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Dems Pushing Redeployment in Iraq; Bush Meets with Iraq Study Group; Iraqi Prime Minister Wants Change in Cabinet; Ground Broken for MLK Memorial; Delay in Flu Shot Shipments; Police Shooting Standoff; Lame-Duck Session; California Wildfire; Marine's New Mission; What's Next In Iraq?

Aired November 13, 2006 - 13:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CO-HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips, live at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.
DON LEMON, CO-HOST: And I'm Don Lemon.

When will U.S. soldiers pull out of Iraq?

PHILLIPS: And should Iran and Syria get involved? Will the seismic shift in U.S. politics change the landscape of the Middle East?

LEMON: The man, the movement, the message. Almost 40 years after the death of Martin Luther King Jr., raw emotions resurface at the ground breaking of an historic memorial. Jesse Jackson joins us live.

PHILLIPS: Your baby's health. The rush for that yearly flu shot. Thousands of kids have been turned down, but the CDC has a new plan. We're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

LEMON: Options on Iraq. President Bush says he wants them. This morning he got them. The president met with Israel's prime minister in the Oval Office, but the war in Iraq led reporters' questions. That's because Mr. Bush met earlier with the Iraq study group, which could play a key role in the war's future, maybe its outcome. The group, co-chaired by former secretary of state, James Baker, plans to release its report next month.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm not going to prejudge the Baker Commission's report. I was pleased to meet with him. I was impressed by the quality of their membership. I was impressed by the questions they asked.

They are -- they want us to succeed in Iraq, just like I want to succeed. And so we had a really good discussion. I'm not sure what the report is going to say. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: A change of power in Congress, a change of leadership at the Pentagon, both fueled by the deadly war in Iraq. Now the war could be in for a change, as well. And Democrats, poised to take charge on Capitol Hill, want it to happen sooner, rather than later.

Let's get the latest now from congressional correspondent Dana Bash.

Hey, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kyra.

Well, the incoming chairman of the armed services committee -- the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Carl Levin, just wrapped up a rather lengthy press conference, talking about his priorities for the Congress when they do take the reigns of power in January.

And he made crystal clear that his first priority is to figure out, in his words, how to change the course in Iraq because he said that is the message that came through with this past Tuesday's election.

Now, from his point of view that means making clear to the Iraqi people and the administration that the U.S.'s patience with Iraq is not never ending and that it is actually running out and that the best way to do that from his point of view is with a resolution saying that the U.S. must start redeploying or bringing troops home within four to six months.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CARL LEVIN (D-MI), SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Most Democrats share the view that we should pressure the White House to commence the phased redeployment of U.S. troops from Iraq in four to six months, to begin that phased redeployment and thereby to make it clear to the Iraqis that our presence is not open ended and that they must take and make the necessary political compromises to preserve Iraq as a nation. We cannot save the Iraqis from themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, the important thing to keep in mind in what we just heard from the incoming chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee is he's talking about a resolution, something that would be nonbinding, more of a message that Democrats want to send, they hope, with a bipartisan majority they're going to have to get Republicans on board to the administration and again to the Iraqi people that it's time that they get their house in order in Iraq.

That is different from any kind of actual policy change that the Democrats can or even will -- will or even can put in place now that they have control of Congress.

Senator Levin made very clear that the first thing that they're talking about is this resolution or message that they want to send and also they're not going to try to do that immediately.

The first thing that they're going to look, Kyra, is what went on at the White House today, the Iraq Study Group. They are hoping that that study group comes out with some kind of recommendation, hard recommendation for the administration in terms of a real change of course. Then and only then will they even do this resolution to send that kind of message.

PHILLIPS: You talk about that Democratic control. Also a lot of drama is developing within the leadership in the House.

BASH: In the House there is a lot of drama. Last night the incoming speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, got off the sidelines and got involved in a leadership fight, a fight trying to figure out who will be her No. 2, the majority leader in the House.

We have all heard about the name John Murtha because of Iraq. It was last year that he was one of the first to come out a hawkish Democrat, somebody with strong military ties, to come out and say U.S. troops should come home from Iraq. Well, it was partly that reason that Nancy Pelosi again came off the sidelines and threw her support behind him to be her No. 2.

This is something that many Democrats perhaps did not want, this kind of very public internal spat just as they're taking reigns of power, but nevertheless, it is happening.

The other Democrat who had been working this for months, the person who is currently Nancy Pelosi's No. -- that's Congressman Steny Hoyer -- he has been trying to get the votes. He still, according to his aides, still thinks that he has the vote.

But this is a secret ballot, Kyra. So we won't really know and really those leaders won't really know who supports them until the ballot is taken, and that's on Thursday.

PHILLIPS: Dana Bash up on Capitol Hill. Thanks, Dana.

LEMON: Pull out of Iraq, stay in or a little bit of both? The group that's been sifting through the options is touching base today with the White House.

CNN's Dan Lothian has the latest for us -- Dan.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Don.

Well, the group did meet with President Bush for an hour and a half. This was not, according to the White House, a chance to talk about specifics in terms of moving forward in Iraq but rather a conversation about the current situation on the ground.

The independent body could help chart the course for the next move in Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN (voice-over): The war in Iraq, as Donald Rumsfeld now admits, is not going well enough, and the pressure is mounting to find a solution, staying the course no longer seen as an option.

BRIG. GEN. JAMES MARKS (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: We can't, No. 1, go catatonic and freeze in the headlights and No. 2, we can't just do an about face and march out of country and say, "Adios, my friend. This is your problem."

LOTHIAN: James Baker and Lee Hamilton, heading the 10-member, bipartisan Iraq Study Group, have been meeting since April to find a strategy for moving forward in Iraq, consulting with military and political leaders in the United States and Iraq.

CNN's military analyst, retired Army General James Marks, says options such as more troops on the ground or pulling back forces into Kuwait should be part of a broader policy.

MARKS: It has to be about the greater southwest Asia, and the key player clearly is Iran in terms of how we move forward in southwest Asia.

LOTHIAN: In addition to Baker, a former secretary of state, and Hamilton, a former longtime congressional expert in foreign affairs, the group includes other prominent figures who have been working behind the scenes. Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, longtime civil rights leader and Washington power broker Vernon Jordan, and secretary of defense nominee Robert Gates, a former CIA director poised to take his homework from the study group to the Pentagon.

LINDA ROBINSON, "U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT": He's been getting the full range of briefings. He's also been reaching out to some people. Some of the sources I've been talking to, he has been talking to them privately to try to get more understanding of exactly where the Iraqi players are willing to go and not willing to go.

LOTHIAN: Gates and other members recently visited Baghdad to get a closer look, trying to develop new options for ending a complicated war.

ROBINSON: There is no panacea. And this Baker-Hamilton Group is not going to magically come up with a solution that solves all problems tomorrow.

LOTHIAN: Everyone, including the White House, trying to downplay expectations, realizing that this is a difficult situation in Iraq. The report is expected some time next month -- Don.

LEMON: And Dan, these are just recommendations, but the president really doesn't have to buy any of it if he doesn't want to.

LOTHIAN: That's right. It's not expected that the president will sort of rubber stamp whatever it is that the Iraq group does come up with, but the president says he's looking forward to it and the White House admitting that they're open to any good suggestions.

LEMON: Dan Lothian. Thank you very much.

LOTHIAN: OK, Don.

PHILLIPS: Let's get straight to the newsroom. Betty Nguyen with details on a developing story.

What's deal with the standoff, Betty?

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A standoff taking place right now. I want to give you some live pictures, too. This is taking place in Homestead, Florida, which is very near Miami.

Here's some tape coming in from our affiliate, WSVN. And you can see many officers are on the scene.

Now it's believed a suspect is in a home there, barricaded himself inside that home. We're not showing that home, just for security purposes, but as you can see -- well, maybe they may zoom out to that.

The Miami-Dade Police Department says the standoff began at around 11 a.m. local time this morning. Members of the special response team are there. You see many members are there from law enforcement.

Now, affiliates are reporting that shots were fired at officers by the suspects, but none of that has been confirmed by the local police reports out of Homestead, Florida.

Here's what we know, though, according to the Associated Press and local affiliates there. The suspect reportedly is wanted for firing shots at two Florida police officers on Saturday night, so apparently, they have caught up with this suspect who is holed up -- well, there it is. There's the home right there, I believe.

And they are standing by as the standoff occurs. The man has barricaded himself inside. And we'll see how it plays out. We'll keep a close watch on this for you, Kyra. It could be just a difficult situation there for police. They've been dealing with this for the past couple of hours. It started at 11 p.m. eastern.

PHILLIPS: We'll keep our eyes on it. Thanks, Betty.

LEMON: Back in Iraq, a surprise visit by a top U.S. commander, a not so surprising surge in violence, and a sobering call for political overhaul. CNN's Arwa Damon is following all of it from Baghdad -- Arwa.

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello.

That's right. General be Abizaid, the chief commander of U.S. forces here for the Middle East region, was in Baghdad today, meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Topping that agenda, their discussion, the violence here, the general reaffirming President Bush's commitment to Iraq, to the political process and to training the Iraqi security forces. General Abizaid also met with Iraqi Minister of Interior Jawad al-Bolani to assess the progress of the Iraqi police and of the Iraqi security forces. There is much talk of change here: change in policies, change in strategies. The Iraqi prime minister himself is also calling for changes within the cabinet.

All of this is an effort to finally bring to an end the cycle of death here.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAMON (voice-over): We don't know her name. We don't know who she is grieving for. All we know is her sorrow, sorrow that many Iraqis have felt in the last 3 1/2 years.

They are a people desperate for change. So far their young government hasn't been able to come up with a solution to the violence. It seems one of its largest obstacles: itself.

MAHMOUD OTHMAN, PARLIAMENT MEMBER: If they stay like this, not agreeing with each other, not working as a team, differences in between, not out of media, as you are, they can't do it. They will be very weak.

DAMON: Now the prime minister, seen by many as weak and beholden to radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, is asking the parliament to allow him to make changes to the cabinet, saying this cabinet was not his choice.

NURI AL-MALIKI, IRAQI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): If it was my choice, I would have selected other than the current ministers, or at least some of them.

DAMON: Some say accepting a cabinet whose members don't all support him was his first mistake. And al-Maliki is running out of time.

OTHMAN: By the end of this year, nothing changes and things deteriorate as they are doing -- they are deteriorating by the day -- I think unfortunately, we may have reached a point where we couldn't do much.

DAMON: The urgency highlighted by Sunday's attacks. In the capital alone, at least 50 Iraqis were killed in just five hours. The deadliest attack from twin suicide bombers who detonated their explosives in a group of Iraqi police recruits, killing at least 35.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Why? Why? Why? Recruits. Explosive belt and mortars. Why? They targeted civilians who are about to be recruited.

DAMON: The agony in his voice expresses what many Iraqis feel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DAMON: However potential cabinet changes here do play out, the move will test Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's ability to really hold this government together, hold this country together. And if he is able to select his own ministers, his choices will also shed some light on where his own loyalties really do lie, Don.

LEMON: Arwa Damon, thank you so much for that report.

PHILLIPS: Forty-three years after the march in Washington, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. gets a memorial. Up next, the heartbreaking ceremony for the man, the movement and the message.

LEMON: Plus, roll up that sleeve and wait. The CDC spreads the word about a flu shot delay. Parents worry that it's something to sneeze at. We've got all the details coming up in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Breaking ground on a groundbreaking memorial. The life's work and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. are final being immortalized on the National Mall in Washington.

The King Memorial will be the first on the Mall to honor an African-American.

CNN's Soledad O'Brien helped host today's ceremony.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, HOST, "AMERICAN MORNING": The weather held up, and the rain held off. And the groundbreaking ceremony itself ended literally with ground breaking, where some of the biggest leaders of the civil rights movement took shovels and put them into the ground and flipped over the dirt, symbolizing, of course, the start of the work that's going to be done here.

That included Andrew Young and Dorothy Height and John Lewis and also some of the biggest fundraisers, as well. Tommy Hilfiger one of the people who donated a ton of money to get this project off the ground.

It capped a very remarkable ceremony. President Bush, the current president, was a speaker here and also President Clinton, as well, who spoke to cheers.

Also addressing the crowd today, Senator Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey. Both of them talked about the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. But also all the work that had to still be done.

We had a chance to catch up with them backstage, as well.

OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW HOST: My life wouldn't be what it is without Dr. King. If there had not been a civil rights movement there couldn't be me sitting on television every day, speaking to millions of people. So I owe him. And I owe him not just to come to a memorial service, but I owe him to live the dream. And I think I'm doing a pretty good job of it.

BARACK OBAMA (D), ILLINOIS: We have made enormous progress, but we haven't yet arrived at the Promised Land, which just reminds us that we have more work to do. It's time for men and women of all colors and races to feel that they are fully part of this political campaign (ph).

O'BRIEN: It's a $100 million project, and they've raised so far two-thirds of the money.

The monument will be on four acres here, and it will be completed, they're hopeful, in 2008. The centerpiece of the monument is going to be the words of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the words from a speech that he gave in 1963 that most of us know as the "I have a dream" speech.

And the hope is that people will be able to come through and walk and actually see the words as they are on the giant stone slabs and enjoy them generation after generation.

Now when you look around where we are, you have over here the FDR Monument and not far away, the Jefferson Monument and of course, on this side the Lincoln Monument. What they've been saying here today is that you have a King among presidents out here on the Mall today.

Reporting from the Mall in Washington, D.C., I'm Soledad O'Brien.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Thanks, Soledad.

And as you can imagine, it was a very emotional day for those who fought alongside the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., including Andrew Young and Jesse Jackson. There you can see them breaking ground. Emotional for them.

We're going to speak with the Reverend Jesse Jackson live, coming up in this hour.

Will the memorial, the King Memorial be last on the National Mall? It's a hot debate. And here -- here are the issues.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Save the Mall. That's the rallying cry of advocates who argue that the National Mall is squeezed to the limits and that no more memorials be built on the 725 acre space.

Others disagree. They contend the Mall is ever evolving.

The vast green rectangle is home to the icons of the nation. At one end the Lincoln Memorial, at the other the Capitol, and in between the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial.

Other familiar sights include the Smithsonian Museums, the National Gallery of Art, the National Air and Space Museum and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Due to concerns of overcrowding, Congress three years ago imposed a moratorium on new buildings except for those already approved, including the World War II memorial and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial.

With the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian last year, federal officials declared that the Mall was full.

Those who disagree call for enlarging the Mall by 50 percent, not by widening or lengthening the present space but by adding to it. As one supporter says, there will always be new presidents, heroes and wars needing their own memorials.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: A shot in the arm. Health experts say just about everybody should get one to avoid the flu, and unlike last year, there will be more than enough vaccine to go around. But a delay is making some parents pretty anxious. Even their kids don't mind.

CNN's Judy Fortin has the details.

JUDY FORTIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, the good news is the Centers for Disease Control says there is plenty to go around. In fact, they've made more flu shots than ever before. They're calling it a robust supply.

But if you're a parent, you may have to wait a bit to get your child a flu shot, and here's why. I spoke to the manufacturer of Flu Zone, a specially formulated flu vaccine for children under the age of 3.

They say there is delay in shipping some of the product, but they're not calling it a shortage. They've already shipped 37 million doses to providers, and they expect another 13 million to be shipped by the end of this month.

As of Friday, 15 states were reporting flu cases. By the time the flu season is over, the CDC predicts up to 20 percent of Americans will be infected. And the CDC says it's not too late to get vaccinated. In fact, the CDC is declaring November 27 through December 3 National Influenza Vaccination Week to raise awareness.

PHILLIPS: So who should get it and who shouldn't?

FORTIN: Well, this is a really important point. The CDC has some new recommendations this year when it comes to children. They're saying children age 6 months to 5 years should be vaccinated. The previous recommendation was 6 months to 2 years.

And here's an important note for parents. Children under 9 receiving the vaccine for the very first time will need two separate injection about a month apart. Pregnant women should be vaccinated. People 50 and older or with chronic medical conditions, nursing home residents and care givers should all be vaccinated.

And don't forget, with the kids, they are around so many older people, as well, they're likely to pass on the flu vaccine (sic), as well. So you want to really get your vaccine if you can get it.

PHILLIPS: Some people that have received the flu shot say that it makes them sick. Is that a myth?

FORTIN: It is a myth. In fact, there was a recent survey that showed that 46 percent of the people thought that they could get the flu from the vaccine, and that's not true.

The CDC says that the flu vaccine has an inactivated virus, so you can't get it. Now, when you get that shot, you may feel sore in your arm for a while or maybe achy, but it's not the flu. So don't be afraid to get the flu vaccine because you think that you can get it from the shot.

PHILLIPS: Got it. Judy Fortin, thanks so much.

FORTIN: You're welcome.

LEMON: And we're going to move on. Coming up after a break, a country in crisis, seeking justice and laying blame. Is Lebanon's government in danger of falling? A closer look from Beirut.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Renewable sources currently provide about 6 percent of all of the energy used in the U.S. But a new study says that could be boosted dramatically.

This is always one of my favorite parts of the show, because I get to go and talk to Susan Lisovicz, who joins us now from the New York Stock Exchange with all the details on that. How are you doing?

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don. Happy Monday. Good to see you back here.

The Rand Corporation predicts that renewable energy sources could account for as much of 25 percent of the energy's energy use by 2025 at little or no extra cost.

The study assumes that costs for renewable energy, such as wind and solar power, will keep dropping and that it will be possible to make ethanol from farm waste, wood chips and other materials that are less expensive than corn.

It also assumes that prices for gasoline, natural gas and coal will remain high. Rand says that if that happens, it will reduce U.S. reliance on oil by about 20 percent or the equivalent of all of the imports from Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.

Right now about half of America's renewable energy comes from hydroelectric dams. Though the study saying it could be boosted big time and for cheap -- Don.

LEMON: We'll see. Renewable energy. Democrats campaigned for that. Now, with a Democratically controlled Congress, how is this going to play out? LISOVICZ: Well, I mean, you know, Democrats campaigned on it because it's something that's really caught on with voters. And President Bush has said he wants to cut down on oil consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.

So a new energy or farm bill that increases production incentives for renewable fuels is a real possibility.

The Rand study predicts that alternative fuels could cut the growth of environmentally damaging carbon dioxide emissions by two- thirds over the next two decades.

(STOCK REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Let's go check in at the newsroom. Betty Nguyen working details on that developing story from about a half-hour ago.

What's the latest?

NGUYEN: Yes, we're continuing to follow that standoff in Homestead, Florida, which is near Miami. We've been watching this thing. It started around 10:45 local time. Close to 11:00. And it has been going on ever since.

A man is believed to be holed up inside a home barricaded in this standoff with police. You're looking at some of the different scenes from there. This is coming from our affiliate WSVN.

What we know so far is very little to be quite honest. Witnesses have confirmed, though, that they heard some shots being fired. However, local authorities there are not saying that that was the case.

But regardless, in some of the video that we've been watching and that you'll be seeing throughout the day until this thing is over with, is this S.W.A.T. truck that drove up to one of the houses there. Not sure exactly which one it is that the man's holed up in. A lot of this is for security purposes. We don't want to give away the exact details of where this is going on.

But officers are wearing helmets. Some are seen with their guns drawn. In many of the television shots you can see some of the officers ducking behind vehicles as helicopters fly overhead.

And at one point we were being told by local affiliates, as well as the Associated Press, that smoke clouded the area. Obviously something that's believed to be created by the officers to block the suspect's view. Now this blue house right there is what we believe to be the area where the suspect is being holed up.

There's a middle school, Kyra, that's nearby. It's called the Homestead Middle School. Well, because of all of this commotion and this, you know, standoff that continues on for hours now, that school is under lockdown for security purposes. And this person, this suspect that officers obviously want to get, is reportedly wanted for firing shots at Florida City Police officers on Saturday. So apparently there has been some kind of run-in with this person before. Maybe a chase ensued and they finally caught him up at this house. And nevertheless though, we're watching stand-off situation take place in Homestead, Florida.

Tons of officers on the scene. There are S.W.A.T. teams, there's local officers. So this is something that is developing by the minute and we'll continue to stay on it and bring you any of those developments.

PHILLIPS: All right, thanks, Betty.

LEMON: Nancy Pelosi may have picked her first fight as House speaker- to-be and it's not with President Bush. Somewhat unexpectedly, Pelosi is endorsing Congressman John Murtha for House majority leader in his race against Steny Hoyer. Now Hoyer, the current Democratic whip, is seen as the front-runner and many expected Pelosi to avoid endorsing either man. Murtha's crucial oppositions to the war in Iraq could be a signal of Pelosi's priorities. Then again, Pelosi and Murtha are long-time allies.

On Capitol Hill, it's a great day to be a Democrat. Less so for Republicans. Today is orientation for newly elected members of Congress. About 50 of whom are part of the Democratic wave that seized control of the House and the Senate. With the post-election lame duck session of Congress beginning, more than 20 defeated Republicans return this week to start serving their final days in office.

PHILLIPS: Well, it's lame duck time in Washington. Congress is back for a post-election session and to the last remaining days of Republican control and the to-do list is such that, well, the outgoing Congress needs to get its ducks in a row. Here's CNN's Soledad O'Brien.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOSH BOLTEN, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: We go into this new season of politics in Washington, D.C., with some cautious optimism.

O'BRIEN: With the Democratic majority waiting in the wings, the current Republican-led Congress is back for a lame duck session. There's plenty to do and some of the president's priorities for the session could put the new spirit of beltway bipartisanship to the test. They include re-authorizing the domestic eves dropping program.

SEN. HARRY REID, (D) NEVADA: I believe that we have to do everything within our power, including wire tapping to get these bad people, these evil people, these terrorists. But in the process of doing this, we can't have the American people think that every telephone call they have that the government's listening in. We must do it within the confines of the Constitution.

O'BRIEN: Then there's the renomination of U.N. Ambassador John Bolten.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) ARIZONA: There's no overriding reason not to reappoint John Bolton. I strongly support him.

SEN. JOSEPH BIDEN, (D) DELAWARE: He doesn't even have the votes of a Republican controlled committee today. We're going to have a hearing on him. There's going to be a vote on him. He's going lose.

O'BRIEN: The president hopes to get his new choice for defense secretary confirmed. A Senate hearing is scheduled for the first week of December on the nomination of former CIA director Robert Gates to succeed Donald Rumsfeld.

SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER, (D) NEW YORK: The number one question I have of Mr. Gates is, is he going to really entertain different points of view. When you talk to the generals, even those who are on duty now, it was known that Secretary Rumsfeld never wanted to hear a point of view that was different than his own. He was not likely to want to entertain facts on the ground that didn't square with his own little narrow viewpoint.

O'BRIEN: There's also a number of overdue spending bills worth some $460 billion. Iraq, of course, will be a big issue in the lame duck session and a bigger one for the 110th Congress when it convenes in January.

BOLTEN: Everybody's objective here is to succeed in Iraq. I think that's true of Democrats, as well as Republicans. What the president has said is that we need to get fresh eyes on the problem. We need a fresh perspective.

O'BRIEN: Soledad O'Brien, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: A devastating war in the summer, political crisis in fall. Lebanon struggles with the resignation of six cabinet members, five of them Shiite with ties to Hezbollah. Now they've demanded a larger role in the government since Shiites are Lebanon's largest community. When the talks collapsed, they quit. The shrinking cabinet today approved a call for an international tribunal. The tribe of suspected killers of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. His son has accused Syria and Iran of plotted, through Hezbollah, to derail the prosecution.

PHILLIPS: Forty-three years after the march on Washington, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., will get a memorial. More on today's groundbreaking ceremony and the big names that it drew. We're going to talk with one of them, Reverend Jesse Jackson. He joins us live straight ahead from the newsroom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Another fire scare in southern California. Now it's more smoke than flames. But overnight, it was a different story. CNN's Chris Lawrence updates us from Lakeland Village. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The most important thing about this fire is that nobody has been hurt and no homes have been destroyed. Firefighters have men up on that mountain right now. And if the weather continues to hold, they're confident that they can get this fire under control by the end of the day.

Now it was burning pretty hot overnight. Scorched about 300 acres by the time the sun had come up. And it endangered about 300 homes at one point. In fact, 100 families were encouraged to evacuate their homes. At some point overnight, they secured the area and firefighters told those families that it was OK to get back in their homes.

Firefighters say they would have been even further along in getting a handle on this, but at some point the fire dropped down into a drainage area. There was a lot of oak trees, thick brush. Just an area that was very difficult to get into.

This fire is burning about 40 miles from where the Esperanza fire burned last month. That was the fire that killed five firefighters and destroyed about three dozen homes.

Firefighters here say there has been some emotional carryover from that fire, just in terms of everyone is going above and beyond trying to go by the book, be extra careful, so to speak. One firefighter said, it was a real wake-up call as to how dangerous their job really is.

Chris Lawrence, CNN, Lakeland Village, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Keeping an eye on dangers coast to coast.

Meteorologist Jacqui Jeras, what do you think? How bad is it getting?

(WEATHER REPORT)

LEMON: Straight ahead, trading a gun for a guitar. A former Marine using music to heal the wounds of war. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, an Iraq War veteran has put down his gun and picks up a guitar. Now he's on a new mission. CNN's Randi Kaye has his story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOSH HISLE, IRAQ WAR VETERAN: Stop screaming freedom, because that isn't why we're there.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Lyrics like these . . .

HISLE: Will a thousand more dead make you be aware. KAYE: Can only come from experience.

HISLE: Just what you'd expect karma to be. Whizzing (ph) rounds and, you know, loud explosions and just firing round after round.

KAYE: Josh Hisle was a marksman with Marine Company Fox 25 out of Camp Pendleton. His unit was one of the first to invade Iraq.

HISLE: We were excited, you know. We were writing a page in history and, you know, we didn't care if we died. The Marine Corps trains that you way.

KAYE: A showman even in war zone, Hisle entertained his fellow troops just hours before they crossed the border into Iraq.

HISLE: We're lucky to be alive. Which one of you tankers brought that damn 45?

KAYE: Winning their talent contest.

HISLE: They had some big spotlights. A small PA system and singing. It was a sea of Marines and we rocked out a couple songs and they were screaming. It was really cool.

KAYE: At this point, Hisle had no idea how much he'd lean on his guitar as the violence escalated. Just hours after the talent show, his unit fought its way towards Baghdad.

You believed in this mission?

HISLE: Absolutely. A hundred percent.

KAYE: Wholeheartedly.

HISLE: Yes, I did.

KAYE: Hisle returned home from his first tour of duty to marry his high school sweetheart. They had a son. But just two weeks after Holland (ph) was born, Hisle was called back to Iraq. This time it would be different.

When did it turn for you?

HISLE: I'd say in Ramadi it turned for me. We were getting blown up from roadside bombs you couldn't see. It was insanity. And we couldn't control it. We couldn't stop it. And people there, they wanted us to leave.

KAYE: Do you know if you ever killed anyone?

HISLE: Absolutely.

KAYE: You did?

HISLE: Yes.

KAYE: How many?

HISLE: I don't know. I don't know.

KAYE: Dozens?

HISLE: I guess. I didn't keep count.

KAYE: How does that affect you? How do you live with that?

HISLE: It's really -- you don't think about it. Like I said, it's another one of those things.

KAYE: How could you not think about it?

HISLE: You just do it and then it's done.

KAYE: How did you change while you were there?

HISLE: I guess my change was, I just didn't feel the cause anymore. I just didn't see it anymore. My heart wasn't there. I just wanted to go home.

KAYE: Hisle lost himself in his music.

HISLE: I played every day. Every time I got a chance, I'd sit out and play outside. There were a lot of great songs over there.

KAYE: So the music was really your outlet?

HISLE: I could complain all day with my guitar and no one had anything to say about it.

KAYE: Freelance journalist Mike Cerre was embedded with Fox 25 and interviewed Hisle in Ramadi.

HISLE: This time, yes, I'm definitely watching my own ass a little bit more just because I want my kid to have a dad.

KAYE: Cerre saw how Hisle and his unit changed from one tour to the next.

MIKE CERRE, FREELANCE REPORTER: Once he got into the war, you could see he and the others became far more reflective and far more sensitive to the emotional and personal loss involved in the war. And as a result of that, you see Josh's music change quite dramatically. He was more focused on writing folk songs really about love and loss, writing about his family, writing about things he missed and his fear of not coming home alive.

HISLE: I'm sick of calling this essential.

KAYE: Is there an anti-war theme in your music?

HISLE: There is slightly. I mean I don't want to be penhold (ph) as an anti-war political guy because, you know, any Marine over there, any soldier over there, for that matter at all, is in my heart. But it's bring them home music. It's get them back here. Get them back to their families music.

KAYE: For Hisle, it's been a musical catharsis of love, of loss, of what he says is regret about what he did in the war.

HISLE: You better let me die a traitor's death.

KAYE: He wrote this song "Traitor's Death" after a massive firefight in the desert left him once again questioning why he was there.

Who's the traitor in that?

HISLE: I'm saying, if I'm wrong, then call me a traitor. I'm going to say this is wrong, and if you don't think I'm right, then kill me traitor's death style. Whatever. I don't care.

KAYE: Today, Hisle is trying to launch a music career. He has a lot to say and he believes if things don't improve in Iraq soon, there will be plenty of people who will want to sing along.

HISLE: So rock out to the sound of my regret.

KAYE: Randi Kay, CNN, Cincinnati.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Well, stay the course or change the course? Whatever the U.S. does in Iraq, it first has to chart the course. And that work is starting in earnest today. Details ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

PHILLIPS: No nukes is good nukes. Is Iran shifting its nuclear stance in the wake of a shake up on The Hill? The NEWSROOM goes to Tehran straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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