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Day of Protests, Strikes Against Job Law in France; Andrew Card Leaving Chief of Staff Post; Israeli Elections

Aired March 28, 2006 - 12:00   ET

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

JONATHAN MANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Protests in Paris. Tens of thousands clash with police in the largest demonstrations against a new law the government says will make France more competitive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW CARD, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Mr. President, as the chief of staff, I know I was a staffer. And now...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Shakeup at the White House. The departing chief of staff has fond words for his former boss.

MANN: And Israeli elections. The turnout is low in an election billed as a referendum on the future of the West Bank.

Hello. It's 7:00 p.m. in Paris, noon in Washington.

I'm Jonathan Mann.

VERJEE: And I'm Zain Verjee.

A warm welcome to our viewers throughout the world and in the United States.

This is YOUR WORLD TODAY on CNN International.

Hundreds of thousands of French workers and students have followed through on a threatened nationwide strike. They're protesting a new jobs law that the government says is essential for France to compete in a global economy. But unions and young people are saying that the law guts job protections.

Chris Burns is in our Paris bureau and he joins us now live.

Chris, describe to us what's been happening over the past few hours.

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, hi, Zain.

Hundreds of thousands have been taking to the streets across France in many, many cities. There are more than 130 demonstrations across the country, and the strike was in so many sectors in the private and public sector, mainly transport, reducing transport by half or so.

Now you're looking at pictures now of this demonstration. Actually, it's at the end of demonstration in Paris, the Place de la Republique. And this, as in so many demonstrations here in France in past years and this year as well, is that there are clashes between namely rowdies and the police. And this is something that the organizers were trying so desperately to avoid and knew that there would be some degree of violence.

In fact, they mobilized their own security people. You -- we saw a lot of youth students with arm bands tied around them, with -- they were also locking arms to try to prevent the rowdies from -- the rowdies, really -- they're not members of the demonstration, for the most part -- from entering the protest.

But at the end it's very difficult. It all falls apart. And this is what we're seeing right now.

The police were also deployed in riot gear, as well as in plain clothes, working with those students with the arm bands trying to keep things under control. We marched for a great while in this demonstration to see how things worked. It generally worked well. Things got hot now and then, but now we're seeing at the end, of course, this -- these clashes that are almost inevitable in major demonstrations like these in France -- Zain.

VERJEE: How is the government going to solve this?

BURNS: Well, Zain, this is all over this -- this contract for first employment, the CPE. Dominique de Villepin, the conservative prime minister, is sticking to his guns, refusing to scrap it, but says he'll move a little bit on how to execute it, how to carry it out. There could be some modifications. He's been busy trying to persuade the unions and the student unions, student groups to come to the table and talk.

Now, he has met with a few of them, but not -- most of them have decided they don't want to talk until he scraps this whole measure. It is a test of will, a test of force between this conservative government trying to stick it out. As so many other conservative governments have failed to do in the past, to push through reform, he's trying to do it himself.

He's got the respect of the conservative voters, but overall, voters would like him to at least withdraw this measure and to modify it. So they -- perhaps, if De Villepin offers some other modifications -- that's possible -- but at this point, especially with this big demonstration today, the unions may be emboldened and empowered not to back down and to insist that this measure be scrapped. We'll have to see in the coming days.

Keep in mind, though, that the strike, however, the strike across the country, was not -- did not paralyze the country. It did, of course, cut air traffic by about 30 percent, but it didn't shut everything down. It didn't shut transport down. One out of two trains here -- metro trains -- were running in Paris. So I'm sure the government's going to be weighing this, how much the strike was -- affected the country, how much these demonstration were followed. That's the big question. The ball now is in De Villepin's court, definitely.

VERJEE: Chris Burns reporting form Paris.

Thanks, Chris -- Jonathan.

MANN: After more than five years on the job, a top White House aide is calling it quits. Andrew Card stepping down as President George Bush's chief of staff.

For more, we go to Ed Henry in Washington.

Ed, the president is obviously having his problems. Is Andy Card the fall guy?

ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: He could be. I think the question basically is, is this the beginning of the shakeup or the end? You know? And whether there are going to be more changes.

There's been rumors, speculation about this for weeks, Republican pressure from the outside, saying the president needs to shake things up with his staff, needs to turn around these low poll ratings. But let's face it, this is a back-breaking job as White House chief of staff.

It's not totally unexpected that Andy Card would be leaving at some point. The average tenure for this job is two years. He'd been on the job since day one of this administration, some five and a half years.

Republican Senator John McCain just came out of a White House meeting and noted that this job -- basically, as chief of staff, you start out at 4:00 a.m. and work right until midnight dealing with virtually everything the president has to deal with. And the president now turns to his budget chief, Josh Bolten.

He's going to be the new chief of staff starting officially on April 14. And the president tried to sell Bolten as the perfect man for the job.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No person is better prepared for this important position, and I'm honored that Josh has agreed to serve.

The next three years will demand much of those who serve our country. We have a global war to fight and win. We have great opportunities to expand the prosperity and compassion of America. We've come far as a nation, yet there's a lot on the road ahead.

I'm honored to have served with Andrew Card. I've got great confidence in my next chief of staff. Congratulations, Josh.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Now, basically, this may not satisfy the Republican critics who have been calling for new blood, fresh faces. Just like Andy Card, Josh Bolten has been with this president from the beginning of the administration, first as a deputy to Andy Card, then as the White House budget chief starting in June of 2003. That's why we heard some Democrats saying that this is basically like reshuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic.

That kind of criticism from the Democrats may lead some Republicans to say, wait a second, this is not really a shakeup, this is just one person. Maybe it needs to go beyond this. That's why we've heard some speculation about possibly the president going further, maybe bringing in some sort of an unofficial ambassador to Capitol Hill, some sort of senior statesman who can maybe right this ship a bit, especially coming out of the Dubai ports controversy. The president has really been under fire not just from Democrats, but some of his fellow Republicans who had been staunch allies on Capitol Hill -- Jonathan.

MANN: OK. More to be watching for.

Ed Henry at the White House.

Thanks very much -- Zain.

VERJEE: Jonathan, for more on what this resignation means or doesn't mean, we turn to CNN senior analyst Jeff Greenfield. He joins us now from New York.

Jeff, what are the political implications, if any? How significant is this?

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST: None. Nada. Zip.

This is a -- this is a case where sometimes, as Freud said, a cigar is just a cigar. There are changes in White Houses in the past that have meant a lot.

When Reagan got into trouble over Iran-Contra, (INAUDIBLE) brought in former senator Howard Baker. That was a big signal that he'd gotten the message and something had changed.

We've even had -- not nearly as much as they've had, say, in Britain -- very occasionally cabinet members resigning on principle, as Cy Vance did in 1980 when the Iranian hostage rescue attempt didn't work.

This is not that case. Andy Card, as Ed Henry noted, is being replaced by a high-ranking White House aide who has also been there for five and a half years. Andy Card was a key member of this staff, but the politics was basically driven by Karl Rove, and it still is. The Iraq policy was basically driven by Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney.

If Rumsfeld and Cheney were to leave, you've got a -- you've got a real story. That's a biggie. This is -- this is the dog that doesn't bark in the night, as far as I'm concerned -- Zain.

VERJEE: And if that's the case, do you think it would satisfy the Republican critics that have been saying we want new blood and we want a real shakeup?

GREENFIELD: No, not at all. You know, Ed Henry noted the working hours of Andrew Card. You know, he's been getting to work -- I guess he gets up at 4:00, gets to work around 5:30 in the morning, leaves about 9:00 or 10:00.

Now, the idea that you couldn't -- that you have to impose some great political meaning on the fact that someone doing this for five and a half years really might be burned out not because of policy differences, but because he's burned out, people don't think that way in Washington. But as I said, I can -- I can think of times in the past and I can certainly think of possible changes in the future where the White House would be signaling, hey, we're on a different track for the midterms, for the next two and a half years of our -- of the presidency. This just, I think, isn't that case.

VERJEE: CNN senior analyst Jeff Greenfield from New York.

Thanks a lot, Jeff, for your perspective.

GREENFIELD: Thank you.

VERJEE: Always good to have you.

MANN: OK. If a cigar is just a cigar, who else ought to get smoked? That's our inbox question for the day.

VERJEE: Well, not exactly. We're asking you this: Should anyone else in the Bush administration resign? YWT@CNN.com.

And a quick programming note. A little bit later on Tuesday, the U.S. president sits down with an exclusive interview with CNN Espanol's Juan Carlos Lopez.

MANN: You can see that interview at 21:00 GMT.

VERJEE: His rise and fall from power is legendary. Warlord Liberian president is one of the world's most wanted men, and Charles Taylor is now missing.

Liberia's one-time political strongman has vanished just days after Nigeria told Liberia that it could come take custody of him. Taylor had been living in exile in a villa in Nigeria for the past three years, where he was being monitored but wasn't under house arrest. He's wanted for war crimes by a U.N.-backed special court in Sierra Leone for his alleged role supporting rebels in that country.

MANN: Nigeria's president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has set up a five- member panel to investigate Taylor's disappearance. He's also ordered the arrest of the security detail that was supposed to be watching him. But this isn't the first time that Taylor has pulled a disappearing act.

Jeff Koinange has some background.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): There's no doubting Charles Taylor was the warlord of warlords. His rise to power is the stuff of movies, and it was only a matter of time before a Tayloresque character made its way to Hollywood, seen here in the recent box office hit "Lord of War" starring Nicholas Cage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, "LORD OF WAR": You know, they call me lord of war, but perhaps it is you.

NICHOLAS CAGE, ACTOR, "LORD OF WAR": It's warlord.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, "LORD OF WAR": Thank you, but I prefer it my way.

KOINANGE: But before the lord of war went on to become Liberia's 21st president since independence in 1847, he first had to make a daring escape from a Massachusetts prison where he'd been held on charges of embezzlement awaiting extradition to his native Liberia.

He ended up in the jungles of West Africa, commanding a ragtag rebel arm they hacked and shot its way into Liberia's capital, Monrovia, forcing a cease-fire in a civil war that had been raging for most of the 1990s. Elections were eventually held which Taylor won, many say, more out of fear than favor.

CHARLES TAYLOR, FMR. LIBERIAN PRESIDENT: Long live the republic of Liberia! Long live our freedom! Long live our independence! Let no man take it from us.

God bless you.

KOINANGE: This was vintage Taylor, driving himself and accompanied by a balance of bodyguards down the streets of the capital.

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP (SINGING): Our president (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) our president.

KOINANGE: And this was how Taylor would probably have wanted to be remembered, where some here still consider him their leader. But many, no doubt, have this image etched into their memory: Charles Taylor waving a white handkerchief as he boarded a plane into exile.

Less than three years later, he's heading back, having fallen from grace from president, to exile, to accused war criminal, something he once claimed would send the wrong message to African leaders across the continent.

TAYLOR: This poor thing of using some little follow to run around to disgrace African leaders and make a mess of us because we're supposed to be monkeys in the trees I think is something that African leaders have to look at very seriously. It is not just about Charles Taylor.

(APPLAUSE)

TAYLOR: This is not about Charles Taylor. It's about how Africa can be free and how African leaders can be respected.

KOINANGE: Now the warlord-turned-president-turned-exile is about to have his day in court, the first African leader ever to be charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

TAYLOR: I feel so sad. I'm saddened by all of this, but I know that god is in control.

KOINANGE: Jeff Koinange, CNN, Johannesburg.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MANN: From Africa, we move on in a moment to the Middle East and what's ahead for Israel.

VERJEE: Coming up here on YOUR WORLD TODAY, we're going to be taking a closer look at what's at stake in today's elections and how Israel might deal with the Hamas-led government on its border.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VERJEE: You're looking at live pictures of Paris, in France, where hundreds of thousands of workers and students are out protesting. There have been a few scuffles in the past few hours. Some of them have turned violent.

This is one of the largest protests yet in France. Many -- all these people are protesting the new job laws that the government wants to push through.

The government is saying that they're important to compete in the global economy, and the students and labor unions are arguing and saying that the law would essentially erode France's workplace protections. The strike has affected airlines, trains, and buses this day, although Chris Burns told us just a short while ago that the country has now been paralyzed as a result of the strike.

The government has been holding talks with the unions, but it appears as though they have reached a stalemate, and there doesn't appear to be a way forward yet. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who is essentially the architect of trying to push this law forward, appears to be remaining firm, but on the streets of Paris this day, this scene, riot police in full riot gear, hoping to contain and control crowds on the street.

MANN: With something more at play, but somewhat less passion, Israelis are going to the polls today to make their voices heard on the future of their country, the Middle East peace process as well.

VERJEE: But it appears that many voices don't really care to be heard. Officials say that voter apathy is a major concern. Thirty- one parties are fielding candidates, but pollsters predict that the centrist Kadima party of acting prime minister Ehud Olmert will come out on top.

MANN: Voters will elect a 120-member parliament. They do it by parties in Israel, not by individual candidates. The unofficial results are expected early Wednesday.

VERJEE: Let's take a closer look now at the key political parties that are vying for power.

The centrist Kadima party is led by acting prime minister Ehud Olmert. He took the party's helm after illness incapacitated Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in January. He's a former mayor of Jerusalem and says that if he's elected he would drastically cut funding for Israel's West Bank settlements.

Benjamin Netanyahu's conservative Likud party is also in the running. The former prime minister has his eye on the post again and has made the economy a key plank in his platform. Netanyahu vehemently opposed Israel's withdrawal from Gaza.

VERJEE: Amir Peretz has the leftist Labor party, and he supports the withdrawal. The former mayor of Sderot is considered a dove. He's made fighting poverty a key plank in his campaign platform.

MANN: We're covering the election from all the angles. Guy Raz is at a the headquarters of Kadima, Ben Wedeman is with Labor party officials.

Let's begin with Guy.

GUY RAZ, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jonathan, we're in what could be described as kind of an artificial soundstage just for one night only. This will serve as the Kadima party headquarters. And the fact that we are in this location says a lot about a party which is in itself an artificial construct.

It's taken elements from the left, elements from the right. A party, of course, founded by ailing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and a party now led by Ehud Olmert.

Now, all the polls show Kadima will take the highest number of seats in this election. And we expect this to be the place where the victory speeches are made this evening, but victory is not necessarily assured.

A low voter turnout could deeply affect Kadima's prospects. And many Kadima officials privately are very nervous about the low voter turnout figures.

Now, the man at the helm of this party, Ehud Olmert, has promised if elected he will set this country's final, permanent borders by the year 2010. Borders that will most likely include some parts of the Palestinian West Bank. It's an idea today widely supported by many Israelis who have come to the view that peace is simply not attainable and that separation is perhaps the best way to bring about stability -- Jonathan.

MANN: Guy Raz, thanks very much.

VERJEE: We want to turn now to Ben Wedeman. He joins us from the Labor party headquarters -- Ben.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CAIRO BUREAU CHIEF: Yes, Zain. Well, nobody here at Labor party headquarters in Tel Aviv actually expects this party to win, but they do hope it will have a respectable showing, at least 20 seats in the 120-seat Israeli Knesset, which would allow it to be the senior party in a Kadima-led coalition.

Now, earlier today, the leader of the Labor party, Amir Peretz, cast his ballot in his hometown of Sderot near the Gaza border. Now, the Moroccan-born Peretz is the first non-European descent leader of a major Israeli party, and during the campaign he's really broken from tradition and focused on social economic issues, not on security.

He has championed during the campaign the idea, for instance, of raising the minimum wage, the monthly minimum wage in Israel from around $750 to $1,000 a month, and that sort of focus is important for many Israelis who have seen in recent years the social welfare network whittled away. According to one statistic, one-fifth of the population here lives below the national poverty line.

Now, critics say that Peretz, for instance, does not have the critical experience in government and security and diplomacy that really is a prerequisite for a leader of Israel, but leaders here are hoping -- or rather people here at the Labor party headquarters in Tel Aviv are hoping they will have a respectable showing that will allow them to continue to play a vital role in Israeli politics -- Zain.

VERJEE: CNN's Ben Wedeman reporting.

Thanks, Ben.

MANN: Coming up in our business headlines, roam if you want to. Wasn't that a Go-Go's song way back when? The (INAUDIBLE) moves to slash mobile users' hated roaming fees.

VERJEE: And scuffles in the streets. Protests over France's new jobs law spill over into violence. We're going to bring you the latest just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Daryn Kagan at CNN Center in Atlanta. More of YOUR WORLD TODAY in just a few minutes. First, though, a check of stories making headlines here in the U.S.

A sad farewell for a Tennessee preacher shot dead in his church parsonage last week. Matthew Winkler's funeral is under way this hour at his church in Selmer, Tennessee.

His wife isn't there. She's in jail charged with his murder. Mary Winkler was arraigned yesterday on a first-degree murder charge. Police say she's confessed to the killing, but in court she did not enter a plea.

It's really all about power, the president and whether his authority trumps even the Geneva Convention. This issue is before the Supreme Court today in a case that centers on this man, Salim Ahmed Hamdan.

The government says he's a terrorist, but Hamdan admits that he chauffeured Osama bin Laden around Afghanistan, but only, he says, to make a living, not to take part in plots. Hamdan doesn't want a military trial at Guantanamo. He wants justice in a civilian court.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. CMDR. CHARLES SWIFT, HAMDAN'S ATTORNEY: In this particular conflict, the president has asserted that he has basically a blank check to do -- to do whatever he deems necessary. And we disagree with that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Chief Justice John Roberts has recused himself. He previously heard the case when he was on an appeals court as a judge there.

Dirty bombs and porous borders. An undercover investigation shows just how easy it is to smuggle nuclear material into the U.S. A Senate subcommittee today reviewing how the weak links in the system were exposed.

Radiation detectors did sniff out the deadly cargo, but the undercover agents were still able to get it through by using bogus documents. Officials say they waved through enough material, in fact, to make two dirty bombs.

The undercover test targeted Texas' border with Mexico and Washington State's border with Canada. The Bush administration says within 45 days border agents will have the tools to verify potentially bogus documents.

And now to another hot-button issue, immigration. Whether they built your home, landscaped your yard, or even looked after your kids, it is no secret illegal immigrants are a major part of the American workforce.

Today their future is up for debate on Capitol Hill. At issue, whether illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay and, if so, under what conditions.

The debate over immigration is also playing out in the streets across the U.S. Just south of downtown Los Angeles, high school students are on the march today. Immigration supporters say some of the restrictions that Congress is considering are too harsh. A bill passed by the House last December would make illegal immigrants felons.

And we're also watching live pictures from Dallas. Students from four high schools in Irving, Texas, walked out of their class. They plan to march into Dallas, where a protest is being held.

We'll keep an eye on those pictures courtesy of our affiliate KDFW.

And on that topic, it is just one more day until our own Lou Dobbs lands in Mexico for a summit between the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Three leaders, plus Lou, live from Mexico. That's this week. It starts tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN.

To Houston now. Federal prosecutors have finished presenting their case in the trial of former Enron chief Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling. Both are facing fraud and conspiracy charges. The defense is expected to begin presenting its case on Monday.

Also, business news. Hundreds more General Motors workers are out of a job. GM announcing a new round of layoffs this morning. All these layoffs are white collar workers in the U.S. GM's been plagued by falling sales and billions in losses.

Last year it started slashing jobs as part of a strategy to get back in the black. One report says today's cuts affect fewer than 500 people nationwide or about one percent of its salaried workforce.

Former defense secretary Caspar Weinberger has died. He died early this morning at a hospital near his home in Maine. Weinberger served as defense secretary to President Reagan from 1981 to 1987. His son says he should be remembered as an American patriot for helping bring down the Soviet Union. Caspar Weinberger was 88. His passing comes just one day after the death of another Reagan administration figure, Press Secretary Lyn Nofziger.

"LIVE FROM" with Kyra Phillips, coming up at the top of the hour.

I'm Daryn Kagan. YOUR WORLD TODAY continues after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MANN: Welcome back to YOUR WORLD TODAY on CNN International. I'm Jonathan Mann.

VERJEE: And I'm Zain Verjee. Here are some of the top stories we're following.

After more than five years on the job, the White House chief of staff is out. Andrew Card's resignation was announced today. He will be replaced by budget director Joshua Bolten. The move comes as the president's job approval ratings slumped and as Republicans pressure the White House to reinvigorate its ranks.

MANN: More than five million Israelis are eligible to vote in today's parliamentary election, but it seems that none of the candidates have stirred up enough excitement to get the vote out. So far, the turnout is about 5 percent less than it was three years ago, and that was a bad year. Pollsters predict the centrist Kadima party will come out on top, but will not win a majority.

VERJEE: Rowdy demonstrations and work stoppages are taking place across France as workers and students are protesting out on the streets against a new jobs law. The law makes it easier to dismiss younger workers, and unions and students say that the law guts job protection. French governments are saying the laws are essential there to cut unemployment.

We want to go now to Paula Hancocks. She's in Paris. She's out on the streets and she joins us now with the latest.

Paula, what's going on?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Zain, at the moment, there are a few skirmishes which are happening Place de la Republique, which is in the center, just center east of Paris. And now there's thousands of protesters, students, union members, that have walked through the streets of Paris and ended up in this particular area, protesting against that employment law, saying that it gives them no job security, that it shouldn't be able to go ahead.

Now there were worries earlier that the protests could result in violence, as it has done, previous protests in the past few days. Though the police prepared -- 4,000 riot police were on standby to assist in this particular protest in case it did get violent. There have been a few skirmishes, inevitably. If there are that many angry protesters in this small space, and there are riot police as well, then there are going to be some elements of that group that are going start throwing things and that are going to start trying to make some trouble. I think the police have brought a water canon in. Whether or not they use it really depends on the violent elements of these protesters.

A lot of these protesters are angry at those that are violent, saying they are trying to hijack this cause. They're passionate about this cause. They don't believe this employment law should go ahead because they're worried about job security. They think they'll be able to be fired left, right and center with no reason. And that's what they're worried about. But they are angry that there are some violent elements that are trying to hijack their cause.

VERJEE: Who are these violent elements that are trying to hijack their cause? You know, they're known as "cassaldes" (ph) there, that they come in and plan to disrupt. Are they the same group of people that disrupted and started riots back in November of last year? HANCOCKS: I think that some of them will be the same people, yes. Those riots back in November were in the suburbs of Paris. The police call them, these "cassaldes," the troublemakers. They're the ones that aren't there for the cause. They started looting cars and looting shops and setting fire to cars. And also mugging some of the protesters that were having a peaceful protest.

So it shows that they're just here to make trouble and, unfortunately, we see this a lot. It's not just particular to France. Inevitably, when you have a big group of protesters coming together, there is always a yob element to it, there's always a small core which is going to want to make trouble just for the sake of fighting against the police.

Now, I have to say, the majority of the protesters are peaceful. They are trying to make a legitimate point, that this employment law will be prejudicial against them. It won't allow them to have the same job security that their parents and their grandparents had. Now, what the prime minister is saying is that's not economically viable in this day and age, and this law, he is saying, is a way to spark employment and to make the labor market more flexible.

VERJEE: Paula Hancocks reporting to us from the streets of Paris. Thanks, Paula.

John.

MANN: Well, as you know, another one of our top stories. If you think President Bush is holding a weak hand, well, the news is he's dropped one card. White House chief of staff Andrew Card is to be replaced by Joshua Bolten, director of the OMB, the Office of Management and Budget.

Joining us now from Washington with more on the shakeup and what it means for the administration are Bay Buchanan, president of the conservative American Cause and Jennifer Palmieri, a former Clinton administration aid now with the Center for the American Progress.

Ladies, thanks so much for being with us. Bay Buchanan, let's start with it. What do you think of this?

BAY BUCHANAN, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN CAUSE: Well, I have to say first of all that Andy Card has not only shown himself to be a terrifically loyal and dedicated servant to this administration, but he's shown himself to be enormously classy. He's been there over five years, working 16-hour days, and when he realized that he wasn't -- that he could be a liability or that maybe someone else would be a real asset, that a change now would help the president, he voluntarily stepped aside. Real class act.

I think the president has the right to be very, very pleased with this man. The choice of Joshua Bolten, I think, is the good one. The president is close and comfortable with him, and that's key. But I think he's going to add someone or two other people to this staff. MANN: Jennifer Palmieri, the domestic agenda is running into trouble, the war in Iraq is running into trouble. Is Andrew Card the person to get rid of to solve those problems?

JENNIFER PALMIERI, CENTER FOR AMERICA PROGRESS: Right. I don't think that the people who are concerned particularly in Washington, even in Republicans in Congress -- I don't -- that are concerned about the president's staff. It's not that Andy Card is doing a bad job, but it was that the White House is very insular and that Bush's circle of advisers is small and that you don't get a diverse point of view. And you know, going across the driveway to pick Josh Bolten to be the chief of staff doesn't address that. It doesn't bring new blood or new ideas or, you know, a fresh outlook in.

Now, chief of staff's job, you know, the president is free to choose whomever he looks. That is a job that, as Bay pointed out, you have to have a good personal relationship with the president. But this is not going to quell the concerns that a lot of people have that Bush only listens to about 12 people.

BUCHANAN: You know what the key here is, is that what is Joshua going to be? I agree that the president does have a problem. They seem to have spent too much time in the White House now. They've lost touch with the heartbeat of America. They don't really know and understand and feel the concern of Americans, and so their policies, I think, are not sensitive to that.

So he needs to bring -- Joshua Bolten needs to bring somebody into the White House who does know what's going on around this country and can sit at the table and say, by the way you move ahead with this, let me tell you what will happen in this circle or that circle or middle America so that they might again have that ear to the ground which I do believe they've lost.

MANN: It sounds from what both of you are saying that he's not going impress his detractors and he's not going impress his supporters either.

PALMIERI: I think that's right and I think perhaps he doesn't -- I don't know that he particularly cares. I think it's possible that he just wanted, Andy Card just wanted to leave and Bolten is the person he trusts. This is his pattern and this is what he always does.

When somebody leaves an important post he replaces them with someone he's even more close to. When Colin Powell left State, he replaced him with Condi Rice. When Attorney General Ashcroft left the Justice Department he replaced him with the White House Counsel Alberto Gonzalez. When he had a vacancy on the Supreme Court he wanted to replace that person with his own personal attorney, Harriet Miers.

It is just going feed him into, him picking Josh Bolten, is just going to feed into the sense that he's removed from the rest of the world. MANN: Bay Buchanan, you mentioned Joshua Bolten should be the first of maybe more changes to come, but what should Bolten do differently? What would represent a real break with Andy Card and the problems that this administration has been having.

BUCHANAN: I think what Bolten is able to do -- he's new, he's fresh and he'll be able to say I want my own people. Andy Card was not fired. He voluntarily left and now Bolten wants to bring his own people. So it allows a natural transition to occur, new, fresh people coming into the administration, very, very healthy and very essential and that's what I think happens here.

This decision of Joshua Bolten wasn't, oh, we're going to change policy, we're going to to please this group or that group. All it is is somebody new and fresh and so we have a chance to bring in some new blood and that's important. If they don't do that they'll continue to have trouble with conservatives on the Hill. You cannot govern in a vacuum. You have to have that information coming from the country into the White House so you know what's going on.

MANN: I'm going jump in and ask the same question again. If there's new blood, what needs to change beyond the blood itself?

BUCHANAN: There are some policies that the president is at odds with the American people. The situation with Iraq, the president's not going change his policy. What happens now is the American people watch what goes on in Iraq and they respond accordingly, but there are some domestic policies that the president will have to back off on. If he wishes the American people to come aboard and be supportive of his efforts, and the first one is immigration which is out there today.

MANN: Jennifer Palmieri?

PALMEIRI: I think, one of the problems with Bolten and conservatives is that he was the OMB director and presided over 1.8 trillion growth in the deficit, and one of the big concerns that conservatives have with Bush is that he is not fiscally responsible and Bolten certainly isn't going do anything to change that.

I worked for Leon Panetta, who was the OMB director under Clinton, who then became the chief of staff. The only job in Washington which is harder and worse than being the OMB director is being the White House chief of staff.

Bolten is not going to -- I don't know how much of new energy he's going to be able to bring, and his appointment alone doesn't change anything, but if he then reaches out to other people in Washington, again, bucking what this White House has always done, he could have an impact and make a positive change.

MANN: Bay Buchanan, can we go back to you for one last moment. You think about the missteps that this administration has been blamed for. Katrina, Dubai, the Social Security fiasco or the war in Iraq. Was Andy card responsible for any of what went wrong? BUCHANAN: Clearly you have to put Iraq aside, because that was something that the administration studied and looked into and the president was very, very adamant that this was an important thing and an important step he took there. He takes full responsibility for that.

I think Dubai, for instance, is something that a good chief of staff who is on top of things, if that information came across his desk, he would have spotted it. He would have understood how conservatives would have reacted and America would have reacted. I think they were a little bit tired over there at the White House. They're a little bit removed, too much removed.

MANN: Forgive me, I'm going have to wrap this up earlier than we planned. We are going to live pictures now in Los Angeles, a student demonstration against some of the immigration reform proposals that are being floated. Let's look at these pictures now.

If you're watching from outside the United States. We should let you know there are a flurry of immigration proposals underway in the United States. Efforts to tighten immigration as dramatically as making 11 million illegal immigrants in this country felons, subject to arrest.

The president is proposing something very different. A guest worker program. Various proposals moving through various parts of the government, but on the streets there have been enormous demonstrations over the past few days. We're looking at one of them now. Students at a high school in Los Angeles.

VERJEE: From protests in Los Angeles to protests on the streets of Paris. There have been rowdy demonstrations and work stoppages taking place across France. Students and unions are protesting a new jobs law.

They're questioning that it would essentially erode their job protection and job security. There are about 4,000 riot police out on the streets in Paris. There have been some skirmishes, but no significant violence this day. We're keeping an eye on this and we will bring you more details and bring you back to Paris when we can.

We're going to take a short break. YOUR WORLD TODAY will continue in just a moment. This is CNN International.

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VERJEE: Welcome back to YOUR WORLD TODAY on CNN International. Whoever comes out the winner of Israel's election today, the country must cope with a Hamas-led government on its flank and that raises serious questions about the future of the Middle East peace process. For some insight we are joined by our senior political analyst Bill Schneider in Jerusalem. Good to have you, Bill. How crucial is this election to the future of the Middle East?

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Oh, it is very crucial because it's defining a new policy alternative. Something brand new, borders, not peace. All of the old alternatives in the Middle East have collapsed. The status quo can't go on, Israelis feel. The peace process is dead.

They're not going negotiate peace with a Hamas Palestinian government, well, they like defense. Defense works, they believe, and Ehud Olmert, the acting prime minister, says I'm going turn the fence into a border and the Israeli voters are saying, we'll take it.

VERJEE: You say the old order appearing to have collapsed. The Likkud Party, Bill, as you well know, has dominated Israeli politics for almost 30 years or so. In this election it really appears to be struggling for its own relevance.

SCHNEIDER: That's right. The biggest news that's likely to come out of this election, nothing is certain, of course, you have about two hours to go before the polls close. But the biggest news is likely to be that the Likkud Party, which has been the dominant party in Israel for almost 30 years, may do very badly. It may lose its leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, a former prime minister.

Why is it doing so badly? Well, because it stands, in most Israelis' eyes, for the status quo continuing occupation which they believe does not work. And second of all, the economic issue has hurt the Likud Party badly. Benjamin Netanyahu was finance minister in the Likud government, his policies, while they produced a lot of economic growth here in Israel, they were very unpopular. He cut a lot of public subsidies.

So suddenly, the poverty issue was taking a big role in this election. It produce a new leader of the Labor Party and Labor may do unusually well, unexpectedly well, in this election with the Likud going down to defeat or even collapse.

VERJEE: One of the other major issues and questions being raised in this election is not so much whether Ehud Olmert will be able to form a government, but whether he'd be able to form a strong enough government, with support from the right, to push his disengagement policies through.

SCHNEIDER: That's right. He will be able to form a government because it's likely that he'll be the largest party, he'll find coalition partners, Labor supports him on the disengagement, the borders policy, but he has to reach out to the right because if it's just his party and Labor, then it will look like his policies are those of the left.

He needs to have broad national legitimacy, so he'll be seeking a broad coalition, including some religious parties and possibly some parties from the right. The question is, will he be strong enough and popular enough? He's not a very popular figure right now.

Will he have the personal standing and popularity like that of Ariel Sharon? Will he be able to develop it so that his government will not disintegrate when he tries to put through his new disengagement policy? VERJEE: And speaking of Ariel Sharon, does it seem at all, Bill, is there any indication that a vote for Kadima among many or some Israelis is essentially an affection vote for Sharon?

SCHNEIDER: Well, you might think so, but I don't think that's true. That's because Ehud Olmert has defined himself in this campaign as his own man. He's put through a policy statement, a very bold thing to do in Israel, saying I'm going carry through a second wave of disengagement from the West Bank. I'm going relocate some 70,000 settlers to other parts of the West Bank where there are population centers.

That was a bold thing to do. Sharon never made that commitment and it's defined Olmert as his own person. So I think it's his policies, it's his election, and he's going win if he wins this with his own mandate.

But there's a problem. As I said, he's not a very popular figure. He doesn't have the respect or the beloved quality of an Ariel Sharon, and that's why Kadima is very worried that they may not get the turnout they need to establish a strong Olmert government.

VERJEE: In Jerusalem for us, with some good analysis, our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider. Thanks, Bill.

Stay with CNN for continuing coverage of the vote. We're also going to bring you much more analysis and reaction after the polling stations close. For election night coverage, Guy Raz will be at Kadima headquarters, and Ben Wedeman's watching things at the Labor Party headquarters.

YOUR WORLD TODAY will continue after a short break.

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VERJEE: We want to take a look at some of the e-mails we've been getting. We've been asking you for your thoughts on the resignation of U.S. President Bush's chief of staff.

MANN: Our question was, should anyone else in the Bush administration resign? We got an awful lot of mail, much of it, to be honest, in one direction.

For example, Daniela Hauke from Germany says, "The resignation of U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is, in my opinion, long overdue"

VERJEE: P.R. Monney from Geneva writes, "The incompetent White House staff should leave en masse headed by Karl Rove. They've all done enough harm to the presidency and to the country.

MANN: Forrest writes to us from Washington that, "Judging by the present state of things, the question really ought to be who shouldn't resign?"

VERJEE: And finally, Tom Bulger from the U.S. state of Maine says "Andrew Card is the scapegoat that was least responsible for policy. It's like Ken Lay offering up the receptionist for his sentence."

MANN: Maybe a skewed sample, but it is what it is. I'm Jonathan Mann. This has been YOUR WORLD TODAY.

VERJEE: And I'm Zain Verjee. The lovely Kyra Phillips is next with LIVE FROM. For everyone else, there more of us.

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