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American Morning

New Supreme Court Nominee Goes to Capitol Hill; More Violence in Iraq

Aired November 01, 2005 - 07:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The new Supreme Court nominee goes to Capitol Hill for talks with senators this morning. Can Samuel Alito win over moderate Republicans who hold the key to his confirmation? We're live in Washington this morning -- Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Miles O'Brien, live beneath the 17th Street Levee in the city of New Orleans. You remember this levee breach. It's the one that was the focus of so much of our attention. In the nine weeks since Katrina, the Corps of Engineers has been busy trying to patch no less than 50 breaches in New Orleans levees. The question we have this morning is, when will people decide it's safe to return to their homes? All that coming up on this AMERICAN MORNING.

S. O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome, everybody. We're coming to you once again from a split show. I'm reporting from New York this morning. And Miles is in New Orleans.

Hey, Miles, good morning.

M. O'BRIEN: Good morning, Soledad. We are on the side of the 17th Street Levee that was covered by water just really about a month ago when we were here last. And where we stand right now is a neighborhood that is in ruins. Yesterday, as you recall, we were sort of in heart and soul of downtown New Orleans, along Canal Street. We've moved north of that location, which is not far from the French Quarter, much higher ground, to the location where we are now, which is in the area called Lakeview, or near Lakeview. This 17th Street Canal breach is the one that we focused so much on in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The Corps of Engineers, this was the first breach that they spotted, the Tuesday after Katrina.

And as it stands right now, it doesn't look like that anymore. The water is gone, although there is some seepage from the levee because it is nothing more than several thousand -- or several hundred sandbags which are keeping it patched.

This, however, is not enough. They need to get these levees up to category-three levels, which are pre-Katrina levels, by June 1st. And then before anything happens here, as far as rebuilding, category- five levels. And that will not be easy, and certainly not cheap. We'll get into all of those issues coming up -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: All right, Miles, thanks. Look forward to that.

This morning we are talking about not just the Supreme Court nominee, the White House is shifting the focus a little bit. The president presenting a plan for fighting a flu pandemic, while the Supreme Court candidate spends his day on Capitol Hill.

AMERICAN MORNING's Bob Franken live for us at the White House this morning.

Hey, Bob. Good morning.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Where shall we start? Well, let's start with the president's trip to the National Institutes of Health this morning to talk about this potential pandemic, which, by the way, is described as an epidemic that goes over long distances, crosses international borders. He's going to be presenting the outlines of the strategy. As we've been able to discern from White House releases, that would include identifying, containing, and treating a flu outbreak, developing vaccines and antivirals, and responding quickly to the flu outbreak.

Now this comes on a day that the president is trying to start what could be called a political-rehabilitation effort, showing that he is getting ahold of issues that very, very important to people, even ones that are not necessarily the ones that are widely discussed. Public health officials have said for the longest time that the threat of a flu pandemic is something that needs to be addressed, there need to be very assertive steps taken, and that the country is far behind, the world is far beyond in dealing with the avian flu or whatever other issues coming up -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: You're saying political rehabilitation. Does that mean to you the timing of this plan is a little suspect?

FRANKEN: Soledad, Soledad, Soledad. You skeptical...

S. O'BRIEN: Bob, Bob, Bob. Just asking the questions, Bob.

FRANKEN: Well, let's just state a few facts. Over the weekend, there was quite a bit of discussion about whether this administration is more interested in politics than governance. And now we see this week the president dealing with governance, appointing a Supreme Court nominee who, of course, is going to cause quite a political battle, and now facing an issue that has to do with the public health.

S. O'BRIEN: AMERICAN MORNING's Bob Franken for us at the White House. Thanks, Bob.

Let's talk more about that Supreme Court nominee now. Even as the president was announcing Samuel Alito's nomination on Monday, party strategists were already trading shots over him.

CNN's Ed Henry has a report on the showdown in the Senate.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Judge Alito's first stop in the Capitol, paying his respects to Rosa Parks, the civil rights pioneer, lying in honor under the Rotunda, a solemn start to a battle that's getting ugly fast, with Democrats saying symbolism only goes so far. SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: His record, as I'm sure Rosa Parks would agree, is much more important. A preliminary review of his record raises real questions about Judge Alito's judicial philosophy and his commitment to civil rights, workers' rights, women's rights.

HENRY: Democrats charge Alito is a sop to conservatives who are irate over the Harriet Miers debacle.

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D-VT), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: I am concerned that the nomination may be a needlessly provocative nomination. The president chose to reward one faction of his party.

HENRY: With Democrats dropping hints of a filibuster, Republicans are already trying to head it off.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), KENTUCKY: What we guarantee you is a dignified process here, a respectful hearing, and at the end of that process, an up-or-down vote, as has always been the case on Supreme Court nominees throughout the history of the Senate.

HENRY: Even though that standard did not seem to apply to Miers.

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: I felt sorry for the -- Ms. Miers, who really never got a chance to either have a hearing, let alone have a vote.

HENRY: The real power may rest in the hands of the bipartisan gang of 14 moderates, who earlier this year averted a nuclear showdown over filibusters against the president's lower court nominees.

(on camera): Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter is declaring that based on the standards of the Gang of 14, this nomination should not be filibustered. But the Gang will not weigh in as a group until Thursday morning, when they hold their first meeting in John McCain's office.

Ed Henry, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Judge Samuel Alito will spend the whole day on Capitol Hill. He's got four meetings with Republican senators today.

Focus this morning also on Iraq. We've got more violence to tell you about. In October, 94 U.S. troops died. That's the most since January. CNN's Barbara Starr is live for us at the Pentagon this morning.

Barbara, explain these numbers to me. Is this an indication the insurgents are getting smarter and better?

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there is a lot of concern about that, Soledad. As you say, 94 troops dying as the month of October wrapped up, the deadliest month since January, when 107 troops lost their lives in Iraq, and that is now leading to a lot questions about what exactly is going on. The administration, of course, continuing to point to political progress in Iraq. But military commanders behind the scenes say yes, there has been a surge in IED attacks.

And they are specifically, very worried, about a new type of IED. CNN first reported on it several weeks ago. These are IEDs with something called explosively formed projectiles. Those are words you will hear a lot more about. These are essentially charges, explosive charges, on IEDs that can and do penetrate U.S. armored vehicles, tanks, Bradleys and those up-armored Humvees that the U.S. has spent literally billions of dollars on. Six troops alone dying in IED attacks yesterday.

And now, the highest ranking U.S. Army officer has died in Iraq at the hands of enemy forces. He is 44-year-old Colonel William Wood. He was at the scene of an IED attack in Babil, south of Baghdad, when a second IED then went off, killing him.

So a lot of concern about this death toll that is now being attributed to what was called improvised-explosive devices, but certainly now are much more manufactured, much more sophisticated -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Much more deadly.

Let's talk about the civilian death-toll numbers. I mean, obviously, Iraqi civilians are dying in even bigger numbers. The Pentagon watches those numbers, too?

STARR: Well, officially, they don't, but it's very interesting. There was a report to Congress several weeks ago where reporters discovered there was a reference indeed to Iraqi civilian casualties. That report indicating that between January of 2004 and September of this year, some 26,000 Iraqis lost their lives, but let's be clear. That is an estimate. No one can say for sure. Certainly in all of these attacks, thousands of Iraqis, civilians, thousands of Iraqi security forces, losing their lives in their country in their fight for democracy -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon for us this morning. Barbara, thanks.

As we mentioned, we're coming to you from New York and New Orleans this morning, and that's where Miles is. Let's get right to him this morning.

Hey, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad, now nine weeks since Hurricane Katrina came through New Orleans, still a long way on the road to recovery, a long way to go. Eight days now since Hurricane Wilma struck South Florida and ripped across that whole southern part of the peninsula of Florida. And in Ft. Lauderdale this morning, about 30 miles north of Miami this morning, there is a shelter. As a matter of fact, a total of 1,500 people still in shelters in the wake of Wilma. In that shelter this morning, people getting ready to get back to normalcy, I think.

J.J. Ramberg is there, and she joins us with more.

Good morning, J.J.

J.J. RAMBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

Well, at this point, they're actually just getting ready to get up. There are about 200 people staying in this shelter. And the spirits here are amazingly high. Some people have been here for already 10 days, but they've really built a community here. And the Red Cross is doing a lot, they say, to try to make this as normal as possible for these people. Last night, we were here and watched the Halloween party that they put on for the kids. It was really cute. You know, Miles, there's nothing cuter than a little 2-year-old in a bumble bee costume. All of the kids were getting their face painted. They were going to room to room, because we are in a school right now, and going trick or treating. And so it's nice to see how people are have bonded together right now.

We spoke to one couple who've been here since the hurricane. They said that they celebrated their 13th anniversary here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILMA ROBERSON, WILMA EVACUEE: A lot of people been pretty nice. They've been sharing. And we really understand now what America is really about. It's not just surviving, it's making things better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAMBERG: Now one of the issues the Red Cross and the people staying here are going to focus in the next couple of days is that schools are going to start reopening. There's no time set exactly when the schools here in Ft. Lauderdale are going to open, but presumably, it should be, if not by the end of this week, then next week. So the 200 people who are staying here are going to have to move somewhere else. They say they want to move altogether, because as they said, they really have a community here, and so the Red Cross is looking into that. And they say that they will shelter these people as long as they need it -- Miles.

But for now, they're not headed back home any time soon, J.J.?

RAMBERG: Not -- there has kind of been a revolving door here. While the number of people in shelters overall in Florida has decreased quite significantly, at this particular shelter, it's actually gone up, and there a couple of reasons for that. One is that some apartment buildings in this area have been condemned, so people have come from those apartment buildings here. Another reason is there's not power in this area, so one family said they had to come here because the kids were afraid to stay home alone in the dark.

M. O'BRIEN: I bet. All right, J.J. Ramberg, thank you very much, joining from us a shelter in Ft. Lauderdale.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: We're going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to tell you about the long effort, the expensive, the arduous effort to rebuild the levees here in the city of New Orleans, 1.3 billion dollars spent between now and June 1st just to get the levees to pre-Katrina levels. But the big question is, how much further should they go? should they make them category-five levees? Is that what people will need to rebuild?

Soledad?

S. O'BRIEN: Also, up next this morning, Miles, just how tough is the fight going to be to confirm Supreme Court pick Samuel Alito? A Democratic senator weighs in for us just ahead as we continue right here on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Just minutes after the official announcement of Samuel Alito as the president's choice of the Supreme Court, analysts were predicting a big fight, and a big one.

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and he joins us from Capitol Hill.

Nice to see you, senator. Thanks for talking with us.

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D), ILLINOIS: Good to be with you, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, conservatives, obviously, like this guy. Do you like him?

DURBIN: Well, I don't know that much about him; I'm reading now. But it's interesting, the same conservatives who found Harriet Miers totally unacceptable last week are jubilant this week, so they know something about him I don't know.

S. O'BRIEN: So what are you reading into that?

DURBIN: I'm reading into it that they think he will follow their very narrow political agenda. I think they understand, as we do, that Sandra Day O'Connor has been the swing vote on the Supreme Court. They've had 193 decisions in recent years that were 5-4. She was the deciding vote in 148 of those decisions. So if Mr. Alito, Judge Alito, moves to the right, it could really tip the balance of the court.

S. O'BRIEN: But surely, the little bit that we do know about Judge Alito, everything seems to point to a man who is eminently qualified, and well-educated and respected by his peers on both sides of the aisle.

DURBIN: You can check all of the boxes in terms of legal skills, and integrity an temperament, but it really gets down to basic questions, where does he stand on the fundamental issues and values of America, on the right of privacy, and women rights? This week, when we're honoring Rosa Parks, where does he stand on civil rights? Where does he stand on the workers' rights, protecting the environment? There are some very basic questions that need to be answered.

S. O'BRIEN: Do you expect a big fight? I think everybody expects a fight.

DURBIN: Well, of course, it's going to be a spirited hearing, because we understand what's at stake here, but I don't think anybody is presuming that there's going to be a majority before or against him at this moment.

S. O'BRIEN: A spirited hearing. Is that code word for a filibuster pending here?

DURBIN: I wouldn't jump to that conclusion. I think we owe it to Judge Alito and the Senate to ask the questions in a respectful way, to meet with him, to consider all the opinions that he's issued, and then to decide whether or not he's a right person for the court.

S. O'BRIEN: Democrats and Republicans agreed it would have to rise to extraordinary circumstances before a filibuster took place. Do you think that there's a good chance that a debate over Judge Alito could rise to those circumstances?

DURBIN: There's a lot at stake, there's no question about it. Consider the fact this is a lifetime appointment. And for 15 or 20 years, this court could be issuing opinions which have much more impact than any law we pass on Capitol Hill. But we owe it to Judge Alito to give him a fair hearing, to listen carefully to all of his answers to the questions.

S. O'BRIEN: But of course there are some huge risks to the Democrats in a filibuster. Run through some of those risks for me.

DURBIN: Well, of course the risk is the fact that this is only happened once before. The Republicans led a filibuster against Abe Fortas in the early 1960s, but it doesn't happen much when it comes to the Supreme Court.

But if there are basic fundamental American values at stake and at risk here, I think that people of this country expect the Senate to do its duty and to accept its responsibility.

S. O'BRIEN: And the risk that Republicans are seen -- Democrats, rather -- excuse me -- are seen as obstructionists, and Democrats are seen to be overplaying their hand. That's a real risk.

DURBIN: Well, isn't it interesting that no one charged obstruction when it came to Harriet Miers, when the most extreme wing of the Republican Party really stopped her nomination. You know, this is a process that has been defined, but we have responsibilities to make sure the men and women on the court serve the most basic needs of this country in protecting our freedoms.

S. O'BRIEN: May I turn for one moment and talk about the CIA leak investigation before I let you go? DURBIN: Sure.

S. O'BRIEN: As you know, Lewis Libby is indicted and resigned. Do you think that President Bush needs to go further in cleaning out his staff?

DURBIN: Absolutely.

S. O'BRIEN: Why?

DURBIN: You know, I think there's a fundamental question why a man as gifted, and skilled and experienced as Lewis Libby would deliberately mislead the grand jury about as something basic as what he came to know the -- or have the knowledge of Valerie Plame's CIA connection. There's much more to this.

S. O'BRIEN: So who do you think needs to go then?

DURBIN: I honestly can't tell you. I do believe that if the president wants to reassume a position of leadership and credibility in this country, he needs a new team, some new faces. President Reagan understood that, and I think President Bush should, too.

S. O'BRIEN: But you told Wolf Blitzer yesterday, and I think it was yesterday, that you said that you've completely respected the special prosecutor, and you agree -- you know, if he had said no indictments, you agree with him then. So if he says, all right, Karl Rove not indicted, nobody else on the staff indicted. Why not leave it there?

DURBIN: That really isn't the test. Consider the fact that Scott McClellan, the White House spokesperson, came before the American people and assured them that no one at the highest levels, particularly Rove and Libby, were involved in this. That just wasn't true. So I think the American people feel somewhat deceived, as they did with the information leading into the invasion in Iraq. If the president wants to establish his credibility, I think a new team would give him that opportunity.

S. O'BRIEN: Covering lots of ground this morning. Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois. Nice to see you, sir. Thanks for talking with us.

DURBIN: Thanks, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Coming up this morning, interest rates could be climbing higher. And of course that means more money out of your pocket, as always. We're "Minding Your Business," coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Guess what? The Fed is eying interest rates once more today. Gerri is in for Andy, who has got the day off, and she is "Minding Your Business." This is no surprise. This is what, the 12th, 13th time? GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's the 12th time in a row. It's all about the interest rates today, 12 times, expectation today that the Feds will raise rates once again a quarter of a point. They raised the Fed funds rate. That's a rate that the banks charge each other, but of course it filters through the whole economy. You will ultimately pay more on your credit cards, for your mortgage loans. We'll talk a little bit more about that.

But they've got their eye on inflation, and as you remember, Soledad, consumer prices went up, their highest level in 25 years in September. Big worries there.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, it's bad news for consumers, no matter how you slice it. I mean, even if they're charging the banks, we pay eventually.

WILLIS: That's right. And this is going to be one of Alan Greenspan's last meeting. His last meeting is January 31st. Mark your calendar. I know everybody wants to have a party for Alan Greenspan's leaving, right, Soledad?

S. O'BRIEN: I know all of the business reporters do.

WILLIS: But the expectation, of course, that Alan Greenspan's successor, Ben Bernanke, will also continue this process of raising rates, so keep an eye on your mortgage because it could get a little dicey here.

S. O'BRIEN: Words we don't like to hear.

WILLIS: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Gerri, thanks for filling in today, Ger. Nice to have you. We really appreciate that. Thanks.

Let's get back to Miles. He's in New Orleans -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad, imagine trying to build a nine-mile long highway 17 feet above the ground. That is the job that the Corps of Engineers has, and they have to do it by June 1st. In a moment, I'll give you an aerial tour of the levees of New Orleans, where the breeches are and how the fixes are going, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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