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Democrats & Dialogue; War Strategy; Northwest Floods; Love Letter Link; Viewer E-Mails

Aired November 10, 2006 - 10:00   ET

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

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Carol Lin. Heidi Collins has the day off.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.

Spend a second hour in the NEWSROOM this morning and stay informed. Here's what's on the rundown.

Senate Democrats stop by the White House this morning. President Bush getting ready for the new Washington reality, divided government.

LIN: Every day a grim day in the Baghdad E.R. The doctors and nurses saving the lives of American G.I.s.

HARRIS: And minding the store when a self-employed soldier marches off to war. Job insecurity for Friday, November 10th. You are in the NEWSROOM.

LIN: President Bush and Senate Democrats meet today to talk things over. The president is playing host to senators Harry Reid and Dick Durbin at the White House this morning. The dialogue with the Democrats, the latest attempt to mend fences after the midterm elections. Kathleen Koch live at the White House with a preview.

Kathleen, wouldn't we love to be a fly on the wall?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Quite so, Carol.

And, yes, for the second day in a row, President Bush will be eating crow here at the White House, reaching out to Democrats who he demonized less than a week ago. But White House Press Secretary Tony Snow says that President Bush understands he's got to focus on right now of figuring out basically the best way to move forward to achieve what's important to him.

Now certainly, though, the new incoming Democratic leadership is trying to do the very same thing. For instance, Senator Harry Reid, who President Bush will be meeting with in just a little bit over an hour and a half, he, as well as Senator Dick Durbin, Harry Reid has been pushing for a bipartisan summit on Iraq. We don't know where the president stands on that. And Reid yesterday offered up backhanded pledge of cooperation at a rally celebrating the Democratic takeover in the Senate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. HARRY REID, (D) MINORITY LEADER: This time for new direction has given us an opportunity, a chance to prove to the American people that we can work with the Republicans. They've set a very bad example in not working with us. We're not following that example. We're reaching out to them as we have in the time the election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: It's expected that the meeting between the president and the senators later this morning will largely focus on the upcoming lame duck session of Congress which begins next week. The men discussing items such as continuing the funding of the federal government, so passing a lot of federal spending bills. The confirming the incoming defense secretary, Robert Gates. And then also certainly dicer issues that the president is trying to push and that's approving his domestic surveillance program.

Back to you.

LIN: Yes, what about John Bolton, the U.S. representative to the United Nations? What's his future going to be under this new administration? New Congress?

KOCH: Doesn't look very good for Ambassador Bolton right now. Certainly, the White House believes he needs to stay in the post that he has held it since August 2005 when the president installed him as ambassador with a recess appointment. The national security advisor, Stephen Hadley, yesterday, telling reports that he and the president believe that Bolton has done a terrific job.

But certainly not everyone agrees, which is why Democrats and at least one Republican opposed his nomination last year, believing his style was just too blunt, too confrontational. And we're hearing from Senator Joe Biden, who will be heading the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, that this is a non-starter. That "Bolton is going nowhere."

Carol

LIN: Kathleen Koch live at the White House. We'll be waiting to hear from you about that lunch meeting at the White House. Crow on the table.

KOCH: You bet.

HARRIS: Crow on the menu. OK.

Well, Republicans are looking for a new leader. According to several GOP sources, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman is leaving his post. Sources say his decision is not the result of Republican losses at the polls this week. They say Mehlman had already made his decision before the midterm elections. The White House is looking for a replacement to lead the party into the 2008 presidential campaign. A decision expected in January. October was one of the bloodiest months for U.S. troops in Iraq. November is not shaping up to be much better. Today the U.S. military announced three more deaths. A roadside bomb killed two American soldiers in Baghdad and a Marine died in combat in Anbar. That pushes the month's death toll to 23.

LIN: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld conceding the war is not going well enough or fast enough. Now that he's on his way out, what's in store for the troops? CNN's Jamie McIntyre looks at the options.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Now that he's a short timer, even outgoing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld admits the current strategy in Iraq is not working.

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: It has not been going well enough or fast enough.

MCINTYRE: In an exchange with students at Kansas State University, Rumsfeld urged perseverance and resolve as adjustments to the strategy are made by the man nominated to replace him. Former CIA director, Robert Gates, who is one of 10 members of the bipartisan Iraq study group charged with finding a way out of Iraq. The options include stay the course, which is already seen as failing, strategic redeployment, pulling the troops back perhaps as far as Kuwait. Under that option, advocated by Representative John Murtha and other Democrats, overall troop levels would stay the same. But many troops would be pulled off the front lines to be used as a quick reaction force only if Iraqis got in trouble.

Other possibilities, more U.S. troops which U.S. commanders say won't help in the long term, and partition along sectarian lines, something the White House has labeled a non-starter. So the most likely options appear to be a phased withdrawal under a carefully planned time line to force the Iraqis to take responsible for their own security.

LAWRENCE KORB, CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS: I think, basically, unless we start a phase withdrawal, the Iraqis will never make the political compromises necessary to create an Iraq that's worth fighting and dying for.

MCINTYRE: Another likely proposal is engaging Iraq's neighbors, Iran and Syria. An option vigorously oppose by hardliners.

FRANK GAFFNEY, CENTER FOR SECURITY POLICY: Will we be negotiating with enemies like the regime in Iran in the hopes that they'll somehow help us solve the problem they're creating in no small measure in Iraq. And I think that's going to be a mistake, potentially very strategic and long-standing dimensions.

MCINTYRE: Also taking the long view is lame duck Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld, who insists America is on the right side of history. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you were going to give yourself a letter grade for your performance as secretary of defense, what grade would that be?

RUMSFELD: Oh, I'd let history worry about that.

MCINTYRE: Senate confirmation hearings for Robert Gates are on the fast track set for early December. And the recommendations of the Iraq study group are expected shortly therefore.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: You see that snow, Tony?

HARRIS: Snow now.

LIN: Snow.

HARRIS: We've been talking about rain all week with this Pineapple Express. Let's all hop off.

LIN: Yes.

HARRIS: And now we're talking about snow, Chad.

LIN: In the northwest, Chad?

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: You know, they're cleaning up, picking up the muddy pieces in the northwest. As Chad just mentioned, the massive floods for parts of Oregon and Washington under water. More stormy weather today for the northwest, but it's not expected to be as bad. Snow, in fact. Jeff Dubois with CNN affiliate -- are you kidding me, Jeff? Look at you out there.

JEFF DUBOIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What a week . . .

HARRIS: Well, you know, the snow is better . . .

DUBOIS: Yes, what a week of weather we've had here in western Washington.

HARRIS: Yes, the snow is better than the rain. But the fact of the matter is, you've got a mess on your hands now and a lot of cleanup to do.

DUBOIS: Well, certainly, a lot of people have been actually anticipating this snow coming this weekend. It's a good thing for the floodwaters because now it's cold enough up here in the mountains that there isn't going to be a lot of runoff. But certainly now we're looking at a winter storm pounding our passes.

We're at Snoqualmie Pass, which is about 45 minutes east of Seattle. We're expecting up to a foot of snow to fall today. And already in a couple of hours we've seen about two and a half inches of snow falling already. Interstate 90 getting trickier for drivers.

Take a look at some video. The driving snow is diminishing visibility. The Department of Transportation signs are warning of snow and slush on the roadways. Traction tires advised at this point. Likely chains will be required by the end of the day. And this is just the beginning of the troubling driving conditions over the passes today.

Now this all comes while river levels down at lower elevations are still over flood stage. This week we've seen record amounts of rain and widespread flooding on nearly a dozen major rivers in western Washington and this is the worst flooding on record, with whole towns cut off by high water and road closures. Houses, even swept off their foundations, hundreds of people evacuated from their homes.

The floodwaters have even taken two lives. People overcome by the water and taken downstream. Damage is estimated in the tens of millions already and that's before the waters have even receded enough to get a real good idea of how much damage there truly has been.

And now this, back live here to a big snow storm going on in Snoqualmie Pass. There are also high wind advisories in western Washington and already reports this morning in the low-lying elevations of power outages and downed trees. Mother nature kicking us while we're down here in western Washington.

I'm Jeff Dubois reporting live at Snoqualmie Pass in Washington state for CNN.

HARRIS: What a mess. OK, Jeff, appreciate it. Thank you.

Man.

LIN: You can measure the accumulation on Jeff alone. Just on his jacket.

HARRIS: Yes. You know, I'm just wondering, I mean, it's been such a quick transition if public works has been able to keep up out there, from rain and water to snow. What a mess. All right.

LIN: I know. But Jeff needs to put his gloves on. I know his mother is going to be worried about him.

In the meantime, we have a terrific story coming up. It's a continuation of our series. Cal Perry getting the most amazing look inside the custodians of hope. They're treating the casualties of war. A combat hospital in Iraq. We're going to take you inside for a riveting look right here in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: And a love letter unlocks a 40-year-old mystery, helping a military wife get a bit of closure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PATRICIA SCHARF, WIDOW OF VIETNAM WAR PILOT: I now have somewhere to go to talk to my husband on a Saturday or Sunday or to just go up and just say put a flower there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: She married him when she was 18 years old. Straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: A young fighter pilot lost in Vietnam. His wife waits for word. And now more than 40 years later, a mystery is solved. And answers are found in their love letters. CNN's Barbara Starr has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Along this row of shops inside the Pentagon, a 41-year-old love story. Sales woman Patricia Scharf, a military wife, has stood behind these counters for decades, waiting for her husband, Chuck, to come home. Back in 1965, she was a young Air Force wife in Florida, seeing her fighter pilot husband off to war in Vietnam. She recalls standing on the flight line as his jet lined up for takeoff.

PATRICIA SCHARF, WIDOW OF VIETNAM WAR PILOT: The canopy started to shut and he saluted me. I had a scarf on my head and I waved so big to him and said, I love you, you know.

STARR: It was the last time she saw him. On October 1st, 1965, just three weeks before he was to come home, Captain Scharf was shot down over north Vietnam. Patricia, who married at 18, whose only child was stillborn, was alone. And like other wives in that war, wondering if her husband might be alive in a north Vietnamese prison camp.

How many years did you send packages to Vietnam?

SCHARF: I would say for about until they started sending them back and I would say that would be the first year. And I've always had hope that he would be back. Always. That he'd walk even into this shop here one day.

STARR: Finally, in 1992, U.S. and Vietnamese investigators began digging at Chuck's crash site. They found his I.D. card and wallet and bone fragments, evidence he had died in the crash. But they still had to find a DNA match. Then Chuck reached out one more time across the years. These love letters Patricia had saved had traces of his saliva where the fighter pilot licked the envelopes shut before sending them off to his young wife. That provided the positive I.D. Forty-one years after seeing him off to war, Patricia will bury Chuck's remains at Arlington National Cemetery in a few weeks.

SCHARF: I now have somewhere to go to talk to my husband on a Saturday or a Sunday, or to just go up and just say put a flower there.

STARR: From her Pentagon counter, Patricia has watched troops go off to war for decades. She says she often thinks of today's young military widows.

SCHARF: I would love to go to a base and talk to the young women who are in the same position I was. It's a different war now, but I know their feelings.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Barbara, that was just an incredible story. Incredible story. I just want to clarify something. Why did it take so long for them to match those samples if they found the remains back in the early '90s? And why was it her to bring it to the military's attention, this possibility?

STARR: Well, you know, the Vietnam War, it's hard for a lot of us to really -- to remember that so many years have passed and many of the Vietnam veterans have gotten on in years. It's tough to find people. It's been increasingly tough, as a starting point, to find the sites in Vietnam where many of these pilots went down and begin to track down all the relatives and make the matches.

Chuck didn't have a lot of relatives left after all these years, so it was tough for them to make the match. And the Air Force came to Patricia and said, do you have anything else we might work with to try and get a DNA match for your husband and she pulled out the letters.

LIN: Barbara, what was her reaction when they gave her that definitive confirmation about what happened to her husband?

STARR: You know, Carol, it's so amazing to see some of these people and just their unending faith for decades and decades. What she told me was she married at 18, Chuck was her first and only boyfriend, and she says now she's completely happy. She's at peace because all these years she's been able to say she was a military wife. Now, she says, she's a -- she can say she's a military widow. And she says she knows when she passes on, she now will be buried next to her husband at Arlington. She won't be alone anymore.

LIN: That is a special kind of peace. And I can't help but wonder, Barbara, if she had had this confirmation earlier in her life whether she would have lived her life differently.

STARR: You know, I don't know. I've talk to her at length. I get the impression that this is a woman who really is at peace with what has happened to her. She says she has a very full life. And I said to her, what would you tell today's young military widows? Unfortunately there are so many of them now. What advice would you have for them. And she said that her best advice is, stay busy, you'll get through it. She says she is really, truly at peace after 40 years.

LIN: Yes. And it is a special, special place to be. She's a very lucky woman to have married the love of her life. STARR: Indeed.

LIN: Barbara Starr, thank you so much.

HARRIS: A military service, the front lines of battle, the bottom line, survival. In an hour-long program this weekend, CNN Presents goes inside the 10th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad. Here's a look at the life and death struggles that are a part of a day on the job. And I must warn, you, what you are about to see may be disturbing to some viewers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're doing good, sweetie.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold that there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Face (ph) that's hurting or is it the lines (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, no, the face. You guys are just pushing down on them really hard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry, we're just trying to (INAUDIBLE) down a little bit.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, we have to, OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Watch your head, Miller (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My toes are killing me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your toes are killing you? I just gave you some more pain medicine, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anybody touching your pinky? What finger am I touching now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My thumb.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Index.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thumb.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Awesome.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's the story, doc? I mean give me a brief.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The brief is -- it looks like, well, your face is going to -- if it doesn't have any fracture, it's going to require a lot of sewing and wash out in the O.R. Your left . . . UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you help (ph) me out for that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. We're going to lift you up a little bit, all right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now we're lifting. Hand on to that IV.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your left toes. It looks like you're going to lose a little bit of the distal part, the long -- the end of it, right at the toes nail. Just the tip of the big toe and maybe the second toe in. Just the tip.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will I still be able to walk?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hell, yes, of course.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will I be able to do (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not a problem.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, there's a little puncture wound right here. A few punctures.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This ain't my first barbecue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really? You've been through this before?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, this is the second time I've -- well, actually, it's my third time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got to stop visiting us, though we appreciate you taking one for the team, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I hate you guys.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. but we love you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we love you, too.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you don't want to be like a frequent flier with us. That's never a good sign. So after that happens, you like win a set of steak knives and you get to go home. How about that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This one's a first for me, having a repeat customer. A lot of them come in just with major injuries and they're joking around, trying to pull through. They just roll with the punches.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Based on your experience, how long do you think it will take me to recover?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a good question. Probably, I don't know, maybe a month.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A month for all this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I'm taking a guess.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) three months left.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going home early.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did I say that? I meant three months. Didn't I say three months?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't call my mom this time. Last time they called her she was freaking out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, no, no, you're the one who's going to call her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, you're going to call her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It passed right through and they blew another one.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Another one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, luckily no body got hurt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not letting me open it up all the way.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These guys are great guys. They really are. They have courage that I just would never ever expect people to have.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Man, that guy served his country. I mean, what more can you ask. Wounded twice in action, plus the fear of every day going out and you never know if you're going to get wounded again. That guy is a hero.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Just another reminder, stay tuned this weekend for CNN Presents "Combat Hospital." It airs tomorrow and Sunday at 8:00 and 11:00 p.m. Eastern.

LIN: Well, they fought the war to end all wars and soon their voices will go silent. But one man is determined to record their final stories, a Veterans' Day tribute right here in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: OK. An hour into the trading day, Carol. Let's get a check of the big board. The New York Stock Exchange, New York City. The Dow closed down yesterday. Let's just call it flat. Let's be optimistic. A little flat.

LIN: Down 73 yesterday. Today, a little flat, yes.

HARRIS: Yes, today a little flat an hour into the trading day. We will get the preview for the rest of the business day with Susan Lisovicz a little later this hour.

LIN: Credit scores, property taxes, investments, just some of the topics tackled by CNN's personal finance editor Gerri Willis. She's in New York to answer viewer e-mails.

I think this is a great idea, Gerri. I'm not usually on this show, but they tell me Friday is all about the audience, right?

GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right.

LIN: It's all good.

WILLIS: We love hearing from them. They have great questions, too.

Carol, fire away.

LIN: They do.

Fire away. OK. Lynn in California asks, "we have some money set aside for our 18-month-old son which we would like to invest for him. Other than a 529 plan, what other investments would you suggest?"

WILLIS: Well, first off, Lynn, way to go. I'm glad to see you're saving already for your child. You may also want to consider an education savings account that will let you stock away your money tax free. Now the annual contribution limit is low at $2,000, but you can use the money for private school or books. Sometimes people also open a custodial account. You can open one with any bank in your kid's name. Now, with custodial accounts, though, once your child is old enough, they can do whatever they want to with the money.

LIN: All right. And that may not be so good. May not be college.

WILLIS: You have less control. OK.

LIN: Maybe biking across the country, which, you know, for Lance Armstrong was not so bad.

WILLIS: Yes.

LIN: All right. Question number two. S. Brown in Charlotte, North Carolina, asks, "I requested a copy of my credit report to assure there are no errors in it and I didn't see my credit score on it. How do I get my actual credit score?"

WILLIS: Well, you know, guess what, you have to pay more. The credit bureaus don't post your actual credit score on your report. You're going to have to pony up some extra cash for that privilege. Your best bet, go to Equifax to get your FICA score for about $8. That's what everybody looks at. For that you want to call 877-SCORE- 11. Of course, if you're not looking to be that precise, you can get an estimate for free at bankrate.com. Go to their website, click on calculators and find the link to your score. You just answer a few questions based on your credit report and they give you an estimate.

LIN: All right. This is an e-mail from Sean in Illinois. And Sean writes, "my townhome is built on a slab of concrete, and there is a low spot on the floor, which means the slab is cracked. If I bring this to the attention of the assessor, and get a lower tax bill, will this affect anything when I go to sell the place?"

WILLIS: Yes, it will.

LIN: "Would the potential buyer be able to see that I reported a cracked foundation?"

WILLIS: Oh, you bet. Look, by law in most states, you have to disclose major structural defects in early stages of home buying. And since you have to report this kind of structural damage when you sell your home anyway, you may as well lower your tax payments while you're living there. You could get hundreds of dollars taken off your tax bill. But I've got to say, you want to make sure that actually is a crack in your foundation. You should bring in an inspector to make sure that's really what it is because you may want to repair it instead. It's a pretty big deal.

LIN: Lilly writes, "is it a good idea to diversify your money/investments between multiple institutions? For instance, should you open an IRA, annuity and brokerage account in different institutions? How safe is it if you put all your money into one place?

WILLIS: Well, that's an interesting question. I have to tell you, the government makes some planning for this. It is safe. Congress created the Securities Investment Protection Corporation to protect you if your brokerage fails or files Chapter 11. Your assets are protected, in that event, up to $500,000.

Now, you want to look for the SIPC logo on brokerage advertising and documents.

OK, this doesn't protect you from making bad inn investments, though. If your stock loses value, well that's something you will have to pay for yourself.

And, Carol, I want to remind your viewers, if you have a question for us please send it in. We'll answer it at Toptips@cnn.com. We do this every Friday and we love to hear from you.

LIN: Yes, these were terrific questions.

WILLIS: Great questions.

LIN: Very detailed and things that people are dealing with every day. WILLIS: I'm telling you I'm impressed and I learn something from researching these.

LIN: Excellent. Gerri Willis up in New York, where there's a big annual event going on.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: We're not letting her go. We're not letting her go.

LIN: Oh, no.

HARRIS: Hey, Gerri, take a look at the picture there on the screen. Can you see it? Can you see it?

WILLIS: It's beautiful. I'm so excited. I walked by that.

HARRIS: I know how into this you are. This is -- let us all say hello? Hello, to the Rockefeller Christmas Tree, arriving there. Let's sort of orient everybody. This is, what, between 47th and 50th Streets there, Gerri?

WILLIS: Yeah. I walk right through there every single day, and once they get that tree up, I'm telling you, it is beautiful. The lights they put on it, it's massive. People gather there every day, walk through that square just to see that tree at Christmastime.

HARRIS: It's usually a Norway Spruce, I believe. Now, yesterday we watched as it was being -- well did we actually see it being cut down, Carol, or did we see the end result?

LIN: I think we saw the end result.

HARRIS: It was already on its side. It was about to be --

LIN: We were talking about it being cut down. It's from, what, Ridgefield, Connecticut?

HARRIS: Yes! Yes! And I was so -- Gerri I was so happy about it because what it means, what it signifies, the fact that we are about to roll into the most festive of holiday seasons. Then Carol starts in on me.

LIN: Oh, come on.

(LAUGHTER)

HARRIS: By the time she was done I was feeling sorry for the tree and everything else. I was mortified.

LIN: We were talking about the strange custom of going out, cutting down a tree and dragging it into the city.

HARRIS: Yes. But it is beautiful. You are absolutely right about that.

LIN: It is. WILLIS: Absolutely gorgeous. You know, I guess I feel sorry for this tree, but so many people will get so many happy moments from looking at it.

HARRIS: Well, there you go. Everyone, there it is, to be adorn shortly, the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree in New York City.

Gerri, have a great weekend.

WILLS: You, too, sir.

ANNOUNCER: Live breaking news, unfolding developments, see for yourself in the CNN NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: Well, good morning again, everyone, reaching out in Congress, Democrats not only looking across the aisle, they will have to work their own rows. That story next in the NEWSROOM.

LIN: And the final frontier in gaming, the PlayStation3 premier. The excitement right here in the NEWSROOM, for $600, it can be yours.

HARRIS: For what?

LIN: Yeah, didn't we talk about that? $600.

HARRIS: $600?

LIN: Yeah. Didn't we talk about that? 600 bucks! Isn't this the one?

HARRIS: 600 bucks?

LIN: Yeah!

HARRIS: It's an outrage!

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Talking things over, more dialogue between President Bush and the Democrats today. The president is rolling out the welcome mat for Senate Democratic Leaders Harry Reid and Dick Durbin.

They're all meeting at the White House in about an hour. It's the latest fence-mending session following the midterm elections. The president met yesterday with House Democratic leaders including speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi. Both the president and Ms. Pelosi promised to try to cooperate. But the White House says cooperation doesn't mean the president will go back on his principles.

HARRIS: Meet the new Democrats, a generation away from the old Democrats. Congressional leaders and incoming freshmen sometimes at odds. Can they come together? That's the question. Here's CNN's John King.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BRAD ELLSWORTH (D-IN), CONGRESSMAN-ELECT: Thank you very much. I will work hard for you.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN AMERICAN MORNING (voice over): Brad Ellsworth is anti-abortion, opposes same-sex marriage, and is a sheriff who very much believes in the Second Amendment right to bear arms.

ELLSWORTH: We are a pretty conservative bunch. And I think I fit right in with those values of the people here.

KING: Ellsworth is coming to Congress as a Democrat, just one reminder President Bush isn't the only conservative Nancy Pelosi has to deal with if she wants to get things done once she becomes speaker of the House in January.

REP. NANCY PELOSI, (D) MINORITY LEADER: We have made history, now we have to make progress.

KING: The incoming freshmen class includes a number of Democrats at odds with positions backed by more liberal congressional leaders. Ellsworth, Joe Donnelly from Indiana, Tim Mahoney from Florida, Ed Perlmutter from Colorado, John Yarmuth from Kentucky and Heath Shuler of North Carolina, among them. A different breed of Democrat in the new Senate class, too, including anti-abortion Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, and pro-gun conservative Jon Tester of Montana.

JON TESTER, (D-MT) SENATOR-ELECT: Now is a time, really though, to come together. It really is a time to put politics aside.

HEATH SHULER, (D-NC), SENATOR-ELECT: How are you, sir?

KING: Shuler is a devout Christian who shies away from alcohol and caffeine, and who moved quickly in the campaign when Republicans tried to link him to the liberal Pelosi

SHULER: That's why we had to do a good job of being in the district like this, where they can talk, and they can spread the word and say, you know, he's not like some of the national Democrats, you know. He's one of us.

KING: Some friction between the new members and the more liberal Democrats in line to run most of the committees is inevitable.

DICK GEPHARDT, FMR. HOUSE DEMOCRATIC LEADERS: It won't be easy because there's a lot of disagreement even in the Democratic Caucus, but they all know what the test is what can we get done, and what we can get done that is important to the American people?

KING: The differences are likely to be less evident, though, in the short term as the new Democratic majority deals first with shared campaign promises.

JOHN PODESTA, CNTR. FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS: They have really came in on, on two basic premises. One is we need a new course in Iraq. Second, we need to strengthen the middle class in America again. KING: And former Clinton White House chief house of staff, John Podesta, predicts the new members will help the party heading into the 2008 presidential cycle.

PODESTA: What you are going to see is the ability of the -- particularly the more conservative members -- to say, let's make sure that the face we're showing on security is one that I can go back home and run on.

KING: Running again comes in two years. First they have to prove they can get along.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: All right. Stay with CNN, the best political team on television. You did on election day. More viewers came to CNN than any other cable news channel. You also made cnn.com is number one news site on election day.

Now as the countdown to 2008 begins, stay with CNN, the best political team on television.

We are mark can veterans' day by remembering that long-forgotten, by many, but not by one radio producer. He faces a deadline unlike any other. CNN's Jim Huber has the story.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My name is Lloyd Bell. My age -- I forget now -- 104, I think.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My name is Samuel Benedict Goldberg. I'm 106 years old.

JIM HUBER, CNN CORRESPONDENT, CNN NEWSROOM (voice over): Slowly, surely, they leave us. And who notices? The men and the women of the war to end all wars, fly boys, sailors, dough boys, balloonists, cavalry, once nearly 5 million strong sent to Europe in World War I, now just a gnarled handful.

Scattered across the rolling European countryside, they were once memorialized, raised to the skies in a Kansas City park, they were set in stone. But over the decades, the crosses became blurred with more explosive wars, and the veteran's memorial became a run down shadow for addicts and hookers. They have been leaving us then for nearly 90 years, and who, but their families and their comrades, have cared?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Russell Buchanan, I'm 106 years old and a World War I veteran.

HUBER: Who keeps their flame? Well, for one, a 39-year-old independent radio producer from south Texas named Will Everett.

WILL EVERETT, PRODUCER: A year ago there were about 35 to 40 veterans. Now, there are just over a dozen and going fast. I lost one last week. HUBER: By now it is likely more of Will Everett's extended family will be gone, but those he captured on tape will forever be memorialized in a sweeping NPR documentary to be voiced by Walter Cronkite.

WALTER CRONKITE, NARRATOR: In it, the German Foreign Minister Alfred Zimmerman proposed an alliance with Mexico.

EVERETT: It's like a very slow countdown. It -- I guess I was a little naive when I went into this thinking, OK, we got plenty of time. As soon as I started interviewing them, my first interview subject died not long after I interviewed him. And others have been passing since then. And it's -- it's something I'm really glad I did when I did.

HUBER: The inspiration from this came not by wandering the dunes of South Padre Island, near where his home and studio are, but thousands of miles to the east, along the French fields of crosses.

EVERETT: What do these seas of graves really mean? What was it all about? In those days, 15 years ago you could -- it wasn't uncommon to meet veterans who were out there with their grandchildren, or great grandchildren. They would at that time have been in their 90s. Now you don't see them anymore.

HUBER: And so with help from Veteran Affairs, he hurriedly began his search for those who could still be seen and heard. But at times, as you might imagine, with men ranging in age from 105 to 115, the extraction was difficult.

EVERETT: When people think about World War I they immediately think of the trenches, and they want to hear tales from the trenches. And the three veterans who are left who have trench experience, they don't want to talk about it. They, they -- it -- even today almost 90 years later, it's still a horrifying subject. And they've got this -- these memories locked away very deep down.

HUBER (on camera): The families, ironically, got involved with a lot of this. They actually urged their grandfathers, and great grandfathers to talk.

EVERETT: It took the involvement of the families, everyone getting around grandpa, and saying, come on, grandpa, tell us your stories. Come on. You're the last one. You have to tell it. When you're gone there won't be anymore.

HUBER (voice over): With Cronkite anchoring the documentary, Will Everett enlisted voices of local friends to fill in the gaps. Chris Dedesba (ph), who runs a local bed & breakfast, was once on the London stage.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The attack of last Thursday evening was preceded by the rising of a cloud of vapor.

HUBER: And so it comes together. The keeper of the flame stirs the memories, one final time, just as they have come to the rescue in Kansas City of the graceful old Armistice Memorial, so does Will Everett come to a radio near you.

EVERETT: Nothing speaks louder than the testimony of an eyewitness. And we're losing the last of these eyewitnesses. I don't want to look into my crystal ball and tell you when they're going to be gone, because we just lost a 112-year-old and we still have relative youngsters who are only 105 who might live another 10 years. I don't know. I hope they do.

HUBER: I'm Jim Huber, for CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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HARRIS: A new report on -- let me start that again -- a new report on worldwide energy demand is out. Susan Lisovicz joins us now from the New York Stock Exchange with details.

Good morning to you.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN AMERICAN MORNING Good morning to you.

Well, the U.S. is the biggest user of energy and we have continued to hold that status. The International Energy Agency says global energy demand will jump in the fourth quarter, mainly because of higher consumption in the U.S.

According to the IEA, demand will grow more than 2.5 percent from last year, when mild weather and the impact of Hurricane Katrina drove down demand. But for the full year, the agency actually trimmed its forecast a bit. Oil producers have been worried about dropping crude prices over the last couple months, so they are planning to take more than 1 million barrels a day off the market --Tony.

HARRIS: OK, so Susan, what's happening with oil prices today?

LISOVICZ: Well, oil prices are down nearly a buck, Tony, after jumping more than a buck yesterday. Stocks, meantime, little changed on some mixed earnings news. Shares of AIG, the insurer, jumping more than 2 percent after the company said its third quarter profits more than doubled. One of the reasons why is there were no major hurricanes this year -- no hurricanes, to speak of. Nothing like last year.

Shares of Disney, however, are falling 4 percent after touching a five-year high yesterday. The company posted better than expected quarterly results, but some analysts are concerned about Disney's prospects to keep that kind of growth up.

Right now, the Dow not doing a whole heck of a lot. Of course, it did hit some records earlier in the week. Right now, it's down just 1 point, 12,101. The Nasdaq composite still on the plus side, up 5 points or about a fifth of 1 percent. That's the latest from Wall Street. Tony and Carol, back to you.

HARRIS: OK, Susan. See you next hour. LIN: Well it's Friday but that doesn't mean the news stops for the weekend. Here's T.J. Holmes with a look as what's on the run down for "CNN Saturday Morning."

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR, "CNN SATURDAY MORNING": This weekend we're recognizing veterans day. Celebrating veterans' day at a time of war.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go to a cemetery, honor some veterans, attend local veterans parades, in their local communities.

HOLMES: From Baghdad to Kabul, small town U.S., to the big cities, we'll honor the men and women in uniform, serving far from home.

Also, this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Darling, whatever happens, be happy. That's my only request. Get everything we would have liked. Fill your life. Only keep my little niche open so if I ever get home, I'll know there's one place waiting for me."

HOLMES: Love letters, battlefield portrait portraits, a last good-bye, there is not an online way to preserve and share those letters from the front line.

All that, as well as the latest headlines, join us for CNN Saturday and Sunday Morning, beginning at 7:00 Eastern.

HARRIS: All right. Still to come, are you ready for this? The final frontier in gaming. Let's hope so, I'm going broke. Fast!

LIN: Well, you are going to go even more broke.

HARRIS: Yes, the PlayStation3 premier. The excitement, the cost, in the NEWSROOM.

LIN: Crack open that IRA.

HARRIS: Yeah!

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: I'm not buying you a PlayStation3 . Are you crazy?

LIN: We have been talking about this the whole break.

HARRIS: Chad, you've got a decision -- well, do you, to make on this PlayStation3 thing?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No, no. He's two.

HARRIS: OK, you have some time.

MYERS: No.

HARRIS: That's insane.

MYERS: I will buy him a Commodore 64 when he's ready.

HARRIS: There you go. There you go. And, you know what, my son is saying the graphics are so, so amazing.

LIN: Yeah.

HARRIS: Nothing competes with what Chad Myers has at his disposal.

MYERS: There you go.

Why would I need a PlayStation, when I have a play wall?

HARRIS: There you go.

MYERS: Can you imagine playing it on this thing, though?

LIN: It's probably less expensive than this PlayStation.

HARRIS: Thank you.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: Game on. Just hours from now the Sony PlayStation3 goes on sale in Japan. CNN's Atika Shubert reports it is no cheap thrill.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT, CNN NEWSROOM (on camera): This is it. What gamers have been waiting for, the new PlayStation3 goes on sale, 7:00 a.m., Saturday morning in Tokyo. A full week before it hits the shelves in the U.S.

This, of course, is the latest version of Sony's best-selling game console but it's not without problems. Its release has been delayed for months because of technical issues and it's not cheap, $600.

Sony says you get more bang for the buck, though, because it's not just for games. It's also got a DVD player which allows you to watch movies and built in Bluetooth, wi-fi Internet compatibility to surf the net, all featuring Sony's unrivaled graphics and image quality.

So will consumers think it's worth it? Well, Sony certainly hopes so. It's pinning its hopes on the PS3 to turn it's current slump into a come back. Atika Shubert, CNN, Tokyo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: She didn't tell us how she did. HARRIS: What's the price tag on that thing again?

LIN: $600. Maybe you can get it on sale -- in 2008.

HARRIS: There you go.

LIN: We'll see what happens. Get a deal.

Anyway, deal with the Democrats? I don't know. But certainly dialogue today. Senate leaders sit down with President Bush this morning, we're going to preview the fence-mending session right here in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: And caught on tape. The feds are investigating two Los Angeles police officers. Did they go too far with this arrest? That story, straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

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