Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

America Votes 2008: Clinton Versus Obama; Chemical Bombs; Energy Drink Warning

Aired February 22, 2007 - 08:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Toxic terror in Iraq. Is this a new threat from insurgents in Iraq? We are watching this growing threat this morning.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And off with the gloves. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in their first big campaign clash.

S. O'BRIEN: Plus a health alert. Students are getting sick, schools are sending home dire warnings about a potent new energy drink.

Those stories and much more on this AMERICAN MORNING.

M. O'BRIEN: Good morning to you, Thursday, February 22nd.

I'm Miles O'Brien.

S. O'BRIEN: And I'm Soledad O'Brien.

Thanks for being with us.

M. O'BRIEN: Check your calendars. Yes, it is still 2007, not 2008. You wouldn't know it by the intensity of the first big public fight between the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. It overshadowed the Democrats big gathering in Nevada on Wednesday.

CNN's Dana Bash is in Carson City with the latest -- Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, it is still 11 months until this state holds early caucuses, and this was supposed to be kind of a "get to know you" event for the Democratic presidential candidates. But as you said, it was quickly overshadowed by Hillary Clinton's sharp reaction, her campaign's sharp reaction, to some scathing comments by Barack Obama's Hollywood fund-raiser.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BASH (voice over): It may have been all smiles at the Democrats first 2008 cattle call in Nevada, but it was the unusually sharp exchange between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the one candidate not here, that caught everyone's attention.

SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: I want to run a very positive campaign, and I sure don't want Democrats or the supporters of Democrats to be engaging in the politics of personal destruction. BASH: Clinton's campaign lashed out at Obama for scathing comments made by his Hollywood fund-raiser, David Geffen. Geffen called Clinton "polarizing," saying she can't bring the country together, and slammed President Clinton as a "reckless guy".

CLINTON: I believe Bill Clinton was a good president. And I'm very proud of the record of his two terms.

(APPLAUSE)

BASH: While refusing to say it herself, Clinton's campaign is demanding Obama denounce Geffen's remarks and give back his $2,300 campaign contribution.

Campaigning in Iowa, Obama said no.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), ILLINOIS : My sense is that Mr. Geffen may have differences with the Clintons. That doesn't really have anything to do with our campaign. I have said repeatedly I have the utmost respect for Senator Clinton.

BASH: The Obama campaign wasn't the only one taking shots at Hillary Clinton. John Edwards took thinly-veiled jabs at her, too, for refusing to call her 2002 vote to authorize the Iraq war a mistake.

JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We need a leader who will be -- who will be open and honest with you and with the American people. Who will tell the truth. Who will tell the truth when they've made a mistake, who will take responsibility when they've made a mistake.

BASH: All this led New Mexico governor Bill Richardson to renew his call for Democrats to pledge not to attack each other.

GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D), NEW MEXICO: The Democratic Party too often has been negative. Let's be positive. And these little name callings, these little -- don't help. So let's get over that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Clinton campaign aides say this is simple. They say that Barack Obama has centered his campaign around a new kind of politics, the politics of civility, and, therefore, he should denounce these nasty comments by his top fund-raiser.

But, Miles, there is another dynamic here that is also simple, and that is that the Clinton campaign is frustrated by what they consider Barack Obama's do-no-wrong image. They want to crack his Teflon coating and crack it early -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Dana Bash in Carson City.

Thank you -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: More now on what seems to be a new and very frightening tactic by insurgents in Iraq: chlorine mixed with explosives. It's a very deadly recipe and a dangerous one for people who even are able to survive.

Arwa Damon is in Baghdad for us this morning.

Arwa, good morning.

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

And we have seen three such attacks since January 28th. The first of them taking place in Ramadi, on that day when a suicide bomber drove a dump truck packed with explosives and a chlorine gas tank into an emergency response unit located in that city.

Now, the attack killed 16 people. And according to the U.S. military, no one was hospitalized due to the poisonous substances that were released into the air. That, however, was not the case in two attacks that happened over this past week.

On Tuesday, again, a vehicle that was loaded with chlorine gas and also had a bomb hidden inside of it exploded outside of a restaurant in Taji. That attack killed six people and hospitalized another 140.

Twenty-four hours later, on Wednesday, another attack that took place close to a hospital. That attack also involving a car bomb that was packed with cylinders filled with chlorine gas. That exploded, killing 60 people, hospitalizing another 70.

Now, the U.S. military saying that this is a disturbing development, though not an entirely surprising one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL, SPOKESMAN, MULTINATIONAL FORCE, IRAQ: You know, what we are seeing is a change in the tactics, but their strategy has not changed. And that's to create high-profile attacks to instill fear and division amongst the Iraqi people. And what we saw -- this is about the third time we've seen it in the last couple of months -- it's a real crude attempt to raise the terror level by taking and mixing ordinary chemicals with explosive devices, trying to instill that fear within the Iraqi people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAMON: The concern is that these ordinary chemicals, these industrial chemicals, are readily available in the markets in Iraq. Trying to bring this under control is going to prove to be very challenging -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, I bet it will.

Arwa Damon for us in Baghdad this morning.

Arwa, thank you -- Miles. M. O'BRIEN: A ferocious war of words is raging this morning between the speaker of the House and the vice president. The spat is spanning the globe.

Vice President Dick Cheney in Tokyo, blasting the plan pushed by House Democrats to restrict funding for the Iraq war to make it harder to send more troops. Cheney said the plan would validate the al Qaeda strategy to prompt the U.S. to throw in the towel in Iraq.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi quickly fired back, saying the vice president was out of line for questioning her patriotism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to call the president and tell him I disapprove of what the vice president said.

The vice president's statements are beneath the dignity of the debate that we are engaged in. They're a disservice to our men and women in uniform, who we all support.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: Pelosi did not reach the president, but spoke with White House chief of staff Josh Bolten, who denied the vice president was questioning her patriotism -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Texas governor Rick Perry's office is on the defense this morning after a report questioning the timing of the governor's order to mandate the cervical cancer vaccine for young girls. Now The Associated Press is reporting that Merck, which makes the vaccine, donated $5,000 to Perry's campaign on the very same day that Perry's chief of staff met with key aides about the vaccine.

That's interesting timing. Don't you think?

Anyway, Texas is the first state to require the vaccine. Governor Perry issued an executive order earlier in the month, sort of did a little end run around the legislature on that one. His spokesperson, the governor's spokesperson, says that the timing of the meeting and the donation was a coincidence.

M. O'BRIEN: College Republicans coming under fire in New York City for a contest called Find the Illegal Immigrant. You heard right, Find the Illegal Immigrant.

The game offers a prize to any player who finds an illegal immigrant on the campus of New York University. Now, organizers say it's simply meant to inspire dialogue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID LASKA, NYU REPUBLICANS: And the university has about 22,000 undergraduates. And what we found is that in order to really get people out and motivated for a subject, whether you're on our side or not, is to kind of ruffle their feathers a little bit, to give them something to kind of shake their fist at, make them angry. And then will get them out to discuss the issue one way or another.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: Critics say the game is racist and embarrassing to the school.

And now a warning about a new energy drink. High schools in Colorado Springs are banning Spike Shooter after students said the drink sent them to the hospital.

Our own Greg Hunter has been looking into all this.

And Greg, what did you find out about all this stuff?

GREG HUNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we actually went out and bought the drink. And the warnings on here are pretty strong.

I mean, what jumps out at me, some of the warnings are things like, you know, don't use if you're pregnant, if you have high blood pressure, don't use if you have psychiatric problems. Well, the dietary supplement in this drink is Yohimbe. It's one of the supplements.

Now, we went out and got some information on Yohimbe from the FDA Web site. Yohimbe is a tree bark containing a variety of pharmacologically active chemicals. It's marketed in a number of products for body building and enhanced male performance.

Now, there are serious side-effects on that Web site. It says serious side-effects including renal failure, seizures, and death have been reported to the FDA with products containing Yohimbe and are currently under investigation.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. And it's not just Yohimbe in there. There's a ton of caffeine as well.

What is the company saying about all of this?

HUNTER: Well, we asked the company why the makers of -- the company, the makers of Spike Shooter, why do they think some of the kids out in Colorado are getting sick? And in part, they responded, "We firmly believe that the product is safe. And therefore, the only explanation for kids becoming sick is that they are not following label instructions or abusing the product. There are thousands of people who are drinking Spike daily with no negative effects, and we are receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback."

One of the instructions on the can is to say, be careful, only start with a half a can. And don't exceed one can of this a day. This is 8 ounces.

M. O'BRIEN: Boy. So the company has all these warnings on it. And yet, of course -- that, of course, might be an invitation in some sense for kids to try this out. I guess what this really boils down to is, should there be some more government oversight over these sorts of drinks given how potent they are?

HUNTER: Well, many critics would say, yes, there should be, but the FDA is really fairly powerless to oversee dietary supplements. And that's what's in here, and that's how they market the drink. So the company's not doing anything wrong, not illegal.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Keep us posted on that one, Greg.

HUNTER: All right.

M. O'BRIEN: And parents should keep themselves -- their kids well in view as to how much of that stuff they're drinking.

Thank you.

HUNTER: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Also ahead this morning, things are really heating up between the campaigns of Senator Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, a little back and forth. It's kind of ugly between the two of them.

We're going to check in with our senior political correspondent, Candy Crowley. She's going to fill us in on what's going on there.

Plus, so many more twists and turns in the Anna Nicole Smith hearing. They're trying to figure out where the body will be buried. But boy, some of the details are just bizarre.

We'll update you straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: The most news in the morning right here on CNN.

(NEWSBREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: It is getting nasty. Have you been following this back and forth between Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama? Both of them, of course, running for president. Verbal punches, at least so far, triggered by comments that were made by Hollywood mogul David Geffen.

Now, Geffen, if you're following me, used to support and give a lot of money to the Clintons. But now he's switching alliances by supporting Barack Obama.

It's getting ugly, and it's quite early, isn't it?

Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley is live from Washington, D.C., for us this morning. Candy, I brought a chart, because I think at this point this is what it requires.

We have David Geffen in the middle. This is a "New York Post" headline, by the way.

So David Geffen says mean things about Hillary. Hillary fights back by saying mean things over to Barack Obama. She would like him to repudiate and give the money back from David Geffen. He goes back and says kind of mean things back to Hillary. This is where we stand this morning.

Are you surprised by any of this?

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, a little bit, except we talked a lot about how the process has started so early. People filing their exploratory committees, people making their announcements. This just shows you that the intensity is starting early.

Also, there's been this sort of simmering, not back and forth, but some resentments in the two camps, despite what you hear publicly. Obviously, these are the two big rivals, the two big 500-pound gorillas who are going at it pretty early and with a great deal of intensity. I'm not sure -- we've sort of been surprised given how early the process started that emotions would being to run high pretty early on, too.

S. O'BRIEN: You heard Hillary Clinton taking the high road. She said, you know, "I'm going to run a very positive campaign," almost at the very same time that her campaign put out a press release that had the headline "Obama Embraces Slash and Burn Politics."

Well, you know, wow, both sides on this one.

Is that going to possible to do, kind of have it both sides, one way, what she's saying, and one thing her campaign is saying?

CROWLEY: You know, I could have retired a long time ago had I a nickel or a dime for every time someone said, "Let's run positive campaigns. We're going to say only nice things about each other. Our common enemy is the other side. We're allies."

This goes on all the time. The problem is, when it gets tight and when you're fighting for what essentially is a job here, things get tense. So, obviously, this is a harbinger of things to come.

S. O'BRIEN: OK. So then Obama said this -- or the campaign really shot back with this -- "The Clintons had no problem with David Geffen" -- I'm putting my own emphases -- "when he was raising them $18 million and sleeping at their invitation in the Lincoln bedroom."

Do you think in this battle he came out on top, she came out on top, everybody suffered, nobody won?

What do you think? CROWLEY: I think, first of all, in terms of long-term legs, as we call it, this story doesn't have that much. We're gratefully so early on that a lot of this stuff will be forgiven. I think how you look at who won here depends on whose camp you're in.

I'm reminded of something Hillary Clinton said on her first trip to Iowa recently -- "When your opponent attacks, you need to deck him." I think this was following through on that promise, sort of her showing some muscle. I think it is Obama deflecting it. So, you know...

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, but, you know, you follow that thinking, right, your opponent attacks, you deck him, and you could wind up with everybody being decked. You know, that the big winner is actually neither of the two of them, that they take each other out. Is that a possibility?

CROWLEY: I'm not sure -- I mean, certainly that's what the second tier of candidates is hoping for. I don't think this sort of thing takes them out. But they will be going after one another's policies. They will be going after one another's proposals.

I think that's the kind of thing that is more likely for the two of them to kind of take each other out and somebody, say a John Edwards or somebody that is looking at the two of them, has both of them in his sights, could take advantage of that opening.

S. O'BRIEN: Candy Crowley, as always, thanks, Candy. Appreciate it.

CROWLEY: Sure.

S. O'BRIEN: Our senior political correspondent -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: So, what's the rush? Coca-Cola is going to tell you how it's caffeine content will soon be right before your eyes.

Ali Velshi "Minding Your Business" with that.

And no rest for Anna Nicole Smith. Her mother and companion face off in court over a final resting place. Time is running out.

Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Coca-Cola is joining the Pepsi bandwagon, listing the amount of caffeine in its soft drinks.

About 24 minutes past the hour. Ali Velshi "Minding Your Business."

Hello, Ali.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is going to change my entire life. M. O'BRIEN: Really?

VELSHI: I'm going to be a more relaxed guy...

(CROSSTALK)

M. O'BRIEN: Mr. Laid Back himself.

VELSHI: Mr. Laid Back.

A group called Center for the Science in the Public Interest has been calling on companies to disclose the amount of caffeine in its caffeinated drinks for 10 years. Now, over the last few months, Coke and Pepsi have started to add the caffeine content to their bottles.

Now, if you look at this, this is a 20-ounce bottle of Pepsi, 25 milligrams for 8 fluid ounces. This is 20 ounces, so it's 62.5 milligrams of caffeine.

Now, let's just use 8 ounces as a standard measure so we can compare.

Coke and Pepsi have the same amount off caffeine, 25 milligram for the regular, 24 milligrams for the diet. Mountain Dew, which is a super-charged drink, 36 milligrams in 8 ounces.

A cup of Starbucks coffee, if you could get 8 ounces, which would be a tiny, 130 milligrams.

M. O'BRIEN: But you're getting the Venti, which, of course, is...

VELSHI: Right. So...

M. O'BRIEN: ... a week's supply of caffeine.

VELSHI: It is. And you know who is concerned about this? Pregnant mothers, parents of kids, like parents of people like me, people like me, generally, people who consume a lot of caffeine and want to sort of control that. I mean, ever since working on this shift, I've got to sort of control the amount of caffeine I take in.

M. O'BRIEN: I had that problem, too. I had to cut back, yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Just drink more.

VELSHI: Drink more?

M. O'BRIEN: Just drink more?

VELSHI: I thought it was very funny, the statement from the Center for Science in the Public Interest. I'm not sure whether they meant this, but they actually said in their -- in their statement, I don't know why these companies are so jittery about (INAUDIBLE).

(LAUGHTER) M. O'BRIEN: Very well done.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Ali. Thanks.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you, Ali.

VELSHI: All right.

S. O'BRIEN: The top stories of the morning are coming up next. A closer look at the turning point in Iraq, how one attack changed the direction of what's been happening there.

Plus, quite a day in court. Boy, it's a cast of characters, isn't it, including Anna Nicole Smith's own mother, her companion, the ex-boyfriend. The judge himself is a little crazy. All weighing in on this case. We'll take a look straight ahead.

And Ellen DeGeneres, she's ready to bust a move. We'll catch up with her before her big night at the Oscars.

Those stories and much more ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Toxic terror. Iraqi insurgents seem to use a chilling new tactic: chlorine bombs on innocent civilians.

M. O'BRIEN: Autism uncovered. Dr. Sanjay Gupta introduces us to one woman putting a whole new face on autism.

S. O'BRIEN: And it's a legal drama, for sure. High emotions and very strange behavior, frankly, as Anna Nicole Smith's mother and her partner square off over custody of her body.

All those stories ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning. Welcome, everybody. It's Thursday, February 22nd.

I'm Soledad O'Brien.

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

We're glad you are with us this morning.

(NEWSBREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Just a short time ago I spoke to America's top military spokesman in Iraq. Major General William Caldwell acknowledged the threat of chemical explosives. He also revealed missions going on right now to prevent future attacks. U.S. troops already finding a lot of dangerous stuff.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL, SPOKESMAN, MULTINATIONAL FORCE-IRAQ: Five complete buildings full of these various types of things to include car bombs that were being assembled and put together with propane tanks, other chemical munitions that they're taking ordinary chemicals and trying to mix it with the explosives. So we're just staying very pinpointed, accurate, deliberate raids, with the Iraqi people helping us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: Caldwell says the raid also continue as long as the threat exists -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Taking a closer look this morning at what was clearly a turning point in the war one year ago today. The bombing of the Shia mosque in Samarra.

Arwa Damon looks at the personal toll of this one deadly day.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These are the sounds of Iraq today, the suffering of civilians. The sorrow and the number of dead catapulted to shocking new levels in a single day -- one year ago today, the bombing of the Golden Dome, the Al-Skiri (ph) shrine in Samarra, widely believed to be done by al Qaeda, and a turning point.

The targeting of such an important Shia symbol at the hands of Sunni insurgents pushed Iraq towards a full-scale civil war.

Umama (ph), a grandmother and a Shia, gunned down in cold blood by a Sunni militia.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I saw my mother on the street. I picked up her brains with my own hands and wrapped it. Picked up her brains.

DAMON: Issa (ph), a Sunni, who lost her husband to Baghdad's bloody Mortar War, will never laugh the way she did on her wedding day. The last memory of the man she loved, his stomach ripped open. There are those who fled their homes in a desperate attempt to escape the bloody sectarian clashes, now trying to survive a life like this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Look here, he's old and sick. We have no medicine and nowhere else to go.

DAMON: In Baghdad, women cram into a room to watch a screen with images too gruesome to show, hoping for a bloody glimpse of a loved one gone missing.

One year after Samarra, no end to the violence in Iraq, no end to the suffering.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DAMON: Those stories that you just saw are merely snapshots of the endless suffering that is happening here in Iraq since that bombing of the holy shrine in Samarra. At least 100,000 individuals have been displaced throughout the country, 34,000 estimated killed according to the United Nations. At least half of them due to acts of sectarian violence -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: How have you seen things change in the year since that day that is seen to be a turning point? I mean, do you feel it, that things just shifted?

DAMON: Soledad, what you definitely really feel shifting on a day-to-day basis, and the violence aside, is really the morale of the Iraqi people, which every day seems to be sinking to an entirely new low. I mean, Iraqis are incredibly resilient. And you do still hear them smiling and laughing, and really struggling to get through each day, but you see the pain, the suffering, the devastating impact that this war has had in their eyes. And that is really when you come to realize that getting over the psychological impact of this war when the violence hopefully, eventually does subside, it is going to be incredibly difficult for everyone involved in the combat here -- Soledad.

Arwa Damon for us in Baghdad this morning. Thanks, Arwa -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Politics now. John McCain sticking to his guns this morning after blasting former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. This week, the Arizona senator and presidential hopeful calling Rumsfeld one of the worst secretaries of defense in history. Vice President Cheney said McCain should apologize. McCain says he won't.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice winging her way back to the U.S. now after a diplomatic mission to the Mideast and Europe. She sat down before she left for an exclusive interview with CNN's State Department correspondent Zain Verjee, and the conversation turned to presidential politics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: You said that you don't want to be president, right?

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECY. OF STATE: Right.

VERJEE: But Senator Hillary Clinton has thrown her hat in the ring, and she wants to run. Do you think that America is ready for a female president? And do you think a woman president would be tough enough to lead the United States?

RICE: I think Americans are ready to vote for the president that they believe is going to share their values, that is going to carry out policies in which they believe. I don't have any doubt about women being tough enough to do almost anything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: And now to the other side of the aisle and a Democratic dogfight -- the Hillary Clinton campaign in a real rowe with their primary rival, Barack Obama. The harsh word triggered by some comments from Hollywood power broker David Geffen. Geffen, once a friend and supporter of the Clintons, told Maureen Dowd of "The New York Times," Hillary Clinton is polarizing, and Bill Clinton is a reckless guy. Now the Clinton camp wants Obama to renounce Geffen's comments. Obama will have none of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRES. CANDIDATE: My sense is, is that Mr. Geffen may have differences with the Clintons, that doesn't really have any thing to do with our campaign.

I've said repeatedly, I have the utmost respect for Senator Clinton.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: Clinton's campaign also wants Obama to return a donation from Geffen. Obama's campaign also refusing to do that.

And of course all the day's political news available any time you need it, day or night; it's the CNN political ticker, found at CNN.com/ticker -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: The latest now in the Anna Nicole Smith drama, and we mean drama. A Florida courtroom battle over her body is pitting her mother, Virgie Arthur, against Howard K. Stern, the man who says he was her companion, and also is the baby's father.

Court TV's Savannah Guthrie is in our D.C. Bureau this morning.

Nice to see you, Savannah.

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, COURT TV: Hi, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: First and foremost, let's -- there's so many people to begin with, but let's begin with the judge, shall we. Unorthodox is one word I've heard used. Yes. Yes, he is. He's just one of this cast of characters. He calls Anna Nicole's mother mom. She's got an attorney who's name he can't pronounce, so he calls that attorney "Texas." And he said this about the body, which I think really took a lot of people by surprise. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE LARRY SEIDLIN, BROWARD COUNTY FAMILY COURT: This body belongs to me now. It's cold, but it won't decompose so fast. That baby is on a cold, cold storage room.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: Judge Larry Seidlin is his name, grabbing lots of headlines, and not always for the best of reasons. Tell us how he is perceived in the courtroom overall for running this thing. Is it just a circus?

GUTHRIE: It sure feels like a circus. I mean, to say that this judge is unorthodox is a very diplomatic way of putting it, and it's hard to imagine that any character could sort of eclipse Howard K. Stern and Anna Nicole Smith, and yet this judge has managed to do it.

And I have to tell you, on Court TV we watch courtrooms all year long, every single day. I've never seen a judge like this. And It's not just a matter of style. I mean, certainly he is, in my opinion, way too glib as he talks about very serious matters. A woman has died. The question is what do with her remains. These are serious and significant questions.

But it's also a matter of whether he's got control of this courtroom. I mean, the lawyers seem to just run amuck. There's no real precision about what the legal issues are. He's not controlling the lawyers. Doesn't seem to be controlling the issues. And sometimes watching it, though fascinating to watch, it feels a little bit like Romper Room for lawyers, and I don't think it's doing a great credit to the justice system.

S. O'BRIEN: It's riveting, but sort of for all the wrong reasons, isn't it, because as you say, you've a body that, as we're told, is decomposing. They've got to figure out exactly what they're going to do with it.

We know that the options are, send it back to Texas, which is what her mother wants, or send it to the Bahamas, which is what Howard K. Stern would like to happen there, buried next to her son.

Larry Birkhead was on the stand as well. Boy, that was riveting testimony, too. I mean, everybody was listening to that. What does he want? How does it end, do you think? And when will it end?

GUTHRIE: Well, it's supposed to end Friday. I mean, the judge has said he'll make a decision by noon on Friday. And he's up against it, because the medical examiner keeps calling into court and saying, hey, this body is decomposing. And after Saturday, we're not going to be in a position where you can have a burial and a viewing of the body because of the decomposition that's setting in. So it's pretty morbid.

And you do have these three polarized positions. You've got Howard Stern, who wants the body brought to the Bahamas, where apparently Anna Nicole Smith had purchased burial plots. Then you've got the mom who wants the body back in Texas, and then you've got Larry Birkhead, who's the old boyfriend, who claims to be the father, and says he's really not sure. He says Anna Nicole Smith had once said she wanted to be buried in California. There were a couple people who said that yesterday, but he doesn't know, because he think she also would want to be buried next to her late son, and he, of course, is in the Bahamas.

And then lurking underneath all of this, Soledad, is that issue of paternity, who's the natural father? Because If the baby is the next of kin, if she's got a say through her guardian ad litem where the remains of her mother goes, then maybe we need to know who the natural father is. So far the judge has sidestepped that question.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, they all have. All right, and that's being decided in a whole other courtroom. I know you're heading off to the Libby trial. That'll be a relaxing day for you, I would imagine, watching something a little more sedate.

GUTHRIE: Well, it is a 180-degree difference, I mean, and it just shows you how court is supposed to be handled, and the deliberations continue for a second day there.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Savannah Guthrie for us on Court TV. Savannah, thanks, as always -- Miles.

GUTHRIE: You bet.

M. O'BRIEN: She's getting the full spectrum of justice, isn't she?

S. O'BRIEN: You think?

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Coming up, a side of good news to go with your cup of coffee this morning. Stick around for that.

S. O'BRIEN: Plus, life with autism. Not seen there. There we go.

That's just the wrong video.

We're going to check in with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and he's going to talk to about autism in just a little bit.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

(NEWSBREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Autism is on the rise here in this country. One in every 150 Americans 8 years old had the disorder. Now you may have some preconceived notions about how those people would look or act. Prepare to have those stereotypes swept aside.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta with the fascinating story of Amanda Baggs.

Hello, Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

You're exactly right. You know, be honest with yourselves out there as you're watching -- how many of you really know autism, understand it? I'm a doctor. I'll go first. I didn't fully understand it until I met Amanda Baggs. I'm not sure I still do, but it makes this story even the more striking.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA (voice-over): This is Amanda Baggs, rocking back and forth. She does not make eye contact. Her movements are erratic. Her behavior, eccentric. She cannot speak, and for most of us this is precisely what we expect when we see a person with autism.

But Amanda will absolutely change your expectations. We first came across Amanda on YouTube. Her appearance there so startling I wanted to meet her. I had so many questions.

AMANDA BAGGS: The way I naturally think and respond to things looks and feels so different from standard concepts, or even visualization, that some people do not consider it thought at all.

It is only when I type something in your language that you refer to me as having communication.

GUPTA: Amanda calls herself bilingual. For other autistic people she has movement and gestures to communicate. But for the rest of us, she made this video to teach us how it works. She jokingly calls us neurotypical, meaning we do not have autism. She communicates with a keyboard and computer, and for visitors a voice synthesizer.

(on camera): So you've seen the video with your own eyes. I want to show it to you through Amanda Baggs eyes. She lives in this building, and she lives alone.

(voice-over): This is where Amanda made the video. She shot it, edited it and posted it on the Internet, all completely on her own. Surprised?

If we must label her, she won't like it, but medically she is a low-functioning autistic.

Amanda interacts with everything around her.

(on camera): What about this? This was interesting. You can read obviously, but you're actually putting your face in the book. Why? What does that mean?

BAGGS: I like the smell and the texture of that particular paper. That book has very rough paper.

GUPTA (voice-over): Amanda says this is her natural way of thinking, in patterns and in colors. Thinking with language and written words as we do is not natural for her, therefore so she struggles with it.

(on camera): If you wanted to talk to me, could you do that?

BAGGS: I could make speech sounds. At this point I could not make them mean anything I was thinking.

GUPTA: Does that frustrate you?

BAGGS: Not really. I type very fast.

GUPTA: Yes, you do.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BAGGS: She does type very fast, 120 words a minute she can type. It's pretty remarkable, but she can also become very easily distracted. Some days she can only type with one finger at a time. Other days she'll go and become completely catatonic. So her abilities, Miles, but what's so remarkable is that she seems so hidden. To watch the early part of that video, you'd think this is a woman who is simply a woman with low-functioning autism, but then you meet her, she's smart, she's brilliant in fact, and she communicates in ways that I would have never imagined.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, let me ask you think, Sanjay. She really is eloquent in her own way. Did she ever have the ability to speak at all? And how did she learn to put the sentences together, type and do all the things that make her conversant?

GUPTA: Well, the first part of your question, yes, she could speak when she was young. In fact She had something known as hyperlexia. She actually learned how to read at a very young age, and that's what sort of helped form -- formative for her now ability to communicate, to type words and things like that.

But she said that she started to regress, which is often -- also a hallmark of many people with autism. They'll start to regress in terms of their language abilities. Pretty soon she could not speak at all. She said she tends to think more, she said, in abstract things, like colors and shapes, and that's how she communicates with a lot of other people with low-functioning autism as well, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Wow -- I'm sorry.

S. O'BRIEN: Hey, Sanjay, Can I ask you a question. My nephew's autistic, and there's so many questions about, well, what does he understand? Because he has so few words, and has a hard time -- sometimes he communicates, but often you just can't get through to him. Is there a sense that that story is reflective of a lot of people who have autism, that they're communicating, but, you know, if you could hook them up to a laptop somehow you could really communicate with them?

GUPTA: You know, I asked the same question, Soledad. And here's one of the things I think I learned from Amanda, I think there's an instinct, a reflex by a lot of people to equate autism with intelligence, usually low intelligence, and I think that needs to stop, because that's probably not necessarily true.

The question is, how are they communicating and what better ways can we communicate with people who have autism? It may not be through the written or spoken word. It may be in other ways. And as a medical community, we need to better at being able to figure out what those ways are.

One of the most telling things I think Amanda said to me, was she goes, look, if I interact the way that I normally interact, you call me broken. And If I don't interact with you the way you want me to interact you still call me broken. So either way she comes out on the losing end of this, and that probably needs to change. M. O'BRIEN: Deficiency lies in the eye of the beholder here, I guess. Maybe we're the ones that are deficient in some ways.

All right, Sanjay Gupta, what a fascinating story, a real eye- opener.

S. O'BRIEN: There are a zillion parents who would love to just, you know, not to weigh in on whether they're intelligent or not, just to have their kids communicate with them, just to communicate with them.

M. O'BRIEN: How frustrating.

S. O'BRIEN: Wow. That was amazing, huh?

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

"CNN NEWSROOM" is just moments away. Fredricka Whitfield is at the CNN Center with a look at what's ahead.

Hello, Fred.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it was riveting. I was hanging on every word.

Well, coming up later in the "NEWSROOM," It's getting ugly out there. And so early. The Clinton/Obama camps feuding after a Hollywood mogul chimes in on the presidential race.

And the mother versus the lovers in the battle over the body. Another day of testimony begins shortly in the Anna Nicole Smith case.

And the pamphlet titled "do not marry a Muslim man?" A group passes that out at a high school. And you can believe it's stirring a lot of outrage. Tony Harris is with me in the "NEWSROOM." That's at the top of the hour.

You all have a great day.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Fred. We'll be watching. Thank you.

Coming up, funny lady -- we sit down with Ellen Degeneres before her next big gig as host of the Oscars. That's the daddy of all award shows, of course.

That's her with Oscar right there.

Plus it's Thursday, we know what that means, right?

CROWD: Miles cam!

M. O'BRIEN: Somewhat tepid, but we'll take it. If you have a question for me, e-mail it to me at milescam@cnn.com. Special Oscar edition. Special guest appearance by Graham Flanagan, AMERICAN MORNING's movie maven. If you have any questions, predictions, statements about the Oscars, join us. I won't answer any of them, but we have Graham, so we'll be set. That's at Pipeline, CNN.com/pipeline, 10:00 a.m. Eastern.

Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Recognize any of those movies? Well, Ellen Degeneres has a new man, and his name is Oscar. She's got a new gig too -- she's hosting the Academy Awards for the very first time.

CNN's Sibila Vargas sat down with the reigning queen of daytime stand-up.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How excited are you?

ELLEN DEGENERES: I'm, like, vibrating inside. I wanted to do this for so long, so I really want to -- you know, I mean, I'll be nervous and I'll be excited. But I want to relax, because I really want to enjoy it.

VARGAS: You want to take it all in?

DEGENERES: Yes, I do.

VARGAS: You've done the Grammys, you've done the Emmys. Where does this stack for you?

DEGENERES: There's nothing bigger than the Oscars, nothing. So I don't know what I can do to challenge myself more than this. I like challenging myself, and I like, you know, getting out of my comfort zone, which is why I choose to do things like this.

VARGAS: The next day everyone talks about, how did Ellen do. Are you prepared for that?

DEGENERES: You know, you can't please everybody, so I can't worry about that. I just have to know that I did the best job, and that I felt good about it. And if somebody doesn't like it, I can't worry about that.

VARGAS: You've got to be so proud of yourself. And your mom just must be beaming?

DEGENERES: She's my biggest fan. She -- I'm telling you, if somebody writes something that's not nice about me, the next day they should look out for my mother, because I'll let it go, but my mother will be the one who's, how dare you?

VARGAS: Reporter: You don't mess with your mother?

DEGENERES: No. No.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Ellen Degeneres talking to Sibila Vargas. The Academy Awards air on Sunday night.

Here's a quick look at what "CNN NEWSROOM" is working on at the top of the hour.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: See these stories in the "CNN NEWSROOM": Attacks in Iraq: explosives combined with chlorine. Three such blasts now since late January.

The battle over the body of Anna Nicole Smith. Another day of testimony begins in 90 minutes.

Customers spouting anti-Arab slurs, a deli clerk goes on the offense over the offense, with a medal rod.

You're in the "NEWSROOM," 9:00 a.m. Eastern, 6:00 Pacific.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com