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American Morning

Karl Rove's Clearance; Rehnquist Stays On

Aired July 15, 2005 - 07:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome back, everybody. It's 7:30 here in New York City.
Coming up this morning, Chief Justice William Rehnquist putting to rest any speculation that he's going to retire anytime soon.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Interestingly, 30 years ago, Rehnquist was on the court, new to it, when another justice was very ill. Things got kind of ugly. Jeff Toobin will give us a little historical context.

S. O'BRIEN: All right. We'll take a look at that a little bit later this morning.

First, though, a look at the other stories that are making headlines this morning with Fredricka Whitfield.

Hey, Fred, good morning.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks so much. Good morning to you, Soledad and Miles.

"Now in the News."

Extra vigilance in Baghdad this morning. A string of car bombings has killed at least eight people in the Iraqi capital. Dozens are wounded. U.S. and Iraqi security forces were the apparent targets.

Palestinian leaders declare a state of emergency in Gaza. Clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian insurgents for a second straight day. Tensions in the territories have been on the rise in the aftermath of a Palestinian attack that killed an Israeli woman.

British and FBI investigators are on the lookout for an Egyptian biochemist who has a link to the United States. He is wanted for questioning in connection with the bombings that killed at least 54 people in London. Officials also tell CNN the attacks may have been a continuation of a plot British police foiled last year. Eight British Muslims were arrested at the time and a half-ton of explosive material was confiscated.

Some legal decisions in connection with Natalee Holloway's disappearance. A panel of judges in Aruba ruled that Joran Van Der Sloot will remain in jail. The Dutch teen is one of the last people known to have been with Holloway the night she disappeared. The same judges decided not to re-arrest two brothers who had been released more than a week ago. But they officially remain suspects in the case.

And a 7-month-old baby pulled to safety after a building in upper Manhattan collapsed. We brought you the story live as it happened on Thursday. The building at a demolition site fell apart, trapping pedestrians below, including the baby. Everyone is expected to be fine. Authorities are investigating whether construction equipment loaded on the building's roof caused the collapse.

Let's check back in with the weather.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: So what's next for the space shuttle, you may ask? Well, it could be a Sunday launch, or it could be delayed indefinitely.

Take a look at space shuttle Discovery still on the launch pad.

And what's going to happen today is technicians are literally going to go out there and jiggle some wires. That's actually an old picture. They have the rotating service structure, the erector set thing closed over it now so they can get access to it.

If they jiggle a few wires and get lucky and find a loose connection, they could go Sunday.

This is where the problem is. The base of that orange external fuel tank, a low fuel sensor. You want that thing to be working before you go to orbit, because it can either shut down the engines prematurely or allow them to run dry. Neither is a good scenario.

But quite frankly, all of these great, smart engineers at NASA are kind of stumped as to what the problem is right now. So, if they get lucky in the next day or so, maybe Sunday.

Now let me give you the schedule. This is how it goes. About 20 minutes earlier every day. So Sunday it would be 2:14 p.m. Monday, 1:51. On it goes down the list. And eventually, by July 31, we're going to get into nighttime hours, at which time the window closes. And then it's, see you in September. We'll keep you posted -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: And then after that, it's see you in...

M. O'BRIEN: November, and that's like a very tight window. So it gets complicated. It is rocket science. What can I tell you?

S. O'BRIEN: All right. We'll see what happens.

Some Senate Democrats are focused on presidential adviser Karl Rove and his alleged involvement in the leaking of the name of a CIA agent. Democratic leader Harry Reid's proposed legislation, which is aimed at government officials who expose undercover agents, failed, though, last night.

Ed Henry, live on Capitol Hill this morning. So much focus on this issue. Why the failure, Ed?

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Soledad, it was supposed to be a bipartisan day, where senators came together to beef up transit security funding in the wake of the London bombings. But Senate Democrats, as you mentioned, saw an opportunity to beat up on Karl Rove. Since they were debating homeland security, they decided to introduce an amendment targeting him.

As you mentioned, Senate Democrat leader Harry Reid had an amendment that basically said that anyone who leaked the identity of a CIA agent -- read Karl Rove, allegedly -- that person would lose their security clearance.

But Senate Republican leader Bill Frist responded in kind with an amendment of his own, saying that if anyone leaked sensitive FBI information, they would lose air security clearance. That was targeted at two top Democrats who allegedly did that.

It basically was tit for tat, a neighborhood school yard fight basically.

Here's the war of words on the Senate floor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MINORITY LEADER: This is a cover-up. It's abuse of power, and it's a diversion. They have no interest, my friends, in coming clean and being honest with the American people. And the American people are seeing through this.

SEN. BILL FRIST (R-TN), MAJORITY LEADER: The Democratic leadership chose raw partisan party politics over protecting American lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Bottom line is there's a lot of hot air on both sides. But each amendment failed. The overall homeland security bill did pass with a lot of new money for rail security funding all across the United States.

But the Republican chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Susan Collins, complained that this war of words, this tit for tat, was exactly why Congress is held in low esteem -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: I was going to say, (INAUDIBLE) many people, voters might think. Ed Henry for us on Capitol Hill. Ed, thanks -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, despite rampant rumors of his retirement, Chief Justice William Rehnquist says, forget about it. He'll continue. Well, he didn't say forget about it, but I'm paraphrasing. He will continue heading the Supreme Court as long as his health permits.

Senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin is here to weigh in on that. I didn't want to put words in the chief justice's mouth.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Don't do that.

M. O'BRIEN: No. Now, you saw him on that dramatic last day of arguments in the court. He looked rather frail. So are you a little bit surprised that he would say, no, I'm not stepping down?

TOOBIN: Well, I guess he got irritated reading his obituary over and over again, which you can sort of understand.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

TOOBIN: But, you know, it is somewhat surprising that, you know, he hasn't retired. He is very frail. You know, I saw him -- we all saw him at the inauguration in January, and he really looked bad. He actually looked better in sort of the spring, March, April.

But when I saw him at the end of the term, he really looks -- I mean, you can see in the picture there. That's July 8. I mean, he's very frail. His voice, you know, is very raspy, because he's got the tracheotomy tube still in there.

But, you know, there has never been an issue questioning his mental acuity. And, you know, he's a tough guy, and he likes his job.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, let's talk about the pace of this job, chief justice. How demanding a job is this, just physically for him, a frail person? Can a frail person handle it?

TOOBIN: You know, a frail person can handle it. The Supreme Court, among the many reasons it's a great job, is that it is not the most time-consuming job in the world. You know, the justices mostly have the summers entirely off. They have to deal with a few emergency applications. But mostly, July, August, September they are not even in the Supreme Court building.

The chief justice has a few more administrative responsibilities, but he also has a good staff. He has law clerks. You know, it's definitely a job that can be done on less than full 100 percent physical fitness.

M. O'BRIEN: When he first came to the court, William O. Douglas had had a stroke, or shortly thereafter of his arrival. And he was involved in helping him out. And so he's had some experience with a judge in that case who had had a stroke, and there was some problems with his mental acuity, right?

TOOBIN: You know, it was really a dark period for the court in the mid-70s, because Douglas tried to stay on the court after having a series of strokes. And, you know, there is not really a provision to force a justice to leave. And he wound up leaving in 1975, but for about a year there, he really -- Justice Douglas wasn't functioning at full capacity. And it was a very embarrassing and difficult period for the court.

Chief Justice Rehnquist, I'm sure, does not want to put the court through that. But the big difference, of course, is that Douglas had mental problems. And, as far as we know, all the chief justice has are physical problems.

M. O'BRIEN: And there is no mechanism in the Constitution which provides for removing a justice, right?

TOOBIN: Except for impeachment and removal, which, of course, is an elaborate process that no one is even considering. So there is no sort of mandatory retirement. You know, he is not the oldest member of the court. Justice Stevens is 85 years old. So there is no real provision for ushering someone off the court. It's basically up to each justice to decide when he or she is ready to leave.

M. O'BRIEN: Should there be a provision? Should that change?

TOOBIN: Well, you know, that's actually --- people are starting to talk about that, because people are just living so much longer. When the Constitution went into effect in the late 18th century, you know, people barely lived to 70 years old. If you were appointed to the court in your 50s, which is when people tended to be appointed to the court, you know, you'd serve 10, 15, 20 years. Now people are serving 30 years.

And, you know, there's some question about whether that's what the framers intended, for people to be there for so long. But it's very hard to change these things, and don't look for any changes anytime soon.

M. O'BRIEN: That's how it goes with the Constitution. That's probably the way it should be, too.

TOOBIN: You know, if it isn't broke, don't fix it, right?

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. Jeff Toobin, our senior legal analyst. Thank you very much -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, here's something we have not talked about in a long time: hockey. A new labor deal, a new plan for bringing back the fans. Yes, be still your heart. Andy has got that. He's "Minding Your Business" just ahead.

And Willie Wonka back on the big screen. "Harry Potter's" next installment, too. "90-Second Pop" is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: All right. NHL teams are brainstorming ways to lure back fans. Do you remember hockey?

S. O'BRIEN: Hockey? Hockey? What's hockey?

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: We haven't talked about it in a while.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

SERWER: And we've got to talk about it a little bit today. Let's start off with the markets, though, a little bit, you guys.

Yesterday stock prices boosted by lower oil prices and some positive economic data. You can see here, and this is getting to look a little familiar, thankfully. The Nasdaq and the S&P up five days in a row. And, in fact, the S&P 500, which is the broadest index there, now at a four-year high, which is kind of nice, up 1.2 percent for the year. That's the good stuff.

But if you go further back, we are still a long, long way from its all-time high of 1518 reached back in 2000. You can see that.

So, while we do have a nice rally here, as I have said before, we still have a ways to go.

We forgot to mention yesterday, did we? We neglected to mention that the hockey lockout ended. The NHL ended that 301-day lockout yesterday. And hockey teams have started to get back into business. In fact, two of them yesterday announcing price cuts on tickets. When was the last time you heard of a major sports franchise cutting prices? This is for the Dallas Stars. And you can see here on the left is the old prices. On the right are the new prices. And look at that. In the bottom right, a $10 ticket to go to a professional sports game in America in 2005.

S. O'BRIEN: Wow!

SERWER: I mean, that's pretty unusual.

M. O'BRIEN: Unheard of. That is entertainment value there.

SERWER: I mean, because usually you're talking about going to see the Yankees or the Lakers or even the Cardinals, I mean, it's $75, $100 a ticket. Ten dollars.

M. O'BRIEN: That's a dollar...

S. O'BRIEN: Because they alienated all the fans.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, yes.

SERWER: And because not a lot of people have been going.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, there's that.

SERWER: There's that, yes. So let's see if they'll be able to get this going next fall. It will be interesting.

M. O'BRIEN: It's $1 for every tooth on the team.

SERWER: Oh, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: All right. I've got a story to file under very dumb but true. A young man's dream of becoming a stunt man got him in lots of trouble with the law. Here's a look at the videotape. Let's roll the videotape. Yes, look at this. This is 21-year-old Brian Crawford. This is his home video. He made this himself. He is on a speeding car. He's on a highway in Pennsylvania. OK. That would be mistake number one. Those are Brian's legs hanging out of his car window. That's Brian's body hanging out of his car.

Here was mistake number two. Oops. An off-duty police officer spotted this. And now Crawford and the driver of the car face charges of reckless endangerment.

The guy who's rolling tape on this, the 19-year-old cameraman, is charged with conspiracy in this. And here's the reason why. Crawford says he was making a demo reel. He's trying to get into a school for stuntmen.

SERWER: Well, that explains it.

M. O'BRIEN: I think he's going to need a new school very soon, because he's about to get booted out of the school he's in. But, you know, I hesitate to even put that on the air, because you know there's going to be kids trying this nonsense now.

SERWER: There are not that many stupid people out there, I think.

S. O'BRIEN: It's not possible. I agree.

SERWER: Right?

S. O'BRIEN: Crazy, huh?

SERWER: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: I hope you're right.

S. O'BRIEN: still to come this morning, R. Kelly in trouble with the law but not with his fans. 90-second poppers weigh in on just what's driving sales for him. That's up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: We've got some information just in to CNN. There are some developments in the wake of the terror attacks in London. British police, who are investigating, now say this. They are aware that a suspect has been detained in Cairo, Egypt, in connection apparently with the London bombings. Apparently, the suspect has been detained, but they are not revealing a name at this time.

There have been many reports, or several reports, that an Egyptian biochemist has been sought in connection with the bombing. His name is Magdy el-Nashar. We're expecting a statement from Scotland Yard imminently, and we will bring that to you, of course, as soon as we get more information. But some preliminary information on developments in this story.

Right now, we're going to return to "90-Second Pop."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Quick, put me in the closet. And now I'm in this darkest closet trying to figure out just how I'm going to get out of this house

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: All right. That's it. I'm just dying to see it. I've been reading so much about it. It's "90-Second Pop" for a Friday with our AMERICAN MORNING idols. Sarah Bernard, "New York" magazine. B.J. Sigesmund, "Us Weekly." And Amy Barnett from "Teen People."

Good to have you all here this morning.

All right, this whole R. Kelly thing. I haven't followed it a bit. So we have to -- I know, I'm a loser. All right, R. Kelly. The back story on this is that he's a, what, rapist or rapper? Which is it?

AMY BARNETT, "TEEN PEOPLE": No, no, no, that's terrible!

SARAH BERNARD, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: No!

M. O'BRIEN: Which is it? Is that a bad start to this?

BARNETT: You need to sprinkle it with "allegedly."

M. O'BRIEN: All right. So he's got this "Trapped in the Closet" thing, which is more not just a song, it's a miniseries.

BARNETT: It's a miniseries. It's a five-part miniseries.

M. O'BRIEN: And it's at the top of the charts. What's the deal on this thing?

BARNETT: Well, it's a big deal. I mean, R. Kelly is back again with another big hit, "TP-3 Reloaded." It's a sequel to his "TP-2," which came out with 500,000 sales its first week in 2000. "TP-3" is 491,000. And it's amazing because it's being driven by what you're saying, this "Trapped in the Closet" song, the first of a five-part mini-drama, where he's literally -- R. Kelly depicts a man who is having an affair with a married man and is literally trapped in the closet when her husband comes back in and finds them.

And what I find really ironic, though, is that, of course, we're all watching this video, and it's driving "TP-3" sales, and yet we're also ignoring the actual sex videos that have gotten R. Kelly in so much trouble, the ones that he allegedly made.

BERNARD: Well, he's on trial.

BARNETT: Well, exactly. There's a pending trial, for those of you who don't know...

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. BARNETT: There's a pending trial out there for R. Kelly after he, you know, allegedly taped himself, allegedly engaging -- keep saying that -- engaging in a lewd sexual act with a 14-year-old.

M. O'BRIEN: A child, yes.

BERNARD: And, you know, it's really interesting how scandals aren't scandals anymore. It doesn't really affect the sales of a product. I mean, look at Bobby Brown, right? He's had all these legal problems. His reality show is doing great. I think, obviously, Martha is going to come back. It doesn't have the same effect.

M. O'BRIEN: And is there any doubt about Michael Jackson coming back given all of this, right?

B.J. SIGESMUND, STAFF EDITOR, "US WEEKLY": He's next.

BARNETT: Yes.

SIGESMUND: I just think this is an amazing PR move for R. Kelly. You know, the video -- you know, the art of the video has kind of been dead for a while. And, look, he's sort of reinvigorated it. He's doing a five-part rap opera that you can watch on VH-1, you know, from start to finish.

M. O'BRIEN: Rap and opera in the same sentence.

SIGESMUND: Yes, it's like this melodramatic 15 or 20 minute short film that he's...

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

BERNARD: That's a little Michael Jackson.

SIGESMUND: The spoken word.

M. O'BRIEN: We've got to move on. We've got to move on. Let's talk about Willie Wonka meets Harry Potter.

BERNARD: That's right.

M. O'BRIEN: And the battle for the preteen bucks out there.

BERNARD: The big showdown.

M. O'BRIEN: This is -- you know, you don't think about books competing with movies. But in this case, that could apply, right?

BERNARD: Yes. Well, this is no joke. I mean, anything that's coming out at the same time that the Harry Potter book is being released is going to be, you know, in a little bit of trouble. Now, the last time the Harry Potter, the fifth installment came out, "Hulk" was actually in the theaters. And the book made $150 million in a day, and "Hulk" only made 62.

M. O'BRIEN: That's one day. One day. BERNARD: That's right. But, you know, "Hulk" didn't have Johnny Depp in it, right? So that is a huge difference, because basically the combination of Johnny Depp and Tim Burton together means that this is not just a kids' movie. It's a much more sophisticated to take on Willie Wonka. Actually, a lot of people have been comparing Johnny Depp's very pale face and his haircut to a Michael Jackson, a subtle metaphor in there. So he's actually going to appeal to, I think, more than just the preteen audience.

SIGESMUND: Yes.

BERNARD: You're not really going to get the same exact people battling.

SIGESMUND: I mean, there are going to be a lot of kids out there that are going to be reading Harry Potter and that want to see "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." But I want to see the parent that actually forces their kid to stop reading so they can take them to the movies.

BARNETT: Whoever heard of staying home to read a book and not going to watch a movie? And I think this is going to end up being a parents' nightmare. It's going to be that classic character in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," Veruca Salt (ph), the little girl who just screams, "I want it right now!" Parents are going to hear that all weekend long about the book and the movie.

BERNARD: And "Wedding Crashers," too, right?

(CROSSTALK)

M. O'BRIEN: I saw that trailer, and I thought, that is going to be a terrible movie. Not so, huh, B.J.?

SIGESMUND: You're wrong.

M. O'BRIEN: I'm wrong? So wrong.

SIGESMUND: Miles, I'm so happy to sit here and tell you there's a really great R-rated movie out there that's not just about sex and drugs. It's like fun and funny and romantic and cool.

M. O'BRIEN: Really?

SIGESMUND: Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson are just awesome in this movie. They play aging bachelors who regularly crash weddings to pick up women who have had too much champagne.

M. O'BRIEN: Not a bad idea, by the way.

SIGESMUND: Yes, it's a great idea. Yes, women who have had too much champagne and are feeling that romantic vibe that you get at weddings. But eventually the scam kind of wears thin, and Owen Wilson's character falls for one of the bridesmaids at a wedding that he goes to, Rachel McAdams, who's going to become a big star this summer with this movie and another one, "Red Eye," next month. M. O'BRIEN: This will be a good test of our theories on why the box office has been so poor. A good movie. We'll see if it turns around, huh?

SIGESMUND: Yes, it's not going to do as well as "Charlie," but it will have a great weekend. And there's just great buzz about it, too.

BARNETT: And if B.J. says it, then I think it's going to be true, because he never likes anything. This is big.

M. O'BRIEN: It must be true. All right.

SIGESMUND: Oh, that's not true.

M. O'BRIEN: He's the Mikey. If he doesn't like it. All right. Thanks a lot, guys. Appreciate it. That's Sarah Bernard, B.J. Sigesmund and Amy Barnett. Thanks for playing on "90-Second Pop."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Breaking news in the London terror investigation. Reports within the last few minutes of a possible arrest in Egypt. Details about who was detained and why he could be crucial to the investigation.

And a major story developing in the Caribbean. Hurricane Emily getting bigger, now a category 4 storm still gaining strength and headed for Texas.

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