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American Morning

War Of Words Between White House And Critics; CIA Plame Leak Case; Pork Money For Alaska; 'Minding Your Business'

Aired November 17, 2005 - 07:30   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: You can come back any time.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: That's right. You could stay for the whole show.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (INAUDIBLE) great.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit this morning about a big topic of pork. You know, Congress went ahead and slashed some of the spending for these pork laden bills. For example, we were talking a while back about the bridge to nowhere in Alaska, which is really two bridges. In total they span three miles. I think the total cost was $223 million for three miles.

WALLACE: And the question was, how many people would be serviced on that island. I think it was something like six...

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Six or seven people.

WALLACE: OK. I wasn't sure.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: No. No.

WALLACE: A small number.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: But it has a very small population.

MILES O'BRIEN: It's a town getting to their airport. I mean, in all fairness.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Right, but that's 50 people.

MILES O'BRIEN: Fifty people. OK. So, you know, you start doing the cost benefit analysis and the airport is across the river. So maybe they should move the airport closer to the town. Wouldn't that be cheaper than the bridge? It possibly would.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: At the end of the day, it doesn't matter because they have slashed that out of the budget. And you would think that money, that $223 million for that project and $200 million more for other projects also cut might go to the victims of Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Rita or Hurricane Wilma.

MILES O'BRIEN: Or FEMA.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Or even FEMA, which obviously needs some financial bailing out as well.

WALLACE: Right. Where's it going?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: It goes right to the state. Alaska keeps the money for those bridge project. It doesn't go into -- we're going to talk about this a little bit more because I think a lot of people do the math and say...

MILES O'BRIEN: Interesting.

WALLACE: I think people get outraged when they see sort of that dollar sign figure for the number of people we're talking about, they say wait a second here.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: It's all about the pork. We're going to talk about it in great -- it's fascinating, the projects. The projects we're going to tell you about blow your mind.

MILES O'BRIEN: Outrange.

WALLACE: And every politician says, OK, well if everyone else stops getting pork, I'll do it as well.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: I've got mine.

MILES O'BRIEN: As long as I get my bacon it's OK.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Absolutely. That's ahead.

We're got other stories making news this morning.

WALLACE: We sure do.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And Kelly has a look at those.

WALLACE: OK.

And hello, everyone. We begin overseas.

No aid for North Korea unless it gives up its nuclear plan. That's the message from President Bush this morning. He is in South Korea for the Asia Pacific Economic Summit. The president and his host, South Korean President Roh, issuing a joint declaration just a few hours ago expressing continued "steady development" in the U.S./South Korean alliance. But this trip isn't without any controversy. Some 250 demonstrators gathered early this morning to protest the presidential visit and the economic summit.

The Patriot Act is being renewed. There are some changes. The FBI won't have as many subpoena powers and the Justice Department will have to fully report requests when it tries to gather information on ordinary citizens. Congress could vote on the revised act this week.

Supreme Court Nominee Samuel Alito making the rounds on Capitol Hill today. Alito met Wednesday with Maine's Senator Olympia Snowe, who is an abortions rights supporter. She called their meeting constructive. Earlier this week, a 1985 memo was released in which Alito apparently said the Constitution did not contain a right it abortion. Democrats have voiced concern over Alito's nomination. His confirmation hearings are set for January. And, I should say, he was making the rounds yesterday on Wednesday.

She was called a symbol of the government's slow response to Hurricane Katrina. The 91-year-old woman's body was covered and left outside the New Orleans Convention Center for days. More than two months later, Ethel Freeman (ph) has been laid to rest. Freeman's son had filed a lawsuit against FEMA in connection with that death.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin is in Washington looking for more money to help rebuild his city's levee system. The mayor led a bus full of city officials to some of the hardest hit areas early this week. He's asking for more funding to help New Orleans rebuilding and recovery efforts. Nagin is set to meet with House Majority Leader Congressman Nancy Pelosi.

And check out this scene in Hollywood, Florida. A car stuck in a 15 foot sink hole. You see it there. It seems a water main in the area busted, swallowed up the car. We're happy to say, though, that the driver is fine. She was pulled from her car by a rookie cop that happened to be in the area and is probably getting a lot of kudos for that job. But take a look at that.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: I've got to tell you, sink holes are amazing. When I was reporting in Northern California in San Francisco, there was a time when there were sink holes -- because the pipe system was crumbling. Sink holes would just develop down a street and you'd come out and the cars would be sunk down six feet. I mean it's the most amazing things I've seen.

WALLACE: I've never seen one. So when every time we report on these stories, I'm always...

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Bizarre. It's bizarre.

WALLACE: Amazed that...

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And the homes that just slide off into crevices. Incredible about Northern California.

All right, Kelly, thanks for the update.

WALLACE: Sure.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Pretty shocking pictures.

As we've been talking about this morning, we're talking counterattack by the White House. Bush administration officials coming out hard. They say they're setting the record straight. The vice president gave a very tough speech last night. Let's listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The suggestion that's been made by some U.S. senators that the president of the United States or any member of this administration purposely misled the American people on prewar intelligence is one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges ever aired in this city.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: That's the vice president speaking at the Frontiers of Freedom Institute fund-raiser. Republican Congressman Chris Shays of Connecticut joins us this morning with more on that.

Nice to see you, Congressman. Thanks for being with us.

REP. CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, (R) CONNECTICUT: Nice to be with you.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: You heard the vice president say it is reprehensible. Do you think that he's right, it's reprehensible? Do you think the Bush administration misled the public as we marched to war?

SHAYS: Well, first we know that the intelligence was wrong, but we also know that every country practically believed the same thing and that Saddam wanted us to believe it. So I think the vice president is right about that. But I think you need to then emphasize that people, as the president did, that people have the right to criticize whether we should have gone in. In other words, would he have used those weapons.

I think people have a right to criticize the conduct of war. We never should have disbanded the Army, the police or the border patrol. We shouldn't have allowed for the looting. We probably should have had more troops there. All of those are valid.

And then it's valid, it seems to me, as to how long we should be there. All of that. But to say that the president purposely misrepresented what was the data I think is not fair.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Politically, of course, it is the topic of a huge debate. I want to play for you a little bit of what Stephen Hadley had to say. He, of course, is the National Security adviser. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN HADLEY, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: What has happened is the Democrats have re-raised an issue about misleading the American people, about politicization of intelligence. Those were issues from the 2004 campaign. Those issues were definitively closed by the Senate Intelligence Committee and by the Silverman-Rob Commission.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Is that correct, Congressman? I thought...

SHAYS: I followed the Senate as much as I care to. But the bottom line is, we had even President Clinton say that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. Hillary Clinton said that and voted that way. My two Democratic senators. And so it is a little off the charts to have folks who voted to go in all of a sudden try to rewrite that part of it.

You know, the problem this administration has, though, is that they were going to restore honesty and integrity into the White House and they would be more believed if they were more outspoken about Scooter Libby and what he was purported to have done. And I think they've got themselves in this box because it seems to me loyalty trumps honesty and the truth in this White House.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Let me ask you a question. And my understanding is that, in the Clinton administration, while, in fact, it was believed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, that was the argument for continuing the sanctions against him. But to a better point, your hear about the Silverman-Rob Commission and all these things I think to the American public are very confusing, more commissions, more investigation. Isn't the truth that the final word is not in? That it's unclear if, in fact, that bipartisan panel hasn't come back with the results?

SHAYS: Well, honestly, I don't know that. So that's the honest answer to your honest question. I just don't know. But what I do know is this, everyone believed Saddam had these weapons, including most Democrats. And most people voted for us to go in. And so it seems to me the debate should be, well, we're there, now how well was that conducted. Congress hasn't done proper legislative oversight.

I've been there 10 times and I had to push back five of those 10 times. But I went there, frankly, as many times as I have because the data that I was receiving before turned out not to be accurate and I wasn't just going to get it from the press or from the administration.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: As you know, there's now this timetable that the Congress wants for every four months a report. As you've mentioned, you've been there 10 times. And it seems as if now the focus is to make the Iraqis more responsible for, I guess, coming to the for. Do you think that that's a good focus? I mean, you've...

SHAYS: I think the compromise out of the Senate makes a lot of sense. This is what Congress should be doing. We should be having oversight. We should have the administration justify what it's doing, be held accountable because every 90 days we'll find out whether we're on track or off track, then we can ask why. The administration has always had an exit policy. They don't want to talk about it because they had to change it so often. But we've always known what we wanted to do. We wanted to stand up their army, their police, their border patrol, get their democracy moving, and then pull back.

But we will never be able to leave and feel comfortable about leaving for two reason. One, they need our air support. And secondly, your don't want Syria and Turkey and Iran and even Saudi Arabia to think this can be a playground for them after we leave.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Congressman Chris Shays is a Republican from Connecticut. It's nice to see you. Thanks for talking with us.

SHAYS: Thank you.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: So you had all the characters straight in the CIA leak investigation? No. There's more. Now "Washington Post" Editor Bob Woodward is in the middle of it all. Apparently someone in the administration told him about CIA Agent Valerie Plame. CNN's Tom Foreman with a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): The who gave up Valerie Plame game has bagged renowned Watergate journalist Bob Woodward. A month ago he implied he had no clue who in the White House had leaked Plame's identity as a secret CIA operative.

BOB WOODWARD, "THE WASHINGTON POST": I wish I did have a bombshell. I don't even have a firecracker. I'm sorry.

FOREMAN: Now, he says, a White House source told him about Plame two years ago and he's talked to the prosecutor investigating the leak. His boss says Woodward was protecting his source and the information about Plame was given only as background for a book deal.

LEONARD DOWNIE JR., EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Bob owed me and the newspaper an apology for not telling me. But if he had told me, I don't know what we would have been able to publish in the newspaper because of the confidentiality agreement under which this was stated.

FOREMAN: Many assumed the vice president's indicted chief of staff, Scooter Libby, was the first to reveal Plame's secret in July 2003. But Woodward says another White House source, not Libby, told him about Plame a month earlier. It's reignited the question, did someone in the Bush inner circle unmask Plame to get even with her husband who attacked the president's case for war? If so, whom? Republicans are playing defense.

BAY BUCHANAN, AMERICAN CAUSE: It's a legitimate story but it is hyped and intensified and played over and over in the press and coming out of the mouths of Democrats because it's an opportunity to get to the president of the United States, George Bush, and that's who they're after. That's the target.

FOREMAN: Maybe so, but Democrats say this is about war and the implications could be huge.

PAUL BEGALA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: And I think that's what it is. At the end of the day, you know, the Nixon administration dismissed Watergate as a third rate burglary. You know, guys like me who work for Clinton dismissed Whitewater as a failed land deal. It was. But the investigation led to revelations that Clinton had cheated on his wife and lied about it. This begins with something important, not only minor, and it's only grown. We are at war. FOREMAN: The president has not been directly linked to this scandal. But each day seems to bring another attack on all this president's men.

Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN: Let's get another check of the weather. Jacqui Jeras at the CNN Center with the latest.

Good morning, Jacqui.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MILES O'BRIEN: Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, that bridge to nowhere. You've heard that expression but do you really know what it's all about? Actually the town is about 8,000 strong and the idea is to get across the river to the airport. But it's at great expense. Even if it's never built, you're still going to pay for it. So what's up with that? We'll find out ahead.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Also, Ford shifts into high gear with some new never before offered incentives for car buyers. Andy's "Minding Your Business" just ahead. So continue right here on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MILES O'BRIEN: In August, Congress set aside $223 million to build a remote bridge in Alaska. The public didn't like that too much, so Congress took action. Or did it? CNN's Ed Henry looks at the case of political slight of hand.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Alaska Senator Ted Stevens is known for volcanic eruptions, but this one was unusual.

SEN. TED STEVENS, (R) ALASKA: But I will put the Senate on notice, and I don't kid people, if the Senate decides to discriminate against our state, to take money only from our state, I'll resign from this body.

HENRY: The Republican was furious about efforts to strip the $223 million he had secured to build a small bridge connecting Ketchikan, Alaska, to Gravina Island, which has only 50 residents. Since the residents can get back and forth on a five minute ferry ride, critics dubbed it the bridge to nowhere. The money was included in the massive $286 billion Highway Bill signed into law in August by President Bush in the home district of a beaming House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It accomplishes goals in fiscally responsible way.

HENRY: Fiscally responsible? After Katrina hit, conservatives said no, demanding to know how Republicans could justify the bridge at a time of tragedy. Republican Tom Coburn took up the cause, trying to shift the Alaska money to repair a New Orleans bridge.

SEN. TOM COBURN, (R) OKLAHOMA: We had the worst natural disaster to hit our country that we've ever experienced. We are in a war. We added $600 billion to our national debt.

HENRY: That's when Ted Stevens stepped in.

STEVENS: If one senator can decide he'll take all the money from one state to solve a problem of another, that is not a union.

HENRY: Eighty-one senators sided with Stevens, only 14 backed Coburn, and the pork project lived. But then everything changed on November 6th. "Parade" magazine, which reaches almost 35 million homes, ran a cover story blasting the bridge.

DAVID WALLECHINSKY, "PARADE" MAGAZINE: When -- and it doesn't have a political preference, you know, it's neutral, "Parade." And so when politicians see that a subject comes up in "Parade," they know that everybody's talking about it.

HENRY: Already nervous Republicans feared this would add to the anti-incumbent stern ahead of next year's elections.

KEITH ASHDOWN, TAXPAYERS FOR COMMON SENSE: "Parade" magazine covered this. The late night comedy talk shows have been covering it. John Stewart covered it. Everyone's been -- these projects have been a butt of a lot of jokes.

HENRY: So Speaker Hastert and other leaders finally stripped the bridge money, sort of. Alaska will get the same amount of money, but it won't be earmarked for the bridge. The state can spend it on other projects. So Congress can say it's not funding the bridge, even though it's really not saving a dime.

Now that bridge has been de-funded, will Ted Stevens resign? No way, he told me. He only promised to quit if the money was taken away from his home state.

Ed Henry, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN: All right. Let's do a little Googling now shall we?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: We shall.

MILES O'BRIEN: And we'll explain exactly what we're talking about. Into Alaska we go. The town of Ketchikan, as you say, it's down in the southern tip there.

In we go. This is an ocean inlet and that is the problem. Because the people of Ketchikan, numbering 8,000, are here and the airport is there. So to get from point a to point b these days, they take a ferry across the inlet. The idea is to build, coming up, voila, that is the so-called bridge to nowhere. Of course, if you're in Ketchikan, that's a bridge to somewhere.

That is the airport which you want to get to and from. The island in question there that it traverses over is Panic Island. This is Gravina Island. Let's take a look.

Now why would it be important to have the airport there? There you go with our elevation. You really get a sense of it where Ketchikan is, it's very mountainous, difficult to find a nice flat space. Across the inlet, nice and flat. So it might be difficult to move the airport, which was my suggestion.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Right. But you also could just keep taking the ferry theoretically, right? I mean because it looks like the ferry ride might be five minutes and the...

ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kind of fun.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And the bridge is pretty far.

MILES O'BRIEN: Or you could ask yourself how many helicopter rides would $223 million provide you?

SERWER: Oh, right.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: A lot of questions raised.

MILES O'BRIEN: It's just one of the other options.

All right.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Andy's "Minding Your Business" just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

What's coming up?

SERWER: Tough times for automakers, Soledad, could mean great deals for you. We'll tell you how much you could save coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Automakers are up to it again. Andy's got a look at that and business news in general.

Good morning.

SERWER: Good morning to you, Soledad.

Such a tough business these days making cars in the city of Detroit. And two days after GM announced those big price discounts, guess what, Ford's following suit. They say they're being forced to. And I guess that's the truth. I mean you can just imagine trying to compete with a company that just cut prices by $3,000. Here's what Ford's doing. Look at the Escape. This is the non hybrid. That's down about 16 percent off the list from $20,000 to $17,200. And then the Lincoln Navigator is down about 12 percent. Gas not included. Now if they're throwing in gas with that Lincoln Navigator, I might take it.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: I'm in.

MILES O'BRIEN: The fuel truck is optional.

SERWER: The hybrids, they are discounting some of the hybrids. Mustang is not discounted. Nether is the $140,000 GT. And, of course, the question is...

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: The GT costs $140,000?

SERWER: Yes, that's that fancy thing.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Right. Wow, I didn't know that.

MILES O'BRIEN: 140k. Wow. It's a fun ride.

SERWER: It is a fun ride.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: It better be.

SERWER: And we can only imagine that Daimler-Chrysler will be next here because they've got to do it.

And talking about automakers. Yesterday, they continued to sink. The stocks of automakers, I should say. GM and Ford both down. GM down 6 percent yesterday. You can see how it dragged the Dow down. The Nasdaq was up. Ford down almost 2.5 percent. These stocks are now trading at levels from the 1980s. We've got some serious, serious problems going on.

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, maybe they should build cars that people want to buy. That would be one thought.

SERWER: I think that would really go a long way.

MILES O'BRIEN: That's just my simple, arm chair...

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Ouch.

SERWER: Go a long way.

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, it might help. It might help.

SERWER: Tough stuff.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: You know another huge, huge problem, of course, is, in the wake of these hurricanes, Hurricane Wilma specifically, wiped out power for millions of people in Florida. But here's the hitch, you still got to pay your electric bill. How are utility company's getting away with this? We're going to explore that just... MILES O'BRIEN: Even though you don't have power?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes. You still have to pay the bill.

SERWER: Even though you don't live there.

MILES O'BRIEN: So what are they going to do, cut you off?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, you still have to pay the bill.

MILES O'BRIEN: They're going to cut you off.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, you still have to pay the bill. We're going to explain coming up.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right. Well, just don't touch the wire.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: President Bush in South Korea this morning with a defiant challenge to the north. Nuclear weapons will not be tolerated. We're live with the president just ahead.

Back in Washington, the vice president goes public to blast critics of the Iraq War.

And, well, more fallout from the hurricanes. Outrage in South Florida over electric bills for people who are still waiting to get their power back. Those stories ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

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