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Roads, Rails and Skies Packed; False Information: Who Misled Scott McClellan?; Drought Solutions

Aired November 21, 2007 - 14:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: OK. It's stormy in some spots, sunny in others. Whatever the case, the travel crunch is on.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Millions of you on the road or in the air, or both. And bracing for a mix of rough weather on the pre-Thanksgiving travel day, one of the busiest of the year.

Hello again, everyone.

I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Kyra Phillips, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.

LEMON: Traveling anywhere?

WHITFIELD: Just, what, 30 minutes away from here, to home?

LEMON: All right. Not so bad.

WHITFIELD: I know.

LEMON: And I'm Don Lemon.

You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Well, your flight and your drive, we're following your journey, and we're doing it by the minute.

Let's go straight to Chad Myers. He's in the CNN weather center.

(WEATHER REPORT)

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Allan, you have been insisting it's really not all that bad there, huh?

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, especially when you arrive in style. And, of course, this is on the only way to arrive here at LaGuardia airport whenever I travel. Actually, the people who are inside, they just arrived from Miami. They were a half hour late.

As you can see over here, not all that bad. The curbside check- in, boy, these guys actually who are working over there, they've been complaining. They say they are not getting quite enough business.

But let's take a walk inside and I'll show you the board and you can see just how bad the delays are. They are really not awful, as I have been mentioning all day long.

The departures -- well, over here, virtually everything is running on time. So that's very smooth.

The staffing here beefed up, from security to the ticket counters, all over the airport. Let me tell you, it should be like this every single day.

The problem we're beginning to have -- and it is getting worse now -- is on the arrivals, and it's because we've got some low cloud cover over here around the New York metro area. We're now seeing delays of a half hour. Some delays well over an hour, an hour 15, an hour and a half from most of the major cities that come in here -- Dallas, Chicago, Washington.

So the delays, as you mentioned, Jacqui, they are picking up. And as we move into the rush, this afternoon rush into the evening, chances are it's going to get worse, even though they tell me here that the forecast is for the clouds to actually lift. But so far, apparently it hasn't happened -- Jacqui.

JERAS: Haven't seen a lot of that just yet, Allan. In fact, might even see some rain down the line. Getting a lot colder there in New York City.

So things are busy in New York, at LaGuardia. Newark has also been really bad. It's just been a very busy day at all the airports -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. I did something on Flight Explorer here for a second.

I did all of the planes that are actually on the way to Atlanta, 167 planes in the air trying to land at Atlanta. And that's all good because it's good weather.

Wait until one thunderstorm gets close to Atlanta, and all these planes are going to be going around and around and around trying to get there because they are all going to be in a holding pattern. Let's hope that doesn't happen.

But this is where we get in trouble, when you have this. This is optimum, right?

JERAS: Right.

MYERS: This is as many planes as we can land in three hours. That's about three hours here. And if it doesn't happen, one thing goes wrong, dominoes.

JERAS: Got to space them out a little more, and that take as whole lot longer.

LEMON: I'm not sure if that is giving me any comfort seeing all of those planes in the sky at once. I'm a little nervous about flying anyway. JERAS: They are spaced out. We showed you that on the 3D.

MYERS: It's a big line. A line all the way down.

LEMON: Oh boy. All right. I'm going to close my eyes until that comes off the screen.

MYERS: All right.

LEMON: OK. So Allan, Chad, Jacqui, thank you. You guys talked about what is happening at several airports.

Let's go to Dallas now. Ed Lavandera traveling with his family, I understand. He just landed on a flight from Los Angeles and then via Denver, correct?

And you're -- what, are you in front of the gift shop now?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we just came over a few gates and, you know, kind of -- I was doing a little trolling down here along the gates to see if flights were on schedule or showing down. We've seen a couple of the flights that are delayed, as well.

And, you know, everything is delayed a half hour, 45 minutes from the things that we've been able to see. So, you know, just kind of that trickle-down effect.

So, you know, if a plane takes too long to de-ice in Denver, the next flight that (INAUDIBLE) on that plane is slow heading out as well. So we're seeing a little bit of that, especially in big cities like Denver, which is the United hub, of DFW, which is an American Airline hub. You'll see a little bit of that, and so we're seeing a lot of people kind of racing between these terminals and these gates trying to make the connections.

And, you know, actually, it's kind of helpful, you know, when your flight is in late, knowing that maybe your next flight is a little bit late, like happened to us, because we're delayed an hour to fly from DFW to LaGuardia. It's a little bit helpful, it releases a little bit of the stress. Although you do get in a little bit later.

So people mingling up to the coffee shops and the newsstands to catch up with what is going on.

LEMON: OK. And Ed, I don't know, can your camera move? Can you pan around and show us down the terminal there. Is that possible?

LAVANDERA: Let me see. Feel comfortable moving this a little bit? It's a little bit jerky if we move it given we're...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Oh, we can see. It's fine. That's OK.

LAVANDERA: OK. Well, we'll stick with it then and head back this way. This is some of the other -- this is C terminal, and a bunch of people at this gate here. People are waiting to fly to Vail, Colorado, and it's delayed by about a half an hour. So these folks are headed to Vail, which actually sounds really nice now that I think about it. And since it started snowing in Colorado overnight, these folks are probably getting some good news...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Yes. And you know what, Ed? Don't worry about it. We can see you just fine there and we know it's new technology. It's a little bit fuzzy, but it's still good.

We can see it.

Now, I understand, also, Ed, your family is traveling with you, the entire gang?

LAVANDERA: Yes, we stopped by and picked them up. In fact, here. We'll have a little bit of fun.

LEMON: Oh.

WHITFIELD: Oh.

LAVANDERA: This is 3-year-old little Nicholas (ph).

Want to say hi?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi.

LEMON: Hi, Nicholas (ph).

LAVANDERA: Want to say Happy Thanksgiving?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Happy Thanksgiving.

LEMON: Oh, very nice.

LAVANDERA: Want to say it again a little bit louder?

No?

LEMON: Oh, we heard him. We heard him. So you've got...

LAVANDERA: Just doing a little pit stop, picking up the family.

LEMON: Who else -- who do you have with you? You've got one kid, a wife, and who else?

LAVANDERA: We've got 3-year-old Nicholas (ph) here and twin girls.

LEMON: Twin girls.

LAVANDERA: Nick (ph) is excited about seeing -- hopefully Scooby Doo will make it into the Macy's parade tomorrow in New York.

WHITFIELD: Is it direct from Dallas to where you're going?

LAVANDERA: So while daddy works he's going to bring along the family.

LEMON: I don't think so. I know we have a map.

Ed, what's your next stop?

LAVANDERA: LaGuardia, New York.

WHITFIELD: All right.

LAVANDERA: So I haven't had a chance to hear any other reports out of New York, so if you guys can fill me in, I know it was going really smoothly this morning in terms of planes taking off and landing. And there's a lot of good news being reported out of there. So I'm hoping that's still the case.

LEMON: Yes. Do you know what time you get into LaGuardia tonight? I might see you, because I'm flying in there.

So get a ticket. Get a ticket for...

LAVANDERA: Around 6:00 Eastern Time.

LEMON: OK. If you get at ticket though for "The Grinch," because we're hearing now it's open, so you can take the little one with you to see "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas." And we're going to bring in -- Fred is here. She's marveling at your little kid.

WHITFIELD: I think that's so cute.

LEMON: And we're going to also bring in...

WHITFIELD: But, you know, then I see the little ones, so I wonder how they're doing with the travel.

LEMON: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Since they haven't taken off yet and we heard earlier from Chad, what, an hour and a half delay arrivals into LaGuardia, I hate to be the grinch for you there, Ed, but yikes.

LEMON: Yes. Chad is in there now.

Chad, what's he looking at for LaGuardia.

MYERS: Well, it's called the ground delay program. And it's exactly what he saw when he walked up to the gate and thought the plane was on time and said, oh, well, now it's 60 minutes delayed.

Actually, the average delay into LaGuardia is 71 minutes. And these are ground delay programs because of the arrival rate. You can't get enough planes on the ground because of the low ceilings there in New York. So remember how I talked about how the optimal conditions are happening right now in Atlanta so all the planes can get in?

WHITFIELD: Yes.

MYERS: Well, all the planes cannot get into LaGuardia in this big crush hour, as we call it, not rush hour. But planes are coming in here.

There are 71 planes in the sky right now on the way to LaGuardia. At least there was last time I checked. But you can see they are all coming up the corridor here, down in, across east, and making the big left-hand turn, and then landing there are LaGuardia.

So things are still happening and planes are still getting in. But because of this delay and the arrival rate -- 50 planes or so -- let's make a number. Fifty planes want to get in but only 32 are allowed in because of the conditions.

Well, that makes 18 planes that have to be bumped later and later and later. And there you go with the domino effect, because obviously those 18 planes want to make it, too. So they are put to the next hour.

Well, the next hour, you still only can get 35 or so planes in.

WHITFIELD: Oh my god.

MYERS: So now's there more planes bumped to the next hour and so on and so on. And you have planes still landing at midnight, 12:30 and 2:00 in the morning because they've been bumped and bumped and bumped.

WHITFIELD: A lot of ruffled feathers up there then, as they say, for this turkey day.

LEMON: Oh yes.

MYERS: Hey, it's his job. He's getting paid.

WHITFIELD: Well, maybe not Ed's ruffled feathers. I'm just talking about all the other folks who are in those 18 planes that you talked about, et cetera.

LEMON: All right.

So Chad, Ed, and also Nicholas (ph)...

WHITFIELD: Ed has got a good temperament...

LEMON: ... we thank you very much.

WHITFIELD: ... so, you know, smooth sailing.

LEMON: Yes. So does Nicholas (ph).

MYERS: All right. Good luck, buddy.

LEMON: We thank everybody.

If you're hitting the road or flying the skies, make CNN.com your first destination, of course. Check out our special report and get an online travel kit with tips on where to go and how best to get there. That and more, much, much more, at CNN.com/holidaytravel.

WHITFIELD: All right. And get this. This will really ruffle your feathers, so to speak, too. A medical mix-up in California. Reports say actor Dennis Quaid's newborn twins were put in danger.

LEMON: And this. Airlines tell you they will take good care of your kids when they fly solo. Well, what happens when they are put to the test? We'll tell you.

WHITFIELD: Oh boy.

And put each other to the test. The Democratic presidential front-runners kick it up a notch when they talk about each other.

You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

WHITFIELD: And a former White House press secretary says he was misled about the media leak involving one-time CIA operative Valerie Plame. Scott McClellan is writing a book about his White House tenure, including the Plame incident. His publisher has released an excerpt that has reignited the debate over the administration's role in the incident.

Our Jessica Yellin is following the story for us from the White House.

Jessica, I imagine there are a lot of folks who are a little unnerved and upset about this book.

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A lot of folks scratching their head, a little bit confused about exactly what the implications are.

The excerpt that you mentioned appeared on his publisher's Web site. The book itself that McClellan is currently writing doesn't even come out until next April. But in these excerpts, there are just a few short paragraphs that talk about one briefing in particular in which McClellan told reporters that neither Karl Rove nor Scooter Libby was involved in leaking the name of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: They good individuals. They're important members of our White House team. And that's why I spoke with them so that I could come back to you and say that they were not involved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YELLIN: Now, that was back in 2003. Now McClellan writes in this book that he unknowingly passed along false information when he made that statement and he said five top administration officials, including both the White House chief of staff then and President Bush, were involved in Scott's decision to make the announcement.

Well, current White House press secretary Dana Perino had a swift response to this news. She has said that, "The president has not and would not ask anyone to knowingly pass along false information."

So the question is, what exactly does McClellan mean when he says the president was involved in the decision to pass along this information? Scott himself won't talk to the press right now, and it leaves open a number of questions. Possibly the president himself was misled.

I spoke to the publisher, who is talking to the press, and he told me there's no suggestion in this book that President Bush deliberately lied or sent Scott to the podium to tell people something that wasn't true. And I also spoke with Andy Card, the White House chief of staff at that time, who said it would be really helpful if Scott McClellan himself came out and explained what he means by this word "involved" to clear this up for everybody.

For his part, Andy Card says, he would never ask someone to lie on his behalf for the White House, at least doesn't remember doing that -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Wow, Jessica. And I wonder, is there some unwritten rule that perhaps is, you know, kind of fluttering about Washington which says if you're going to work this closely with the president, even upon your departure, whether it was good or bad, you almost never say something unflattering about the commander in chief?

YELLIN: Well, this kind of revelation is enormously unusual because of that close relationship the press secretary does have. At the same time, it is also unusual for a press secretary to have lost this much credibility over an issue and have been publicly exposed to have been told bad information while he was acting as press secretary.

So McClellan here as a real interest in preserving his credibility. And he said as much to reporters. He really wants to clear up what happened.

WHITFIELD: Interesting. All right.

Jessica Yellin.

No one's mentioned anything about what kind of advance he got on the book by the way, either, huh?

YELLIN: Good point.

WHITFIELD: Is that still mum? OK.

YELLIN: Still mum -- $27.95, that's what the book is going to cost.

WHITFIELD: OK.

Jessica Yellin at the White House.

Thanks.

LEMON: Trusting your child's safety to airline workers, is it a good idea? A test case involving a young girl flying solo might surprise and even shock you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: A drought is affecting nearly half the country, with much of the Southeast suffering severe conditions. But some homeowners are finding solutions to the water shortage, solutions that let them landscape despite watering bans, and save money as well.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In Atlanta, where the prayers for rain are still unanswered, a lot of folks are turning over a new leaf.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So these are oak leaf hydrangeas and pachysandras and the ferns. These are all very drought-tolerant.

O'BRIEN: Rita Kosolo (ph) is on a mission to save every drop of water she can. She began outside, getting some plants that are not very thirsty and then capturing whatever moisture Mother Nature is willing to bestow.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When it rained, it came all the way up to here, and the soaker hose ran out to the trees.

O'BRIEN: Inside she's made a lot of little changes that add up to big water savings, like this can under the kitchen faucet.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wash my hands and it just goes in there, and then I can take it out and water my herbs. This is much better than the other one.

O'BRIEN: She's installed a more efficient shower...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A little bit. A little bit.

O'BRIEN: ... sinks that flow at a gallon and a half per minute...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's good.

O'BRIEN: ... and improved the biggest home water user of all, the toilet. The experts say if you do all of this you can cut your water usage in half.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Put them, you'll see your water bill come down straight away.

O'BRIEN: The average American uses 80 to a hundred gallons of water each and every day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To me it is a natural resource that I've been taking for granted.

O'BRIEN: Not anymore. She and millions of others are learning how precious water is, the hard way.

Miles O'Brien, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Hello, everyone, I'm Don Lemon live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.

WHITFIELD: I'm Fredricka Whitfield in for Kyra Phillips today. You're putting your child on a plane alone this thanksgiving, perhaps. Well, should you be concerned for his or her safety? A test case that might cause you to worry.

You're in the NEWSROOM.

LEMON: In the air, on the road, CNN is tracking your holiday journey. Check out the snowy scenes all over the country. See the radar there let's get straight to CNN's Chad Myers. He's the weather center with the very latest for us. Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Snow in the north and severe weather kind of building up in the central plains around Memphis and Little Rock. The big red box you see pop up at the very last second right there. That is now a tornado watch box in effect until later tonight. That's going to be the area that we're going to watch for the potential for tornadoes. Severe weather. Thunder, lightning and some hail damage. Also Des Moines picking up snow. Down to Fall City, Nebraska City, Beatrice and now down even into northern Kansas picking up snow. Looks like some of those interstates are going to slow down and get very icy as we talk about sunset. When the sun is out, I know you can't see it because the clouds but the sun is still get downing to the ground a little bit. That keeps it roadways warm enough. As soon as sunset happens, the roads and the bridges just go very quickly over to ice. You need to be careful there.

Chicago seeing rainfall, as well. Rain into Des Moines. Look at the temperature contrast between Denver, Kansas city, 23, 32 and then Memphis, 71. This contrast, this line is the cold front and that's the focus where the severe weather will be today. Whenever we get warm and cold so close together the cold pushing into the warm we will get severe weather. It's going to pop up today. There's going to be more than the one box. That means it's potential. Storms could get strong enough that contain tornado. When we say there's a warning that means something has been spotted on radar or someone's actually seen it out there on the roadways. That has not happened yet. This is joust a potential for that to happen.

And for tomorrow we have snow in Chicago, Toronto and also into Montreal. Our Jacqui Jeras has been watching other things all day today as well. Airports travel, you got roadways here. I don't actually see the red dots.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, red dots are not good. And you know you were talking about the severe weather too, Chad. It's one thing to keep in mind, if you're going to be traveling and you know you're in one of those areas, a good thing is to pay attention to the road signs and check the county that you're in. So when you have the radio on you can listen for them to announce the county if there's a warning, because the roadway is one of the worst places you can possibly be during severe weather.

Well Chicago, maybe not the worst place you could be but certainly not pretty at this time. Let's look at our Google Earth and our traffic information on that. There's a major jam factor right now on the Eisenhower Expressway outbound. It's jammed from Ashland to Des Plains Avenue. The delay is about 36 minutes and there you can see the circle exchange in that loop that we had there showing you some of the rain. I'm sure the wet roadways aren't helping things, at all.

All right. Let's take a trip down to the south. Getting close to that rush hour time in Atlanta and there we see, again, the red dots. This is main thoroughfare through town, Interstate 75, 85. There you can see the connector and the traffic is really beginning to pick up and moving at very, very slow rate at this time. You know it's just going to get worse for those of us like Chad and I who have to work today and are going to try to get home after the show.

We have a live picture out of Atlanta to show you some of the conditions right now. Look at that though. That's a pretty shot. Isn't it this afternoon? This morning, this afternoon. The clouds are beginning to pick in. We might get some rain in Atlanta for the thanksgiving holiday. If you're traveling to the airport, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson Airport is moving very smoothly. No delays right now. Less than ten minutes for security which is like unheard of. I never experienced that before. But if you're going to park, the north and south economy lots are full.

Let's go ahead and show you our flight explorer now and I want to show you the planes that are lined up trying to get into Atlanta. You can see the nice lines trying to make their way in there. We do have no delays in Atlanta but we do have some up in Boston and they are starting to pick up a little bit. 45 minutes arrival delays due to the low clouds and fog and there you can see how they are lined up and stacked up. We've got some of the circling Chad was talking about earlier trying to get -- spread them out a little bit and get them into there on time. But yes, 45 minute delay not terrible. Most people staying under an hour, guys. Overall, I would say this day was pretty good, wouldn't you? Not bad.

MYERS: Not bad. It's not over yet. Keep your fingers crossed.

JERAS: A few hours to go.

LEMON: A few hours. OK. Thank you Chad, and Jacqui, as well.

WHITFIELD: Speaking of flying, of course, perhaps your child may be flying alone this thanksgiving holiday. Should you trust the airline workers with his or her safety? It's a question many parents should be asking themselves. Our affiliate WBBH in Ft. Myers, Florida, wanted to see how a young girl would be treated as she flew alone on several flights. Here now is reporter Kara Kenney.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARA KENNEY, WBBH: It's dinnertime for 8-year-old Gina as parents, Coleen and Jeff booked flights to help us uncover what happens when children fly alone. Flying the largest airlines in and out of RSW that allow unaccompanied minors to travel with connections, we booked flights to New York on Delta, Continental and Air-Tran.

COLEEN LOMBARDO, MOTHER: I really need to know my child will be safe.

KENNEY: All charge an extra fee for children traveling alone, from 40 to $95.

KENNEY: For this investigation I went on the same flights as Gina using this home video camera. The video you're about to see is what I taped during the trip. Our first test is with Delta, a flight to Newark connecting in Atlanta. Colleen drops Gina at the gate and watches her board the flight. Arriving in Atlanta, a Delta agent puts Gina on the cart. During the trip the driver stops at a gate and walks away to talk to another employee. For two and a half minutes, Gina is left by herself. We showed our video to child safety expert Dr. Duane Dobbert.

DR. DUANE DOBBERT, CHILD SAFETY EXPERT: I'm just concerned about this.

KENNEY: Dobbert says it only take as second for a child to wander off, get lost, or worse.

DOBBERT: Somebody could very well observe the fact she is alone. This is obvious to me. This child is alone.

KENNEY: Gina is then taken to the gate where she is placed behind the counter to be watched by a ticket agent. The agent talks with customers, takes tickets, talks on the phone and at one point walks away for 30 seconds leaving Gina by herself. A few minutes later Gina wanders away and returns without the agent noticing.

LOMBARDO: That's not good at all. She could have walked off. She could have gotten taken.

KENNEY: Delta responded to our investigation with this statement. "The nominal fee charged for unaccompanied travel does not ensure a travel companion but does ensure the Delta employees will get the child to the departure flight."

Next we test Continental flying from Newark to Ft. Meyers via Tampa. When we arrive Gina is left with this woman at the gate. For an hour, Gina sits alone in the main seating area while Continental employees work nearby. At one point, Gina has to go to the bathroom. I watch as she tries to get someone's attention. She gives up going by herself and returning a minute later.

LOMBARDO: She was by herself basically.

KENNEY: But the most egregious error comes when Gina arrives in Ft. Meyers. No one asked her mom for identification or to sign the paperwork Continental requires at the end of a flight. When we call Continental, they send us this statement. "Based on the information in this report, we will review procedures with our staff operating the Tampa Ft. Myers segment to ensure that they are aware of the special needs of children traveling alone."

DOBBERT: If you have to go back and review your procedure it means your protocol isn't very strong right now.

KENNEY: Our final test is on Air-Tran, a flight from LaGuardia to Ft. Myers connecting in Atlanta. Our flight was an hour late and Gina is rushed to the gate and boards the connecting flight without any problems. Even so, Coleen says Gina won't ever fly alone again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And so if your child has to fly solo consider these tips from the experts. Tell your child exactly what to expect during the flight. Review the airline's policy. Take extra precautions for connecting flights and if possible, escort your child on to the aircraft.

LEMON: All good tips. They are two of the most powerful cholesterol drugs but doctors still aren't sure how well they work. Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange with the very latest on this. What drugs are we talking about, Susan?

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're talking about Zetia and Vytorin and they are popular cholesterol lowering drugs, Don, and they are worth billions to the companies that sell them, Merck and Shearing Plow. But two years after the drug trials ended, the companies still haven't released data that cardiologists want. The two companies now say they will present some of the results in March. They say analyzing the data has taken longer than expected. The two companies say there were 40,000 artery scans examined. Doctors are concerned that millions of people could be taking an unnecessary risk of heart attack if the drugs aren't truly effective. Sales of those two drugs trail Lipitor which is still the market leading cholesterol drug. Don. LEMON: Those aren't the only drugs that there is some concern about, right?

LISOVICZ: That's right. Pfizer's Chantix is an anti-smoking drug and millions have been taking that drug but the FDA is asking doctors to closely monitor those patients. Pfizer has agreed to include a new warning that there are reports of depression, agitation and suicide associated with taking the drug. The FDA says it has received 100 reports of these problems since May of 2006 but it says today's warning is for doctors to monitor patients. It does not believe doctors should stop prescribing Chantix. Here on Wall Street, while stocks are depressed but traders don't seem to be if you can hear them cheering.

LEMON: We can hear it. What is that? What is going on?

LISOVICZ: It's basically like Friday here because the market is closed tomorrow. It's a half day on Friday and you know basically the market is open but nobody is home. It's very light volume. We don't have a magic pill to turn around the sell off but we're certainly off the lows. General Motors, one of the factors in the turn around. It was the biggest loser of the Dow 30 in the morning. It announced that it is financing arm GMAC is hiring advisers to explore sale of portions of its home lending unit and now GM is the best gainer of the Dow 30 but still triple digit losses. Blue Chips down 103 points or about one percent. The NASDAQ is down half a percent.

Coming up, how corporate America says thanks to the men and women in uniform. I'll tell you some ways companies are reaching out on this thanksgiving. That's in the next hour of NEWSROOM. Fred and Don, back to you.

LEMON: We thought they were cheering every time you came up on the TV screen. All right.

LISOVICZ: No, they are horsing around, basically.

LEMON: All right. Susan, we'll check back. Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Well danger, political mudslinging, candidates Clinton and Obama go at it over foreign policy experience in the race for the White House.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Boy, it is getting rough out there. We're just a little more than a month away from the Iowa caucus and things are a little tense in the race for the white house right now. Our Bill Schneider is keeping an eye on things including the back and forth between democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Bill, what is that all about?

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's about foreign policy experience and how much each of the two top ranked democrats has. Barack Obama counted his world experience when he said the other day that he has experienced living in other countries as a child. He lived overseas in Southeast Asia and that gave him knowledge of how ordinary people in other countries live. Senator Clinton came back at him directly by name when she talked about voters judging whether living in a foreign country at the age of ten prepares someone to deal with the big complex international challenges the next president will face. Ouch! It was direct. It was forthright and it was kind of ugly. His campaign returned fire, his campaign spokesman said Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld have had a lot of experience in the White House and they along with Hillary Clinton led us into the worst foreign policy disaster in a generation. It's getting ugly out.

LEMON: You know what and Bill, Obama has made no secret about his past use when it comes to young people, his past drug use, and he's being criticized for his comments with a group of students. He actually wrote about this in his first book. Did something go wrong with this when he was with the students?

SCHNEIDER: I'm not sure anything went wrong. I got into drinking, I experimented with drugs and he said man I wasted a lot of time he told some high school students in New Hampshire. He had written about this in his book where he talked about his experimentation with drugs, marijuana, alcohol. Clearly what he's trying to do hoping by bringing it up here on the campaign trail number one, voters may appreciate his honesty and number two, they will regard it as a youthful indiscretion because it was something he did as a teenager when he was growing up and going to school in Hawaii. We'll see.

LEMON: OK. Let's get back to the polls because there's interesting results in two new polls. First in New Hampshire, what is going on with Hillary Clinton?

SCHNEIDER: Well, her momentum is stalled and that's now reflected in the new poll in New Hampshire. As you can see here, she is down seven points since September from 43 to 36 percent. She is still the front-runner. Well who is gaining? Obama's picked up a couple of points but Bill Richardson has gained six points. So it looks like voters are having a few second thoughts about Hillary Clinton although she is still pretty solidly in the lead in New Hampshire as well as nationwide.

LEMON: OK. And Bill, no big surprise in Iowa. Huckabee is really on the move. Is that a big surprise or no?

SCHNEIDER: Well, it's not if you follow the campaign closely and you know that he's catching on with evangelical voters. As you can see here, he's tripled his support from July. Eight percent in July, 24 percent in September and this new poll. And he's gaining. He's only four points behind the front-runner Mitt Romney who is expected to win Iowa because he's invested so much time and so much money there. Who is this good news for? Well, it could be good news not just for Huckabee but also Rudy Giuliani who would like to see Mitt Romney defeated in Iowa or at least in second place because he believes his strongest likely challenger for the front runner position is likely to be Mitt Romney. Rudy Giuliani is not unhappy to see Mike Huckabee make these gains.

LEMON: Bill Schneider, part of the best political team on television, we thank you, sir. Happy thanksgiving to you.

SCHNEIDER: Same to you.

If you want the most up to the minute political news available anywhere, CNN.com is your one stop shop. Get behind the scenes details from the best political team on television and see why it's the Internet's premier destination for news, CNNpolitics.com.

KAREEN WYNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kareen Wynter in Hollywood. Finally some good news for Broadway theater fans. I'll have the details when CNN NEWSROOM continues.

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WHITFIELD: All right. Just in time for the holidays, some good news for Broadway fans in particular. CNN entertainment's correspondent Kareen Wynter joins us with the details. Good timing.

WYNTER: Perfect timing, I would say, Fred. How about this? It seems that the grinch didn't steal the show after all. Just learned that a Manhattan judge will allow the Broadway production of "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" to reopen despite the stagehand strike. The ruling came a day after the judge heard arguments from producers of the show and owners of the theater which houses the $6 million production. The theater owners plan to appeal the judge's decision. The grinch production will resume at 11:00 a.m. on Friday.

Well, switching gears here. This is really a serious story, Fred. It's actually every parents' worst nightmare but it actually happened to actor Dennis Quaid and his family. The newborn twins of Quaid and his wife Kimberly were given accidentally given an overdose of blood thinner at Cedar-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. The twins were reportedly given a thousand times, that's right, a thousand times the normal concentration of heparin, which is a blood thinner. Hospital officials said it appears at this point that there was no harm to any patient but a chief medical at the center did issue a medical chief did issue the statement to CNN which reads in part "I want to extend my deepest apologies to the families who were affected by this situation. We will continue to work with them on any concerns or questions they may have. Now, this was a preventable error." The statement goes on to say, "Involving a failure to follow our standard policies and procedures and there is no excuse for that to occur at Cedar-Sinai." The mix-up allegedly also occurred with other patients. The hospital would not elaborate with who specifically.

Meanwhile, a Quaid spokesman also issued a statement saying Dennis and Kimberly appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers. They hope they can maintain their privacy during the very difficult time. By the way, Fred, the twins were born on November 8 using a surrogate mother. The State Department of Public Health says the agency is now investigating reports of an alleged incident involving newborn twins at Cedar-Sinai. A tough thing to happen, especially over the holidays too.

WHITFIELD: Yes. Too sad. Let's hope the twins are able to rebound. All right. In the meantime I hear you also have a little good news out of Hollywood?

WYNTER: Yes. Let's go back to a high note. It's been about 70 years since the "Wizard of Oz" premiered at Grumman's Chinese Theater and believe it or not, finally a few of the film's munchkins well they got their just do. Yesterday, check this out, they received a collective star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Seven of the surviving actors who played the inhabitants of Munchkin Land attended the ceremony. A yellow carpet that resembled the film's yellow brick road, lead them to the stage. How creative? One even tap danced and the another sang.

All right. Coming up tonight on "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT", the SHOWBIZ turkey awards. There's a unique one. The stars that did such ridiculous outrageous things through the years that made people say what a turkey. The big winners or perhaps we should say losers on TV's most provocative entertainment news show "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT," at 11 p.m. eastern, 10 pacific. Back to you, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Kareen, sounds good. We'll be watching. Thank you.

LEMON: This was a moment last night quite a moment in television. A coup turns into a crisis right in front of Larry King's own eyes. Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Jan Adams was booked to talk about his late patient, Dr. Donda West. Well, the mother of hip hop star Kanye West died a day after Adams performed surgery but just moments into the show last night, Adams bid Larry a polite good evening, consternation ensued.

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DR. JAN ADAMS, PLASTIC SURGEON: What I really want to say want to thank you for this opportunity, basically, I had come here to talk about things in the press that aren't accurate about me. But I have a tremendous amount of love and respect for the west family and they asked me not to go on and I said from the very beginning I don't have a side in this. They are my side. And so I'm going to respect their wishes. And I'm going to apologize to you because I think I'm taking up your airtime. But I will not be on the show and I will not discuss any of that. I'm going to honor their wishes. Okay?

LARRY KING, CNN ANCHOR: OK. Meaning you won't answer any questions about anything.

ADAMS: None.

KING: Then how will, will you ever answer questions? Where does this go?

ADAMS: Well, I will talk with them when they are comfortable, then I'll be comfortable. If they are never comfortable then I will never be comfortable. They are what is important to me. I said that from the start. That's what I'll continue to honor.

KING: Just a few things having nothing to do with them. Don't you want to speak out? ADAMS: No.

KING: You don't want to?

ADAMS: No. I do not.

KING: All right. But you came here to speak out.

ADAMS: That's correct but I'm going to honor their wishes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: I think Larry did a great job of keeping him talking as long as he did. A true professional there. And as for Larry, he may have lost a guest but he gained a brand new chapter for his memoirs.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KING: I used to say nothing has ever happened before that hasn't happened before. In other words, I've had everything happen to me in 50 years except that. I've had fires in the studio. I've had people fight. I have had people hit each other on the set running for mayor of Miami Beach punch each other but I have never had a guest rip-off the mike and remain friendly. He stayed until the end. He was there at the end of the show. He was very friendly to me. He took out, he said he was taking my producer to dinner because she had gone through so much over this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Will Larry have better luck tonight? Tune in at 9:00 eastern. He's planning, planning we should say to chat with the finalist of "Dancing with the Stars" but you never know. Anything can happen especially when you're watching "LARRY KING LIVE," 9:00 p.m. eastern only here on CNN.

WHITFIELD: I don't think they will dance off the set though.

LEMON: You don't thin? Well, he had one of the finalists on. He had Marie Osmond on and that was a very interesting interview. He asked her one question that kind of took her by surprise about her son. Of course, Larry always making news. You never know what is going to happen on Larry King.

WHITFIELD: You're right about that. It's unpredictable. That's why you have to watch.

All right. Well fire is deliberately set along French rail lines. Why would anyone do that? Are they the worker of transit strikers or someone else trying to discredit them?

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