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American Morning

Hamas Surprise Win; Alito Filibuster Threat; 'Extra Effort'

Aired January 27, 2006 - 09:00   ET

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


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Miles O'Brien.
Democracy may be good, but it can lead to this: supporters of terror in charge. And Middle East peace looks to be on the rocks.

We're live at the White House.

Justice Samuel Alito may not be a cinch. But will the bluster lead to a filibuster? We'll take you live to Capitol Hill.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Soledad O'Brien.

Amazing pictures from the night Hurricane Katrina came onshore. All the devastation and the desperation caught on tape. More of these pictures are ahead.

And Oprah a little more than just upset. We are going to hear what she said to the author who fabricated his memoir. Ooh, she's angry.

That story is ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

We begin overseas. And we'll start with the Palestinian -- Palestinian gunfight in the West Bank. Three people wounded there. The fight was over the big victory by Hamas militants that has turned Middle East politics just upside down.

Let's get to John Vause. He's live for us in Ramallah on the West Bank.

John, good morning.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

That shootout happening just a few hours ago between angry Fatah supporters who are denouncing the election results and Hamas gunmen. As you mentioned, three people were wounded there.

And also, in Gaza City last night, Fatah gunmen marching through the streets, firing into the air, calling on the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, to resign, blaming him for Fatah's disastrous showing at the polls, also calling Mahmoud Abbas a traitor and saying that he should never have allowed Hamas to participate in these elections to begin with.

For his part, the Palestinian Authority president says that despite this massive victory by Hamas, he still hopes to resume peace negotiations with Israel. The Israelis are saying there will be no negotiations with terrorists -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Let me ask you a couple quick questions, John, if I may. Hamas even, by some of the reports we're getting, utterly baffled and surprised by their big victory. How do you think this changes their position?

I mean, they are no longer sort of the opposition party. They are it. They are the government.

VAUSE: Very much so, Soledad. No one expected Hamas to win this big, not even Hamas.

They carried out opinion polls throughout the course of this election. Their polling suggested that they may get between 40 and 50 percent of the vote. Other opinion polls put it between 30 and 40 percent.

What this means, before the election a lot of people were talking that maybe Hamas in opposition or Hamas in a coalition partner with Fatah would be forced to disarm. All of that is now turned upside down, and Hamas will be in charge of the security forces and Hamas will be appointing its own people to those key positions within the security forces -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: We know that the Bush administration wants Mahmoud Abbas to stay in office. What's Hamas' position on Mahmoud Abbas?

VAUSE: Well, Hamas has said that they want to meet with Mahmoud Abbas in the coming days in Gaza to discuss some kind of political partnership so that he maybe could be the face to the international world for the Palestinian Authority, but that partnership is going to be an uneasy partnership at best. Abbas wants to continue peace negotiations, wants to continue his process of reform.

Hamas is continually saying that they do not want to talk to the Israelis. They say there is nothing in it for them. There say there is effectively no peace process to talk about -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, it sounds absolutely dire.

John Vause for us this morning.

Thanks for the update -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: John Kerry versus George Bush. Round two may play out on the Senate floor over Judge Samuel Alito. At stake is the balance of the Supreme Court and possibly the 2008 presidential campaign.

CNN Congressional Correspondent Ed Henry live now from Capitol Hill with more.

Good morning, Ed.

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles. That's right, Republicans believe that round two in Bush v. Kerry is going to go to Bush again, in part because John Kerry has decided to launch this filibuster of Samuel Alito from, of all places, Davos, Switzerland, where Kerry was attended the World Economic Forum. I can tell you, even some senior Democrats up here on Capitol Hill are saying they think this is only going to fuel Republican charges that Kerry is an elitist, that he's, you know, basically launching this from overseas.

But a Kerry aide fired back to CNN that the senator could care less what the chattering class is saying about this. He's going to stand on principle.

He's flying back to Washington as we speak to arrive on the Hill, go to the Senate floor, launch this with Senator Edward Kennedy. We're told that this plan was first hatched on Wednesday here in the Capitol, closed-door meeting of Democratic senators.

Kennedy and Kerry were leading the charge. But not a lot of colleagues were joining forces there.

Then Kerry headed over to Davos, as I mentioned. He was burning up the phone lines all day yesterday back here to Washington, calling his colleagues, urging them to join him. But White House aide Steve Schmidt (ph), who has been shepherding the Alito nomination through the Hill for the last several weeks tells CNN they believe the White House does, that they clearly have at least 60 votes to knock out this filibuster. They say this is all about 2008 politics, not Alito.

Kerry allies say that this could be a golden opportunity for him, really fire up the liberal base of the Democratic Party that's concerned about a shift to the right on the high court. But there's also, as you know, a real political danger here.

Moderate Democrats already running from this talk of a filibuster. And, in fact, this is the kind of issue that could actually drive middle-of-the-road voters away from Kerry -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Is there much talk, Henry, among -- Ed, among Republicans of the so-called nuclear option which would defeat the filibuster tactic?

HENRY: No, not really. And the reason why is that Republicans are so confident that Monday night, when they call the roll, they will have a test vote on the filibuster. And the Republicans are so confident they'll beat that filibuster, that then that will clear the way for a Tuesday morning vote on confirmation of Samuel Alito.

So they feel they will never get to that. That would have been a messy option, but they feel they don't need to get to it because they are going to stop this filibuster dead on Monday night -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Ed Henry on Capitol Hill.

Thank you, sir.

Let's get to Carol Costello with some headlines -- Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone.

So far there have been no demands made for the release of two German hostages in Iraq. The pair were seen today on Al-Jazeera television asking the German government to help in their release. The engineers were heading to work earlier this week when they were abducted.

And still no word on the fate of American reporter Jill Carroll. It's been a week now since the execution deadline set by the kidnappers passed. They demanded the release of all Iraqi women in U.S. custody.

Before you light up in California, you might want to look around. California is the first state to declare second-hand smoke a toxic air pollutant, just like diesel exhaust and arsenic. A state report blamed the fumes on thousands of deaths in the state each year.

The man called the worst judge in the USA is changing his mind. Judge Edward Cashman sentenced a child molester to 60 days behind bars. The short sentence sparked an outcry from the public, including politicians, who demanded his resignation.

Well, the Vermont judge is reversing his original decision. He now wants the child molester to serve three years. Cashman says it was a legal matter and had absolutely nothing to do with public outrage.

And remember all those unhappy passengers aboard the Queen Mary II? Well, they are getting what they wanted.

About a thousand passengers were upset after the ship skipped three ports of call during its Latin American trip because of some propeller damage. Some passengers were refusing to get off the ship if they weren't compensated beyond half price. And now they will be.

The owners say the passengers are getting a full refund. Passengers paid anywhere from about $2,500 to more than $37,000 for this trip.

And actor Joaquin Phoenix is doing fine, but his car isn't. It seems the brakes went out and he rolled into another car. No one was hurt.

Earlier this month, Phoenix won a Golden Globe for best actor in musical or comedy for his portrayal of Johnny Cash in "Walk the Line." He's also up for a Screen Actors Guild award this weekend.

And the first African-American to win an Academy Award is being honored with her own stamp. Hattie McDaniel is believed to appeared in some 300 films; most notably, "Gone With the Wind," in which she played Scarlett O'Hara's maid. McDaniel's stamp was unveiled earlier this week in Los Angeles. The 39-center is on sale nationwide today.

Back to you, Soledad. S. O'BRIEN: All right, Carol. Thanks a lot.

Well, Oprah says she made a mistake. Author James Frey admitted to Oprah on Thursday that he fabricated some or lots of his memoir. It's called "A Million Little Pieces."

Well, two weeks ago, she called into CNN's Larry King to defend the author. Now the talk show host is frying, so to speak, Frey, and also admitted that she was wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW HOST: I regret that phone call. I made a mistake, and I left the impression that the truth does not matter. And I am deeply sorry about that, because that is not what I believe.

I called in because I love the message of this book, and at the time -- and every day I was reading e-mail after e-mail from so many people who had been inspired by it. And I have to say that I allowed that to cloud my judgment. And so to everyone who has challenged me on this issue of truth, you are absolutely right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: While Oprah was admitting that she was wrong to defend Frey, she also asked him if he intentionally misled his readers.

Listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES FREY, AUTHOR: I think I made a lot of mistakes in writing the book and, you know, promoting the book.

WINFREY: Do you see the mistakes as lies? Because you -- you know, I think I made a mistake. I think I made a mistake by leaving the impression that the truth doesn't matter, because that's not how I live.

I think that's a mistake. I don't think I lied. So do you think you lied or do you think you made a mistake?

FREY: I think probably both.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: He's got a lot of work to do before he sort of gets to the "I lied" statement. I'm not sure I really heard that.

M. O'BRIEN: Still in that denial stage, I think, yes. A few more stages to go.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes. His memoir, as you well know, was, like, flying off the shelves after Oprah picked it.

M. O'BRIEN: Still is.

S. O'BRIEN: You know -- right. And she picked it, it flew off the shelves, became number one for a long time, and still is, because, of course, the interest in the book and its follow-up, "My Friend Leonard," you know, is doing great.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, Stephen Colbert with "The Colbert Report" would say it has truthiness, at least. Right?

S. O'BRIEN: Has truthiness. But, you know, not even a lot of truthiness, I think, is what we discovered yesterday.

M. O'BRIEN: No. It doesn't even rise to that level, does it?

S. O'BRIEN: Exactly.

Forecast now. Chad's off, but Bonnie is in. She's with us this morning.

Hey.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Soledad and Miles.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Bonnie.

Still to come, we're just a few days away from the State of the Union speech. The president, his approval ratings are in the dumps. But his big strength on one key issue may keep the Democrats at bay. We'll take a look.

S. O'BRIEN: Also this morning, the trial for former Enron chief Ken Lay finally will get started. That happens on Monday. We're going to get this morning an inside look at his defense strategy. His lawyer talks to us.

M. O'BRIEN: And later, some amazing home movies from a shrimp boat captain and his crew. They rode out Katrina as it came ashore. You'll hear their incredible tale of survival in just a bit.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Take a look at these live pictures coming to us from the West Bank, Ramallah. These are members of the Hamas party wearing the green which is associated with it at a victory celebration there. Thousands of people on the streets there celebrating a historic victory which has unseated -- there's a big wide shot to give you a sense of the crowd there with the green banners -- unseated Fatah, which is the party of the late Yasser Arafat, causing a huge pivotal change in the Middle East.

This is a group that has over the years supported, sanctioned and encouraged suicide bombings against Israelis, and now holding power in the Palestinian territories. We'll be watching that for many days, weeks and months to come.

It is report card time for the country. President Bush, no doubt, spending the weekend getting ready for Tuesday's State of the Union Address. As he and his speechwriters tinker with words, Democrats are tinkering with a notion of a filibuster over Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito.

Could Democratic senators be taking turns reading from a phone book on one side of the Capitol while the president addresses the nation on the other? Being a little bit facetious, they don't do that anymore. But nevertheless, joining us now is CNN political analyst, "LA Times" columnist Ron Brownstein.

They don't do that anymore, do they? They don't actually have to read anything.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: No, they don't have to stand there like Jimmy Stewart.

M. O'BRIEN: Virtual filibusters. Maybe they should make them do it again. Then that could change things.

How likely is that? And what is John Kerry thinking getting on the phone from Davos, Switzerland? All that does is -- you know, every -- every stereotype which the Republicans like to put out there about John Kerry and his elitist nature is reinforced by that.

BROWNSTEIN: Well, there are a couple of steps here.

First, there's a lot of Democratic opposition to Samuel Alito, as we saw a unanimous vote of the Judiciary Committee, much more than there was to John Roberts. But the big question, of course, is whether there is -- and there may well be more than 40 votes against him for his confirmation. But are those opponents willing to filibuster?

You know, Miles, remember your Shakespeare? In "Henry IV," one character says, "I can summon spirits from the vasty deep." Another one says -- young Henry says, well, so can I, and so can any man. The question is, will they come when you call them?

And it's really the same thing here. John Kerry can call for a filibuster from Davos or the Senate floor, or anywhere else he wants. The question is, does he have the 41 votes he needs? And the Democrats, by and large, think that's an uphill proposition.

M. O'BRIEN: Interesting Shakespeare. I'm very impressed.

BROWNSTEIN: It's a relevant quote, however.

M. O'BRIEN: Methinks the Democrats protesteth too much here, perhaps. A little Shakespeare back at you there.

So let me ask you this -- it's a risky move, it seems to me, because ultimately this could alienate the middle ground. What is going on here?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, the reality is, modern politics in both parties is driven primarily by the base. John Kerry came out of the 2004 campaign with a three-million-name e-mail list of supporters. And I sometimes wonder, when you have that kind of list whether you own the list or the list owns you.

There's enormous pressure on Democratic leaders, anyone who's thinking about running for president in 2008, to be out there on the forefront of being the most resistant, the most confrontational to President Bush. And this is a move that will have support among core activists in the Democratic Party.

But right now, the opponents have not done their job of making a case against Alito that has moved the center of the country against him. As you said, he still gets majority support. And for the reason, it's going to be very difficult for them to get the last few senators they need to support this, especially from those red states that President Bush carried in 2004.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. It gives -- I want to bring up some poll numbers. And then after we do that, I would like you to give me a sense of what you anticipate seeing and hearing from the president.

First of all, this -- we've got a couple of polls here side by side, CNN-"USA Today"-Gallup poll versus "LA Times," not that they are competitive, but it's showing -- just to give you a sense of it.

Do you approve of the president's job performance is the question. Forty-six percent, yes, on the CNN side, 43 percent, yes, on the "LA Times" side. Those are pretty similar numbers, aren't they?

BROWNSTEIN: Similar, yes. Yes.

Look, I mean, we're looking at across the board. The average in our poll was actually 43 approve, 54 disapprove, right in line with the average of what we're seeing from other national polls.

Right now the president is getting pretty low grades on almost all domestic issues, as well as the war in Iraq.

We asked a broad question, do you want to -- do you think the country is better off because of the policy direction President Bush has set? And should he keep going in that direction or he needs to change direction? We had two to one for change.

So all of that are ominous kind of warning signs for the Republicans. But there's one big exception.

The country still prefers him in our poll and others by double digits over the Democrats when it comes to protecting the nation against terrorism. There's still support for tough measures like other polls.

We found a plurality support, this warrantless surveillance by the National Security Agency. So one big question, Miles, for this election year is, does the continued although somewhat eroded confidence in the president on security and terror outweigh what is pretty persistent dissatisfaction with him on Iraq and other domestic issues?

I think that's going to be a critical issue for '06.

One last point. Seventy percent of people who said they approved of Bush's performance said they were going to vote Republican this fall. Seventy percent of those who said they disapproved said they were going to vote Democrat. So his standing is really critical, I think, to how Republicans fair in this midterm election.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Ron Brownstein. Good preview. Thank you.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: We'll have you back the next -- the morning after and see how it all unfolds.

BROWNSTEIN: See you then. No more Shakespeare.

M. O'BRIEN: All right.

S. O'BRIEN: No, more Shakespeare. More Shakespeare.

M. O'BRIEN: No more Shakespeare he says? Oh, come on. We'll do some Shakespeare. Why not?

S. O'BRIEN: We loved it, especially when it's relevant.

M. O'BRIEN: We want to class up the joint a little bit.

S. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Ron.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Ron Brownstein, "LA Times" and CNN political analyst, always a pleasure.

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, we're going to show you these incredible new pictures of the -- well, actually, new to us -- pictures of the fury of Hurricane Katrina. You are going to hear from a shrimper who rode out the storm with his crew in a shrimp boat. Amazingly, they all survived and were able to pluck a couple of survivors, including this dog, out of the water as well.

Remarkable story. That's ahead.

Coming up next, building bridges with baseball, how one family used sports to bring home to people who desperately need it.

Those stories ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

A short break. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) S. O'BRIEN: In this week's "Extra Effort," a big pitch to help needy children in the Dominican Republic. Just last weekend, Craig Welence took his New Jersey little league team to the island. The kids played baseball against the locals and learned some valuable lessons, too.

Craig Welence joins us this morning, along with his son Tyler.

Tyler's teammate, Cooper Byrne, is with us as well. You might remember these guys from a profile we did about families and sports last spring.

It's nice to see you in person this time.

You're all set with your mic there? Good.

OK. Well, welcome.

Let's start with the mission first, because I know this is something that you have been doing, these trips to the Dominican Republic, through your work at Novartis.

CRAIG WELENCE, ORGANIZED TRIP TO DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Yes. I've been going on health care missions over the past year to the Dominican Republic. And we've been directing most of our efforts to some of the most needy areas.

S. O'BRIEN: What made you think this -- baseball would be a good way to get the kids involved and also bring some really needed supplies to the area?

C. WELENCE: Well, what else I noticed was that the Dominican people are very warm and welcoming, but they have a very...

S. O'BRIEN: And crazy about baseball.

C. WELENCE: Yes, a very intense national pride regarding baseball. But we've also seen in various villages the kids don't have baseball gloves. Baseball gloves are like gold.

So I thought, why not have our 12-year-old baseball players collect baseball equipment and travel to the Dominican Republic to deliver that equipment and play exhibition baseball, do a community service project, and have an eye-opening experience that we knew would really shape their values for the rest of their lives.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes. I bet as a parent that's one thing you're really thinking about. So the health care mission sort of became a baseball mission.

Tyler, why don't you pick up the ball here, so to speak, for us.

You went to play games at first. How did those games go?

TYLER WELENCE, MADE CHARITY TRIP TO DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Yes, we didn't do that well. S. O'BRIEN: Is that an understatement? Did you win any games?

T. WELENCE: No. They were all really close, though. And they were actually really good. And all of them -- they play baseball all day long.

S. O'BRIEN: Were you surprised? I mean, did it shock both of you guys to see the conditions that these kids are playing in? I mean, did you have any idea outside of what your dad sort of told you about...

T. WELENCE: Yes. I went down there once before this, and even though they didn't have like really great equipment, it really didn't affect how they played. They still were really good.

S. O'BRIEN: You collected, along with Cooper as well, a lot of stuff. I mean, all the stuff you need for baseball, the gloves and the equipment. Give me a sense of what you brought. And what was the reaction when you opened up the bags and say, look what we have for you?

COOPER BYRNE, MADE CHARITY TRIP TO DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Well, we brought baseball gloves, bats, uniforms. We brought Frisbees. And they liked Frisbees a lot.

S. O'BRIEN: There's no Frisbee in baseball. I'm kidding.

Go ahead.

BYRNE: We brought...

S. O'BRIEN: So what was the reaction when you brought all that stuff?

BYRNE: When you open a bag and you give one thing to someone, everybody comes. And everybody wants what is in the bag. So it was like a crowd grabbing at stuff. And it feels really good to help them.

S. O'BRIEN: It did.

BYRNE: Yes.

C. WELENCE: But it feels really bad that you don't have enough for everybody.

BYRNE: Yes. You needed much more.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, I bet. I bet.

You also did a community service project. What was that about?

(CROSSTALK)

C. WELENCE: Well, we directed that effort to a batte (ph) community. And battes (ph) are communities of Haitian immigrants that were invited to the Dominican Republic to work in the sugarcane fields. And these are places where the poverty I think is the most extreme.

These people have little or no access to health care. Sometimes they don't have running water for basic drinking and hygiene.

S. O'BRIEN: They have the worst of the worst, really.

C. WELENCE: They don't have birth certificates in some cases and aren't recognized as individuals. So that's where we wanted to direct our effort.

We realize the kids have very little recreational opportunity. So that's where the idea for having our kids, you know, build them a basketball court came from.

S. O'BRIEN: What was it like to lay the foundation for that court, guys?

T. WELENCE: Well, we didn't put the cement down. We sort of had to dig for a really long time a two-foot trench around, like, the whole area. And that was a lot of hard work. It was a lot of rock. And you had to use pickaxes and shovels.

S. O'BRIEN: And when you think about what you're giving to their community -- because, you know, here, I'm sure you go anywhere you want to get a basketball, right? You go around the corner, you go to the park, you go to -- you know, there's one at your house, there's one at your school.

What do you think about the gift that you've left for, you know, people who are just like you but living in the Dominican Republic? And, you know, not like you at all in a lot of ways? What do you think about that?

Do you think this is going to change you in any way?

BYRNE: Oh, definitely. It changes a lot, because we appreciate a lot more things that we have because they are happy with what they have, and they don't have as much as we do.

S. O'BRIEN: You did a great thing, you guys, Craig and Tyler Welence. Nice to see you as always.

And Cooper Byrne, as well, thanks for talking with us.

Great job. Great work.

C. WELENCE: Thanks very much.

S. O'BRIEN: We should mention that if you want more information on how you can help out poor communities in the Dominican Republic. go to foundationforpeace.org.

We're back in just a moment.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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