I.V. removed after two weeks of intravenous treatment. It's questionable when, or even if, he will return this season.

To the Forecast Center and -- Chad.

MYERS: Good morning, Carol.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Thank you, Chad.

That's a look at the latest headlines for you this morning.

It looks eerily familiar. Donald Trump unveils his own plan for what he thinks should be built at Ground Zero. We talked about this yesterday. We're going to forward the story this morning. Is anyone in New York agreeing with him on this design? We'll find out.

You're watching DAYBREAK.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Some "Entertainment Headlines" for you this morning.

Singer Kylie Minogue gets to undergo breast cancer surgery this week. The pop diva's Web site reportedly is overloaded by people trying to get information. Her "Showgirl" tour of Australia and Asia has been postponed. Minogue's cancer is said to be in the earliest of stages.

The Academy of Country Music picks Kenny Chesney as entertainer of the year. His new bride, Renee Zellweger, was off on a movie set and missed the show. Despite that, Chesney says, he is centered now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENNY CHESNEY, SINGER: To be honest with you, it's not that different. It's just I'm a little more at ease, you know I'm not searching, and that's what's great about her. And she's a great girl.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Chesney also won the CMA's entertainment of the year last November.

"Episode III" of "Star Wars" now open. Many theaters opened their doors at midnight last night to get a jump on bringing the film to fans. But there's a large group of diehard fans at one theater who are willing to wait just a little longer.

CNN Entertainment correspondent Sibila Vargas reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is where the fun begins.

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): And fans are having a lot of fun as "Revenge of the Sith" gets closer, with them quoting favorite lines...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am your father.

VARGAS: ... catching up on their reading,...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wonder if this is why they got the PG-13 rating?

VARGAS: ... or other activities.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they're making Jedi robes in the back.

VARGAS: The faithful are gathering one last time to see a "Star Wars" movie for the first time. At Grumman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, they're lining up and the movie isn't even playing there. Undaunted, these diehards are trying to convince Grumman's to honor a long-standing "Star Wars" tradition.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the home of "Star Wars." This is where it premiered in 1977. It's where it premiered in Episode I and II. And there's no other place best suited to premiere the movie.

VARGAS: But even if the film isn't showing there, fans are making the wait worthwhile by raising money for the Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation. As Yoda might say about the journey, this is not the destination.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The lineup isn't entirely just about the movie, they're here for the experience. They're here to hang out with the fans and, you know, just be a part of this great experience.

VARGAS: "Star Wars" creator George Lucas says the gathering reminds him of Woodstock.

GEORGE LUCAS, DIRECTOR, "STAR WARS": We'll see a chance for like-minded people to get together and have fun and sort of party for several weeks on a street. Once "Star Wars" is gone, I'm sure they'll find something else, another reason to gather and have fun.

VARGAS: A lot of fans refuse to believe this is really the end of the line.

(on camera): Are you kind of sad that this is the last of the installments?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So he says. In about 10 or 15 years, he'll be like, come on, let's make another one. So I'm actually waiting for...

VARGAS: You think then? He's going to get older, though, that's the thing. It took him 20 years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: George, you know you're going to make another one, you know. So we'll be here for seven, eight and nine.

VARGAS (voice-over): Let the countdown begin.

Sibila Vargas, CNN, Hollywood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And we will have more from Sibila in just a few minutes. She'll join us live from Los Angeles with fans heading into the early morning shows of "Episode III." Fans have been waiting in line, Chad, for hours and hours and hours.

MYERS: Right. And our DAYBREAK "Question of the Day," why are "Star Wars" fans so devoted? Go to DAYBREAK@CNN.com and e-mail us your answer.

We've got some good answers already this morning -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Take it away.

MYERS: Chris (ph) now says why are we so devoted, because it's a great story. It's a mystery, suspense, action-adventure, romance and thriller that's lasted for six movies.

Yes, but Rocky VI did the same thing, didn't it? Anyway.

I just don't think I get it. I would never stand in line for a week or wait for anything, well, maybe to see Anderson Cooper. That was Janet (ph) from Portland.

And, Chad, why are you such a NASCAR fan? That comes from New York.

I get the same thing.

One person here from Georgia. Jerry (ph) in Georgia says let's just say it's the Michael Jackson syndrome, some people just refuse to grow up and hold on to things, like movies, to stay young or at least stay young at heart. And James (ph) from Ohio says simple answer, they're obsessed freaks. They have -- I have a wife, a job and other responsibilities. These people are all dressed up in line for weeks, they need to get a life -- Carol.

COSTELLO: They actually make their own costumes. I mean people put a lot of time into this.

But remember the "Rocky Horror Picture Show?"

MYERS: Yes.

COSTELLO: You know, back in the day, people dressed...

MYERS: Yes. I probably saw it 15 times.

COSTELLO: Exactly.

MYERS: Yes.

COSTELLO: Did you make your own costume and dress up as the transvestite?

MYERS: No.

COSTELLO: Would you admit it if you did?

MYERS: No.

COSTELLO: Just trying to be an investigative reporter. I don't know, I mean I kind of...

MYERS: You know what, Brian (ph) in Georgia says we're all fascinated by this ever-present battle between good versus evil. And that, with the fact that it's a marvelous setting, marvelous people, it draws people in it and it engulfs them.

That's the answer there for you.

COSTELLO: Thank you for your e-mails. And, as I said, we're going to head live to Los Angeles to talk to those crazy fans in the next hour of DAYBREAK, which starts right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Straight-ahead on DAYBREAK, a bank robbed, hostages stripped down to their underwear and a pilot hijacked. A bizarre string of events in one small town.

Also, in our nation's parks, the other meaning of recreational, as forests provide a haven for drug cartels.

And the Jedi knights are out in full force this morning. It's the big day "Star Wars" fans have been waiting for.

It is Thursday, May 19. This is DAYBREAK. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com