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American Morning

DeLay Indicted Again; High Court Nomination; Tour Boat Raised From Lake George Monday

Aired October 04, 2005 - 08:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A developing story with deadly consequences this hour in Iraq. A suicide car bomber penetrates security in Baghdad's highly-fortified Green Zone, setting off a powerful explosion while thousands of U.S. troops launch two new offensives against insurgents.
We've got a live report from Iraq straight ahead.

Congressman Tom DeLay indicted again by a Texas prosecutor. This time it's a money laundering charge. DeLay calls it a new low. We're live at the Capitol with a damage assessment.

And the White House getting ready for a possible fight over Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers. Will it be a fight with Republicans? Taking a look at the political game plan on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien.

O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome back, everybody. Miles has the next couple of days off.

But it is shaping up to be a very busy morning, with lots of news out of Washington, D.C. We've got reporters standing by. We'll get to those in just a few moments.

First, though, let's get right back to Rob Marciano. He's in Lake Charles, Louisiana, this morning.

Hey, Rob. Good morning.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Soledad.

The sun just about to come up over the eastern horizon. A blue sky overhead and a very light wind. Certainly a different seen today than it was 12 days ago, when the waters of Lake Charles had four and five-foot breakers on them coming up with the storm surge of about six to eight feet right up and over my feet. So a lot more calm today.

Yesterday, as you may know, we were in Port Arthur, Texas, another area that was hit by Hurricane Rita. Now Lake Charles, across the Sabine River, into Calcasieu Parish in southwest Louisiana.

So getting both sides of the storm, the western eye wall and the eastern eye wall. Eastern eye wall here, stronger winds, higher storm surge. Tomorrow, we head further east down I-10, likely across the border into Mississippi, to talk about Hurricane Katrina. Over a month ago, and still not much progress there.

With the cleanup efforts here, a lot of people getting hurt. A matter of fact, a member of our team got hurt yesterday, so we went to the hospital. It was the same hospital where Sanjay Gupta spent the night during the storm. It is still up and running.

We're going to talk about that experience, and also speak with the doctor later this half-hour -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: I assume he's OK?

MARCIANO: He's fine.

O'BRIEN: OK.

MARCIANO: A tetanus shot and he's good to go.

O'BRIEN: OK, good. Glad to hear that. Thanks, Rob. We'll see you in a little bit.

Headlines now. Carol Costello has those.

Good morning again.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Sometimes the shot hurts worse than the injury.

O'BRIEN: Yes, but better than getting tetanus. It sounds like he stepped on something bad.

COSTELLO: Those tetanus shots hurt, though, don't they?

Good morning, Soledad.

Good morning to all of you.

"Now in the News," a car bomb explosion near Baghdad's fortified Green Zone. You can see the thick smoke rising from the scene there. At least three people were killed in the attack, which took place within the past two hours. Seven others wounded.

In the meantime, the U.S. military has launched two new offensives today aimed at shutting down al Qaeda and disrupting insurgents. About 3,000 American forces are involved in those operations. The missions are also backed by Iraqi forces.

Louisiana authorities say the search for Hurricane Katrina victims is over. All agencies have apparently finished looking for remains.

The death toll in Louisiana was raised Monday to 964. The total number of victims from the five states where the storm hit is now around 1,200. Officials say the tour boat that capsized in upstate New York did not have enough crewmembers onboard. Now, that's led officials to suspend the company's operating license pending an investigation.

The Ethan Allen overturned and sank, killing 20 people. Authorities say only one crew member was aboard the boat at the time of the incident. State regulations would have required at least two.

Cleanup continues this morning on the Seven Mile Bridge leading into the lower Florida Keys. Take a look at it.

Parts of it remain closed this morning after a fiery crash. Florida Highway Patrol says the driver of a tanker truck lost control Monday, colliding with an SUV. At least one person was killed in this crash.

And a new warning out this morning about obesity. A study that followed Americans for three decades suggests that in the long term, nine out of every 10 men will become overweight.

Women do slightly better. Seven out of 10 are like li to gain extra pounds. The findings appear in today's "Annals of Internal Medicine."

Not really that encouraging.

O'BRIEN: That is such depressing news.

COSTELLO: Nine out of 10?

O'BRIEN: Yes. That's like you're done. It's a huge problem if you think about, like, the medical implications and the healthcare cost implications.

Well, we're seven out of 10. A little chance we can sneak by.

COSTELLO: Yes. We're a lot better.

O'BRIEN: Thanks, Carol.

Well, Congressman Tom DeLay calling a new charge against him an abomination of justice. On Monday, a Texas grand jury indicted the former House majority leader. This time on money laundering.

Joe Johns live for us on Capitol Hill this morning.

Joe, good morning to you. Second indictment in two weeks. Why the additional charge here?

JOE JOHNS, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Soledad, it comes just days after Tom DeLay was indicted on a criminal conspiracy charge. This new charge is essentially insurance that the prosecutor still has a case in the event the first charge is dismissed by a judge.

Late Monday, DeLay's lawyers filed a motion arguing that the first charge should be thrown out because conspiracy in this context wasn't a crime in 2002 when the alleged wrongdoing occurred. There has been no ruling. Basically, last night, DeLay went on the radio, laughing at the prosecutor.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

REP. TOM DELAY (R), TEXAS: The law that connected conspiracy to the election code was passed in 2003. This event happened in 2002. So this crime didn't even exist.

And -- and -- I'm sorry for laughing -- this is -- this is beyond -- it's just unbelievable. I mean, he's making the Keystone Cops look good.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

JOHNS: Still, the new indictment carries a greater penalty than the previous charge, five years probation to life in prison. The prosecutor's office says it's not conceding anything was wrong with the first indictment. A source close to the investigation says they do plan to fight it out in court, but essentially decided to re-indict DeLay just in case -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Now, DeLay's camp has long said, Joe, that this is all politically motivated. I'm curious to know, how bad could it be politically for DeLay, regardless of how it ends up?

JOHNS: Sure. Well, this is a big problem, and it could be very difficult for Tom DeLay to remain viable in the House of Representatives certainly if he were convicted on these charges. The question, of course, is whether he'd be able to survive even if he were not convicted.

And a lot of people suggest it's possible, because he is such a survivor, he is such a survivor, and he's already laying the groundwork by charging Ronnie Earle with the political motivation. Earle says, of course, he has indicted a lot of Democrats and fewer Republicans, including DeLay.

O'BRIEN: Joe Johns for us on Capitol Hill.

Thanks, Joe.

Some criticism from President Bush's political allies today over his nomination for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Candy Crowley has our report on the fallout from Republicans.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MINORITY LEADER: Hello, everyone. I'm happy to be here today with Harriet Miers.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Miers has never been a judge. A resume which prompted a conservative group to call her possibly the most unqualified choice since Lyndon Johnson tapped his lawyer. Meanwhile, the Senate's top Democrat sang her praises.

REID: So anyone with that background makes me feel good. Someone who has been in a courtroom, tried cases, answered interrogatories, done all those things that lawyers need to do.

CROWLEY: In the first week of a nomination, supporters are usually effusive and critics are polite, if not always by miss manner standards.

SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: And my first reaction is a simple one, it could have been a lot worse.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I see no negatives at this stage in Harriet Miers.

CROWLEY: But this time is different. In the yin and yang of Washington politics, if two left leaning Democrats are not unhappy, then right-leaning Republicans must be. Conservative Commentator Rush Limbaugh took the case to the vice president.

RUSH LIMBAUGH: Some acknowledge on you part that there's some disappointment out there that there's not somebody that can be immediately rallied around and you've got people saying that they're depressed and they're thinking that this is a decision that has let them down and they're frankly a little worn out having to appease the left on all of these choices.

RICHARD CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You'll be proud of Harriet's record, Rush, trust me.

CROWLEY: But conservatives don't want a nomination that require as leap of faith. Stung by an unexpectedly liberal Justice Souter, another choice with a short paper trail, the right wanted a well- documented judicial conservative. Some Republicans believe Miers is a copout by a president without the polls or a stomach for a fight. "Her selection," wrote conservative William Kristol, "will unavoidably be judged as reflecting a combination of cronyism and capitulation."

Yikes. When the friendly fire is that loud, what must the president's most reliable critics be saying? Pretty much the same thing.

TOM MATZZIE, MOVEON.ORG PAC: What we know about her is that she's a friend of the presidents. And when the president is choosing a friend, that wreaks of cronyism.

CROWLEY: The White House is busy reaching out and reassuring wounded conservatives while Democrats sit back and enjoy the show. The noise was so loud from the right that the Democratic National Committee decided it could wait a day or two before adding its voice to the mix.

Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE) O'BRIEN: Coming up in the next half-hour, we're going to hear from the second-ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee about the president's nomination of Harriet Miers. Senator Orrin Hatch will discuss why he's backing the president's decision.

Let's get right back to Rob Marciano, who's in Lake Charles, Louisiana, this morning -- Rob.

MARCIANO: Hi, Soledad.

Pretty nice weather here in Lake Charles. The lake behind me is calm. Different story than it was 12 days ago, certainly when Hurricane Rita was coming ashore.

Birds are flying and chirping. And there is some traffic here as lights begin to pop on just a little bit.

Now, last check, Tropical Storm Stan was upgraded to a hurricane down just south of us in the Gulf of Mexico. That, and the rest of today's weather, here's Chad Myers in the CNN weather center -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi. Good morning, Rob.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MARCIANO: We've got a month of activity left. That's for sure, it seems. We had a very active month this past month. Hurricane Rita came ashore 12 days ago, and there was one hospital that stayed open here in Lake Charles. We'll talk about how the doctors and staffers did it coming up a little bit later -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Also, an update on that investigation into that deadly tour boat accident in upstate New York. The acting chief of the NTSB will join us just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: A little bit later today, federal investigators with the NTSB are going to interview the captain of a tour boat that capsized on Sunday. Twenty people died in the accident on Lake George.

On Monday, investigators raised the sunken boat. And then last night, officials revoked the operator's license after learning there were not enough crewmembers on board.

Mark Rosenker is the acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. And I asked him how long this investigation is going to take.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARK ROSENKER, ACTING CHAIRMAN, NTSB: This is going to be a long one for us because we need to find out exactly what happened there. And we've been on our first day in the full investigation, began yesterday, with great success in getting the vessel surfaced from the floor yesterday.

As far as the regulations are concerned on what was appropriate for that vessel, we've called for those regulations. We're studying those today. And I'm hoping we're going to find out exactly what the situation was and what was necessary and what was required for that vessel.

O'BRIEN: As you point out, it's just the beginning of a very long investigation. But do you think a second person on board that boat, when the accident, by all accounts, seems to have happened so quickly, would have made a difference?

ROSENKER: We're going to look at what the appropriate crew was supposed to be on that vessel. But we're also -- really today is our first opportunity to examine the vessel itself and see its seaworthiness.

We're going to be able to take a look at the hull, we're going to be able to look at the engine, we're going to be able to look at the rudder, we're going to be able to look at the throttle settings. There'll be a host of things we will be looking at that will give us a good deal of information as we move through this tedious and methodical process.

O'BRIEN: There is a theory, as you well know, that the wake of another boat caused the Ethan Allen to become unstable and then eventually flip over. Would you be able to tell something like that by recovering the boat itself?

ROSENKER: We're going to be taking a look at the weather conditions, Soledad, that day, very, very carefully. We're also going to be doing eyewitness testimony.

And this morning, we will be talking to the captain. We will be also trying to talk to each and every one of the passengers that survived on that vessel. By the time we are finished, we'll get a good picture of what actually happened out on that waterway.

O'BRIEN: I read no drug test for the captain. Why not? Why isn't it just a matter of policy that if you're involved in an accident you get a drug test?

ROSENKER: Well, if this were on federal waters, that would be exactly correct. But in state waters, there is no requirement for that.

O'BRIEN: What about the personal flotation devices? I know you said in your press conference yesterday that you expect to come up with an answer to what happened, but also to make recommendations about how to prevent future accidents.

I was surprised that there were life preservers on the boat, but the elderly people, many of them in walkers, didn't have to wear them.

ROSENKER: Well, there are no requirements, either state or federal at this time, for people to wear them other than children. And children in vessels that are operating in waters, both state and federal, except for four states, I might add, are required to wear PFDs. Adults are not at this time.

O'BRIEN: Shoreline Cruises is the company that owns the Ethan Allen and other boats as well. Have you had any problems with them historically?

ROSENKER: We're looking at the records. We've called for the records. We've received those records. We'll be going over those records in the -- in the days to come out to find out what their safely record looked like, what their maintenance procedures looked like, what they were actually doing as far as their rules and regulations in operating their vessels.

We'll get a good picture of how this operator was working over the years while he was on this lake.

O'BRIEN: You've got a lot of work ahead of you.

Mark Rosenker is the acting chairman for the NTSB.

It's nice to see you. Thanks for talking with us.

ROSENKER: Soledad, thank you very much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, hundreds of families still seeking closure in Katrina's aftermath. Why is it taking so long to identify victims' bodies? That story is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: We're getting this word just into CNN this morning. It looks like President Bush is going to be holding a press conference at 10:30 this morning in the Rose Garden. It's expected that he's going to be at least talking about or taking questions on the news that he made yesterday. That, of course, is the nomination of the White House counsel, Harriet Miers, to replace Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

We're going to carry that live for you when it happens. That's 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time right here on CNN.

Let's talk a little bit about what's coming out of Louisiana today. Louisiana state officials say the search for bodies from Hurricane Katrina is official over. As of Monday, the death toll in Louisiana stood at 964. That's how many bodies have been recovered.

Next week is the -- next up, rather, is the daunting task of trying to identify the dead. It's a long process, and it often compounds the grief for many families.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CHARLES RASMUSSEN, SON OF HURRICANE VICTIM: This is the swing set we had as children.

O'BRIEN (voice over): Charles Rasmussen back at his childhood home...

RASMUSSEN: My mother was a natural packrat.

O'BRIEN: ... in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans. Now it's full of mold and muck.

RASMUSSEN: This was one of the greatest stoves.

O'BRIEN: It's the place where his mother lived for nearly 60 years and where she died. Muriel Rasmussen was 90 years old and fiercely independent. She decided to ride out Hurricane Katrina.

RASMUSSEN: She didn't think the storm was really for real.

O'BRIEN: But as the storm approached, Muriel changed her mind and told Charles she was ready to go.

RASMUSSEN: She said, "I'm stuck in the room, the front room." I said, "Why, mother?" She said, "The lights are off and I'm scared to walk in the dark."

O'BRIEN: I was too late. Nine days later, a member of the search and rescue team informed Charles they found the body of his mother.

RASMUSSEN: He came to me and says, "Your mother didn't make it." And they were extremely supportive.

O'BRIEN: For Charles, it was the end of hoping and praying, and the beginning of a painful journey for answers.

The markings on the house show his mother's body was removed on September 18.

RASMUSSEN: Do you have something for me?

O'BRIEN: For days, Charles worked the phones in search for clues about where his mother's body was taken.

RASMUSSEN: Do you have any recommendations for me as to what I could do to kind of, like, put a handle or put a lid on this?

O'BRIEN: Charles's story is not unique. Manned by hundreds of volunteers, the state's family call center in Baton Rouge has logged more than 7,000 calls from people who are looking for their loved ones, whom they fear did not survive the storm.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know her maiden name?

O'BRIEN: It can be a slow and frustrating process. And officials acknowledge it is not perfect. DR. CHERYL BOYWERS-STOPHENS, LOUISIANA DEPT. OF HEALTH & HOSPITALS: Given the negative impact of this storm on everyone, including the workforce, I think it's a miracle that we have this up and running, to be quite honest.

O'BRIEN: After five weeks, more than 900 bodies have been recovered, and most lie in the morgue at St. Gabriel near Baton Rouge. According to the state's most recent figures, only 32 of these bodies have been released to family members. Mostly hospital patients and nursing home residents who were wearing IDs on their wrists. The rest will be far more difficult to identify.

DR. LOUIS CATALDIE, MEDICAL INCIDENT CMDR. FOR RECOVERY: It's horrible. It would be horrible. If I had a child in that morgue, it would be horrible, absolutely.

I don't know any way to make it faster. I can't make it faster. I'll try to make it more efficient, but that's all we can do. Those guys are working as fast as they can over there.

O'BRIEN: Then there are the housing problems. Frank Minyard is the coroner of Orleans Parish.

DDR. FRANK MINYARD, ORLEANS PARISH CORONER: We've got 40 pathologists who want to come help, but I don't have a place for them to stay. And we could speed it up if we had those guys.

O'BRIEN: For some of the dead, they've simply matched addresses to bodies. The state says it has presumptively identified about 350 bodies. They need more ID, like DNA or dental records, before a positive identification can be made.

Those records, though, are mostly lost or destroyed in the flooding, slowing a time-consuming process even more. More than 230 families have tentatively found the bodies they were searching for.

Now Charles might be among them. Last week, he traveled to Baton Rouge to give a DNA sample, just a simple swab from his cheek. There's a body the coroner thinks might be his mother's. It will take three weeks to know for certain, but there's a good chance his difficult search is finally coming to a close.

RASMUSSEN: When you see someone alive, and you don't have a chance to close with them, like, you know, if they died of cancer, which is a slow death, when they just disappear, then you have a hard time to make closure until you at least get a body be cremated, have a memorial service, then the healing process can begin. Right now, I'm still an open wound.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Officials say some victims may never be identified because of severe decomposition from the days in the heat and the floodwaters.

Still to come this morning, we're going to go back to Rob in Lake Charles, Louisiana. One hospital there never closed its doors during Hurricane Rita, and the aftermath as well. We will find out just how they weathered the storm ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. Just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING. Miles has the day off.

Coming up, more reaction from conservatives to the president's Supreme Court nominee, Harriet Miers.

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