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American Morning
Winter Blast Causes Flight Cancellations; "Deep Throat" Has Died; Orderly Bankruptcy for Automakers?; Using Music to Torture Detainees in Guantanamo Bay; Obama Administration Following the Bush Model?
Aired December 19, 2008 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: We're coming up on 7:00 here in New York. A look at the top stories this morning. If you're about to leave for the airport, you should check your flight first. There was a huge winter blast causing a lot of cancellations and delays. Some flights are being cancelled in Chicago's two main airports, hundreds actually, and that could backlog their traffic across the country.
Also, the man known as "Deep Throat" has died. Mark Felt was 95 years old. Felt came forward in 2005 revealing himself as the most famous anonymous source of "The Washington Post" reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Felt was the number two guy at the FBI at the time of the Watergate scandal and gave information linking Nixon's White House to the 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters.
As 30 Chrysler plants begin a month long shutdown this morning, President Bush is considering an orderly bankruptcy for the country's anemic auto industry. Speaking on behalf of the president, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says if the right outcome is reorganization or bankruptcy, then isn't it better to get there through an orderly process. Paulson says he's still hoping to avoid bankruptcy all together for the automakers.
And, he is staying. The publicist for Ed McMahon says that Johnny Carson's former sidekick will be able to stay in his house. The TV legend was facing foreclosure over the past nine months. A record shows that a series of loan transfers happened on the property last month. McMahon lives in the same gated Beverly Hills community as Britney Spears.
And back to our top story for the latest on today's air traffic potential chaos. We go straight to our Susan Roesgen. She's live outside of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport this morning, where they are bracing for a long day perhaps of travel.
Hi, Susan.
SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kiran. How many times have you been in this situation where you get in a cab, you get to the airport early because you just don't know whether your flight has been cancelled or not. I talked to a snow plow guy out here today and he said he was doing really well getting the slush off the streets until they let traffic in here about 5:00 this morning and then he has to kind of weave in and out of the taxis. You know, you're all talking about shoes. Look at this this morning. I think I should have worn maybe higher boots. But as you could see, it's still just slushy. It hasn't become ice yet.
I heard Reynolds Wolf earlier say that that's going to be the fear for us later here. But I want to show you the board over here. It says, "Do you have your boarding pass?"
I think the bigger question this morning, Kiran, is do you have a flight? Last time I checked the board here at O'Hare, cancellations were running at about 30 percent. I'd say about one out of every three were cancelled. So check them first -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Susan Roesgen for us outside of O'Hare this morning. Thanks.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Again, demonstrating the importance of wearing sensible shoes out there in the snow.
Reynolds Wolf is tracking the extreme weather. He's in the weather center down there in Atlanta. We see what's happening there in Chicago. We see what's happening outside of Detroit. What's happening more broadly across the country there, Reynolds?
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, first off, just farther north of Chicago and Milwaukee, the airport, Mitchell Airport, now closed. Closed for business until further notice. Of course, all weather related.
In Chicago, they had anywhere from one to three inches of snowfall. Ice is going to be a possibility. But in parts of Milwaukee, some places could see very close to a foot of snowfall.
Here's some other expected delays today. Let's run through them. Boston, New York metros, Detroit, as John mentioned, Detroit having some issues there. Jim Acosta (ph) was out live for again in parts of Detroit you see the snow there.
Also in places like D.C., Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, that's going to be mainly due to rain and some low clouds. Cleveland also expecting some delays upwards of an hour. And the reason why all this is happening is because this weather system, this area of low pressure that is pulling right across the Great Lakes, had plenty of moisture coming in from the Gulf of Mexico. Cold air coming in the north right behind it. It's that off running moisture that's going to give you all the issues today.
No issues in all 40 of the central plains. Back in the Pacific Northwest, we've got another storm system, not quite as potent as the one crossing into the Great Lakes. But still, I would expect possibly few delays later on today in places like Sea-Tac Airport, Seattle, maybe in Portland also.
So here it is. This is the storm system that is going to bring that ice possibly to portions of the Midwest. The snow, as we mentioned, in Milwaukee. New York City, you can definitely see anywhere from say, four to eight inches of snowfall. Some places in the outlying areas of New York upwards of 10. Boston certainly could be hammered as we get into the weekend.
We're going to have more on this weather story. It's going to be something we're going to be watching very carefully throughout the rest of the day into the evening and, of course, through your weekend.
Back to you, John.
You are the most important man on the team this morning, Reynolds, so we'll keep coming back to you for that. Thanks very much.
WOLF: You bet.
ROBERTS: Four minutes after the hour. Here's a look at Friday's "Political Ticker."
Barack Obama five for five. Today he's going to have his fifth press conference since Monday. Obama expected to officially name Republican Congressman Ray LaHood to head the Department of Transportation, and California Congresswoman Hilda Solis to serve as secretary of labor.
Illinois' top legal officer is telling Governor Rod Blagojevich that the state will not pay for his defense against charges that he tried to sell Barack Obama's Senate seat. The governor has piled up some pretty significant legal bills already from a five-year federal investigation before being charged last week.
In Minnesota's Senate recount, Republican incumbent Norm Coleman now leads Democratic challenger Al Franken by single digits according to two different reports. Yesterday, the Minnesota Supreme Court ordered that improperly rejected absentee ballots now be included in the recount which means that the race likely won't be decided until after the new year and may not be decided by the time they swear in the new members of Congress.
CHETRY: Well, New York powerbroker Rev. Al Sharpton spending some time with the leading candidates to take over Senator Hillary Clinton's seat. Sharpton meeting Caroline Kennedy for lunch yesterday at the famed Harlem dining sot Sylvia's. Earlier here on AMERICAN MORNING, Sharpton told us he thinks Kennedy is qualified for the seat and should not have her celebrity held against her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REV. AL SHARPTON, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: Use celebrity to push education reform, push education programs, train principals, is a constitutional lawyer, written books on that. She's shown public service. If she just used her celebrity to do celebrity things, that's a fair point. She has been involved in public service. The question becomes, do you hold against her the fact she was the president's daughter?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Sharpton went on to say he's not endorsing anyone yet for that seat at this point.
And if you missed seeing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin regularly since the end of the election. Now, never fear. Hot off the press is your Sarah Palin 2009 calendar. It's being put out from the conservative group, Human Events. The calendar includes some never before seen Palin family photos.
ROBERTS: Are you waking up to an inbox full of angry responses to e- mails that you don't remember sending? Well, it may not be a hacker breaking into your e-mail account. What is it? Well, we'll answer the mystery right after this.
Plus, you may be listening or you may say that listening to some music is torture but at Guantanamo Bay, certain songs are literally being used to torture detainees and now the artists are fighting back. We got that story for you.
Seven minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well, it is seven minutes -- actually, it's nine minutes after seven right now here in New York. Time to fast forward to see what stories will be making news later today.
Family members and colleagues supporting the jailed Iraqi journalist who famously threw his shoes at President Bush say they'll be holding a sit-in today in Baghdad's Green Zone. The journalist could face two years in jail for insulting a foreign leader.
Well, as Chrysler shuts the doors on 30 plants today across North America, Treasury Secretary Paulson and the White House are considering a "orderly bankruptcy for the country's ailing auto industry." Chrysler is going on furlough for the holidays but extending it a little longer because of the downturn. Detroit's big three still looking to Washington for some kind of bailout.
And no doubt Wall Street will be watching for any rumblings from Washington on the auto industry as well. Ten markets today rally. The Dow tanked 219 points during yesterday's session. Right now, futures are showing a negative start at the opening bell -- John.
ROBERTS: All right. Thanks, Kiran.
It's 11 minutes after the hour. Christine Romans is here "Minding Your Business" this morning, and she's fired up ready to go.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I'm fired up because the president said something yesterday that really got my attention. He said that we face something greater than the Great Depression in these days, these harrowing days in the fall. And I got to tell you that --
ROBERTS: It's from the same guy who said the economy was so great not so long ago. ROMANS: Yes. You know, I've listened to every word he has said about the economy for about the past three years and reported on it. And I'm telling you he has been either late or tone deaf many times with what has been happening with the numbers around him. And in some case and times, the president can't go out and say things are terrible because he has to be the cheerleader in chief.
But greater than the Great Depression. Listen to what he said about those harrowing days this fall.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Came in and said, the financial markets are completely frozen. And if we don't do something about it, it is conceivable we will see a depression greater than the Great Depression.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: And he said he did not want to be the president of the start of something greater the Great Depression. He didn't want to hand it off to the next president. And he said he was describing sort of those days when the fed chief and the treasury chief are coming to him day after day with crisis after crisis.
Now, this is exactly a year and a day after the very first time the Bush administration admitted that there was ever even anything wrong with the economy after people had been asking and questioning for months.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's definitely some storm clouds and concerns. But the underpinning is good. We'll work our way through this period.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: December 17th, 2007, storm clouds. It made headlines around the world because the White House has never admitted that there was anything wrong. So think of that.
In 366 days, we went from there might be some storm clouds but the underpinnings are good...
ROBERTS: To greater than the Great Depression.
ROMANS: ... to greater than the Great Depression. And then I start calling economists, and I said, was it really that bad? I mean, were people talking about something worse than shanty towns and sleeping under bridges and 25 percent unemployment?
CHETRY: And 25 percent unemployment.
ROMANS: And several top economists told me, Christine, it was never -- we have economic stabilizers now. The worse case scenario was 12 to 13 percent unemployment. We were at severe depression, yes -- sorry, recession, yes. Depression maybe. Greater than the great depression, very unlikely.
Now, who was he speaking to? The American Enterprise Institute.
ROBERTS: Yes.
ROMANS: These are people who love the market.
ROBERTS: He's trying to sell people on why he suspended free market policies.
ROMANS: Right. The greatest intervention in the economy in the history of the world. You know, that's what he's trying to explain what was going on. But that was the thinking that we were facing something greater than the Great Depression. That was got us here and Congress was saying that's just too strong to describe.
ROBERTS: Yes. So perhaps a little bit of hyperbole in what he was saying.
ROMANS: Perhaps a little bit of hyperbole. But what a difference a year makes, right?
ROBERTS: Amazing. Christine, thanks for that.
Hey, listen to this, because you're going to love this.
You probably heard of sleep walking, sleep eating, even people having sex while asleep.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've never heard of that.
ROBERTS: I never heard of that.
CHETRY: Who wrote that?
ROBERTS: Somebody who says --
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: Somebody weirder than us.
ROBERTS: Somebody who is obviously lacking in some capacity.
Well, here's a story where medical and technology news mix. Doctors reporting the first known case of a person e-mailing while asleep.
A 44-year-old woman invited friends over for drinks and caviar all without ever waking up. So they showed up over her to place and she said what are you all here for?
Well, you sent us an e-mail saying -- so they all went to sleep and had sex. No.
(LAUGHTER) CHETRY: And then e-mailed each other about it but didn't know.
All right. Yes. Turn your BlackBerries off. Hide them. Lock them away and your computers.
ROMANS: That just means we're too addicted to these darn things, you know.
ROBERTS: Having sex while -- how do you do that?
(LAUGHTER)
I can't do it while I'm awake. Sorry.
CHETRY: Oh, Lord, have mercy this morning.
All right. Certainly a Friday.
Well, tunes as torture, artists find that their songs are being used against detainees at Guantanamo Bay and they say not with my music.
Fifteen minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Here's right now on CNN.com the most popular. The District of Columbia Court of Appeals says the former administrative judge still can't sue the pants of his dry cleaner. His appeal was denied yesterday. It started back in 2005, you'll remember, when he slapped a local dry cleaner with a $67 million lawsuit. He insists they gave him the wrong pair of pants.
Also, a group of former college buddies posted their songs on YouTube. They didn't expect nearly eight million people to watch including an Atlanta records executive. He signed the group and they're releasing their first album for the holidays.
And that's what's most popular right now on CNN.com
CHETRY: Hands to the guys. Don't give it up. Unbelievable.
Well, a handful of musicians are fighting back against the military after discovering that their songs are not being used to entertain but to torture. Kareen Wynter has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAREEN WYNTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT Reporter (voice-over): Guantanamo Bay's U.S. operated military prison. It's known for a lot of things but perhaps not this.
Music from Nine Inch Nails. Or this. Songs from Rage Against the Machine. But some former detainees can't forget it. They are alleging that U.S. officials used audio clips of heavy metal, rock, rap, even children's tunes to psychologically torture inmates inside this detention facility. Now, some of them are seeking damages. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's very scary, you know, to think that you might go crazy with the music because of the loud noise.
WYNTER: Former prisoner Ruhal Ahmed (ph) filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government claiming officials tortured him with head banging music for hours while held prisoner in 2003.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After a while you don't hear the lyrics. All you hear is heavy banging. It sounds like metal crashing against metal. That's what it sounds like. It doesn't sound like music at all. After a while, they just play with your mind.
WYNTER: Chloe Davies is with the British Legal Charity Recrieve, which represents dozens of former and current Guantanamo Bay detainees including Ahmed (ph).
CHLOE DAVIES, RECREIVE, BRITISH LEGAL CHARITY: Prisoners relax in pitch black with constant music 24 hours a day for days, weeks and months at a time. And some of the music included Eminem and Aerosmith.
WYNTER: Davies says some of the artists whose music was allegedly used are protesting. Rocker Tom Morello of the group Rage Against the Machine sounded off at a recent solo concert.
TOM MORELLO, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE: They used music to torture the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay like sleep deprivation. One of the bands they use unfortunately is Rage Against the Machine.
WYNTER: Another artist, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, said, "It's difficult for me to imagine anything more profoundly insulting, demeaning and enraging than discovering music you've put your heart and soul into creating has been used for purposes of torture. If there are any legal options that can be realistically taken, they will be aggressively pursued."
(on camera): The Pentagon wouldn't respond directly to the allegations of torture involving music but said in a statement to CNN, their policy has always been to treat detainees humanely and conduct interrogations "within the parameters set by U.S. policy, the law of war and the Geneva Conventions with trained, disciplined personnel." And "will continue to take seriously the need to question terror suspects who have information that can save lives."
Kareen Wynter, CNN, Hollywood.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Barack Obama says he'll be more transparent with the American people, but it's no secret that his campaign could keep a secret. How the next administration could fall into the same pattern as the last one.
It's 21 1/2 minutes after the hour.
Banned in Obama's White House. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The perception is is that lobbyists are bad. But that's an uninformed opinion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Why it might be possible to break the tide. A "Memo to the President." Learning to live with lobbyists.
You're watching the "Most News in the Morning."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Picture looking north from the Time Warner center here in the heart of New York up from the Hudson River toward the George Washington Bridge. And that picture a little bit different this morning because our technicians went up on the roof and installed HD cameras. So we got 1080 pixels for whatever the heck it means.
Look it up upstream, and there we are looking downtown as well here. Expecting a lot of snow in New York over the next little while, anywhere between one to eight inches, depending on how far south this low pressure system sags.
Our Reynolds Wolf following all of that for us this morning. It's 1080 dots per inches. Is that what it is?
President-elect Barack Obama has called for more transparency in government. But Obama's campaign was one of the best at keeping secrets, something that the Bush administration was also very good at. So will Obama's administration remain tight lipped?
Joining us is now is the author of a revealing article on Barack Obama and the press, "New York Times" magazine reporter Mark Leibovich.
Mark, it's good to see you. This article coming out this Sunday, you say, "As much as the Obama communications philosophy was geared to attacking George W. Bush, the operation itself had a lot in common with Bush's presidential campaigns of 2000 and 2004, and the Bush White House." Campaign manager David Plouffe even admitted to you that the campaign subscribed to the Bush model. What's that all about?
MARK LEIBOVICH, REPORTER, "NEW YORK TIMES": I was pretty surprised that they so explicitly talked about the Bush model, especially given how aggressively they ran against the president. And essentially the Bush model is a very, very small circle of people, knows the most sensitive information and then, obviously, you know, dissuades leaking. It also prizes loyalty. It's also -- it's just a very old school kind of philosophy that, you know, a little bit complicated certainly works within the framework of a campaign but can get complicated in the, you know, more free form world of government.
ROBERTS: Yes. You know, you're talking about a campaign. There can be just a handful of people who control all of the information. LEIBOVICH: Right.
ROBERTS: You get to the White House there's several thousand people who work in the White House and then more broadly in the administration, thousands more after that.
LEIBOVICH: Right.
ROBERTS: Can you still maintain that circle of trust?
LEIBOVICH: It's harder. I mean, actually what's been interesting about the transition is it's been pretty leaky. I mean, a lot of these cabinet appointments have leaked out a few days early.
I know President-elect Obama was furious, especially over the Hillary Clinton deliberations that seemed to be going on in public for many, many days. He's having, you know, and I talked to the president-elect for this. He said that he really expected this to change once everyone gets "into the building." The building obviously being the White House...
ROBERTS: Right.
LEIBOVICH: ... and they can, you know, they're not as bifurcated and having some people in Chicago, and some people in Washington and, you know, vetters involved and so forth. So we'll see. I mean, it's always going to be fun and at least not for us. But it's kind of a game of cat and mouse.
ROBERTS: The Bush White House was famous for being tight lipped. I know because I was a White House correspondent for six years in that administration.
LEIBOVICH: Right. Exactly.
ROBERTS: Democratic administrations tend to be a little more leaky. And when you look at, you know, we talk about leaks in the transition, the first leak was about Rahm Emanuel, whether or not he was going to take the job as chief of staff.
LEIBOVICH: Right.
ROBERTS: So you got to wonder where those leaks came from and if they're coming from almost the very top there.
LEIBOVICH: Right.
ROBERTS: What does that portend for this administration?
LEIBOVICH: Well, I mean, Rahm Emanuel is an outsider at least to this group. I mean, he's obviously known Obama and, you know, David Axelrod and a lot of the Obama people for a long, long time and being from Chicago. But he is, I mean, he's a newcomer to this circle, and, you know, as evidenced by news of his appointment and the very public deliberations he seemed to be undertaking in, you know, in the days leading up to his formal announcement. I mean, you know, Rahm is an interesting guy. He is someone who plays this game. He's been in the Clinton White House. He's been in Congress. He has a lot of friend in the press. So, I mean, we'll see how that all sort of blends together.
ROBERTS: So what about this idea of transparency. This is a campaign that vowed if it won the presidency it would be the most transparent administration that we've seen in at least a generation.
LEIBOVICH: Right.
ROBERTS: Does it mean that, well, we're not going to be as transparent. Maybe there's a little bit of opacity to what we're going to be doing here as opposed to transparency.
LEIBOVICH: Well, you know, transparency is in the eye of the beholder, and journalists and administration officials tend to sometimes have very different definitions of transparency. And the Obama campaign whenever you sort of question them on this sort of tight bubble of information they kept will always say, well, we put, you know, Obama's birth certificate on the web, we put his mortgage on the web and so forth.
There's a difference between actually putting a bunch of stuff on the Internet and being open in this sort of new media sense than actually being revealing when someone is standing at the podium every day as Robert Gibbs is going to be doing for an hour.
ROBERTS: And speaking of that, what about the way that they are going to deal with the media. Some reporters think that maybe they got a bit of a glimpse of that earlier this week during a press conference when the president-elect was asked a question about the Blagojevich investigation. Here's how he answered that question.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT: John, let me just cut you off because I don't want you to waste your question.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: So he says, "Let me cut you off. I don't want you to waste your question." You know, we had eight years of stonewalling from the podium at the Bush White House. Do you think we'll see more of that in the Obama administration?
LEIBOVICH: Well, I mean, there have been a couple of somewhat eyebrow raising episodes in these press conferences over the last few weeks. The other involving my colleague, Peter Baker, when he asked a question about some of the things that Obama had said about Hillary Clinton, you know, several months ago. And Obama just said, you know, you guys have so much fun with this or whatever it was, something along those lines.
ROBERTS: Right. LEIBOVICH: You know, Obama, you know, there was a certain, I mean some would say arrogance to that answer. Maybe certainly was not, you know, inclined to answer the question directly.
But, I don't know. I mean, I think, you know, there is going -- there are going to be times and obviously you can't answer a question directly and I think an ongoing investigation as I said would be one reason they cite. But, you know, certainly those two, I mean, my colleagues in the press did take notice of those two episodes in particular and we'll see what it does portend.
ROBERTS: We will see. We'll find out soon.
Mark Leibovich, it's a great article coming out in the Sunday "New York Times" magazine. Thanks for being with us this morning.
LEIBOVICH: Thanks, John.
ROBERTS: Good to see you.
LEIBOVICH: Good to see you.
CHETRY: Well, it's 7:30 here in New York. A look at the top stories this morning. The most famous anonymous source in American history has died. Mark Felt better known as Deep Throat was the whistleblower who helped expose the Watergate scandal and bring down the Nixon White House. He was 95 years old. On-line terrorists reportedly planning a jihad on Facebook? Well several blogs have uncovered a posting on a jihadist website talking about a plan to try to invade the social networking site and fight the mainstream media. The translation points out that American politicians including Barack Obama use Facebook to try to gain votes.
Two DaVinci classics for the price of one? Well the Louvre Museum in Paris discovered a doodles on the back of a 500-year-old Leonardo DaVinci painting. They appeared to be a horse's head and a partial skull. Experts say they need to examine them closer to see if DaVinci who of course painted the front also did the drawing on the back.
Barack Obama vowed to keep lobbyists out of his administration. But soon they will be knocking on the doors of the Oval office. And the next president might even find out that lobbyist isn't always a dirty word. Here's AMERICAN MORNING Jim Acosta with today's "Memo to the President."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mr. President, lobbyists were among your favorite campaign punching bags.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT: When I'm president they won't find a job in my White House.
ACOSTA: That kind of change may be easier said than done. While you have imposed new rules effectively banning many lobbyists from working on your transition, some officials with past lobbying ties are on your team.
The perception is that lobbyists are bad. But that's an uninformed opinion.
ACOSTA: Lobbyists Dave Winhall has worked the halls of Congress on behalf of the hearing impaired for more closed caption programming on TV.
WINHALL: As you can tell, I have left my horns and tail at home. Lobbyists represent teachers, dairy farmers, boys and girls club, girl scouts of America. You know they represent all of these interests.
ACOSTA: Not to mention the oil companies and the pharmaceutical industries just a couple of the big players in an industry that spent nearly $2.5 billion last year. $1 billion more than a decade ago.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The industry is designed to sell input. That's what they are good at. That's what's on sale for the organizations, corporations, union, that can afford them.
ACOSTA: Remember Jack Abramoff the disgraced lobbyist who is now in prison? He's helping federal prosecutors in a political corruption probe that led to guilty pleas of roughly 13 lobbyists and public officials including Ohio Congressman Bob Ney and interior department official Steven Grilles, a department you singled out for reform when introducing your new interior secretary Ken Salazar.
OBAMA: There had been too many problems and too much emphasis on big time lobbyists in Washington.
ACOSTA: Government watchdogs like that attitude but warn a lobbyist crack down could force the industry to get creative and come up with new ways to seek influence.
OBAMA: There's the potential for new problems to crop up as old ones are decreased.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: One upcoming agenda item, universal health care will be a magnet for lobbyists. Insurance companies, doctors and drug makers are all gearing up for battle on Capitol Hill and some of the highest paid lobbyists in this town will be leading the charge. John and Kiran.
CHETRY: Jim Acosta for us. Thanks. We want to hear from you. So send us your "Memo to the President." Go to cnn.com/am and click on the I-report link to get the president elect a piece of your mind.
A white weekend before Christmas. Hope you did your shopping and you don't have to travel. The chaos on the roads and runways across the United States. We got it all for you, coming up. It's 34 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROBERTS: Former President Bill Clinton is pledging to do everything he can to help his wife become the next secretary of state. His charitable foundation now releasing its list of donors and it's a who's who. CNN's Joe Johns takes a look at who is on it and if they can present a problem for Hillary Clinton.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, no more questions about what if anything Bill Clinton is hiding.
PRES. BILL CLINTON, FMR. U.S. PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you.
JOHNS: After resisting this for 10 years his list of more than 200,000 donors who gave at least $492 million is now an open book, nearly 3,000 pages long and posted online. The biggest two donors far and away are a British charity group called the Children's Investment Fund Foundation dedicated to improving the lives of children in poverty and UNITAID, a World Health Organization partnership to fight HIV and AIDS. Both donated more than $25 million.
CLINTON: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
JOHNS: But the eye openers if you can call them that are the foreign interest in the Middle East. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, at least 10 million. Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Dubai, each at least one million.
JOHNS (on-camera): So the question is whether donations to Bill Clinton's foundation could somehow complicate Hillary Clinton's confirmation as secretary of state. And if she's confirmed her getting the job done.
SHEILA KRUMHOLZ, CENTER FOR RESPONSIVE POLITICS: Saudi Arabia specifically and the Middle East and India are all going to be flash points that the next secretary of state has going to have to deal with early.
JOHNS: Other donors seemingly could complicate things for Hillary Clinton or at least create questions that at her confirmation hearing. Amar Singh lobbied Congress including Senator Clinton to allow India to get nuclear fuel and technology. The same guy gave at least a $1 million to the Clinton Foundation. And the controversial security firm Blackwater which recently had five employees indicted over a firefight in Baghdad also gave a small donation. The next secretary of state will have to decide whether Blackwater keeps its contract to protect American diplomats. If any donor starts looking like a conflict of interest for Hillary Clinton a long time friend and aide said she can take herself out of the loop.
LANNY DAVIS, FMR. CLINTON AIDE: The commitment is 100 percent that whatever the White House, whatever the president wants, the secretary of state will do because he's the president.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JOHNS: With such a long list of names at least the minefields are out in the open. John and Kiran.
CHETRY: Joe Johns, thanks. Is today's politics becoming a family business. The Clintons, the Bushes, the Kennedies, having a few families dominating Washington, is that a good thing or a bad thing.
Also the governor who won't go away, facing serious allegations of corruption and greed. Blagojevich hangs tough. It's 39 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. ROD BLAGOJEVICH (D), ILLINOIS: Can't wait to begin this, to tell my side of the story and to address you guys and most importantly the people of Illinois. That's who I'm dying to talk to. There's a time and place for everything. That day will soon be here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: That was Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois, the man accused of trying to profit from Barack Obama's old senate seat. Yes he's still the governor and he's still hanging on. Still fighting. Keeping the state of Illinois in virtual gridlock. So how long will this drag out?
I'm joined now by Rick Pearson, political reporter for the "Chicago Tribune" in Springfield, Illinois this morning. Rick, thanks for being with us. So we heard Blagojevich saying earlier this week that he's dying to tell his side of the story. So there is some speculation that we may hear from him soon. Do you know anything when or in what form that would happen?
RICK PEARSON, POLITICAL REPORTER "THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE": reporter: Well, we're hearing there's a good possibility today. His lawyer didn't want him speaking without him being at his side. Now that the Illinois House impeachment panel has kind of recessed for the weekend. Ed Genson, this attorney can get to Chicago. So there's a lot of speculation that perhaps this afternoon we'll be hearing from the governor.
CHETRY: And you know, this is a story in itself that he's you know keeping on fighting. I mean he has a very aggressive defense attorney. The Illinois Supreme Court right threw out hearing any type of declaration of him being unfit to serve. So now, it's in the hands of the legislature to go to these impeachment proceedings. Does he have any political capital to prevent being impeached?
PEARSON: You know, he's alienated virtually everyone in the Illinois state house from democratic leaders, statewide democratic leaders to rank and file legislators. You know, this impeachment process on its face should be somewhat of a slam dunk but they are trying to do somewhat methodical, trying to at least put on the pretenses of due process for Blagojevich but it's pretty clear at least from this impeachment panel they got their minds made up.
CHETRY: Very interesting. So what happens next if he's indeed impeached?
PEARSON: Well, if this committee recommends impeachment that will go to the full house. That's a recommendation for the full Illinois house. The Illinois house is headed by the state democratic chairman, Mike Madigan, the father of the attorney general of the state who tried to oust him through the Supreme Court. He's been a long time battler of the governor even though he did co-chair his 2006 reelection campaign. So it's expected that that impeachment resolution would pass the house, go over to the Senate for trial.
CHETRY: And then what? I mean is he going to stay in office, basically, for the foreseeable future?
PEARSON: You know, what you're seeing nationally is what we've seen in Illinois for the past six years of his governorship. I mean, this is a guy who constantly blames other people for problems that run afoot. When he talks about the fact that there are federal investigations as you heard, put me on tape, you know, I'm not afraid of anything. I always do things right. This is his style and, really, he claims he's the white knight of politics. So it's no surprise he's fighting.
CHETRY: His attorney is challenging, I guess, the lawfulness of these tapes from which those transcripts came from, those wiretappings, trying to say that they would be inadmissible in court. I mean is there a possibility that we would see this either tied up in the courts or perhaps they wouldn't be able to use those tapes and then you're in a position where he remains as governor of your state?
PEARSON: Well, it's interesting. Ed Genson said yesterday at the hearing that he believed that these wiretaps were obtained illegally. The fact is because it hasn't really gotten that far in the legal process, there hasn't been that kind of discovery where more information is known to him and more information is revealed by the prosecution. So, in a way, Genson being the lawyer is kind of throwing things out saying you can't use these wiretaps in this impeachment because we think they are obtained illegally. The fact of the matter is the Illinois legislature isn't really looking at those high headline issues about selling a senate seat for impeachment. They got a whole list of particulars from his six years doing, his activities in the governor's office in Springfield.
CHETRY: And meanwhile, the Senate seat still hangs in the balance. So a lot going on. But the headline on this we could possible hear from Gov. Blagojevich today. Rick Pearson of the Chicago Tribune, thank you.
PEARSON: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Six days down to Christmas and the weather outside is frightful, monster snow storm moving through the midwest. It won't stop there. Joining us is our affiliate WDIV from just outside of Detroit is Jim Kertzner. He is in Bloomfields Township, Michigan when we checked in with you last hour, Jim, you had about four inches of snow on the ground. It looks like it's coming even harder now. JIM KERTZNER, REPORTER, WDIV: Yes, the snow volume has increased. It's blowing horizontally. Let me give you a fresh measurement here. I'm kind of in a snow drift but I have my brush here marked with inches. It's now between six and eight inches. Again, this is a little bit of drifting as well as the snow amounts. I can tell you officially they measured about three to four inches throughout Michigan with the National Weather Service. Take another live look here at Woodward Avenue.
The traffic volumes for this hour here in Detroit are down from what you would normally see with the morning drive as the snow continues to fall. We've had the schools closed by the hundreds. In fact, virtually all of them are closed now. We've also seen several businesses closed. As the snow plows have gone through here, local officials are telling us they are doing all they can to keep up because at this rate the snow is falling at one to two inches an hour, faster than they can keep it cleared off the roads. They're going to have all their crews working all day. John.
ROBERTS: Jim, just one question a lot of us have here, and probably a lot of viewers as well is where do you get a hat like that?
KERTZNER: I don't remember where I bought this. I bought it a few years ago because I've been here in Michigan for 25 years. This is not the worse storm we've seen but it's certainly progressing towards that. We're expecting to get six to ten inches. I can tell you we've had up to 24 inches in the past. So this is mild compared to Michigan standards.
ROBERTS: It definitely looks like a hat that would keep your head warm. Jim Kertzner for us. Thanks, Jim. We'll check back in with you. 47 1/2 minutes now after the hour.
KERTZNER: OK.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY (voice-over): The food police.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's insulting to insist the government has to tell people what's good for them.
CHETRY: Big Brother takes on the Big Mac. Why some say the government is going too far in watching what you eat. You're matching "the most news in the morning."
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CONAN O'BRIEN, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O'BRIEN": According to a new survey that just came out, the most admired profession is doctor. Doctor is the most admired profession. Yes, the least admired profession, Governor Blagojevich's barber.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CHETRY: Well last minute Bush administration move is protecting the rights of doctor who refused care based on their moral principles. The rule will be published today in the federal register and it takes effect the day before President Bush leaves office.
We're "Paging Dr. Gupta" who is live at the CNN Center. Now we do have laws already as I understand to protect the rights of healthcare workers. Now why this new regulation?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the proponents say these laws go further and they protect all healthcare workers against any kind of discrimination. If they choose to refuse care or access to care, advice, or referrals based on their conscience. We took a look at this and take a look at what we found.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How are you guys doing?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good.
GUPTA: 20 years ago when Dr. Sandy Christiansen went to medical school, she never thought she would face discrimination. Yes because of antiabortion views, she said she was repeatedly denied the opportunity to perform medical procedures that another intern was allowed to do. When she pressed her superiors, she didn't like the response.
DR. SANDY CHRISTIANSEN, OB-GYN: She's doing that because she is working hard at the abortions and you haven't and so she gets that perk.
GUPTA: Even after she got her license, Christiansen said she felt unaccepted by some of her peers because of her views. Now a medical consultant for a pregnancy resource center in (), Maryland, she has never performed an abortion and refuses to refer patients to abortion clinics.
CHRISTIANSEN: Just in the same way that my conscience would not allow me to perform an abortion, I wouldn't ask another colleague to do that.
GUPTA: But many healthcare organizations including the American Medical Association believe health care providers like Christiansen have an obligation to their patients, to advise of them the options despite their own beliefs. Now a new regulation introduced by the Department of Health and Human Services would support Christiansen's right to refuse referrals and withhold information that goes against her own beliefs.
Critics argue there area already laws on the books protecting healthcare professionals when it comes to refusing care for personal reasons. The new proposal goes further by making it so that all health care workers from doctors to janitors who work in the hospitals may refuse to provide services, information or advise to patient if they are morally against it. Critics say that could mean anything from fertility treatments to abortion to stem cell research.
ADAM SONFIELD, GUTTMACHER INSTITUTE: This regulation explicitly allows that doctor or that nurse or any other healthcare provider to withhold information that would be relevant to a patient trying to make a medical decision.
GUPTA: Organizations like the American Nurses Association already have a code of ethics for their members. They believe nurses and other healthcare professionals are there for the patient and it's the patient's prerogative to make decisions based on care based on their own beliefs and not the health care provider's.
MARY JEAN SCHUMANN, AMERICAN NURSES ASSOCIATION: We don't go to school to learn how to make god-like decisions. That's not what it's about for us. It's about trying to get to where the patient is and helping the patient make their own decision. You know, nobody appointed us the ultimate person to pass judgment.
GUPTA: But Christiansen said she is not playing god, just exercising her code of ethics along with the Hippocratic oath.
CHRISTIANSEN: Why would you want to eliminate people, you know, who have these certain held beliefs in conscience from a particular field of practice. Frankly, all the more reason to hold them there.
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GUPTA: Well, it is controversial as you can see there. The critics charge look this is a very slippery slope, simply allowing people to decide based on their conscience whether or not they refuse care. Senator Kerry released a statement yesterday calling for the existing administration to overturn this, saying it could interfere with end of life care, that could interfere with family planning as well. So stay tuned, there's probably more on the days and weeks to come. Kiran.
CHETRY: And what recourse does a patient have, Sanjay?
GUPTA: Well, you know, if you live in a big city like New York, you can go to a different clinic, different hospital and see a different doctor. If you live in a place where you don't have as many options, it's tougher, it's tougher to find someone who might care for you if the original health care practitioner decided not to. Again, based on their conscience. The American Medical Association, we talked to for this piece and you heard in the piece says that the rights really belong with the patients in terms of how they're going to choose their care as opposed to the healthcare provider. So that is where some of the controversy lies.
CHETRY: All right. Sanjay Gupta, good to see you this morning. Thanks.
GUPTA: Good to see you. Take care.
CHETRY: It's 54 minutes after the hour.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS (voice-over): The Detroit depression.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just kicking the city in the stomach.
ROBERTS: An auto industry left to die. A football team on a quest for imperfection. How the winless Lions can save the holiday season for a struggling city. Plus, breaking news. Deep Throat is dead. The former G man who blew the whistle on Watergate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They saw something wrong in the government and what should he have done.
ROBERTS: This morning, Carl Bernstein talks about journalism's best kept secret. You are watching the most news in the morning.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAROLINE KENNEDY: I come at this as a mother, as a lawyer, as an author, as an education advocate. And you know from a family that really has been generations of public service and I feel this commitment, this is a time when nobody can afford to sit out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Caroline Kennedy on her desire to enter the family business and if appointed she would join two other members of the Kennedy clan who are already in Congress. Her uncle, Senator Ted Kennedy and her cousin, Rhode Island congressman Patrick Kennedy. And the Kennedys are not the only family to dominate today's political scene. Joining me now from Washington, Patricia Murphy. She's the editor of Citizenjanepolitics.com. Patrician, it's great to see you. Now, it's not quite Europe, but there certainly is a rich tradition in American politics of family domination.
PATRICIA MURPHY, CITIZENJANEPOLITICS.COM, EDITOR: Yes. And it's not just a tradition, it's a tradition that is alive and well in the U.S. Senate. If we go through the name, there are more than a dozen sitting U.S. senators who come from very, very powerful political families. We can start off with a partial list of Chris Dodd who is son of a senator. We have Judd Gregg who is the son of a governor. Lisa Markowsky is interesting. She is the daughter of a former senator who when he won the governorship of Alaska appointed her to fill his Senate seat.
ROBERTS: Right, we all remember that.
MURPHY: We remember that and then as we go down the list we have Elizabeth Dole, wife of a majority leader, Evan Bayh, son of a senator and the list goes on and on.
ROBERTS: Jay Rockefeller there who of course has descended from Vice- president Nelson Rockefeller's lineage.
MURPHY: Yes.
ROBERTS: But when it comes to this idea of let's call it nepotism, is it different for a man than it is for a woman?
MURPHY: You know I perceive a difference and I can't prove this, but I've gone through a lot of these cases. And for women it seems to be perceived as some sort of an unfair advantage when a woman comes in to this situation. Her qualifications are always questioned. For a man it seems to be that when he joins the family business, if you will, he seems like a chip off the old block. We have many, many men in the Senate, who we didn't hear those kinds of questions when they came on to the scene.
ROBERTS: So if it wasn't Caroline Kennedy, do you think there would be such a fuss?
MURPHY: You know, I think that is a part of it for Caroline Kennedy. I think The biggest problem for her, of course, her resume is short. It doesn't mean she's unqualified, but she's got a short resume. Also this is an appointment and it has the feel of being served to her on a silver platter if she gets it. With somebody like Hillary Clinton, she certainly was from a famous last name but she earned that seat and she won that race. So I think that's why Caroline Kennedy is having a hard time.
ROBERTS: Well maybe we should clarify she's got a short resume when it comes to politics, but certainly she's got a long rich history of philanthropy.
MURPHY: Yes. I'm sorry.
ROBERTS: As well as a lot of other great things that she's done.
MURPHY: Absolutely.
ROBERTS: Some people though are miffed about the sense of entitlement. You sort of alluded to it. The "Washington Post" today, Kathleen Parker writes but "the real rub is that she hasn't earned it. The sense of entitlement implicit in Kennedy's plea for opponent mocks our national narrative. We honor rags to riches, but riches to riches animates our revolutionary spirit." Do you agree with that?
MURPHY: Me, I partially disagree with that. You can go back to John Adams and John Quincy Adams and it's not un-American to have children of famous politicians follow in their parent's footsteps. I think with Caroline Kennedy, you know, I don't think it's un-American, if you look at history, I think it's entirely American if she were to get this. The one thing I'll say - David Paterson is looking for somebody who is not only qualified and can do the job, but can get elected in 2010. She is a viable statewide candidate. And so I think she's inherently qualified in that way.
ROBERTS: Patricia Murphy, it's always great to see you. Thanks for coming in this morning. MURPHY: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Happy Holidays.
MURPHY: Same to you, too.
