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American Morning

Vote on Constitutional Amendment Banning Same-Sex Marriage; Latest on Battle Over Immigration Reform

Aired June 07, 2006 - 08:00   ET

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

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Dana Bash on Capitol Hill, where a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage will fail in the Senate this morning. But supporters are likely to claim victory anyway. We'll parse the politics of that, coming up.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kathleen Koch at the Pentagon.

Signs of drawdown in U.S. troops isn't happening any time soon. I'll have more on that, coming up.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Authorities say that thwarted terror attack in Canada included plans to storm the parliament and kill the prime minister. And that's not all. We'll have details.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And pretty amazing pictures to show you from Arizona this morning. This major dust storm looks like something out of a science fiction movie. We'll tell you what happened there just ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

Welcome back, everybody.

I'm Soledad O'Brien.

M. O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien.

S. O'BRIEN: The Senate is set to vote on the same-sex marriage ban in just about two hours. The measure is expected to fail.

CNN's Dana Bash is live for us on Capitol Hill this morning -- Dana, good morning to you.

If you're not going to -- if you're not going to win -- and it's pretty clear they're not going to win -- why is the debate so important in the first place?

BASH: You know, Soledad, there actually has been a pretty healthy debate over the debate, your question, why is the Senate even talking about what is clearly an ill-fated measure?

For Democrats, they say it's plain and simple -- Republicans are simply trying to pander to their conservative base five months before an election. But Republicans insist it's more than that. They say that many of their constituents actually care about this issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: An instrument of bigotry and prejudice and discrimination that happens to be a carefully designed ploy by the Republican leadership, evidently, to try to bring the Republican senators out of the ditch of disapproval.

SEN. MEL MARTINEZ (R), FLORIDA: For those who are skeptics and view this as just a political exercise, I would say to them that there's many of us who have not had an opportunity to debate and discuss this and that this is an issue that, when I get phone calls from my office, it's darned important to a lot of people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, to back up their point, Republicans point to 19 states where about 70 percent of the voters actually did approve a ban on same-sex marriage.

But not all Republicans agree with what's going on here, Soledad. Some, like John McCain, will actually vote no. He says, judges in states have overturned some of those state bans, but he still insists it does not yet pose a threat to marriage that should actually require amending the constitution.

S. O'BRIEN: So, at the end of the day, Dana, what do you think the numbers are going to be, and then, symbolically, what will those numbers mean?

BASH: We think, at this point, they probably will get 51 votes. We always want to be careful predicting an exact Senate vote before it actually happens. And symbolically, what supporters of a ban are saying is that that is a big deal because the last time around, two years ago, they got 48 votes only. They say this is about gaining momentum.

And, politically, Soledad, conservative activists say they're watching this vote because they want to see whether or not particularly the Republican senators are on their side on this issue before conservative rank and file voters go to the polls in November.

S. O'BRIEN: Dana Bash for us this morning.

Dana, thanks -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, gay marriage may be topic one inside the beltway, but way outside, in the Midwest, the president is pushing immigration reform today. He's in Omaha visiting a center that helps immigrant families.

Our CNN White House correspondent, Elaine Quijano, is in Omaha.

She joins us from there this morning -- good morning, Elaine.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Miles.

The president is set to visit a center run-by Catholic Charities here in Omaha, Nebraska, as you just mentioned. The center offers immigrants lessons in English, as well as lessons in United States civics.

Now, the president's visit here is meant to highlight another aspect of his immigration reform policy, and that is assimilation.

The president has certainly said in the past that he believes immigrants must have certain responsibilities if they want to become United States citizens. So expect the president to discuss that when he speaks later today, in fact, just a little bit from now. He'll be speaking at Metropolitan Community Colleague here in Omaha later this morning -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Elaine, let's talk about what the president's message is at this point. He's still pushing for reform that includes some sort of path toward citizenship for illegal immigrants. And that really is diametrically opposed to what was passed by the House of Representatives. And yet he's going to try to find common ground between that, his point of view -- the Senate's point of view the same -- and the House.

Is that possible to find, common ground?

QUIJANO: Well, you know, it's interesting, the president actually commented on this yesterday, Miles. And what he essentially said is that until the conferees, those members of the House and Senate that will have to sit down and hash out their differences, actually sit down -- they're set to do that. They'll have a better idea once that happens.

But he still thinks there is an opportunity for some movement. And so what we saw from the president yesterday -- he was in not only Artesia, New Mexico-but also at the border itself, at Laredo, Texas to talk about border security, because, as you know, this is something that has been a critical component for conservatives in the House. They very much have long called for tougher border security measures.

So the president was touring that area.

And with regards to the idea of amnesty and some of these differences that you talk about, the president essentially said look, we do have some shared basic principles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We all agree we need to control our borders. There's a common agreement that the federal government has a responsibility to control the borders.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now, afterward, as I mentioned to you, he was in Laredo, Texas. But really the goal here is try -- is trying to nudge the House and Senate closer together. The president still thinks that he can do that and so we'll continue to see him talk about his immigration reform proposals -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Elaine Quijano in Omaha. Thank you -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: CNN is going to bring you the president's remarks in Omaha later this morning. Those remarks we're expecting around 9:40 a.m. Eastern time.

Italy is saying it's going to pull its troops out of Iraq by the end of the year. The announcement comes as new violence erupts in Baghdad. At least eight people were killed in morning attacks. Six of them Iraqi police officers.

Authorities are now looking for 35 people who were kidnapped in Baghdad earlier this week. Fifteen other people in that group were found late last night. The victims say they were tortured then released.

And Iraq's prime minister is making good on a promise. The first group of 2,500 prisoners are being released from U.S. and Iraqi prisons around the country.

More U.S. troops are headed to Iraq.

CNN's Kathleen Koch is live at the Pentagon for us this morning -- hey, Kathleen, good morning.

Where specifically are these troops coming from?

KOCH: They're coming from Schweinfurt, Germany, is what we've been told by U.S. military officials. Talking about some roughly 3,700 troops that are expected in the coming weeks to begin rotating into Iraq. And obviously this running counter to things that the top U.S. commander in Iraq, General George Casey, had said earlier this year, that if the situation on the ground stabilized, the U.S. forces would begin rotating out, would begin drawing down.

But clearly that situation hasn't stabilized on the ground.

So these troops will be replacing other troops that will eventually be rotated out of the country. You know, as you'll remember, it was just roughly a week or so ago, Soledad, that some 1,500 troops held in reserve in Kuwait were sent into the western part of Bagh -- of Iraq -- to help deal with the mounting violence in the town of Ramadi.

S. O'BRIEN: Let me ask you a question that's related, but not directly related.

The investigations into what happened at Haditha and Hamandiyah, when do we find out what exactly the results are, do you think?

KOCH: The time line that we're getting right now, Soledad, is that when it comes to the investigation in Haditha, that that's going to take another six to eight weeks longer, more in depth investigation. We're talking about the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians.

Hamandiyah looking at perhaps a week. That's looking into the actions of Marines when they shot a man there in April.

We heard some comments from a senator yesterday who's asking for hearings into these investigations. And he was asked about whether -- what he thought the potential impact could be of these incidents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN WARNER (R-VA), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: I think it would be unjust to speculate at this time what those implications could be. I have characterized them based on my own experience as very, very serious allegations and there have been facts substantiated to date to underpin those allegations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: Warner and other lawmakers are frustrated, they say, that the Pentagon hasn't shared more details of the investigations with members of Congress -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Kathleen Koch for us at the Pentagon.

Kathleen, thanks.

KOCH: You bet.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: An arrest in the so-called bikini murder case. We're waiting for a hearing with some details. A suspect, though, has been arrested in Tennessee in that case. And police say 35-year-old Jerry Buck Inman was taken into custody last night in connection with the killing. Tiffany Souers, a Clemson University student found strangled to death with her bikini top in her apartment May 26th.

Happening elsewhere in America, a new report out this morning concluding illegal immigrants helping rebuild the Gulf Coast are ripe for exploitation. Illegal immigrants have flocked to New Orleans to pick up some work rebuilding the city. Many work with hazardous substances and in conditions without protective gear and they're paid less than documented workers.

Investigators in L.A. this morning trying to figure out what prompted an emergency landing there yesterday. It was an American Airlines flight. The crew reporting a hydraulics problem. The flight from San Antonio touched down safely. No injuries. The MD-82 had to be towed to the gate once it landed.

Harvard is now the second American university to try to clone human embryos. Scientists there are trying to create stem cells to help treat diseases like diabetes and leukemia. They're using both donated and discarded genetic material for their testing. The University of California at San Francisco-the other U.S. university doing the same thing.

The Carlson twins back home in Fargo this morning. You remember Abigail and Isabelle, born as conjoined twins. They were surgically separated about three weeks ago. The girls' father says they are changing quickly, but they're still very close to each other, at least metaphorically close.

A Tennessee man is recovering after spending more than one day stuck in mud up to his waist. The man was hunting squirrels in a muddy water bank north of Memphis when his legs got caught. Wow! He was finally spotted by a passing fisherman. Police say he's exhausted but otherwise fine. What a mess.

Health concerns from a brush fire in South Florida. The smoke and haze could be dangerous for elderly and the children. At least 17,000 acres destroyed since Sunday. The Division of Forestry says lightning sparked it all.

A giant storm moving through Arizona caused this scene. A dust storm in Phoenix shut down roads, stopped flights at Sky Harbor International for a while. Thunderstorms expected today.

Which brings us to the forecast.

Rob Marciano with that -- good morning, Rob.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Miles.

It's kind of early in the season to start to get thunderstorms in Arizona. But, like you said, they're going to have them again today. The monsoon flow doesn't really get kicking for another month or two.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: It's primary time and voters in eight states went to the polls. We've got all the results. And are these results a sign of what's to come in the midterm elections? We'll take a look at that this morning.

M. O'BRIEN: And then we'll take you to Waveland, Mississippi, a town trying to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. Now stuck in a bureaucratic Catch-22.

S. O'BRIEN: And we meet a father who's now suing a Kansas church because they protested his son's funeral. His son was a soldier. But church members say hey, that's their first amendment right. The father says his son did not deserve their hatred. That story is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

We're back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: You could call it a pre-season game for the mid-term season. Pundits called it -- the special election in San Diego to fill the seat vacated by now imprisoned former Congressman Duke Cunningham a bellwether.

If so, Republicans might be doing better than Tom DeLay thinks.

We'll tell you about his comments in a moment.

Now, here's what the A.P. has to say about that election. Ninety percent of precincts now in. Republican Brian Bilbray with 50 percent of the vote, Democrat Francine Busby with 45 percent.

Our senior political corresponded, Candy Crowley, watching things from Washington for us -- Candy, this is a heavily Republican district. Cunningham, when he was doing well, would get 58 percent numbers.

Are the Democrats going to be able to spin this one into some sort of victory?

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They'll try, but it's not a victory. Look, they really wanted this one. I mean this was a -- this became just a nationalized race. Both the Democratic National Party and the Republican National Party were in there with lots of money. The robo calls, as they say, you know, go out and vote, came on one side from President Bush and Laura Bush; on the other side, John Kerry and Al Gore. This was hotly contested.

Look, the Republican won. Yes, it's a heavily Republican district. Yes, he did worse than Duke Cunningham did. But he is -- he was kind of the canary in the cave or the bellwether and while he did not get the numbers, which I'm sure Democrats will point out, he did nonetheless win the seat in something the Democrats really thought they might pick up.

I think you'll hear a lot about immigration, too, because one of the reasons that the Democrat may have lost is some sort of intemperate remarks she had to say that made her look as though she was asking illegals to come vote for her.

So, you know, there's a lot going on in that race, which made me sort of, to begin with, think I'm not sure what kind of bellwether it is, because we can see a lot in it that may or may not have national implications.

M. O'BRIEN: A "W" is a "W," I guess.

CROWLEY: Yes.

Absolutely.

M. O'BRIEN: The Democrat, Francine Busby, sorry for those intemperate remarks, tried to use the ethics issues as an issue. And there's some interesting comments today -- before we get -- I want to talk about Arnold Schwarzenegger in a moment, but Tom DeLay in "USA Today" -- I know you saw this -- had some interesting things to say as he spends his last few days in Congress.

He talks -- he criticizes his Republican colleagues for panic, depression and "woe is me-ism." I think that might be a made up word. What do you think?

And he says he predicted they will lose control in November if they continue the attitude that they have right now.

What do you think about Tom DeLay's comments?

CROWLEY: Well, there's nothing so freeing as not having to be elected again.

Look, we see this happen a lot, you know, people move out of office and then they sort of open fire.

This is -- I'm not sure attitude is really the Republicans' problem at this point. But certainly what -- by the way, we're going to talk to Tom DeLay this afternoon, so perhaps we can get him to, you know, say exactly what he means here.

Look, are Republicans worried about the mid-terms? They be, you know, stupid if they weren't worried.

Do I think that they are going to have to, you know -- do they know that they have to fight this and try to make these individual races as opposed to a national referendum on the White House and the Republican-led Congress? Yes, they do.

You know, could they lose control of one or both houses? Yes. That certainly must be depressing, but I don't -- I don't know that I have seen this, you know, vast need for therapy among Republicans. They, you know, they're doing what they can. That's one of the reasons you've seen this bill on the floor on gay marriage.

M. O'BRIEN: Panic and depression, strong words.

CROWLEY: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, let's talk about Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Should he be panicked or depressed?

He's now -- it's now clear who he's up against. He's had numbers down in the 30s. He appears to be back into a resurgence.

What's going on with him?

CROWLEY: And, well, Californians also like to reelect their governors. So they did throw out Gray...

M. O'BRIEN: They don't mind ousting them, either, though.

CROWLEY: No. But in a weird sort of way...

M. O'BRIEN: A fickle group, those Californians.

CROWLEY: Yes. They do. They like to do it in recall elections. I mean, you know, they recalled Gray Davis, you know, within two years of having reelected him.

So, look, it's going to be a tough fight. He's had some problems out there. But, you know, the key is to, you know, be peaking as the election comes and he's certainly in the right trajectory at this point. But it's going to be a tough race.

I mean, California, for a Republican, even a moderate Republican that Arnold Schwarzenegger is, is going to be tough. But nonetheless, he's in the, you know, he's an incumbent. That helps him and it certainly helps him in California.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, before you get away, a word on gay marriage here. The Senate will go through this ritual vote today. I guess that's what you could call it. No one expects a two-thirds majority. That's just not going to happen.

When all is said and done, what has been said or done?

CROWLEY: Well, you know, it's another one of those things when you lose but win. And, you know, Republicans are going to say -- and they expect that they will now get more votes for this. In fact, they'll -- they believe they'll get a simple majority in favor of this constitutional ban. This put the issue back in the papers and back in our newscasts for a couple of days. There is a certain constituency and it is that constituency that tends to vote in mid-terms, that is very passionate about this particular issue.

They say look, we're watching and we're seeing who's voting for this and who we're going to support.

Now, the interesting thing here is that that goes for Republicans, too, because we do expect some Republicans to vote against it.

But -- so it is one of those issues that does rouse a certain constituency and it's an important constituency for Republicans as they're looking, you know, ahead to November and wanting to get out the people that they know are faithful votes.

M. O'BRIEN: Candy Crowley, part of the best political team on television.

Thank you.

CROWLEY: Thanks, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, Waveland, Mississippi's Catch-22.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

there's a lot of focus on the lessons that they've learned a lot of focus on the upcoming hurricane season, yet we're still sitting here 95 percent substantially destroyed trying to find a way to fix this puzzle.

(END VIDEO CLIP) S. O'BRIEN: Why are they still 95 percent substantially destroyed?

We're going to show you what's standing in the way of Waveland's recovery.

Then, we're on volcano watch this morning. Indonesia's Mount Merapi is on the verge of erupting.

We'll cover those stories live.

Stay with us.

You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: (AUDIO GAP).

M. O'BRIEN: We're going to try that one more time.

Apparently Soledad's mike (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's obvious Waveland, Mississippi, nine months after Katrina hit, is still a mess. The city is broke and broken.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's real frustrating because you fix a leak here and you fix a leak over here.

CALLEBS: There's more than $100 million in FEMA aid money just sitting there, waiting for Waveland. But naturally, there's a catch. And everyone here, like Roy and Mimi Lassus (ph), is caught.

ROY LASSUS: I'm ready to rebuild my house.

CALLEBS: But they can't because Waveland's water, sewer and other utilities are in such pathetic shape.

MIMI LASSUS: You don't see any progress yet. I'd like to see something started.

CALLEBS: All government entities -- Feds, state and county -- agree it will cost well over $100 million to fix Waveland. And federal funds are earmarked for the town. But get this -- Waveland can't get a penny until it raises 10 percent in matching funds, which would be well over $10 million.

Mayor Tommy Longo says his town doesn't have the money.

MAYOR TOMMY LONGO, WAVELAND, MISSISSIPPI: Well, it's impossible. At this point, 95 percent of our commercial structures were substantially destroyed. So our economic base, our lifeline, financial lifeline, is destroyed. CALLEBS: So, he stews, recounting the litany of assurances from government leaders who promised to make Waveland whole again.

FEMA officials say they empathize with Waveland, but a spokesman says the agency works under strict guidelines and by law cannot dole out money to rebuild until Waveland has 10 percent of the needed funds.

Ridiculous, says the mayor.

LONGO: One of the things that scare me dearly is that there's a lot of focus on the lessons that they've learned and a lot of focus on the upcoming hurricane season, yet we're still sitting here 95 percent substantially destroyed, trying to find a way to fix this puzzle.

DWIKE HASKEL: It's just nonstop.

CALLEBS: Right now, Dwike Haskel (ph) is one only four people in the public works department.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

HASKEL: Go out to 6079 cut off road.

CALLEBS: He says the idea of hooking up new commercial properties to water and sewer lines is laughable.

And why?

Leaky water lines and broken down sewer systems.

(on camera): So basically your day is getting up, running around from thing to thing to thing, patching and trying to keep everything working?

HASKEL: Basically.

CALLEBS (voice-over): So the town limps along in limbo.

M. LASSUS: We're trying our best to keep a positive attitude. That's all I can say. And it's hard sometimes.

CALLEBS: Residents and the town caught in a brutal Catch-22 with no solution in sight, knowing only that they face a very uncertain future.

Sean Callebs, CNN, Waveland, Mississippi.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: We've got new details about that alleged terror plot in Toronto. Authorities paint a very scary picture of what the suspects were planning, including a storming of parliament and the assassination of the prime minister.

And unspeakable grief meets unfathomable hatred. A grieving father sues a church. They say it's free speech. He says it's defamation.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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