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U.S. Attorney Firings; Ahmadinejad to Address U.N.; Alert Search Dog Credited for Finding Scout; How to Find Out and Prevent Clogging in Your Arteries; Al Gore Discusses the Need for Action on Global Warming
Aired March 21, 2007 - 07:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Showdown. President Bush and Senate Democrats draw battle lines over those fired U.S. attorneys. A new attempt to subpoena the president's closest advisers is just a couple hours away.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Boy's best friend -- Gandalf the search dog and a lost Boy Scout. The pup and his owner join us live. Plus, new insight on why he wandered off in the first place.
S. O'BRIEN: Al Gore's moment in the sun. His return to Washington today on the topic that now everybody is talking about.
We're live this morning from Washington and North Carolina and New York, all on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Welcome back, everybody, Wednesday, March 21st.
I'm Soledad O'Brien.
M. O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien.
Thanks for being with us.
We begin with the next move in Washington. House Democrats meet this morning. They could vote to subpoena President Bush's top aides to testify under oath about the firing of those U.S. attorneys. President Bush says he'll fight it.
CNN's Dana Bash covering the Capitol Hill side of this story.
Other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, Ed Henry at the White House.
Let's begin with Dana.
Dana, good morning.
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
And, you know, Democrats are already saying that the offer that they got from the White House to have Bush officials come and talk to Congress but have no oath, no public testimony, no transcript, Democrats are flatly saying no deal.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BASH (voice over): White House counsel Fred Fielding would not comment as he left a closed-door Capitol Hill meeting trying to navigate the crushing scene. But Democrats did.
REP. JOHN CONYERS (D), CHAIRMAN, JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: We are disappointed. And I think -- I think that may be an understatement.
BASH: "Clever, but incomplete, at best" is how one top Democrat described the White House offer to make Karl Rove and other Bush aides available for a private interview, but not public testimony.
SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: It's sort of giving us the opportunity to talk to them, but not giving us the opportunity to get to the bottom of what really happened here.
BASH: Democrats say their biggest problems with the White House proposal are that Bush aides would not be under oath and there would be no transcript of their answers about why federal prosecutors were fired.
SCHUMER: And with no transcript, with no oath, with private conversations that can be contradicted, recollections can fail, you're not going to get very far.
BASH: The demand for Rove, former White House counsel Harriet Miers and their deputies to testify came from Democrats and Republicans. One senior GOP lawmaker came out of the meeting and said he thought the White House laid out a fair deal.
REP. CHRIS CANNON (R), UTAH: I'm a very zealous guardian of the prerogatives of Congress, but I expect the president to be a zealous guardian of the executive branch, as well. And I think it's a great offer.
BASH: And later, a Bush ally slammed Democrats for rejecting the president's offer so fast.
SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R), TEXAS: And I just think that we shouldn't be under any illusion that this is about politics, it's not about a search for the truth. And, frankly, I think that this Congress and the Senate deserves better than that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: And later this morning the Democrats here are going to make a move towards directly defying the president. In just about two hours, the House Judiciary Committee is going to vote to authorize the chairman of that committee to issue subpoenas for Karl Rove and others that would be sent if these negotiations completely collapse.
And Miles, the Senate is going to do the exact same thing tomorrow.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. There's so much tough talk out there. Is there really any opportunity for any deal-making? Any real compromises here, Dana? BASH: Sure. I mean, there's a lot of opportunity. And there's precedent for compromise.
What you're seeing right now, Miles, certainly Democrats are saying that they're outraged, that this is not what they expected. They did in private expect some kind of compromise offer, but what they are saying right now is this particular offer is not acceptable, and they're hoping that they can come up with perhaps some kind of counter offer that would be acceptable, that would make this so that it would be dealt with, short of actually going to the courts.
As you heard President Bush said, he's going to go to the mats. He will go to the courts if he needs to. But perhaps they can work out something behind the scenes. That's at least what Democrats and some Republicans here are saying.
M. O'BRIEN: Dana Bash on Capitol Hill.
Thank you -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Well, President Bush has a long and close relationship with the attorney general, Alberto Gonzales. So it's really no surprise that the president is digging in for a fight.
CNN's Ed Henry at the White House for us.
Ed, good morning. Loyalty, I guess, is kind of the key word in this, isn't it?
ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. There's really a shrinking number of loyal Texans still with this president. People like Al Gonzales, Karl Rove.
The president wants to protect them, but he also wants to show conservatives that coming out of the last election, where the White House has really been battered by one issue after another, he's finally ready to draw a line in the sand.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BUSH: However, we will not go along with a partisan fishing expedition aimed at honorable public servants.
HENRY (voice over): The president defiantly vowed to go to the mat, all the way to the Supreme Court to fight Democratic threats to subpoena his top political adviser, Karl Rove, and former counsel, Harriet Miers.
BUSH: The initial response by Democrats unfortunately show some appear more interested in scoring political points than in learning the facts.
HENRY: But he also flashed a little anger with his own administration that the latest blow to their credibility was a self- inflicted wound by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. BUSH: While I strongly support the attorney general's decision and confident he acted appropriately, I regret that these resignations turned into such a public spectacle.
HENRY: Particularly galling for the president is that the political crisis has only grown since last Wednesday, when he tried to end it at a press conference in Mexico.
BUSH: What was mishandled was the explanation of the case -- cases to the Congress. And Al's got work to do up there.
HENRY: But Gonzales has still not made his way to Capitol Hill to mend relations. And initial e-mails released by the Justice Department seemed to give Rove a bigger role in the flap than the White House originally admitted. Facing likely subpoenas compelling Rove and others to testify under oath and in public, the president has resisted, trying to paint this as a principled fight to preserve executive privilege.
BUSH: If you call somebody up in front of Congress and put them in oath and, you know, all the (INAUDIBLE) and all the questioning, it -- to me, it makes it very difficult for a president to give good advice.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY: But make no mistake, this is not just about principle. This is about politics. The White House is fretting that if they don't make a stand here, they don't stop the Democrats, the floodgates are going to open, subpoenas will be flying week after week, not just on this story, but on the CIA leak case, any other matter the Democrats want to delve into. The White House feels if they show weakness, the Democrats really now are going to pounce -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Ed Henry at the White House for us.
Thank you, Ed -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Now on to another battle line. A showdown over the war in Iraq coming to a boil this morning. House Democrats looking for votes for $124 billion emergency war spending bill that would bring the troops home by August of 2008. But there's a lot of division among Democrats over the measure. Perhaps now a dozen say they will vote against it.
And in Iraq this morning, the U.S. military shocked by a sick new twist in terror tactics. They say terrorists driving a car bomb put two children in the back seat so they could make it through a security checkpoint. The military says the adults then ran from the car before setting off the bomb. The blast killing the kids and three others.
More fireworks on Capitol Hill today over FBI abuses of the Patriot Act. A Senate committee on the case today trying to find out why the feds skirted the rules and snooped into the private lives of Americans. Yesterday in the House lawmakers from both parties fired a shot across the FBI's bow, saying the abuses may mean it will lose many of its spying powers -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: And the war of words between Iran and the Bush administration now moving to U.S. soil. Iran's president is coming to America to make his case to the United Nations, his case against U.S.- backed sanctions.
CNN's Zain Verjee is following all this from Washington, D.C., for us.
Hey, Zain. Good morning.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN STATE DEPT. CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Iran's president is grabbing the megaphone at the United Nations, but the U.S. wants to warn Iran to hear its message loud and clear.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VERJEE (voice over): The U.S. wants to jack up the pressure and the economic pain on Iran by slamming it with new sanctions.
The goal?
SEAN MCCORMACK, STATE DEPT. SPOKESMAN: To get them to change their behavior.
VERJEE: The U.S. wants Iran to stop enriching uranium because it can be used to build a nuclear bomb. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, known for his acid tongue, says Iran has the right to its nuclear program. The U.S. says President Ahmadinejad should seize the day.
MCCORMACK: Tell the world that Iran is ready to come back into the fold, to come back into those nations who are ready to negotiate with him.
VERJEE: Most observers aren't holding their breath.
MICHAEL RUBIN, AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: He tries to out Chavez, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, and out Castro, Fidel Castro of Cuba. I don't believe he's looking for a solution. He's looking to basically grandstand.
VERJEE: But it may be a little too late for Iran to be mounting a defense.
RUBIN: The United Nations Security Council isn't going to deny him a right to speak, no more than a judge would deny a convict his right to make a statement before he was hauled off to jail.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VERJEE: The State Department says the negotiating pathway is still open if Iran chooses to reverse course. Secretary Rice has said that if that happens she's willing to meet the Iranians to talk any time, any place -- Soledad. S. O'BRIEN: Zain Verjee for us this morning.
Thank you, Zain -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: That Boy Scout missing in the North Carolina woods three long cold nights is waking up safe and sound this morning thanks to some dedicated volunteers, human and canine. Twelve-year-old Michael Auberry, found about a mile from the camp site where he disappeared Saturday, his dad says Michael's good pals didn't show up for the scout camping trip and he was homesick, so he apparently was trying to go home.
Gandalf, the search dog that found Michael, and his handler, owner Misha Marshall, will join us live in just a few moments. We'll talk to them -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Coming up this morning, showdown in Washington, D.C., over those fired U.S. attorneys. Where is it all going? Who stands to gain? We'll take a look.
And rolling out the green carpet for Al Gore in Washington. He went from singing solo to leading the band, really, when you're talking about global warming.
You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: The most news in the morning right here on CNN.
Former vice president and environmental advocate Al Gore returns to Washington today urging lawmakers to do more about global warming.
And interest rates another hot topic. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and the Fed meet this morning. Wall Street is expecting the rate will stay where it is, 5.25 percent.
Just about quarter past the hour right now. Chad Myers watching weather for you.
Good morning, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Miles.
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: Democrats in Congress could vote to subpoena top White House aides today. They're trying to get some answers under oath about the firing of those eight federal prosecutors. Now, President Bush says subpoenas aren't the answer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: It will be regrettable if they choose to head down the partisan road of issuing subpoenas and demanding show trials when I have agreed to make key White House officials and documents available.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: John Dickerson is the chief political correspondent for Slate. He joins us this morning.
It's nice to see you in person, certainly.
The president earlier called this regrettable also that it had become this public spectacle. And yet, here we are, here it is, and it's not diminishing at all.
Who do you think going in, in the showdown has the upper hand?
JOHN DICKERSON, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, SLATE: For the moment, the political upper hand. And that's what we're talking about here, before we get to the legal fight. The political upper hand is with the Democrats.
The president and the White House are protecting a principle. Democrats, on the other hand, have these eight very telegenic former U.S. attorneys who are saying we were run out of office for political reasons. And the Democrats are going after Karl Rove, who is a figure not unknown to people and one who has a bit of a spotty history. So, for the moment, it's with the Democrats.
S. O'BRIEN: OK. So, the president has made an offer. There is an offer on the table, as they say, and it says you can have Rove, you can have Miers, but not under oath, not in public. No transcript from the meetings. And he says because he doesn't -- you know, he doesn't want a fishing expedition potentially.
Does he have a point?
DICKERSON: Well, he has a point. Democrats would say these are like Victorian courtship rituals. You know, they're so restrictive, nothing's going to happen at all.
S. O'BRIEN: No transcript seems odd.
DICKERSON: That's right. And they say there's no real reason to do this.
The damage if there's a downside for Democrats is the president's made an offer. It may not be one Democrats like, but they've dismissed it so quickly, there may be a political downside for them in doing so.
S. O'BRIEN: All right. Let's talk about the several times in which the president has expressed great support for someone, only to have them go away, bye-bye.
For example, he -- you know, Mike Brown was doing a great job until suddenly he disappeared. And then Harriet Miers was number one until suddenly she decided she was going to leave. And Secretary Rumsfeld, of course, moments after he was declared to be -- have the full support of the president, he was gone.
So, when we hear that about Alberto Gonzales, do we think, oh, he's gone?
DICKERSON: Yes. There's a -- there's a tradition in Washington, and we've seen it with this administration, where praise, public praise from the president is actually the kiss of death.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
DICKERSON: In this case, the president, though -- when I talked to the White House, they said, we really are standing behind Gonzales, we're not trying to throw him overboard. But, as you pointed out, you k now, sometimes a lot of public praise doesn't foreclose the notion that Al Gonzales may decide that he just wants to move on.
S. O'BRIEN: But you know the two of them and their background and their relationship well. And they have more than just a friendship here.
DICKERSON: That's right. The loyalty that is famous with President Bush is particularly so in this case because Gonzales goes all the way back to his Texas days. And the president has a kind of romantic feeling about Gonzales' upbringing -- son of migrant workers, grew up in a house where they had to boil water to make it hot, no telephone. It's the kind of up from the hardscrabble beginnings that the president finds romantic.
S. O'BRIEN: Do you think because of that we're seeing the -- I mean, I thought that press conference was really interesting. The president was really defiant, really aggressive in the press conference. And I'm wondering, how much of that is because this is a guy he loves as a friend and he's loyal to, and how much of that is he's just sick of the Democrats pushing and pushing and pushing and he's done?
You know, his approval rating is at 30 percent. He's not going to move.
DICKERSON: It's a mix. This president came into office wanting to protect the prerogatives of the executive. And so, that's a part of this. But it's also his old friend, and also it's Democrats came into power after the election wanting to go through a long list of investigations. But in this case the Democrats have cause here. There are a lot of shifting stories, and it was only by getting members of the Justice Department out in front of the cameras and under oath that they actually got the true story.
S. O'BRIEN: Subpoenas today, do you think? Yes or no?
DICKERSON: Tomorrow I think, but maybe today.
S. O'BRIEN: All right. We'll see -- we'll put some money on it and see what happens.
Thanks. John Dickerson, of Slate -- Miles.
DICKERSON: Thank you.
M. O'BRIEN: Coming up on the program, we will pause to tell you the tale of the missing boy, the smart dog and the generous handler who barked up the right tree and wrote a happy ending to a rough story.
Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING. We have a nose for news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: A happy ending to that four-day ordeal for the missing Boy Scout and his family. This morning 12-year-old Michael Auberry is safe and sound thanks to the long, hard work of some special volunteers. Those volunteers and their canine helpers are also getting a lot of credit from Michael's dad, who's dog-gone happy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KENT AUBERRY, MICHAEL AUBERRY'S FATHER: Just wants to thank people for their prayers and thank people who went out to look for him. And he wants to thank Gandalf especially, the dog who found him. Although he knows that Gandalf did eat the handler crackers that he (INAUDIBLE).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: Misha Marshall and Gandalf found the missing Scout and, of course, Gandalf did eat the peanut butter crackers.
We are going to forgive Gandalf for that most certainly. Aren't we, Misha?
MISHA MARSHALL, DOG TEAM SEARCHER WHO FOUND SCOUT: Yes, that was -- that was fine.
M. O'BRIEN: Take us back to that moment in the woods. You had been searching for at least a couple of hours at that -- on that session. And how did...
MARSHALL: That's right.
M. O'BRIEN: ... how did -- what did Gandalf do and how did you realize that you had come across the boy?
MARSHALL: Gandalf was working up ahead of us, and Michael turned out to be upwind of us. So Gandalf picked up his scent and kind of worked us into where Michael was. We came around the bend, and he was about 50 yards to our left up a fairly steep incline.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, when Gandalf picks up on a scent, what does he do? Does he start barking? Does he run after? Or did you have him on a leash? How do you do that? MARSHALL: Well, he's off lead, so their body language changes. They will turn their head in the direction that they're catching the scent. So, he looked left about three times, so I knew he was interested in something. So that kind of puts you on alert. And after that he kind of took us in, so...
M. O'BRIEN: All right. So at what -- you get closer and closer and finally you see I guess the red coat that Michael was wearing.
MARSHALL: Yes, we saw the red coat.
M. O'BRIEN: Try to describe what went through your mind at that moment.
MARSHALL: Overwhelming. You just -- it takes you a minute to actually process that it's Michael.
And we just wanted to check and make sure Michael was OK first. And he was in pretty good shape. We didn't see outward injuries. And he, after a minute, recognized us and he wanted food and water and that helicopter ride.
M. O'BRIEN: He wanted a helicopter ride. He couldn't arrange that.
MARSHALL: That's right.
M. O'BRIEN: But he sounds like he was pretty much like a 12- year-old boy should be. He seemed pretty responsive. So you weren't too alarmed by what you discovered when you saw him?
MARSHALL: No, not at all. Not at all. It became very obvious, a good outcome, and he was not injured.
M. O'BRIEN: Misha, you're an accountant by day, you do this as a volunteer. So do -- many of those people in the woods were volunteers. Why do you do it?
MARSHALL: Absolutely. We do it for what happened yesterday.
We train quite a bit. All the people out there helped find Michael. I was just one part of it. And, you know, I can't express how much search and rescue volunteers help. And that's what we -- we go out there with a positive attitude that we're going to find the person we're looking for.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Can Gandalf do a quick trick for us?
MARSHALL: I don't know if he'll do a quick trick. Sometimes he likes to give me his paw.
There you go.
M. O'BRIEN: All right.
MARSHALL: That's about it for today. M. O'BRIEN: I think a high five is perfectly appropriate.
Misha Marshall and her dog Gandalf.
High five back at you. Thanks for being with us.
MARSHALL: Thank you. Thank you very much.
S. O'BRIEN: What a gorgeous dog.
M. O'BRIEN: A beautiful animal. Shiloh Shepherds, they're gorgeous.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, he's -- I didn't realize they were so big.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're big. I didn't know that that paw -- did you see the size of that paw?
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, that's a -- that's a big old guy.
M. O'BRIEN: That's a mitt. That's a mitt, all right.
S. O'BRIEN: What a beautiful dog. And good work, too. It was so nice to get that news in the middle of the afternoon yesterday.
ELAM: So nice.
M. O'BRIEN: Really.
ELAM: Good news finally. It's nice to hear good news.
S. O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about P&G. Procter & Gamble is not linked to Satan. That's according to a jury.
Twenty-five minutes past the hour. That means it's time for "Minding Your Business".
Stephanie's got that.
ELAM: Yes. And apparently this is good news for them, too, right?
S. O'BRIEN: This is just in?
ELAM: Right. For Procter & Gamble.
S. O'BRIEN: Bad news for -- good news.
ELAM: Yes, good news for Procter & Gamble, which is the world's largest consumer product company in the world.
These rumors started circulating back in 1981, they're saying. And then they're saying four distributors for Amway actually revived the rumor back in 1995.
Now, just to be clear, Amway has nothing to do with this. It's these four independent distributors. So it's not a claim against Amway. It's just these four guys here. But now the jury said $19.25 million goes to Procter & Gamble in the civil lawsuit that was wrapped up here, saying that they have nothing to do with Satanism.
Now, let's take a look at the logo here, because this was really the issue, because apparently through voice mail they're saying that these distributors put out that they were linked to Satanism and you can tell by the logo here of the crescent man on the moon looking at the 13 stars.
M. O'BRIEN: There's supposedly a bunch of sixes in his beard. There's all this urban myth about this thing that's been going on forever.
ELAM: And it's...
S. O'BRIEN: And if you write sixes like my 6-year-old writes sixes, backwards.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, exactly.
ELAM: So, anyway, all of this has come out, and they have really fought this to defend their name. And they've actually won the lawsuit now, which is pretty interesting, that they would go after these four small distributors.
S. O'BRIEN: Right. A rumor.
ELAM: But, yes, they did it.
M. O'BRIEN: It's one of those things hat just don't die.
ELAM: It won't go away. And now maybe people will start thinking again, like, I heard something about that. And it will start all over again.
M. O'BRIEN: Right.
S. O'BRIEN: No. No. No.
M. O'BRIEN: The whole thing.
All right, Stephanie, thanks.
S. O'BRIEN: No.
M. O'BRIEN: The FBI getting a stern warning from lawmakers, and it's not over yet, debating what may have been the illegal abuse of the Patriot Act. That's ahead.
And no more cold shoulder for him. Al Gore returns to Washington. He gets a warm welcome for his message on global warming this go-around.
You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning right here. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Morning, welcome, everybody, Wednesday, March 21st.
I'm Soledad O'Brien.
M. O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien.
We're glad you're with us.
S. O'BRIEN: It is a very big day that is shaping up on Capitol Hill today. Democrats could decide whether they're going to try to strong-arm White House officials into testifying about those fired U.S. attorneys. The president's already promised a fight.
M. O'BRIEN: Also, Mr. Gore goes to Washington. He's talking about, what else? Climate change. That could spark some political fireworks. We'll explain.
S. O'BRIEN: And a new threat to your heart. We are paging Dr. Gupta to explain this new study that's out about your arteries.
M. O'BRIEN: And dueling YouTube spots. The mystery over who's behind them and big questions about who will control the all important message in the race for president. Big brother is watching.
S. O'BRIEN: We begin with the high stakes showdown that's playing out today between the president and Congress. It all began with the firing of those eight U.S. attorneys. Let's start with a look at just who these eight people are.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Bud Cummins of Arkansas, a life-long Republican who ran for Congress in 1996 and worked on the Bush/Cheney vote recount team. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty told Congress Cummins was pushed out to make room for a protege of Karl Rove.
H.E. "BUD" CUMMINS, FIRED U.S. ATTORNEY, ARKANSAS: The evidence now seems abundantly clear that some of these decisions were made for other reasons that may not be too atractive.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Justice Department officials say the dismissals of at least seven of the attorneys were based on performance or managerial problems.
David Iglesias of New Mexico, a former Navy lawyer. His dismissal burst the story into the national headlines. He testified before the Senate that Republican politicians, including Senator Pete Demenche (ph) called him asking if indictments would be brought against local Democrats before the November election. In an op-ed piece in this morning's "New York Times", Iglesias writes this:
"A few weeks after those phone calls, my name was added to a list of United States attorneys who would be asked to resign - even though I had excellent office evaluations, the biggest political corruptions in New Mexico history, a record number of overall prosecutions and a 95 percent conviction rate."
Iglesias also says he'd like a written retraction from the Justice Department to set the record straight on his performance.
Carol Lam, the first Asian American and the first woman to be U.S. attorney in San Diego. She led the investigation and conviction of disgraced Republican former Congressman Randy Duke Cunningham (ph). Margaret Chiara spent eight years preparing to be a catholic nun before she became a lawyer and a U.S. Attorney in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In recently released e-mails, she defended her work as exemplary and asked any reference to poor performance be dropped regarding her dismissal.
San Francisco's U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan, a star running back in high school prosecuted the Balco Steroids Case and investigated baseball star Barry Bonds.
Dan Bogden of Las Vegas has a record includes boosting firearms prosecutions and overseeing cases against county commissioners convicted of taking bribes. Nevada Republican Senator, John Ensen (ph) strongly defended Bogden after his firing.
Paul Charlton of Phoenix, spearheaded efforts against substance abuse among Native Americans and a crackdown on illegal immigrants. The main disagreement between Charlton and Washington centered on when to seek the death penalty in federal murder cases.
And as U.S. attorney in Seattle, John McKay (ph) oversaw the case against terrorist Ahmed Assam (ph), sentenced for the Millennium bomb plot. Supporters praise McKay's performance. Justice Department e- mails, just released, criticized his handling of a terrorism information sharing program.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: Now, technically U.S. attorneys are political appointments and the president has the right to fire them for any reason.
Miles?
M. O'BRIEN: On Capitol Hill lawmakers are taking the FBI to task for snooping on American citizens without following the rules in the Patriot Act. Lawmakers are threatening to take some of those spying tools away from the FBI.
AMERICAN MORNING'S Bob Franken live from Washington with more.
Good morning, Bob.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Well, Miles, the Patriot Act has been controversial since the get go. You will recall at the beginning when it was debated for the first time, there were concerns that it would impinge on individual liberties but that clamor was overridden by people who said things have to be done and people have to get things done now.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
FRANKEN (voice over): September 11th attacks was almost immediately followed by immediate calls for action. And in just 45 days, lightning speed for Congress, the nation had a new Patriot Act, authored by the then assistant attorney general with marching orders from the president.
VIET DINH, FMR. ASST. ATTY. GENERAL: All the tools that is necessary and only those that are essential to prosecute the investigation in the short term and win the war against terror in the long term.
FRANKEN: But now, after an FBI report found agents abused the power to collect private personal information and a controversy in late 2005 over domestic wiretapping, there is a growing clamor to scale back.
SEN. PATRICK LEAHY, (D) SENATE JUDICIARY CMTE. CHMN.: The report indicates abuse of the authority, that needs to change.
FRANKEN: After intense debate last year, the Republican controlled Congress agreed to make the Patriot Act permanent, with just a few limitations.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: It will improve our nation's security while we safeguard the civil liberties of our people.
FRANKEN: Critics argue those safeguards have been eroded by overzealous government agencies.
SEN. DICK DURBIN, (D) ILLINOIS: Too many times in the Patriot Act there is no one who is taking a look at a decision made by the Justice Department or the White House and, as a result, some bad things occur.
FRANKEN: But the Patriot Act's author believes that it has helped to prevent the worst from happening again.
DINH: It is a great privilege to know that now sitting here a number of years later, we still have not experienced a repeat of 9/11 or another domestic terrorist attack.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FRANKEN: This is one of those examples of debate where both sides have a point. Obviously, nobody is against national security, obviously, nobody is against civil liberties. The question in each case, Miles, is at what price?
M. O'BRIEN: Such a delicate balance. Bob Franken, thank you.
Soledad?
S. O'BRIEN: Also on Capital Hill this morning, House Democrats trying to shore up support for a war spending bill that would require U.S. troops to leave Iraq by August of next year. The bill is scheduled for a vote tomorrow as many as a dozen Democrats, though, might oppose it.
And, in Iraq this morning, the U.S. military says they're just shocked by a sick and new twist in terror tactics. They say terrorists driving a car bomb put two children in the back seat of the car so they could make it past a security checkpoint. The military says the adults ran out of the car, set off the bomb, the children were still inside. The blast killed the kids and three other people, as well.
Happening this morning in Beijing. A warning to North Korea, disarmament negotiators want North Korea to start talking. The North, though, is waiting for $25 million in frozen funds to be transferred into it's bank account. No word from the banks exactly what's going on and the other countries say, though, an opportunity to make progress is being lost while they wait.
An important decision is expected in the next few hours, Chairman Ben Bernanke (ph) and the Federal Reserve will announce whether they will change interest rates, it's expected that they're going to keep the interest rates at exactly the same, which is 5.25 percent.
M. O'BRIEN: A good news/bad news milestone for the new privately funded space race this morning. A rocket called Falcon 1, there you see it in on Omelek Island in the South Pacific, built by a California company called SpaceX, successfully made it to orbit.
It actually reached about 200 miles in altitude and lost the stages, just as they should, but then ran into some trouble. Look what happened. As the second stage got a little higher, it started wildly oscillating, apparently some kind of fuel leak they think. The test craft then reentered the atmosphere breaking up.
The SpaceX project is funded from the deep pockets of Ian Musk, the billionaire who gave the world PayPal. He is hoping that before too long, regular folks will be able to buy a ticket to ride to orbit on one of his rockets.
I'm in.
S. O'BRIEN: I bet you are. You're always in.
M. O'BRIEN: I'm easy on that.
Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Some people say it's an anti-Clinton ad and now there's one against Barack Obama. We'll take a look this morning at the dueling ads on YouTube and whether either campaign is standing to gain from them.
Plus they're rolling out the green carpet in Washington D.C., for Al Gore. Well tell you how the political climate has changed since the last beat of his drum. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is right here, on CNN.
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S. O'BRIEN: We're still a fairly long way out, but the race for '08 is getting hot and in some cases, more mysterious. A second campaign ad has popped up on YouTube. Have you seen this one? It's one against Senator Barack Obama. Its a takeoff on Apple's famed "1984" commercial. It appears to be payback for an almost identical ad that took a shot at Hillary Clinton.
Mary Snow reports for us this morning that these ads are raising some pretty important questions about just who is managing campaign messages.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As this unauthorized anti-Hillary Clinton ad on internet site, YouTube spreads in cyberspace, so does curiosity of who's behind it. The remake of a famous Apple Computer ad depicting George Orwell's (ph) "1984", features Senator Hillary Clinton as big brother and portrays Senator Barack Obama as the liberator.
Obama says his campaign was not behind it.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's not something that we had anything to do with or aware of and, frankly, given what it looks like, we don't have the textbook capacity to create something like that.
SNOW: As for senator Clinton's reaction, she says she hadn't seen the ad and didn't appeared too bothered by it.
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Anything which drives interest in these campaigns and gets people who otherwise are not at all interested in politics, I think that's probably to the good.
SNOW: The only clues behind the ad, a posting sign, ParkRidge47. Park Ridge, Illinois, is where Clinton was born in 1947. We tried contacting the post, but our e-mail went unanswered.
MICAH SIFRY, EDITOR TECHPRESIENT.COM: They said I want this ad to speak for itself. I'm not going to say who I am, but they obviously thought of it as a grassroots attack on Hillary Clinton.
SNOW: It's that grassroots element now on the internet that is really getting attention.
HOWARD KURTZ, CNN'S RELIABLE SOURCES: This is a historic shift from a world in which a few important media outlets kind of control the dialogue, to a game where anybody can play.
SNOW: Case in point, YouTube. It features moments not featured in campaign ads, like Democrat's John Edwards fixing his hair, Republican Rudy Giuliani shown out of context dressed like a woman. Web video postings also make it impossible to forget comments made on the record. For example, Republican Mitt Romney (ph) opposes abortion now, but in 1994:
MITT ROMNEY: I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country.
SNOW: Some say this election is not about how the candidates are using the internet, but rather how the internet uses candidates. Mary Snow, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: Now our ongoing series, Melting Point. A look at how the world is responding to global warming. In Washington today, the canary in the political coal mine, Al Gore, appearing before House and Senate committees focused on global warning. Gore was last on the hill to preside over his own defeat in the 2000 presidential election. Today he returns more profit than politician.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: Talk about a climate change. Al Gore is back home singing the same old tune, but no longer an off- beat, off-key solo.
DONNA BRAZILE, GORE 2000 CAMPAIGN CHARWOMAN: When Al Gore arrives on Capitol Hill, he will get the green carpet treatment.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: After all, he just stashed his statue from his red carpet glory in Hollywood. And his long-burning issue, global warming, is finally on the marquee in Washington. It wasn't even in previews in the Gore presidential campaign.
BRAZILE: No one was paying attention to this issue in 2000. Most voters felt the country was, you know, moving in the right direction.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: Certainly no one was paying attention when Al Gore first started talking about global warming. When he ran for president back in '88.
AL GORE: When it comes to cleaning up the environment, the next president must be prepared to offer leadership.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: And in '92 while running for vice president, his then newly-published "Earth in the Balance", invited some trash talk.
FMR. PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH: You know why I call him the ozone man? This guy is so far off in the environmental extreme we'll be up to our neck in owls and out of work for every American. UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: The snicker factor is now long gone. Today candidates in both parties are trying to make political hay in the hot sunshine.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our own independence is threatening not just our pocketbooks but the safety of our planet to do something about the huge moral issue facing our planet of climate change.
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We can stop global warming.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: Among Republicans, John McCain is leading the climate change charge.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We've got to start reducing these greenhouse gas emissions before our planet is unalterably heated.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: So why the change? Well 9/11, the war in Iraq, and rising gas prices made Americans stop and think about the foreign oil we burn. Everything from melting glaciers to Hurricane Katrina raise big questions about the climate. And some governors, led by Arnold Schwarzenegger in California, signed tough anti-global warming regulations. It is all a convenient truth for Al Gore as he savers his moment in the sun.
BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: He's decided that if he's not going to be president of the United States, he wants to devote the rest of his life to doing something very important. So, he's rediscovered an issue from early in his career and it's an issue that has taken on a great deal more urgency.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: But a lot of political observers wonder if Gore might leverage his leadership on this issue into yet another run for the Oval Office. Gore denies he's running but the questions just keep coming. Take a look at these poll numbers, without even being in the race, the former vice president is in third place with 14 percent this morning.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, he's doing alright. Without even trying.
M. O'BRIEN: It could be name recognition and could be something else there.
S. O'BRIEN: Might be.
CNN NEWSROOM just a couple minutes away. Heidi Collins is at the CNN Center with what is ahead for them this morning. Hey, Heidi, good morning.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Hey there, good morning Soledad. That's right. We have these stories coming up on the NEWSROOM rundown. Constitutional showdown. Congress may green light subpoenas as early as today in the fired prosecutors investigation. President Bush, defying Democrats, refusing to let top aides testify under oath.
And a twisted new tactic for Iraqi insurgents, kids in cars as decoys. The children killed when insurgents blow up the vehicles.
And Chinese food, it's mostly veggies so it's healthful, right? Well, hold that thought and pass the salt. I know you guys were talking about this a little bit earlier. It's pretty amazing. Tony Harris will be with me in the NEWSROOM, coming up, at the top of the hour on CNN.
Soledad?
S. O'BRIEN: Alright, Heidi, thank you.
COLLINS: You bet.
S. O'BRIEN: Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, heart health, do you know the condition of your arteries? You probably don't. We are going to page Dr. Sanjay Gupta to find out why knowing could be the big difference between life and death. You are watching AMERICAN MORNING, the most news in the morning is right here, on CNN.
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S. O'BRIEN: Some medical news this morning. You might feel fine, but if you've got clogged arteries you probably will not know it until it's too late. There's a new study now that's pinpointing your risk and we're paging Dr. Gupta to talk about it. Sanjay is in Atlanta this morning.
Hey, Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad. I found this study pretty alarming, actually, interesting, as well. Looking at people who have some degree of vascular disease, some problem with some of their blood vessels, but they feel fine.
The question for a long time is what about these people, what are the risks really in the long term? There are three places where you typically get some sort of vascular disease, you can get it in your peripheral arteries for example, in your legs, and also get it in your heart and in the arteries that lead to your brain, the carotid arteries.
What they decided to do, these researchers, was study lots of people, about 70,000 people. Not just here in the United States, but all over the world, 44 different countries. And what they found is, again, these are people who feel fine but just either had some degree of vascular disease or risk factors such as hypertension, excess weight or smoking and they found that one in seven of them had a major event within a year. Heart attack, stroke or death within a year.
And the real point of the study I think, showing first of all, this is not just a United States problem but a developing nation problem if you will, but also that as good as we've become at being able to treat heart disease, treat these sorts of problems, we're still not very good at targeting people who need prevention and getting them prevention before they develop one of these catastrophic problems.
One in seven within a year, these are people who felt fine but had some degree of disease in their body -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: But you've got to imagine, Sanjay, there's a lot of people out there who feel fine and have no idea they have clogged arteries or not, right?
GUPTA: Absolutely. And I think that's part of the problem. We're not practicing a culture of prevention. People show up at their doctor's office when they have chest pain, when they have TIA or something like that, but not beforehand. But there are ways to test for that, though, Soledad, that's the thing.
S. O'BRIEN: I was going to say, how do you know? I mean, do you -- so should everybody at a certain age start getting tested to make sure their arteries are clear?
GUPTA: Probably. I think that you know, seeing your doctor, at least, to get some initial tests and checking for some of the risk factors, which can give you a good idea of whether you have some of this disease.
But also I was concerned about it for myself, I have a family history of this so there are tests that you can get actually. I had the CT angiogram you're looking at there -- that's my heart.
And again, actually, you get that type of imaging. No needles, no heart catheterization or anything, just a CT scan of my heart that basically shows are my blood vessels open or not. And it gives me a degree of confidence as to what I need to do to make sure I don't develop any of these problems later on down the road.
S. O'BRIEN: It always freaks me out a little bit to know that I'm looking at your heart there Sanjay, I've got to be honest with you. Listen, let me ask you a question.
It is a very handsome heart, you are a very handsome man. Anyway, so, if you have, in fact, some kind of clogged arteries and you've got this dire news from this study that says within a year you're going to be in the hospital, you're going to have a heart attack, you're going to have a stroke, you might be dead. I mean, that's very dire news and there's a good chance of it -- decent chance of it. What do you do to turn back the clock?
GUPTA: Well, there are things you can do. There is a sort of emerging field, sort of called preventative treatment. Those words are a little bit, you know, they conflict with each other. But you can actually do things to actually not only stop the progression of plaque, but also to reverse it. So for example, you might be someone who needs a staton medication to actually stop plaque growth, to reduce your bad cholesterol levels. You might need to be on a baby dose of aspirin. We need to figure out who these people are early on so they don't develop these problems.
There are things that we can do but again, you know, doing the angioplasty, doing the bypass surgery, doing the surgery to open up the blood vessels going to your brain, that's when it's already progressed too far -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: It's too late by that point, as everybody needs to know their own. You really need to be responsible for your own health.
All right, Sanjay, thanks, as always.
GUPTA: Thank you.
S. O'BRIEN: Paging Dr. Gupta this morning. Miles?
M. O'BRIEN: Here's a quick look at what CNN "NEWSROOM" is working on for the top of the hour.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: See these stories in the CNN "NEWSROOM." Congress set to authorize subpoenas as early as today in the fired prosecutors investigation. President Bush refusing to let aides testify under oath.
Fresh from the Oscar stage Al Gore on Capitol Hill in 30 minutes. The topic, global warming.
Donated scooters for injured ball players. Bluffton University bus crash victims go mobile on campus. You're in the "NEWSROOM," 9:00 a.m. Eastern, 6:00 Pacific.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: That's all from here on this AMERICAN MORNING.
S. O'BRIEN: CNN "NEWSROOM" with Tony Harris and Heidi Collins begins right now.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris.
HEIDI COLLINS: And I'm Heidi Collins. For the next three hours watch events come into the NEWSROOM live on Wednesday, March 21st. Here's what's on the rundown.
Capitol collision -- Congress set to authorize subpoenas as early as today for top White House aides. President Bush refusing to let them testify under oath about fired prosecutors.
HARRIS: He's become something of a Hollywood celebrity, Al Gore taking his global warming campaign to the Capitol at this hour.
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