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Lou Dobbs Tonight
Clinton Makes Declaration to Fight Until the End; McCain Defends Policies on the Economy
Aired April 01, 2008 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LOU DOBBS, HOST, LOU DOBBS TONIGHT: Thank you, John.
Tonight, the Bush administration says it's determined to build hundreds of miles of fence along our southern border, but what about the rest of that 2,000-mile long border with Mexico? We'll have that report.
And more than a million students dropping out of high school each and every year in this country, our public school system is failing an entire generation of students. We'll have that report.
And rising criticism of the Bush administration's plan to regulate Wall Street, critics say the plan will do nothing to help our struggling middle class. The chairman of the powerful House Financial Services Committee, Congressman Barney Frank joins me. We'll have all of that, all the day's news and much more straight ahead here tonight.
ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT: news, debate, and opinion for Tuesday, April 1. Live from New York, Lou Dobbs.
DOBBS: Good evening everybody.
Senator Clinton today declared she will fight to the very end in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Senator Clinton said she will never give up, despite rising pressure from the Obama campaign and its supporters and the media to quit. House Speaker Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi today said the election must run its course, but she said Democrats must unite around one candidate before the party's convention in August.
We have extensive coverage tonight from our reporters on the campaign trail and we begin with Dan Lothian in Philadelphia.
Dan, strong words from Senator Clinton today. Tell us precisely what she said.
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well that's right. You know as you were saying, she has been coming out and saying that she is not getting out of this race, but today she took it to another level, essentially putting in exclamation mark on that statement.
She invoked the name of "Rocky Balboa" and for those of you who are not familiar with that movie "Rocky", the first one was shot here in Philadelphia. In fact, I'm standing in front of the art museum and those steps behind me those are the steps that Rocky ran up during the movie. And so essentially what she was doing is equating her fight to stay in the race and his fight in the ring.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Can you imagine if Rocky Balboa had gotten half way up those art museum stairs and said, I guess that's about far enough? That's not the way it works. Let me tell you something, when it comes to finishing the fight, Rocky and I have a lot in common.
I never quit, I never give up. And I know that we're going make it together, not just up those stairs, but we're going to climb that mountain to a better day for America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LOTHIAN: What's interesting is that this entire controversy had somewhat been dying down a bit. There were no loud voices, big name voices like Senator Patrick Leahy coming out today and saying she should step down. In fact, Senator Barack Obama was asked the question whether she should get out of the race this morning on a radio show here in Pennsylvania and he said as long as she wanted to stay in the race that she should stay in the race.
But it was Senator Clinton who actually brought it up today. She was speaking to members at the AFLCIO meeting here in Philadelphia today and she was the one who brought up the comment about Rocky, essentially Lou just digging in her heels, saying that she's not going anywhere.
DOBBS: Dan, thank you very much. Dan Lothian in Philadelphia, Dan, if you would stand by there for us. We're going...
LOTHIAN: OK.
DOBBS: We're likely to come back to you here later in the broadcast.
House Speaker Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi today said she now wants the Democratic race to continue until the last round of primaries. The speaker also said the party's super delegates have a right to vote as they wish in the convention. Bill Schneider has our report from Washington.
Bill, did Speaker Pelosi change her position on the super delegates and when to end this race today?
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Oh, she didn't really change it. She was ambivalent. Because you know what, the party rules are ambivalent about this. She says the delegates have a right to vote their conscience, not just the super delegates, but all the delegates under party rules can vote their conscience, but they have to be -- they are supposed to be a fair reflection, the rules say, of what the primary and caucus voters have said.
But at the same time, she said if the votes of the super delegates overturn what happened in the election, it would do great damage to the party, so she was sort of taking both sides of that, which is exactly what the party rules say. That you know they're supposed to fairly reflect the primary voters, at the same time they're supposed to vote their conscience.
DOBBS: Bill, Speaker Pelosi was basically calling for Clinton to shut it down a couple of days ago. And now Barack Obama is saying you know, which by the way I think is amazing, it's very kind of him to say that she may stay in the race.
SCHNEIDER: Yes.
DOBBS: I mean this has reached a silly, silly proportion. And the reason it has reached this silly, silly position right now in my opinion is because we in the national media have played along with this pro Obama nonsense for a very long time.
SCHNEIDER: Well, I think the national media has calculated here and I've done this calculation, is it's difficult to see how Senator Clinton can overtake Obama in either pledged delegates or popular votes. The calculation I did shows that in order to overtake his delegate lead, pledged delegates, he's behind in super delegates.
She would have to win about two-thirds of the remaining pledged delegates. That's very tough for her to do. And in popular votes, she would have to win about 56 percent of the remaining voters. She's done that in only a few primaries, so it just looks a very difficult thing for her to accomplish. Some people in the Obama camp say well if it's so tough, why doesn't she just get out now and spare us all the battle.
DOBBS: If I may say, you have got some broccoli, some onions and some apples in all of that. Bill, let me ask you this. As an Independent and I've got no view one way or the other on the Republican or the Democratic side of this thing. But what you said was she can't win the nomination. Neither can Senator Obama.
(CROSSTALK)
DOBBS: The fact is they're separated by just about 130 delegate votes.
SCHNEIDER: That's exactly right.
DOBBS: And she has the lead in super delegate votes, so why in the world is there this compulsion, this absolute insistence in the national media to talk about the fact she can't win the nomination? Neither can Senator Obama. And I have never seen in my career greater favoritism being applied in the national media broadly speaking than in this campaign in behalf of Senator Obama and against Senator Clinton.
SCHNEIDER: Well you're exactly right that neither one of the two candidates is likely to be able to win a majority of the delegates before the convention. The super delegates is going to make one or the other of them finally the nominee. Closure is going reach -- be reached by the super delegates. (CROSSTALK)
SCHNEIDER: Historical role is what they did with Walter Mondale. He didn't reach a majority either, but he was ahead in pledged delegates, so they made him the nominee.
DOBBS: But Bill, this is going on without challenge in too many quarters in the national media and I'm talking about major broadcasts, news organizations, major cable news organizations, major newspapers and magazines and it's going on unchallenged. And it's absolutely to me obscene. Have you ever seen anything like it?
SCHNEIDER: Not really. This is a little different from anything I've ever seen before. It's a very different race from anything I've ever seen before, very close. We saw something like it with Kennedy and Carter in 1980 where people were saying that Kennedy's cause was hopeless. That he shouldn't take it to the convention. Well he never gave up either. He took it to the convention. He ended up losing the vote there.
DOBBS: Well and the very idea that this should not go to convention, that this should not be decided by the super delegates, could we put forward this headline for everyone in the national media supporting either Obama or Clinton? This race, unless there is something amazing in terms of a development unforeseen here, will be decided by the super delegates. Is that a correct statement?
SCHNEIDER: That is correct.
DOBBS: All right. Perhaps we should headline it, Bill Schneider, if you will stick around just for a minute. I want to go back to Dan Lothian for a moment on this very issue. Dan, Senator Clinton, how is she changing her strategy? How is she adapting to benefit from what is now a clear, a clear demonstration of favoritism in the national media for Senator Obama and against her?
LOTHIAN: Well Lou, she really is taking advantage of this controversy. In essence what she's doing is she's rallying supporters, trying to get the word out to voters, not only when she's out at her events, but also in fund-raising letters. And she's structuring her story this way, saying listen, all of these people who are trying to get me to get out of the race are essentially trying to suppress your vote.
They're trying to keep your vote from counting. So she's using that because she realizes that obviously when voters hear those buzz words, suppression of votes, they can get all riled up. And so she's hoping that that can sort of energize the base to not only for vote for her, but also donate to her campaign.
DOBBS: And I would like to hear from both of you, if I may ask, on this issue. The importance of enfranchising those voters -- Democratic voters in Michigan and Florida, the Democratic Party has literally crushed their right to vote in this presidential campaign, one that is so close, so critical. Bill Schneider, is it at all likely that we're going to see the Democratic national Committee awaken to its responsibilities and do the conscionable thing, that is to give those people in Michigan and Florida their vote?
SCHNEIDER: I think it's very likely and what they're trying to do is work out a formula, Congressman Stupak of Michigan tried to present one just yesterday, work out a formula whereby Michigan delegates and perhaps Florida delegates will be seated at the convention.
I'm reasonably certain that they will be seated, because they don't want to lose those two big states. They'll be seated, but they don't want those two states to determine who wins the nomination because then the loser will say the process was unfair, so they want them to be there...
DOBBS: Well, let me say this...
SCHNEIDER: ... you know...
DOBBS: And I would like to hear this from you as well, Dan Lothian, but first, Bill. There is nothing more unfair than not, not to have those votes counted in Michigan and Florida. And if this is decided by super delegates without recognizing and counting and enfranchising those voters in Michigan and Florida, that's when we'll hear something unfair is it not?
SCHNEIDER: It is exactly right. And that's the big danger to Democrats right now. The danger is not that the contest will go on or that it will become very intense. The danger is that whoever loses will be able to say I was cheated. The process was unfair. That's what happened in 1968 when the party nominated Hubert Humphrey who didn't run in a single primary.
DOBBS: Dan Lothian...
LOTHIAN: Hey, Lou, Lou...
DOBBS: Yes, sir.
LOTHIAN: Yes, if I can just point something out here. You know everything that you've been talking about is right on point there, but also whatever solution anyone comes up with, you have to get both of the candidates to really sign off on this. And for example, in Michigan what we saw is that Senator Clinton really wanted -- sort of was endorsing a revote.
And Senator Obama was looking more sort of a division of the delegates, so I mean that's crucial here. Someone may come up with a good plan as to how to deal with Florida and Michigan, but in the end ultimately both of the candidates have to sign off on this.
DOBBS: Well a division of the delegates is not a vote. And a vote is required to be Democratic with both a small "d" and a large "D" in both in Michigan and in Florida. Can we agree on that, gentlemen?
SCHNEIDER: That is true.
DOBBS: All right. Dan is not going to vote on this, are you?
(LAUGHTER)
DOBBS: Come on, Dan...
LOTHIAN: I'll abstain.
DOBBS: You abstain.
LOTHIAN: I'll vote present on that one.
DOBBS: All right. Well that is rather Obama-like I think is the way we...
(LAUGHTER)
DOBBS: And we'll see whether or not his view prevails or Senator Clinton's.
Dan Lothian, thank you very much. Bill Schneider, thank you both, gentlemen.
Senator McCain today, yes, the Republican is actually in this race as well. Senator McCain today strongly defended his character and his policies on the economy. Senator McCain attempted to rebut Democratic charges his economic policies are heartless.
Dana Bash has our report from Washington. She sat down with Senator McCain today.
Dana, what did he say about economics?
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well you know it's really interesting, Lou, that what your discussion just illustrated is what Senator McCain's biggest challenge is right now. He's going out. He has a second day today of his bio tour, talking about his past, trying to introduce himself or reintroduce himself to the American people.
He went to his high school. But as he talks about that and pretty much one of the reasons he's doing this now is because the expectation on the Republican side was that the Democrats are really going to be battling each other and it would leave him to do his own thing.
Well for the most part Democrats are hitting each other, but really over the past 24 to 48 hours, both of the Democratic candidates have been really, really tough on John McCain on a couple of issues, Iraq but also on the economy. You remember last week Senator McCain gave a speech and he talked specifically when you're talking about the housing crisis, he said that his principles, his philosophy make him believe that it's really not the government's role to have a massive bailout.
Well the Democratic candidates have been having a field day with this, calling him Hubert Hoover. Hillary Clinton said that if the phone rang at 3:00 a.m. on this issue, it would ring and ring and ring, so I sat down with him today and asked him about this issue, specifically whether or not his -- what he likes to call straight talk may have some voters thinking perhaps he is not really connected to them on this tough issue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What we really need to do is fundamentally is make sure that we take every action to have the lender and the borrower sit down together so that the millions of Americans who are facing terrible challenges will be able to afford to keep their home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: And Lou, what Senator McCain said is that he does think the government has a role and really seemed to try to clarify that, saying that the government has a role, for example, to bring the lenders and the homeowners together and to try to find a solution out of it -- out of this, but really to try to almost be a facilitator.
So again he's trying to clarify it and so actually is his campaign. They're putting out statements reacting to the Democrats constantly, so it is very interesting that you know he's sort of trying to do his own thing and trying to tell his tale. But he also understands that especially on this issue, which is the top issue, he can't let the Democrats' comments stand especially when they really have the potential to hit home with some of the voters, especially those Independent voters that he is trying to get.
DOBBS: It's very simple. Senator McCain has a choice it seems to me. He's either going to discover that running for president is quite different than running for the Senate. And it means that he either puts the people first, in every respect, whether it is education, whether it is in terms of quality of life. If he does not have that ability to reach out to the middle class and make certain that the interest and the will of the majority is respected by this government that he intends to lead, he will never lead it. Would you disagree with that?
BASH: I think that's probably true of any candidate wanting to be the president of the United States.
DOBBS: Exactly.
BASH: There is no question about that.
DOBBS: All right, Dana. Thank you very much, Dana Bash. We appreciate it.
Still ahead, alarming new evidence of the failure of our public school system, Lisa Sylvester will have our report -- Lisa.
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lou, a child in the United States has only a 50/50 chance of graduating from high school. That's according to a troubling new study of our nation's public schools -- Lou.
DOBBS: And Lisa, may I say that we are delighted to have you back from your leave and we are delighted that you are making room for us in your young son's life and we are just delighted. Good to see you. We look forward to your report, Lisa.
SYLVESTER: It's good to be back. Thanks, Lou.
DOBBS: Thank you.
The Bush administration says it's serious about building that fence along our southern border, part of it, but will it build a fence, will it secure our entire 2,000-mile long border with Mexico. We'll have that story.
And new details of communist China's aggressive efforts to recruit spies within the Pentagon, we'll have that special report. Stay with us. We're coming right back and it's just going to get better.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Department of Homeland Security today took a major step toward the actual construction of that fence along our southern border. DHS officials saying they will bypass dozens of environmental (INAUDIBLE) rules to meet its deadline for border fence construction.
Casey Wian has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff donned a welding mask last year to show his commitment to building more border fencing, many border security activists were skeptical. But Chertoff's department is making progress despite opposition from open borders advocates, environmentalists and some land owners.
Now DHS says it will use congressionally authorized waivers to bypass dozens of environmental laws and regulations that threaten to delay the border fence.
REP. DUNCAN HUNTER (R-CA), HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: I'm glad the administration is using it. If they weren't using it, you'd have a myriad of lawsuits and we would see massive amounts of narcotics and illegal aliens being smuggled in as the lawsuits dragged on.
WIAN: Supporters say border fencing will reduce the massive amounts of trash left by illegal crossers. The DHS says it's held more than 100 meetings with environmental groups, residents and lawmakers about the fence. But the Sierra Club is asking the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of the construction waivers.
It says, "Waiving long-standing laws that protect the environment and our cultural heritage to build a wall along the Texas-Mexico border would undermine decades of work to establish and preserve a vibrant wildlife corridor". Hence construction is also being delayed by legal challenges from some border land owners.
MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: But can we simply abandon the enterprise because it's a problem for a particular individual and thereby creating an engraved invitation for drug dealers to move across or for people to shoot at our border patrol agents? I don't think I can accept that.
WIAN: The department says it's nearly halfway to its goal of 670 miles of new vehicle and pedestrian barriers on the border by year's end.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIAN: Chertoff says more border fencing has been built in the past year than during the previous 20 years. Even so, Congressman Hunter and other border security advocates say much more could be done, including building more double-layered fence, which has been effective in reducing illegal crossings near San Diego and elsewhere, Lou.
DOBBS: Well, I've got to say to Michael Chertoff who I have been immensely critical of, I think is a fair way to say it, good for him. This shows real resolve. He is acting like a responsible public servant. The Sierra Club, the precious little darlings, do they know what is happening to the environment along that 2,000 mile border or do they care or are they point of fact playing games here ideologically and politically?
WIAN: It's interesting that the Sierra Club chose to ignore as a lot of these activist do the incredible environmental damage which we've documented over the years that the illegal aliens and the drug smugglers and everyone else down there on the border does. And you know the other interesting part of their statement is they mention our cultural heritage...
DOBBS: Yes, I noted it.
WIAN: ... cultural heritage and you wonder why the Sierra Club is concerned about that. They also refer to the fence as many open borders advocates do as a wall. And most of it, as you know, Lou, a fence.
DOBBS: So the Sierra Club is politicizing the issue, they're doing what many organizations have done who otherwise would be neutral parties or at least in the case of the Sierra Club worried about the environment. They're playing political games, and they're silly and they are horribly mistaken to do so, to take on the issue in a political and ideological sense.
And the Sierra Club can stick it. That will be the official position of this broadcast on that issue. Not withstanding some of the important environmental work they do.
When they step into this they're stepping into the largest source of drugs entering this country, methamphetamines, heroin, cocaine, marijuana and every one of them who is a parent or who has a child, every one of them should be just ashamed of themselves because this is a disgusting perennial problem that has been allowed to fester for so long. It is horrible and we have an opportunity to fix it.
And the Sierra Club has come down on the wrong side of this issue by an immense margin. Casey, thank you very much and remarkably I have to say my compliments to the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Thanks for doing the right thing.
Up next here, a Pentagon official guilty of passing classified military information to communist China, this is just the latest effort by communist China. Yes, this is why we refer to China as communist China. That's because they're communist and they're trying to steal our secrets.
The season is opening for H1B guest work visas, businesses abandoning American workers and embracing cheaper foreign labor. We'll tell you why. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: All of mainstream media, this broadcast we're proud to say is the only one that refers to China as communist China. The other folks in the mainstream media don't apparently understand who runs China. We do.
And case in point, two new cases tonight of communist Chinese spies operating in this country, a Pentagon official now facing up to 10 years in prison -- I said Pentagon official facing up to a decade in prison after pleading guilty to selling U.S. military secrets to China and a former Boeing engineer now charged with selling trade secrets for the Chinese government.
Louise Schiavone has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LOUISE SCHIAVONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A guilty plea now from the Pentagon weapon system analyst charged with passing secrets to the People's Republic of China. Justice officials say Greg Burgerson (ph) played into the hands of communist China in the most classic way.
KENNETH WAINSTEIN, ASST. A.G. FOR NAT'L SECURITY: Complete with traditional elements of spy trade craft, including foreign handlers, payouts, cut out couriers that compromised a government employee. All of which resulted in the penetration of our government's information security system and the passage of national defense information.
SCHIAVONE: The indictment charges Burgerson conspired with Taiwan born Ti Chan Quo (ph), a naturalized U.S. citizen and accused Chinese spy passing on information about U.S. Taiwan communications and weapon sales, information about the global information grid linking major DOD sites and other classified and unclassified information, all for a few thousand dollars and other gifts. Early this week Burgerson signed a court document asserting, "I hereby stipulate that the above statement of facts is true and accurate", end quote. Analysts say China's espionage has been costly.
JOHN TKACIK, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: I do see that there are a lot of very new Chinese weapon systems coming on stream that seem to be based on U.S. designs. How they got those designs, they could have gotten them any number of ways. But human intelligence in the last year seems to be certainly one of the more publicized ways.
SCHIAVONE: In the case of Burgerson, co-conspirator Quo, and a Chinese immigrant were also charged and pleaded not guilty. In a separate indictment, a former Boeing engineer, Don Fen Greg Chung (ph), was accused of stealing trade secrets and collecting U.S. aviation data for China, including information about the space shuttle. Chung has entered a not guilty plea.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHIAVONE: Lou, as you said, Burgerson faces up to 10 years in jail. His Taiwan-borne co-conspirator could get life and then all accused of being willing instruments of what analysts believe is the largest and most aggressive espionage operation in the United States -- Lou.
DOBBS: And while a number of our elected officials and bureaucrats could be considered as useful fools in the exercise supporting the most amazing momentous transfer of knowledge from one nation to another in history both lawful and as you have documented, unlawful. Louise Schiavone, thank you very much reporting from Washington.
Those just some of the most recent examples of communist China's extensive spying operations here. Just last week Chinese-borne engineer Chi Mak (ph) was sentenced to 24 years in prison. Mak a naturalized U.S. citizen convicted of conspiring to smuggle sensitive U.S. Navy submarine technology to communist China.
House Speaker Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi calling for President Bush to boycott the opening ceremonies now of the Beijing Olympics. Last week Speaker Pelosi well she was speaking out against a boycott of the Olympics as a whole, but today she said the president should consider skipping at least the opening ceremonies in protest of China's record on human rights. The White House says the president plans to attend the Olympics.
That brings us to our poll question tonight, perhaps offering the president some much needed counsel on the issue: Do you believe President Bush should boycott the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics in protest of communist China's record on human rights?
Yes or no, cast your vote at loudobbs.com. We'll have the results here later.
Let's take a look at some of your thoughts now. Tom in Ohio said: "Lou, if all the media would speak up and be honest, as you are, and not afraid to tell the truth, more people would understand what this administration is doing to this country and where we will be soon if it doesn't change."
Ben in Georgia said: "Lou, I don't believe corporate leaders should speak out on the economy, because they have spoken. They have outsourced our jobs, imported cheap and often illegal labor and the poverty that comes with it. They've cut our health care and lowered the standard of living for everybody but themselves. They have spoken. I've heard them loud and clear. This is what has caused me to become an independent voter."
We welcome you but there are instances where one or two of these corporate leaders are doing the right thing and that's why I suggested that the more they speak out, the better and richer will be our national dialogue even when what they have to say isn't what necessarily we want to hear.
Patty in North Carolina, "Lou, I'm a new independent and want to thank you for helping to open my eyes to some of the ridiculous things going on in this country, our country. Keep up the good work." We're going to sure try.
We will have more of your thoughts here later. Each of would you whose e-mail is read on this broadcast receives a copy of my book, "Independents Day" and please join me on the radio Monday through Friday for the Lou Dobbs Show, a new three hour radio show. Go to loudobbs.com to find your local listings for the Lou Dobbs Show on the radio.
Up next, new evidence our public school system has failed an entire generation of students. We'll have that report.
And corporate elites rushing to hire foreign workers, not Americans, for well paid jobs. Does this sound like a familiar story?
And top lobbyist Charlie Black becomes a full-time campaigner for Senator John McCain. Do lobbyists have too much influence on Senator McCain and what will Charlie Black be to him? He'll be telling us. He's among my guests here next.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: An alarming new report tonight on the high school dropout rate in this country. According to a study by America's Promise Alliance, more than a million students are dropping out of high school each year. It's about 7,000 students each and every day or one student every 26 seconds. Only half of all the students in the nation's largest cities are actually graduating from high school.
Lisa Sylvester has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SYLVESTER: In Detroit, only one-in-four public high school students is graduating, one out of every four. Detroit ranks at the bottom of the list of dropout rates of urban schools. Indianapolis, Cleveland, Baltimore and Columbus round out the school districts with the worst graduation rates according to a new report.
MARGUERITE KONDRACKE, AMERICA'S PROMISE ALLIANCE: In this great land of ours, and in the global economy that we're all apart of, we have to have every young person finish high school.
SYLVESTER: The report by America's Promise Alliance founded by former Secretary of State Colin Powell finds nationally nearly one in three U.S. high school students is not getting a diploma and in 17 of the country's 50 largest cities, more students drop out than graduate. The problem is worse in urban and minority communities and areas where poverty rates are higher and parental involvement lower.
JAN HARP DOMENE, NATL. COAL. FOR PARENT INVOLVEMENT IN ED.: We are finding in our urban communities that we are not getting as much involvement. It's not that parents don't care. Of course they care about their kids but I think they are so overburdened with two parents working in a household or a single family household.
SYLVESTER: And everyone pays the price. The Alliance for Excellent Education says dropouts from the class of 2006-2007 will cost U.S. taxpayers more than $329 billion in lost wages, taxes and productivity over their lifetimes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SYLVESTER: Part of the problem is that states have used different ways of calculating their graduation rates leading to inconsistent data and that's actually masked the extent of the problem. Education secretary Margaret Spelling announce today plan to develop a uniform formula to shed light on what she calls a silent epidemic -- Lou.
DOBBS: Well, there's nothing silent about our reporting here for the past six years. There's not anything silent about the reporting that's been done by Harvard University, by Education Week and others. What we have are a bunch of people in this country, most of them elected officials, many of them working in state departments of education, who are lying through their teeth and refusing to deal with a dropout rate that is absolutely unconscionable in a country that calls itself a super power.
SYLVESTER: Lou, there is no doubt that there are school districts out there that have used these numbers to benefit them, to make it look like they're graduating more kids than they are. That's a big point of having this universal standard because these kids are failing behind and there's no place for them because a lot of the jobs, the factory jobs they used to go to, those jobs are nonexistent anymore.
DOBBS: Nonexistent and too many people are simply unable, unwilling to deal with the reality. There are a host of social reasons, economic reasons that this is happening in this country. We need to confront them from the way the parents are parenting.
The number of single parent households to the number of children born out of wedlock to the failure of a system in which two parents, a household has two parents; they both have to work just to make ends meet. This is simply not going last. We have to deal with this as a crisis. It's a wonder that no one is dealing with it on the campaign trail or in Washington, D.C. as the crisis it is.
Lisa, thanks a lot. It's great to have you back.
SYLVESTER: Thanks, Lou.
DOBBS: Tell your husband, T.J., that we thank him as well.
SYLVESTER: OK.
DOBBS: Lisa Sylvester from Washington.
Well this country has at least ten foreign guest worker programs. Remember that, ten. Remember this president always wants to create a guest worker program. We have ten of them. The corporate elites and politicians and ethnocentric interest groups are still trying to push for open borders, more visas to bring in more cheap foreign labor to compete with well-paid American labor.
Today the first day for companies to request those H1B visas. Over the next five days, the U.S. citizenship and immigration services will be accepting application applications from companies for next year's H1B visas and they expect that there will be up to 400,000 applications for those visas. The official limit is about 65,000 H1B visas.
Up next, millions of Americans in danger of losing their homes over the next four months in the foreclosure crisis, one million people in four months. I'll been joined by the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Congressman Barney Frank.
And Charlie Black, leading Washington lobbyist, signs on as full time campaigner for Senator John McCain. He'll join me as well.
Stay with us. We're coming right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: A leading Republican operative, one who worked in the Reagan and the George H.W. Bush campaigns, long time lobbyist, today quitting his job to work full-time as a campaigner for Senator John McCain. Charlie Black leaving his job so there would be no questions about conflicts of interest and he joins us tonight from Washington, D.C.
Charlie, good to have you here. And congratulations. Why did you just simply on the basis of conflict of interest, you decided it would be better to be full time?
CHARLIE BLACK, SR. ADVISER, MCCAIN CAMPAIGN: Well, no actually Senator McCain asked me to do a fairly significant job for the campaign that's going to be a six or seven-day-a week job. I'm totally devoted to his election so in order to do that, I needed to leave my other business. But along the way, some people in the other party have raised questions about having lobbyists play big roles in campaigns.
So I've resigned. I'm now a retired lobbyist. Nobody can allege a conflict.
DOBBS: Well, you know, lobbyists, no one rails against them more than I do as you know Charlie. The criticism of having so many lobbyists in the McCain campaign, what is the response?
BLACK: Where are they is the response. If you look at the senior staff, the top 12, 15, 20 people of the McCain campaign, there's no one other than me that was a lobbyist, a currently active lobbyist. Now I am not. I don't know what the criticism is.
All of these campaigns, including those of the two remaining Democrats, have lobbyists involved. Senator Obama has lobbyists as bundlers. They can't write a check but they can raise funds. He has lobbyists on his policy advisory committee. They're knowledge about politics and government and most of them care about the country too.
DOBBS: And you know it's almost getting to the point where we're focusing so much on the Clinton-Obama campaign that I'm almost tempted to ask why Senator McCain is still in the race. This has been a bizarre campaign in which the Republicans aren't raising as much money, the Republican candidate is not racing as much money at the Democrats. Are you going to fix that?
BLACK: Well, our fund-raising has already stepped up. We'll be raising funds in conjunction within the Republican National Committee and its victory fund and we're very optimistic about being able to raise a lot of money. We'll be outspent but not dramatically outspent and we'll have plenty of money to run a good campaign.
You know in 2004, the Democratic National Committee plus the Kerry campaign outspent the Bush campaign plus the Republican National Committee even though he was a sitting president. He was outspent but he still won.
DOBBS: And that's what Senator McCain is likely going to be asked to do that this time with the deficiency in fund-raising.
Let me turn to the issue of economic policies. Senator McCain probably to his everlasting regret said he wasn't too comfortable with economics, recently made that economics speech which didn't offer much to working class men and women in this country or their families and some people said it's borderline insensitive to what millions of people are facing now whether it is the foreclosure crisis, a housing crisis, a credit market crisis, the prospect of losing jobs.
Is there any populist impulse with Senator John McCain that says people matter more than Wall Street, matter more than corporate America, matter more than the special interests, matter more than the lobbyists?
BLACK: Well, he said that in the speech last week. He said it in the interview that you aired part of that Dana Bash did today. What he said, this was not a comprehensive economic policy speech. That's coming later this month. But what he said about the mortgage crisis was there were a number of steps that the administration was taking.
He thought some of those would work. Congress is considering other steps. And he laid out principles by which he would judge the legislation and whether to support it or not. But he talked about the four million people having trouble paying their mortgages and that the government should reach out and help them.
He also said that we should not reward the speculators or people that made bad investments or the banks that made bad loans. He specifically said that. He sided with the people who are in trouble and having trouble paying their mortgages in that address.
DOBBS: Well Charlie, as an independent populist, I'm going to be carping about doing just that throughout. We thank you for being here and we appreciate it and wish you all the luck in the world.
BLACK: Thank you, Lou.
DOBBS: Charlie Black, full time now with the McCain campaign.
Coming up at the top of the hour, full time Campbell Brown with the "ELECTION CENTER."
Campbell, what do you have?
CAMPBELL BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Well Lou, tonight on the Election Center we're going talk gas price politics. We're going to compare what big oil is saying with what the presidential candidates are promising.
Also today, some straight talk from John McCain about his temper.
And I'll ask Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean how he is going to try to end the standoff between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
We'll see you at the top of the hour, Lou.
DOBBS: Look forward to it. I hope Senator McCain keeps his temper. It's nice not to have somebody in the cookie cutter form irrespective of who you're going to vote for. Thank you, Campbell.
Up next, struggling homeowners fighting to keep their homes. One of the most powerful congressman, Congressman Barney Frank joins me to talk about his plan to help our struggling middle class.
Senator Hillary Clinton now comparing herself to Rocky Balboa in the city of brotherly love. Three of the best radio talk show hosts in the country join me for that and more. Stay with us. We're coming right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Senators today reaching a compromise on how to deal with the foreclosure crisis. In the house however, Financial Services Committee Chairman, Barney Frank is moving ahead with his plan to provide relief for middle class homeowners.
Congressman Barney Frank joins me now from Washington, D.C. Mr. Chairman, good to have you here.
REP. BARNEY FRANK (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Thank you, Lou.
DOBBS: In the Senate, they were given some credit but the Democrats had to drop that plan giving bankruptcy judges the power to drop rates and principal. What's your reaction to all of that?
FRANK: Well, I regret that. That's an example I think of my Republican friends supporting business interest including John McCain who voted that way.
You know it's very interesting. You can declare bankruptcy and get out from paying on your second or third home. You can declare bankruptcy and not have to pay the mortgages on investments, on rental properties you own. But on your own primary residence, the only home you have, they manage to get into the bankruptcy law a provision that says you can't declare bankruptcy there.
You know some of these people don't understand. They think that the average citizen is just can't wait to declare bankruptcy. Bankruptcy is no fun. People are very reluctant to do it and I think that's regrettable because what we need is -- we've talked about it.
A number of people in the financial field were terribly irresponsible and they made loans that should never have been made. They made them and they immediately sold them off so they didn't care whether people paid them off or not.
DOBBS: May I interrupt you Mr. Chairman?
FRANK: Yes.
DOBBS: Because I really think that Bear's clear statement here, there is greater irresponsibility on the part of the lending institutions in this foreclosure crisis than there is broadly on the part of the home owners.
FRANK: Without question.
DOBBS: People really have to understand that.
FRANK: What's happened is this. We had a total absence of regulation. Frankly if mortgages that were made by our community banks and credit unions, they didn't cause this problem but de- regulation allowed and securitization. Securitization is a fancy word for saying I will lend you the money, and I will immediately sell your loan to someone else. So I'll get out of it and I don't care if you pay it back or not. That just became the currency of the system.
What happened basically was the total lack of regulation and the inventiveness allowed some of these people to take the economy hostage. Now they're demanding we pay them a ransom.
DOBBS: To say it straightforwardly, what are you going to do for two million people facing foreclosure in this country?
FRANK: Well, I wish we had that bankruptcy bill because what we need was to tell the people who now hold these loans, not the original lenders, but the people that bought them up because they thought they were going to make a lot of money, you have got to reduce these amounts.
You lent money irresponsibly and if they insist on not moving, the recession gets deeper and worse. What we're saying is you need to write those mortgages down to a reasonable level. If they do that, we will then have the Federal Housing Administration guarantee the mortgages once they get to the level people can pay.
We can then keep people in their homes. We're not subsidizing the lenders. They have to take the write down and the bankruptcy would have been one way to kind of persuade them to do it.
DOBBS: Right. How soon will the relief be available for the American public?
FRANK: Well, I'm encouraged now by what you just reported, this deal in the Senate. I think what's happened is reality has broken through the combination of ideology and money worship that has been dominating the Republicans and they now look like and Senator Dodd has been working on this, that they're ready to move.
We will be able to move to. If the Senate keeps up with the deal they're making, I think by the middle of May we should be able to put this in place.
DOBBS: All right. Congressman Barney Frank, we thank you very much.
FRANK: Thank you.
DOBBS: Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
Up next, the Democratic race for the presidential nomination narrowing and getting uglier. Three of the most popular radio talk show hosts join me here next.
Stay with us. We'll be right back to tell you how to clean the mess up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) DOBBS: Joining me now, three of the most popular radio talk show hosts in the country. Ed Schultz joins me here, Jones Radio Network; good to have you with us, Ed. Joe Madison, WOL in Washington and XM Radio, Joe and Steve Cochran, WGN in Chicago and compadre, Steve, your counsel and your advice on starting my own radio career. Much appreciated. Your help, a wonderful guy, much appreciated.
The idea that Senator Obama and Senator Clinton, it now appears that Senator Obama has had favoritism and Senator Clinton has had - well there's just been ugly stuff about her. Are you shocked, surprised?
STEVE COCHRAN, WGN CHICAGO: Stunned. I am stunned by anything that doesn't resemble true journalism in the coverage of this race. I think Ed and Joe will agree with me on it. You know here in Chicago I think a lot of people would think that's home game for Obama. I would dare to say we've probably been more balanced in the coverage here than around the country.
But I guess the truth is the Obama story is just kind of a better story; the good, bad, and ugly. A lot of people, maybe mostly the media, are tired of talking about the Clintons. I do think that's part of it.
DOBBS: All right. Ed, what do you think?
ED SCHULTZ, JONES RADIO NETWORK: I think this political season is made for talk radio. You got in at the right time. There's no question about it. It's material every day.
DOBBS: It's incredible and to realize, these are adults running these campaigns and these are adults running for these offices. Some days you have to really stop and think about that.
SCHULTZ: Well, I think there's some messages here by the Clinton camp. For Senator Clinton to repeatedly come out and say I'm a fighter, I'm going to be in this until the convention, I'm going to be in three more months.
For Bill Clinton to say that nobody is trying to ruin the party. I mean there's messaging here to their supporters, you've been with us. We're going to go as far as we can possibly go on this.
JOE MADISON, XM RADIO: They're adults chronologically, Lou, but politically and psychologically, some very childish things have been going on. I've said to my audience that what I'm looking for is the new frontier speech.
Now let me give you an example. You did a report, these terrible statistics on dropouts. I mean this is nuts in this country. And education is the new currency of this global economy. I want to hear, and I don't care who it is, McCain, Obama or Clinton, I want to hear a Kennedy-like new frontier speech that says within the four years of my presidency, I will cut dropout rate by 90 percent. I want to hear a new frontier speech. They would be wise to start talking along those terms. SCHULTZ: You're talking about a major investment in education in this country. It's too bad teacher pay has not kept up with CEO pay in this country and that's a big part of the problem. We've got a lot of teachers in this country that are getting out of it because it's not financially feasible to stay in it.
DOBBS: Steve Cochran?
COCHRAN: I don't disagree with either one of you and that would be a great speech to make but I think we've seen very little substance still and until this primary thing is decided and they're forced to have their feet to the fire to actually talk about the issues that matter, then and only then will it matter.
We're still talking, should she get out, should she not get out. Look at this point, the Clintons are invested. The Obama folks are invested. Nobody is getting out. This is like going Wally World and turning around an hour before you get there. She's not quitting. There's no point in discussing it. She's not leaving.
MADISON: No and let me add one other thing. I think you're also seeing why people are saying, if my candidate doesn't win, I'm going vote for somebody that is opposite my political ideology. That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever and that's because again no one has any new forward thinking visionary type projects and programs and public policy.
DOBBS: Steve?
COCHRAN: Well, I couldn't agree more and you know we've talked about this and Lou your whole show has been based on this. It's a common sense approach but you know until the voting public demands the issues that effect them everyday, education, paying your mortgage, the things that actually matter and not some B.S. position paper that looks good but turns into a sound byte but actually what I'm going to do when I get into office because I don't care if the phone rings at 3:00 but if it's a middle class American on the other line, you ought to help them with their problems whether it's three in the morning or three in the afternoon, whatever the case may be and nobody including McCain has addressed it yet.
DOBBS: You're right Steve and Steve Cochran is going to be taking a break from us. We're going to continue here with Ed Schultz and Joe Madison as always.
Ed, the idea that this campaign can't rise above this nonsense, that we can't -- we're watching a national media that is not demanding answers -- whether it's education. We're giving ourselves a heck of a pass here. Free trade, public education, investment in public infrastructure, foreign policy. This is nonsense. We are playing like children.
ED SCHULTZ, JONES RADIO NETWORK: Lou, I think you may see the Democrats pivot on illegal immigration. I really think that they're going to have to take a tougher stance whether it be Clinton or Obama. I think it was a real wake-up call back in October when Senator Clinton was on the wrong side of that driver's license issue.
It's going to be hard to be an advocate for the middle-class and then turn around and not give some real teeth in some of the laws. And I think the Democrats are going to get pressure from unions. They're big supporters and I think they're going have to pivot a little bit on that issue.
DOBBS: Well, one would hope that they would be interested in the common good and the national interest.
Joe Madison, what do you think?
JOE MADISON, XM RADIO: Well I don't know about getting pressure from the unions. I don't understand how unions can participate in their own demise --
DOBBS: Right.
MADISON: -- with undercutting wages --
DOBBS: The price of labor.
MADISON: -- in this country. I just don't understand it, Lou. And I'm going to tell you, if they listen to our shows, the people are speaking clearly.
But you are 100 percent right, Lou, the media is as much to blame. Can you imagine having a debate in Cleveland and not discussing home foreclosures?
DOBBS: Or graduation rates?
MADISON: Or -- thank you.
DOBBS: This -- and this business, this discussion about race. Nobody wants to look at these dropout rates; no one wants to talk about what is behind it and our mutual responsibility for one another. The rest of this is utter nonsense. But that is for another day.
Joe Madison, thank you very much sir.
MADISON: Thank you.
DOBBS: Ed Schultz, thank you. Great to have you here.
SCHULTZ: Nice to be here.
Steve Cochran had to run. We thank him anyway.
Seventy-nine percent of you say in our poll, that President Bush should boycott the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics in protest of Communist China's record on human rights.
We thank you for being with us tonight.
The "ELECTION CENTER" with Campbell Brown begins right now -- Campbell.
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