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American Morning
Obama's Upcoming Speech to Students Criticized; Report: Garrido Arrested on Suspicion of Drugging, Raping 14-Year-Old Girl 20 Years Ago; More U.S. Troops Going to Afghanistan; Proposal Suggests Taxing Stock Trades; Jack Kevorkian Speaks Out
Aired September 04, 2009 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Thank you for being with us on this Friday. It's the 4th of September as we head into the Labor Day weekend. I'm John Robert.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, time flies, doesn't it?
ROBERTS: Summer just went.
CHETRY: Yes, it did. And it's Friday. And we're following several big stories for you this morning. Here's what we're breaking down in the next 15 minutes.
First, as we said, this is Labor Day weekend. The kids will be heading back to school Tuesday, and they'll be greeted by a televised message from President Obama. But not everyone is happy about it. Is it a life lesson about the importance of working hard, or is it political propaganda?
ROBERTS: Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he might consider American troops to Afghanistan to turn around what he calls a "deteriorating situation." The United States has a new military strategy but Gates says it's too early to determine if it's working. We're live at the Pentagon this morning.
CHETRY: Also this morning, there are disturbing new allegations yet again against Jaycee Dugard's suspected kidnapper, Phillip Garrido. He may responsible now for even more attacks, including an alleged rape nearly 20 years before Jaycee was kidnapped.
ROBERTS: But we begin with a story that has a lot of people buzzing this morning just days before President Obama hits the airwaves to pitch health care reform. He has got another headache, another distraction.
The president wants to kick off the school year with a televised message to America's students on Tuesday, but in today's hyper- partisan culture, some charge the president's message is pure propaganda.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My rights as a parent are being circumvented.
ROBERTS (voice-over): From talk radio to political circles, there's a lot of anger over the president's upcoming speech. The Department of Education says the goal is to challenge students to work hard, set educational goals and take responsibility for their learning. But along with that came some suggestions for teachers. Lesson plans, asking students to "write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. That's where the trouble started. And the head of Florida's Republican Party didn't hold back.
JIM GREER, HEAD OF FLORIDA'S REPUBLICAN PARTY: The parents across this country and the uproar that occurred, the Department of Education withdrew all of that language last night.
ROBERTS: And Greer didn't stop there. In a letter, he charges the president was going to use the speech to sell his policies saying, "President Obama has turned to his America's children to spread his liberal lies, indoctrinating American's youngest children before they have a chance to decide for themselves."
The response from the left, it's not about the lesson plans or the speech, but politics.
ROBERTS (on camera): Was there a little bit of a problem there with the additional materials that were provided to go along with the president's speech?
ROLAND MARTIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: No, it's not a problem. What you have is you have some insane parents who want to bring their ideology into the table. Why is it -- I mean I didn't see people sitting here and saying when President George W. Bush wanted to go read to the students, oh, I want to see what book he's reading. I want to pull my kid out of the class because I'm a Democrat, he's a Republican. This is absolute nonsense.
ROBERTS (voice-over): The Department of Education has changed those lesson plans now, instead suggesting students write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short-term and long-term education goals. Some school districts in Texas, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Virginia and Wisconsin have decided not to show the speech. And other schools will let parents keep their kids out of the classroom during the speech if they want. And many parents are even considering keeping their kids home from school altogether on Tuesday.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I may have voted for McCain and Bush in the past. I wouldn't want them speaking to my student or your student or anybody else's student for that matter, their child. Politics is totally up to the family.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So will I send my child? I don't know. Right now, I would say no. I'll keep him home.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Well, the White House trying to tamp down the furor, says it's going to release the text of the speech on Monday so that parents and educators can see that it's not about politics. It's about education.
CHETRY: Yes. And as you said as well, this is not the first time a president has done this. I mean, there are other times.
ROBERTS: No. It's just the idea that they handed out these materials that has really sparked the outrage here.
CHETRY: All right. We're going to talk more about that. We're going to dig deeper a little bit now with our senior White House correspondent Ed Henry live at the White House.
And, Ed, how is the administration reaction as we just heard from John's piece they did say, OK, these materials, they don't have to be handed out. But did it feel everywhere they turn they're getting accused of partisanship here?
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Good morning, Kiran. They feel almost like it's just like we see in the health care debate that no matter what they say about what the president is pushing, there are people out there that are criticizing and that they believe are twisting what is really going on here.
And the bottom line, according to White House aides, is the president just wants to give a very simple message. Stay in school, study hard, et cetera. And as John noted, they're going to release what the president is going to say on Tuesday. They will release on Monday. And they say they want to do that so parents can evaluate it and see that they believe it's just a very straight-up message and in terms of what's been done before.
In fact I remember being a young reporter in 1991, the first year I was in Washington, then-President Bush, the first President Bush, gave a very similar speech here in Washington at a local school, Alice Deal (ph) School here in a (INAUDIBLE) town area, beamed out across the country, and the current White House is saying, look, then- president Bush just basically said study hard, don't use drugs. That's a similar message this president plans to send out next week, Kiran.
ROBERTS: So, Ed, this latest thing is, you know, the newest flashpoint for the president. He's got some other problems too. We saw his poll numbers dipped in the recent weeks. But a brand new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll out this morning shows that that's not really coming at the expense of Democrats as a whole. Let's take a look at the numbers here.
Fifty-two percent of people who responded think the Democrats in Congress will move the country in the right direction. Democrats also get the nod, is the party likely to do a better job at handling the economy, foreign affairs and health care. So how does the White House respond to these numbers that the Democrats still rate fairly highly, but the president's numbers have slipped dramatically, I think more dramatically than any other president except Gerald Ford immediately after he pardoned Richard Nixon?
HENRY: When you talk to top White House aides, the way they're trying to explain this is they believe this shows that there's been a lot of exaggeration in the coverage in recent weeks over these town hall meetings and that there's a belief out there that has been fostered, that the president has taken a big hit in August. Democrats in general taking a big hit.
And White House aides are saying, well, if that's the case, why aren't Republicans gaining dramatically on issues like the economy and health care? Instead what they believe is that there's a lot of confusion out there but nevertheless the American people are still open to the idea of real health care reform.
The bottom line is the president in the next few days has to figure out exactly how to explain it to them to clear up some of these confusion, that speech to a joint session of Congress next Wednesday night. He's got an opportunity. The American people want to hear him. But he's got -- this may be his last big opportunity to explain exactly what he's for to sort of convince them it's time for reform, John.
ROBERTS: Ed Henry this morning at the White House for us. Ed, thanks so much.
CHETRY: All right. Thanks, Ed.
And we're also following developments this morning involving American troops in Afghanistan. President Obama is going to be spending part of his holiday weekend reviewing the strategic assessment from the new commander of U.S. and NATO forces, General Stanley McChrystal.
The Afghanistan war has reached its bloodiest stage for U.S. troops. Polls show eroding support for the war effort as well. But Defense Secretary Roberts Gates now says now is not the time to get out. In fact, more Americans may be going in.
Chris Lawrence is up early for us at the Pentagon this morning. And as we said, the president is going to get some time to review these recommendations and this assessment that's been given to him and we could be seeing more troops go to Afghanistan.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kiran, I think, you know, from all indications it looks like we could be very close to getting some major decisions. What it's going to take to succeed in Afghanistan and exactly how many troops that may take.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE (voice-over): The military leaders who once spoke out against adding American troops now seem willing to order more of them to Afghanistan.
ROBERT GATES, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: I'm very open to the recommendations and certainly the perspective of General McChrystal.
LAWRENCE: The defense secretary says the change of heart has nothing to do with any new strategy. He says there is no new strategy. But instead, new commander's Stan McChrystal's view that Afghans will accept more American troops if they reduce civilian casualties in respect to Afghan laws. GATES: Then the risk that I have been concerned about, about the footprint becoming too big and the Afghans seeing us in some role other than partners I think is mitigated.
LAWRENCE: Contrast that with last year.
GATES: I think we need to think long and hard about how big a footprint.
LAWRENCE: Or even earlier this summer.
GATES: The foreign military footprint gets too big.
LAWRENCE: One critic of the war policy says the Taliban is a guerilla force indigenous to Afghanistan and can't be removed. She says Afghanistan's literacy rate is in the single digits and it's never had a strong central government. So the U.S. should narrow it's mission to focus solely on al Qaeda.
MALOU INNOCENT, CATO INSTITUTE: We have a little over 100,000 U.S. and NATO troops all together. You don't need another 10,000, another 5,000 to achieve those narrow aims.
LAWRENCE: New polls show a majority of Americans oppose sending more troops. Military leaders admit they must show progress but firmly believe the effort can succeed.
GATES: I don't believe that the war is slipping through the administration's fingers.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: Secretary Gates says that the U.S. cannot defeat Afghanistan from a distance if -- or cannot defeat al Qaeda from a distance if Afghanistan as a nation is not strong enough to resist them. President Obama now has a copy of General McChrystal's assessment. Now Gates, Chairman Mullen, General Petraeus, they're all weighing in and they're going to present their views to the president early next week -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Chris Lawrence for us at the Pentagon. Thank you.
CHETRY: Coming up on nine minutes after the hour. And also new this morning, North Korea says it's in the final stages of enriching uranium, a process that can be used for making nuclear weapons. The North Koreans say they are moving ahead with their nuclear programs because of the United Nations efforts to tighten sanctions against them.
CHETRY: Michael Jackson finally laid to rest. There was a private burial service that took place last night at Forest Lawn Cemetery in California. The family was late arriving, leaving mourners like 77-year-old Elizabeth Taylor waiting in the 90-degree heat for nearly two hours.
ROBERTS: And a teenager in Vermont is going to jail for three months after pleading guilty to a charge involving sexting. He was accused of directing two teenage girls to videotape or photograph themselves performing sex acts and then send those explicit pictures to him. That does sound like an offense for which somebody should do some time.
CHETRY: Yes. He actually was sentenced to a harsher sentence then they gave him a reduced one. So -- but, you as we talked to various D.A.s they say this is just the beginning.
ROBERTS: Yes.
CHETRY: And they are going to try to crack down on this.
ROBERTS: You know parents got to make their kids aware about all of this stuff. Very important.
CHETRY: Those pictures will be around long after you -- glad you (INAUDIBLE)
ROBERTS: Yes, the Internet is forever. Relationships may last a couple of weeks. The Internet is forever.
CHETRY: Exactly.
All right. Well, it's 10 minutes after the hour right now. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, there is some disturbing new details yet again about Phillip Garrido and his past, including an arrest for a possible rape 20 years before 11-year-old Jaycee Dugard disappeared.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. There's some new allegations this morning against Jaycee Dugard's alleged kidnapper, Phillip Garrido.
ROBERTS: Police now revealing that almost 20 years before Jaycee was taken, Garrido was arrested on suspicion of drugging and raping a 14-year-old girl. Dan Simon is at work in that story for us from California this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It happened 37 years ago, at this Antioch motel. It's where police say Phillip Garrido drugged and repeatedly raped another young girl. Authorities say the victim, 14 at the time, is now coming forward after seeing Garrido's image splashed on television, essentially saying there is more you need to know about this guy's past.
LT. LEONARD ORMAN, ANTIOCH POLICE DEPARTMENT: Mr. Garrido was charged in the matter. The details of that are very slim at this point with respect for records to rely on. But at some point, the prosecution was dropped.
SIMON: That's because the victim declined to testify against Garrido. It's not clear whether he ever entered a plea in the case.
(on camera): According to police, the girl and a friend met Garrido, then 21, and another man near the public library. They got in a car and were given drugs. Later, they wound up at this motel where the alleged rape occurred. Eventually the girl's parents came to pick her up and called police.
(voice-over): Word of the old arrest came on the same day we learned how the now 29-year-old Jaycee Dugard is coping since reuniting with her family. Dugard allegedly 18 years in captivity in Garrido's back yard. Tina Dugard is Jaycee's aunt.
TINA DUGARD, JAYCEE DUGARD'S AUNT: Jaycee and her daughters are with her mom and younger sister in a secluded place reconnecting. I was with them until recently. We spent time sharing memories and stories and getting to know each other again.
Jaycee remembers all of us. She is especially enjoying getting to know her little sister, who was just a baby when Jaycee was taken.
SIMON: Tina Dugard describes Jaycee as a remarkably resourceful mother.
DUGARD: Although they have no formal education, they are certainly educated. Jaycee did a truly amazing job with the limited resources and education that she herself had, and we are so proud of her.
SIMON: This is how Tina would have remembered Jaycee, more as a child than the 29-year-old woman she is today.
DUGARD: Not only have we laughed and cried together, but we've spent time sitting quietly, taking pleasure in each other's company. We are so very grateful to have her home.
SIMON: Jaycee Dugard was abducted outside her South Lake Tahoe home in 1991. The suspects, Phillip and Nancy Garrido have been charged with 29 counts, including rape and kidnapping. Both have pleaded not guilty. Today her aunt describing the bond that never ended between a mother and daughter apart for nearly two decades.
DUGARD: The smile on my sister's face is as wide as the sea. Her oldest daughter is finally home.
SIMON: Dan Simon, CNN, Antioch, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: All right. Well, coming in the next hour, we're going to be taking a look at Phillip Garrido's past with Don Clark, a former FBI special agent. You're going to want to hear why he is so angry about this case and what he says time and time again just seem to be signs that went, you know, unchallenged. I mean, there were so many various times when people say you could have caught him there, police could have caught them here.
ROBERTS: Yes.
CHETRY: Police could have stopped this. And it really isn't. You read it on the whole, it's so frustrating.
ROBERTS: So many people dropped the ball in that particular case.
He was known as Dr. Death, then he went away for eight years in prison for helping someone end their life. Well, now he's back. He's out, his parole is over and he's joining us this morning to talk about what life was like in prison. You'll never believe one of the things that drove him nuts about bringing in prison. We'll find out when we talk to Jack Kevorkian coming up.
Seventeen minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. We have Christine Romans with us. She's "Minding Your Business" on this Friday. And we're here talking about this very interesting way to clamp down, I guess you could say, on oil speculators that end up driving the price of oil.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Oil speculators and the high frequency trading in stocks. High frequency trading in stocks is something that the big hedge funds and the big banks, they have this very sophisticated computer programs that can throw a lot of money very quickly at a certain stock or something. And critics say that it moves the market unfairly, that it kind of manipulates reactions in the stock market and the like, and it's very, very profitable.
I mean, we know that Goldman Sachs made an awful lot of money when times were very, very tough. Made a lot of money earlier this year because of things like high frequency trading.
Anyway, what this is, is this is a proposal by the AFL-CIO, (INAUDIBLE) Democrat. It would be a new transaction tax on all stock trades. So think of this. A one-tenth of one percent tax -- the transaction tax on all stock trades. They say it would raise an awful lot of money to maybe put back in the economy, to do infrastructure spending, to do something they say will clamp down on speculation, unnecessary speculation. And it would definitely eat into the profits of people like JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and some hedge funds.
This is actually -- I thought this would just die immediately. It's actually getting a little bit of buzz. And this is something that actually first started getting talked about in the UK. Now they're talking about this kind of a transaction tax, to try, I think really to try to punish these big traders who are making an awful lot of money on something as important as oil or stocks.
Now, Peter DeFazio (ph), congressman from Oregon, he has a separate proposal and this would tax oil speculators. So this would be a tax on all futures and options trading of crude oil. He says it was raised $190 billion over six years that would go right into the highway trust fund, would be used right away into infrastructure which will create jobs.
Now, the CATO Institute...
CHETRY: It would keep the price of oil...
ROMANS: And they say it would keep the price of oil from widely spiking because you would be punishing the people who are going in there and just trading huge amounts of money just for speculation that would drive up oil prices. So it's getting a little bit -- conservatives hate it. The CATO Institute says, look, we have a transaction tax on housing. There is still a housing bubble. You're not going to prevent a bubble by just putting a tax on there. But it is getting a buzz among liberals who want to see big firms who make a lot of money with these sophisticated trading programs. They want to see them -- you know, they want to see them pay.
ROBERTS: Do you have a "Romans' Numeral" for us this hour?
ROMANS: I certainly do. It's $21 billion. And this gives you a sense of just how much money...
CHETRY: How much trading takes place in a day?
ROMANS: Actually, it's more than that. It's like trillions of dollars in trading a day. This how much profit, pure profit generated by high frequency traders last year. Share profit.
ROBERTS: Twenty-one billion dollars.
ROMANS: Twenty-one billion dollars of share profit. And you can see people looking around saying, hmm, we'd like a little bit of a piece of that. Maybe it would hold down the price of oil, price of export commodities.
Interesting. It's got a long way to go. This is not -- this is not -- it's got a long way to go and there's nobody championing this in the Senate. So until that happens it won't go anywhere.
ROBERTS: Christine Romans "Minding Your Business" this morning. Christine, thanks so much.
Hey, do you want one of those cute little hats that we give out every week to our wingnut hats? All I got to do is make an extreme statement on the left or the right. John Avlon has got this week's "Wingnuts of the Week" coming right up.
It's 23 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: What was life in prison like for you? JACK KEVORKIAN, ASSISTED SUICIDE ADVOCATE: It was all right. Boring. It was boring and the worst thing was the total lack of total freedom. And the snoring. Boy, there are a lot of people snoring in prison.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Jack Kevorkian might not have liked prison, particularly the total lack of freedom. Isn't that what prison is all about?
CHETRY: I just -- there's so many other things to complain about. But he complained about the snoring.
ROBERTS: I didn't like the total lack of freedom or the snoring. But regrets, he has none when it comes to helping terminally ill patients take their own lives.
Kevorkian was dubbed "Dr. Death" for his assisted suicides which landed him in prison. I had a chance to sit down with him and get his take on Michael Jackson's death, his life behind bars and whether he is now out of the assisted suicide business.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: You spent eight years in prison. You were convicted of second degree murder for assisting in the death of Thomas Youk. I guess it's a very basic level to go over the prison system as to punish people for their crimes and to try to convince them to never, ever do it again.
I'm wondering, I'm curious. If someone were to come to you and say, Dr. Kevorkian, I want to end my life, I want your assistance, would you help them to commit suicide to end their life?
KEVORKIAN: Not now. It wouldn't serve any purpose.
ROBERTS: So you've changed...
KEVORKIAN: The world all knows. The world knows. Everybody knows about it, and anybody who does it now will just end up in prison. It's not worth it.
ROBERTS: So have you changed your mind about assisted suicide?
KEVORKIAN: No. I changed my mind about suffering in prison for nothing. You can't -- listen, the issue is settled when the ice is broken with one case. You know, everybody knows about it now, but nobody can do it. They're afraid to death because the law will punish them.
They won't solve anything. It won't change anything. The people have got to demand this right.
ROBERTS: Doctor, if you had an opportunity to rewind the clock, would you have done anything different? KEVORKIAN: Yes, I would have done it earlier.
ROBERTS: You would have helped people to die early?
KEVORKIAN: Because it's better -- yes, it will. I would have done it earlier in my life, because it's not good to have all this commotion near the end of your life. I'd rather have been younger. I could have taken everything a little easier.
Prison wasn't that hard on me. I was surprised. When you know you're not a criminal, prison is quite easy, in fact.
ROBERTS: So in terms of helping people to die in terms of assisted suicide, you have no regrets?
KEVORKIAN: Why would I have regrets? That's my duty. I was pleased to have done my duty, not like other doctors who cowardly turn away.
ROBERTS: Let me ask you, Dr. Kevorkian, about the Michael Jackson case. As you know, his doctor, Conrad Murray, is under investigation, potential manslaughter charges or what he could face because it's alleged that he gave Michael Jackson a dose of Diprivan, otherwise known as propofol, that contributed to his death? Do you think that he should face charges for his role in the demise of Michael Jackson?
KEVORKIAN: Well, I don't know anything about the case. I don't know any details. In fact, I'm not even following it. I'm not connected with it.
And who knows? You got to have the details. You got to have the doctor's notes, medical notes and see what he did and what he said.
I mean, did Jackson demand the drugs? Did he demand higher dosage? And the doctor might have refused it and then Jackson probably would throw a fit. Who knows?
And I think he was trying to -- he was trying to conform to the patient's wishes. That's what a good doctor should do. In that case, I could not blame him for doing it if the person wanted.
Jackson was on a suicide campaign. He kept that up. He know he's going to die. Multiple drugs, you know.
ROBERTS: So, is it right for a doctor just to say it's what the patient wants, this is what I'm going to give the patient?
KEVORKIAN: Well, that's not a blank check. It's all right for the doctor to conform exactly to the patient's wishes as long as it's in conformity with regular medical ethics. Simple as that. The ethics will control the profession, not law.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: And that is the big question when it comes to Dr. Conrad Murray. Was he inside or outside the bounds of normal medical ethics?
CHETRY: Right. It's also interesting, Jack Kevorkian, when you asked him would he -- you know, would he do him again. And part of him feels like it's just not worth it to go suffer in prison.
ROBERTS: Yes.
CHETRY: He said I did what I though was right but no one's coming along with me here and everybody else is cowering and refusing to do it.
ROBERTS: And now that he's been put in jail, it has set the precedent and anybody else who does what he did will get thrown in jail as well. So always interesting to catch up with Dr. Jack. It's been a long time, about ten years since I last talked to him.
Just about half past the hour now and checking our top stories this morning.
A piece of space junk heading toward the International Space Station was not enough to cancel last night's spacewalk. The two astronauts successfully installed a new ammonia tank, critical for the space station's cooling system. Debris from an old Arian (ph) rocket expected to pass within two miles of the complex later on this morning. They'll be keeping a close eye on that, no doubt.
The U.S. Forest Service says arson is the cause of the massive wildfire burning north of Los Angeles. That makes it a homicide investigation since two firefighters died fighting the flames. The station fire is about 38 percent contained now and since the fire began more than a week ago it has burned 147,000 acres.
And Eagles quarterback Michael Vick getting the green light for full reinstatement to the NFL. Commissioner Roger Goodell ruling that he can play in the third week of the regular season when the Eagles host the Kansas City Chiefs. Vick played in the team's final preseason game last night against the jets and signed by the Eagles in August after serving 18 months in prison on dogfighting charges - Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, now in politics, and there's been a partisan fury over healthcare that we've seen play out over the past several months. But now also a speech the president is planning to give also causing a bit of an uproar. To talk about it is John Avalon. He's here with the segment we call "Wingnuts of the Week."
Each Friday, our independent analyst calls out someone on each side of the political aisle who he says has taken political discourse to the extreme.
John, by the way, is a columnist for the DailyBeast.com. He also wrote the book "Independent Nation."
Thanks for joining us this morning.
Great to see you. JOHN AVLON, INDEPENDENT POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, of course.
CHETRY: One of the things that's causing a lot of buzz is the speech the president set to give, I believe is next Tuesday to America's school children, basically saying, you know, stay in school, do the right thing, you know, work hard. It's going to be on C-SPAN, and there are some people now who say that this is actually a political move. So this brings us to our wingnut on the right today.
AVLON: To this week's wingnut on the right is Florida GOP Chairman Jim Greer, who upon hearing about this immediately fired up a press release saying that this president's speech about personal responsibility was really about imposing what he called, quote, "socialist ideology."
Let's take a look at some excerpts of what he said.
Quote -- he's, quote, "As the father of four children, I am absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's social ideology. Now that school is back in session, President Obama has turned to American's children to spread his liberal lies, indoctrinating American's younger children before they have a chance to decide for themselves."
CHETRY: All right. So there you go.
AVLON: How about that?
CHETRY: He's throwing socialist in there as well, and saying as the father of four children. But the interesting thing is he actually defended his remarks when he was asked about it again. So let's listen to what he said on CNN last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIM GREER (R), CHAIRMAN, FLORIDA REPUBLICAN PARTY: President Obama has for the last nine months been very vocal and aggressive on his vision for the future of America. And his vision may not be the vision that I want my children to hear, and that's why parents have raised their voices nationwide.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: But we've seen this before with other presidents on both sides of the political aisle. I mean, including former President George Bush I.
AVLON: Right.
CHETRY: He also gave a speech.
AVLON: About the kids. That's exactly right. And that goes to an old idea, which is that if the president of the United States to America's schoolchildren is a figure who has authority beyond partisan boundaries. That's he's a figure that children can look up to and emulate with, consistent with the idea of being the best idea of an American.
What we have here, this is a symptom of the hyper partisanship that's increased, where the right is trying to pump up this image of the president of the United States is a fearful figure in order to play to their base. And in this case saying that -- endorsing the idea of self-segregation. I want to shield my children from this president's ideas, calling him a socialist, a liar. This is extreme wingnut stuff. This is a symptom to what's going wrong in our politics today.
CHETRY: Interesting, though, it might have had some impact this whole fervor, because he -- they are releasing the speech, the excerpt, the text actually a day early and say that parents can decide...
AVLON: That's right.
CHETRY: ... if they want their children to watch that.
AVLON: Yes, just to remind that personal responsibility and socialism not usually the same.
CHETRY: All right. Well, let's turn now to this week's wingnut of the left. Once again highlighting this contentious debate over health care and a possibility that has some on the fringe is very upset that moderates could give up ground and come to some compromise in Congress.
AVLON: That's right. There's been a wrestling match on the left having to do with healthcare reform, especially this month of August. A lot of the Liberal House Leadership getting very angry at the idea that there might be move, to move a more bipartisan bill and create a bend in this public option, so we had House Democrat named Pete Stark from California teed off on House blue dog Democrats, the centrists with a conference call reporters.
Let's hear what he said.
He said, "They are for the most part, I hate to say, brain dead. They're just looking to raise money from insurance companies and promote a right wing agenda that is not very useful in this whole process. So calling his fellow Democrats in the center brain dead, saying that promoting a right-wing agenda, that's wingnut stuff.
CHETRY: And on the blog as well. Blue dog Democrats have been taking heat especially about this health care situation. They are hearing from their constituents who are concerned, and so is this sentiment echoed by a lot of people on left who believe that a public option is really a make or break situation? That it has to be in there, or there's no point in health care reform.
AVLON: There are folks on the far left who are saying they will not compromise. They are drawing a line in the sand. And in this, I think you are seeing a bit of liberal intolerance. They're starting to look like the liberal image of what they criticize. Tom Delay's play to the poll -- base politics about 10 years ago, and this has real implications.
You know, the Blue Dogs are hearing from their constituents is real concern about excess spending. The blue dogs to my eyes and many others are trying to create the basis of a bipartisan bill. They're trying to rein in spending. And the liberals are maybe confusing the problem with the cure here. They want to do exactly what's alienating independents from the administration. So blue dogs a lonely fight, taking a lot of heat and flack from the far left to their own party, especially Pete Stark last week.
CHETRY: You had an interesting blog about him on the DailyBeast, where you said that it could end up killing for themselves, right? Meaning that if there is no public option, they'd rather have nothing, when it's been decades that they've been fighting for health care reform.
AVLON: That's exactly right. Since Harry Truman, we've seen this story before. Liberal Democrats approaching an all-or-nothing approach, killing bipartisan compromise and as a result no health care reform. We saw this with Harry Truman, we saw this with Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton. So you got to learn to the lesson of history, people, you cannot make the perfect the enemy to good.
CHETRY: All right. We've heard the president say that before as well, so we'll see what happens.
By the way, honorary wingnut of the week, this is one that John crowns every single week. You have to check out his whole article on this. It's link to our Web site, CNN.com/AMFIX.
John Avlon, great to have you as always.
AVLON: Thank you.
CHETRY: John.
ROBERTS: How many of you have got one of these, and how many times have you been talking on the phone, and then you lapse into the old, oh, can you hear me now, can you hear me now? And you know how frustrating that is.
Well, this is a big problem because folks who are using iPhone are apparently network hogs, and there's not enough bandwidth to handle everybody, which is why your calls are getting dropped.
We've got our Jason Carroll. He's going to be looking into all of this coming right up.
Stay with us.
It's 37 minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
You know, the iPhone is the golden child of AT&T. But it's also creating quite a headache at the same time for the network.
ROBERTS: That's because iPhone users are network hogs, using them to do everything that they would do on their home computer on top of making the phone call.
Our Jason Carroll joins us now with more on this. It's proven to be a big problem for AT&T, and, I mean, we suffer, too, because...
CHETRY: Yes.
Is that why your calls are dropped?
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: Our BlackBerries are on the AT&T network, and you're on the heart of New York City. And you can't get a signal.
(CROSSTALK)
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You can't get out. You can't get out. So it's not just with blackberries. You know, it's a big problem. We're spending billions of dollars to try to fix this problem. AT&T says it is working on upgrading their system. In the meantime, if you are an iPhone user in a major city, you may need a little patience.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL (voice-over): Millions of people across the country use Apple's iPhone. It has a seemingly coat-like following. Buyers lining up for the latest version the 3G, build as fastest at downloading everything from music to Internet games, but when it comes to the phone part...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Drops the calls a lot.
CARROLL: That's where some customers have a hang up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have to turn it off.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm happy with the iPhone. I'm not happy with AT&T.
CARROLL: AT&T is the exclusive carrier for iPhones in the United States, the problem iPhones are so popular, and users are downloading and streaming movies and music so much they are overloading AT&T's network.
NICK THOMPSON, "WIRED" MAGAZINE: What's happened is people are trying to use their cell phones the same way they use their computers. So you have a lot of demand in a little space. It's like trying to, trying to put 100 cars on a two-lane highway.
CARROLL: The result? Dropped calls, snail-paced downloads, and questions from customers asking given the popularity of iPhone, why wasn't AT&T prepared for the demand? PAUL REYNOLDS, CONSUMER REPORTS: iPhone 3GS, the latest version of the iPhone was sold in part on how quickly it connects to the 3G network. And, of course, the success is now coming back in some ways to haunt AT&T.
CARROLL: AT&T says no one could have known in advance just how much the use of our network would increase because of the iPhone and other smart phones. But we are working hard to stay ahead of customer demand. An estimated $9 million iPhone customers use AT&T. The company spokesman says they are spending more than $17 billion this year to improve their wireless networks.
New cell towers are being added to cities like New York and San Francisco, where demand is high. There is industry speculation. AT&T's contract with Apple could end in a year and iPhone users could have a choice of carriers. Neither Apple or AT&T would confirm that. This AT&T customer says he will remain loyal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've had a Verizon phone before, and it wasn't that much different. I mean, I think the service is -- it's acceptable. It's not like, I'm not complaining about it a lot. So, yes, I'll probably stay with AT&T.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: Well, we did speak to a representative at Apple about all the problems, and asked about whether or not they were upset with AT&T. At first, Apple said they would provide us with a statement, and then they called us back and said that they would have no comment on the whole issue. AT&T, though, very forthcoming, had a lengthy conversation with their representative. And, again, they say, you know, what they are basically dealing with is a revolution in the way people are using these phones and they are working frantically to try and catch up. It could take, though, about a year or so. Some industry analysts are saying before things could right itself.
ROBERTS: Now, is it just the iPhone that's to blame? Because I've got this, a blackberry, which is also on the 3G network, and I've used it for browsing and, you know, sending text messages.
CARROLL: Right. A lot of this so called smart phones are having, you know, people who used these smart phones are having the same issues. So blackberries, I have a blackberry, you know, sometimes when I get to my apartment, I can't use it.
CHETRY: Yes. There are specific places you go -- you know, you are on the phone, you pass by a certain street, it's gone.
ROBERTS: It's like when you go across the Triborough Bridge, right? As soon as you hit the center of the bridge over this, it's sort of gone every time.
CHETRY: As soon as I turn right down 58th street and hit 9th, gone.
But anyway, one of the things also, though, that's interesting. IPhone and AT&T have an exclusive agreement.
CARROLL: Correct.
CHETRY: If iPhone was available to be on other networks as well, wouldn't that also solve part of the problem. I'm sure AT&T doesn't want to give up its business, but...
CARROLL: Right. Well, you know, a lot of industry analyst are saying that, too. I mean, it's -- you know, it's not just here, but like, let's say you're in Toronto, you're in Canada. You know, they have an exclusive deal with Rogers. So a lot of these exclusive deals are all over the place. But Apple basically telling me when I was on the phone yesterday, you know, in some places, Australia, Italy, you know, if you're an iPhone user, you can use various carriers. So maybe that will alleviate some of the congestion on the network.
ROBERTS: And note to AT&T, you're welcome to put the tower right in the middle of my living room, because I can't get a signal from my apartment.
CARROLL: They're working on it.
CHETRY: Jason, thank you.
Meanwhile, it's 45 minutes past the hour right now. It's the big holiday weekend Labor Day. You can only wear white for two more days or three more days.
ROBERTS: I miss my chance.
CHETRY: Anyway, what's the weather going to be like for those Labor Day barbecues? Jacqui Jeras has the look coming up next.
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CHETRY: Yes, it's the weekend. And some of us are shipping up to Boston. A live picture from WCVB. Thanks to our friends there. It's 60 degrees. It's going to be 79, so pretty nice weekend up in Boston and sunny as well.
Right now, it's 48 minutes past the hour. Jacqui Jeras is in the weather center in Atlanta.
Also breaking out white, because she has, what, two or three more days to do it, and then it's bye-bye.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I know. I looked at my closet this morning. I said, I haven't worn this suit all summer.
Hello?
CHETRY: Summer went by very quickly, though, right? I mean, boy!
(WEATHER REPORT)
CHETRY: Sounds good.
Can't do much complaining, right, if you look at the forecast across the country.
All right, Jacqui, thanks so much - John.
ROBERTS: So even after all of the weeks of debate over healthcare reform, there are still some lawmakers out there who are undecided.
What are they waiting for? We'll find out.
Forty-nine and a half minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
The heat of debate over health care reform has been raging from the halls of Congress to town halls across the country. One Virginia Democrat who is still undecided is going the extra mile to listen to constituents as he wrestles with his conscience.
Our senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash is live in Washington with that story.
You wonder after all of the rancor and all of the statements on both sides of the aisle, anybody can remain undecided at this point, Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's actually probably because of that that he is still undecided. I did go to see that freshman Democrat. He did leave for summer recess five weeks ago.
Where he is right now? Undecided. That has not changed.
We spent some time with him, John, meeting with constituents away from town halls, and he was delivering a tough message for the president.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BASH (voice-over): Here's something you haven't seen during the summer of angry town halls.
SUSAN BURTON, BUSINESS OWNER: Welcome so much for coming to my home.
REP. GERRY CONNOLLY (D), VIRGINIA: Oh, my pleasure.
BASH: A health care house call.
Democratic Congressman Jerry Connolly at Susan Burton's table, invited to hear her explain why she may have to cut health coverage for workers at her small business. BURTON: A thousand for family coverage, so that's the one we went with. That's outrageous for a group.
BASH: Connolly, a freshman, wants to back health care reform, but is wary because his Virginia district is fairly conservative. Afterwards, the congressman lamented that deep concern he heard here about the current health care system has been drowned out.
(on camera): Why is public opinion turning against public health care reform if you have stories like that?
CONNOLLY: Well, partly, we have had a steady drumbeat of the negative playing on people's fears and anxieties, and to some extent that's clearly taken hold.
This is the bill.
BASH (voice-over): In a car ride through his district, Connolly blamed his own party, especially the president, for losing control of the debate.
CONNOLLY: The White House, candidly, underestimated the passion on the other side. I think we underestimated the ability of the opposition to really initially frame the issue in outlandish ways.
BASH: Connolly goes back to his district office to see Democratic groups scrambling to reframe the debate and get his vote.
DELORES GARBER, COMMUNICATION WORKERS OF AMERICA: That was the whole point of us getting people elected.
BASH: Members of a local union there to lobby him in one room, and, in another, volunteers from the president's political group, Organizing For America, deliver a box of petitions, and bring emotional stories of preexisting conditions that make insurance unaffordable.
KARIMA HIJAN, RESIDENT OF VIENNA, VIRGINIA: And I had to resign from my job because of my health issues.
BASH: Connolly says those meetings are effective, but back in this car this Democrat with conservative constituents says what he really needs is better leadership from the president.
CONNOLLY: We need Obama to maybe put aside the cool, cerebral part of himself. We need a more passionate Obama who can directly articulate to Americans why we need health care.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: Now Connelly like many other Democrats from conservative districts thinks his party's health care proposal taxes too much and it doesn't do enough to cut health care cost long term. He told me it's time for the president to start engaging in the details that divide his own party. He said he should, quote, "roll up his sleeves and cut a deal" - John. ROBERTS: Nice to see a member of Congress getting out there and talking to folks one on one, but he's new, right?
BASH: He's new, he's new, but he certainly is diligent.
ROBERTS: All right. Dana Bash for us this morning.
Dana, thanks so much.
BASH: Thanks.
ROBERTS: Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Well, still ahead, Rob Marciano.
Yesterday, we saw him give us an inside look during this big fire fight that's taking place in Los Angeles to get a handle on that fire, of that huge 747 capable of dropping tons of fire retardant. Well, today, he is working with fire investigators as they try to figure out what happens.
It's fifty-six minutes past the hour.
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