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American Morning
Vietnamese-American Community on the Brink in the Gulf; Financial Reform Bill: What's in and What's Out; The Dangers and Demands of Solo Sailing; Kagan Confirmation Hearings Kick Off Today; Cheney's Heart Troubles
Aired June 28, 2010 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good Monday morning to you. Thanks so much for joining us on the Most News in the Morning. It's the 28th of June. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us. Here are the top stories this morning.
We have breaking news overnight. A legend in the U.S. senate, Robert Byrd of West Virginia has died. He was 92 years old. Byrd served longer in the Senate than anyone in U.S. history. Dana Bash will have more in a passing (ph) in a moment.
ROBERTS: All eyes in the Gulf are on Alex this morning. The tropical storm is back over warm water and gaining strength, expected to steer clear of the oil spill, the storm itself. But the experts warn, nothing is certain, and certainly, it's going to be kicking up a lot of waves will fill that bowl of the Gulf of Mexico. A full update coming from your hurricane headquarters.
CHETRY: Also nuclear concern, CIA director, Leon Panetta, says he believes Iran is still working to develop its nuclear capability, but how long before Tehran gets its hands on a nuclear weapon? We'll have Panetta's response.
ROBERTS: We begin this morning, though, with breaking news, sad news as well, the passing of West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd at the age of 92. He served if the Senate longer than anyone in U.S. history.
CHETRY: This morning, words of tribute are pouring in from his colleagues in Congress. Our senior Congressional correspondent Dana Bash is live on Capitol Hill this morning. Dana, Byrd had a well- earned reputation as a legislator who knew how to work the system.
DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He certainly knew how to work the system. He was the system, effectively. He was really the master of the Senate. He was the master of its tradition and rules and history. Senator Byrd was not only the longest serving senator, he was the longest serving member of Congress in American history.
If you can believe it, he served here in Congress during the terms of 13 -- 13 presidents. He always carried the Constitution in his pocket. He was, from his perspective, a keeper of the Constitution and wanted to remind people, anyone who would listen when he was speaking, with his flourishes on the Senate floor, or maybe when he would pass a tourist in the hallway, that it is the legislative branch that is mentioned first in the U.S. Constitution.
Senator Byrd is somebody who really had an impact on his colleagues. He was somebody who people, when they first came to the Senate, always would go to, to in some ways kiss the ring, but in other ways really learn from him, because he was a living member of history. He also is somebody who made it very clear that he thought that it was his responsibility, even in recent years when the whole idea of pork barrel projects became dirty words -- he said no way. He said he wore it as a badge of honor, the whole concept of sending back millions and millions of dollars to his impoverished home state of West Virginia.
Back in 2006, when he became the longest serving senator, I had a chance to ask him about that. Listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: You have gotten the label "the King of Pork," but you wear that as a badge of honor. Don't you?
SEN. ROBERT BYRD (D), WEST VIRGINIA: I do. I'm here to represent the people of West Virginia, and they want me to serve them. My state has been a land-locked state, a poverty-ridden state. My memory is as good as it ever was, and it's stock full of recollections about the poor people of West Virginia, how they were laughed at. They were the laughing stock.
Yes, I'm a hillbilly. Proud of it. Proud of it. But I knew what the people of West Virginia sent me to Washington for. They sent me to Washington to represent them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Now as the son of the south, Senator Byrd talked about the fact that especially in the early days back in the '60s he made some decisions that he later in life regretted. For example, his longest filibuster was 14 hours and 13 minutes in 1964 against the Civil Rights Act. He later called that a big mistake.
Really in recent days, even, he was certainly ill. There was no question he was not the same person at age 92. But John and Kiran, even last week, when General David Petraeus came to the Senate, I bumped into him as he was walking into the Capitol. Where was he going? He was going to pay a visit to Senator Robert Byrd, one of his first visits to speak to a man who at that time he had thought was going to be a vote for his confirmation.
John and Kiran?
ROBERTS: Certainly a man of extraordinary passion all through his time there in Congress. We should mention this morning now, Dana, you are inside the hearing room where Elena Kagan is going to be questioned, part of her nomination proceedings to become the next associate justice of the Supreme Court, should she be confirmed. What can we expect there today? Any real fireworks?
BASH: Well, what we're going to see today -- I am in the hearing room -- is we're going to see opening statements. We're going to see opening statements from the panel behind me and also from the nominee herself, Elena Kagan. I'm here, so I'll show you. This is where she is going to be sitting. You see a lone chair there. She is going to be -- at the end of the day, likely, she's going to be delivering her first real words since she was first nominated by the president last month, explaining why she believes that she would be an appropriate Supreme Court Justice.
Now, meanwhile, you are going to have this panel. They're all going to be giving their opening statements. On this side, this is where the Republicans are going to sit. What we have been hearing from the Republicans is -- are complaints about the fact that she has no judicial experience, and the fact that when they have gone through the hundreds of thousands -- about 180,000 documents, what they've seen from her time in the Clinton administration, especially, is a lot of politicking. And the discussion about the big issues like gun control, like abortion and so forth from the perspective of what will be best for political purposes.
Republicans are already saying they believe that that is not appropriate for the Supreme Court, especially the man who's going to sit right over here, Senator Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican. Listen to what he says.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JEFF SESSIONS (R-AL), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: She's never tried a case before a jury or criminal case. She's never been a judge. And so I think that raises questions about whether her political beliefs are so strong, particularly in light of her admiration for some of the nation's most activist judges -- then I think it raises question about whether she'll be faithful to the law, follow the Constitution, even if she doesn't agree with it, even if it hampers the advancement of some policy goal that she would like to see.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: But what you're going to hear from the Democrats, who of course are going to take up the majority of this committee, be taking up this panel here, is that they believe she absolutely will take politics out of her decision making, and that they believe that that is proved by the fact that she actually has gotten some support from conservative legal minds, prominent ones, as well as liberal legal minds.
But one interesting note that I think we are going to hear over and over again when she comes in here is that back when she was a staffer on this very committee, John and Kiran, during the Ruth Bader Ginsburg confirmation hearings, later she called this whole process a hollow charade because the nominee wouldn't answer the question. So you can bet that those words are going to come back to haunt her.
ROBERTS: We'll see if she answers any questions, too. Dana Bash, thanks so much.
CHETRY: Her buddy, Jeff Toobin, says she shouldn't follow her own advice.
ROBERTS: Probably a good idea.
CHETRY: We'll see what happens with that, because we're -- just coming up in about a half-hour, we're going to be speaking with Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, as Dana said, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee. We're going to talk to him about what he wants to hear from Elena Kagan today.
Also, CNN will have live coverage of the Kagan confirmation hearings beginning at Noon Eastern.
Meantime, more news from the Supreme Court today. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg loses her husband after a long battle with cancer. Martin Ginsburg was just 78 years old, known as Marty. He was a Washington lawyer and a Georgetown law professor. The couple just celebrated their 56th wedding anniversary last week, in fact. Ruth Ginsburg joined the high court in 1993 and said that she succeeded in large part because of her husband's support.
ROBERTS: Former Vice President Dick Cheney is expected to be released from a Washington hospital today after complications from heart disease. Doctors say he suffered an irregular heart rhythm on Friday from fluid retention in his heart. Cheney suffered his fifth heart attack back in February. At 7:53 Eastern, senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen will explain what this latest episode means for Cheney's overall health.
CHETRY: Some major developments to tell you about this morning in the Gulf oil spill. It is now day 70 of this disaster. Thick gobs of oil are now washing up in Mississippi. Crews were along the beaches yesterday collecting tar balls. The local mayor says, quote, "it's hit us now."
ROBERTS: The White House says that Vice President Joe Biden is going to be in the Gulf tomorrow. After four visits by President Obama, this will be the VP's first since the spill began.
CHETRY: Also we're watching Alex. It's a tropical storm again, moving back into the Gulf. And right now it is not on track to hit the oil leak area directly.
ROBERTS: But any last-minute shift in its track can potentially shut down the containment effort for as much as two weeks. Of course, regardless of where it is, it is certainly going to churn up the waters in the Gulf there with some waves. Reynolds Wolf in our hurricane headquarters this morning with Alex's potential impact on the spill recovery efforts. Morning, Reynolds.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Morning, guys.
You know, it is hard to believe -- wrap your mind around this -- this system started off as a cluster of thunderstorms that swept right off the African coast, right along the inter-tropical convergence zone, through the Caribbean. Now it just made its way across the Yucatan, got kind of weak yesterday. But now, as it is moving out over the open water, it is starting to build up with strength. It's moving to an area with very warm water, which is going to help fuel this thing. But more than that, it is moving to an area with minimal shear.
Keeping that in mind, what it means, this thing could really gain some strength. Winds at 100 miles per hour is what it's forecasted to do as you get into Wednesday. Then into Thursday, winds at 110. Possibly making landfall, I would think, by midday on Friday, perhaps even -- I'm sorry, Thursday, midday on Thursday. Possibly making landfall south of Brownsville, Texas, north of Tampeka, Mexico. But that's just the forecast of the National Hurricane Center. They will tell you also that these storms can be very tricky.
Again, a rotating storm on a spinning planet can go farther to the north, perhaps farther to the south. You see the shaded area here in white. That is called your Cone of Uncertainty. There are going to be many changes that are going to take place over the next couple pf hours and certainly in the next couple of days. Good chance the storm could go toward Texas, perhaps stay in Mexico. Regardless, enhanced wave action is what we can expect for the oil spill area.
It all bears watching. We're certainly going to do it here at CNN, your hurricane headquarters. Let's pitch it back to you.
CHETRY: Reynolds Wolf, thanks so much. We'll be keeping an eye on this throughout the morning, of course.
WOLF: You bet.
CHETRY: Also new this morning, a warning that Iran is clearly working to represent its nuclear capabilities. In an interview with ABC this week, CIA director Leon Panetta said that if Tehran decides to make a nuclear weapon, it could have a bomb in about two years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEON PANETTA, CIA DIRECTOR: I think what's happened is the more we put pressure on the al Qaeda leadership in the tribal areas in Pakistan -- and I would say that as a result of our operations, that the Taliban leadership is probably at its weakest point since 9/11 and their escape from Afghanistan into Pakistan. Having said that, they clearly are continuing to plan, continuing to try to attack this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: All right, so that was actually Leon Panetta weighing in on the goal of our fighting in Afghanistan and whether or not we've made a dent in al Qaeda and the Taliban there. But he also did speak about Iran, expressing some doubts that sanctions would be enough to get Iran to end its nuclear program.
ROBERTS: The weekend G-20 summit in Toronto played out among the backdrop of protests, some of which turned out to be violent. Police made hundreds of arrests, more than 560. They used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse some of the demonstrators, who smashed windows and set several police cars on fire around the city.
CHETRY: Also Kellogg's cereals, problems this morning. In fact, a giant recall, 28 million boxes of Corn Pops, Honeysmacks, Fruit Loops and Apple Jacks. The recall, well, because of an odd flavor and smell that's been reported. Boxes with the letters "KN" before the use by date are affected. For more information, you can head to Kelloggs.com. Click on the alert at the top of their home page to find out more.
ROBERTS: Along the Gulf Coast, an entire community is finding its way of life at risk. Eighty percent of Vietnamese Americans there are in the seafood industry. Most of them are shrimpers. Next, our T.J. Holmes visits one family business that's being forced to close up shop. See that story coming right up. It's 12 minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: It's 14 minutes past the hour. It's day 70 of the oil spill disaster. More and more small businesses are seeing their livelihoods simply dry up. It's been particularly hard on Vietnamese Americans who settled along the Gulf Coast in the wake of the Vietnam War.
ROBERTS: Some are still struggling to speak English. And for many, seafood is all they know. Our T.J. Holmes joins us live from New Orleans this morning with one family's story. Morning, T.J.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, guys. And you all hit on it right there. You said it. This disaster has taken away the livelihoods of so many people. Many have been fishing these waters their whole lives. That's gone now. They've had to find something else to do. But for the Vietnamese-American community, they say literally there is nothing else for them to do. They came to this country and the gulf waters gave them that American dream. But some say now it's just time for the American dream, part two.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And usually during the summer, imagine the crowd stacking high along the ceiling.
HOLMES: How long has it been like this now?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ever since the oil spill.
HOLMES: Ever since the oil spill. So is this the last of it. This is the last of the Jennifer Le crab.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Last of it.
HOLMES (voice-over): After a decade, the Jennifer Le Seafood Company in Biloxi is down to this -- a few baskets of fresh crab. And the owner, Thi Van Le, has no hopes that more crab is on the way any time soon. So as of Monday, he's shutting down the company he built from scratch, the company he named after his only daughter.
(on camera): Do you have any ideas yet what you're going to do?
THI VAN LE, OWNER, JENNIFER LE SEAFOOD: Me?
HOLMES: Yes.
LE: I don't know what now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He said like coming over to America, he had nothing in his hand. So this is just like the same thing again.
HOLMES (voice-over): The oil disaster forced the closure of the gulf waters where Le's suppliers catch crab. His supply has essentially been cut off. Le and other Vietnamese-Americans in the gulf are in a particularly dire situation -- 80 percent of them work in the seafood industry. Many have been doing this work since they fled their country after the Vietnam War to start a new life in the United States, and it's all they know how to do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is my job. This shrimp boat is my job. Shrimp boat is my job. So I don't plan to go nowhere.
HOLMES: Can Nguyen (ph) is a shrimper who's been getting by working on the vessels of opportunity mobilized by BP as part of the oil spill cleanup.
(on camera): How long can you sustain this? How long can you make it by going out and working for BP before you run out of money?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hmm. I have no idea.
HOLMES (voice-over): The Les are ready to start over but for sentimental reasons not quite ready to let go of this place.
(on camera): Why not just sell it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's saying, how much are you offering?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Now, I added that and wanted to show that moment there at the end because that really gives you an idea of how this family is taking it in stride. I have never seen anything like this. I talked to so many people who, of course, are hurting, are losing businesses. This was the first couple I've ever talked to here that they were actually smiling and in some ways laughing. And this is the way they put it to me, guys. That hey, we survived the fall of Saigon. We moved here to New Orleans. We survived Hurricane Katrina. We'll survive this, too, and we'll move on to something else to do. Guys?
CHETRY: Well, hopefully, we're hoping for the best for all of them. It's got to be so difficult. And, of course, the claims process, are they dipping their toe in the water with that trying to see if they can get any type of compensation?
HOLMES: They have been able to get some. The owner, as the owner, Thi Van Le, he gets $5,000. He can get that per month. His wife as an employee can get a $1,000 check. But, of course, that is not really helping and meeting the bills.
And other fishermen here, Vietnamese, say if you go out on these Vessels of Opportunity and you collect money as a salary, then you're not eligible then for the claims. So it is a double-edged sword there. Do I take the claim money, or do I go out and try my luck out there trying to work with BP out there. So it's a tough spot for a lot especially the Vietnamese community, guys.
CHETRY: Wow. Great story, T.J., thanks so much.
And coming up on the Most News in the Morning, a financial reform deal that was reached but what's in it and more importantly, what was left out? Christine Romans breaks it down for us. She's here "Minding Your Business" next.
Nineteen minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Coming up now on 22 minutes after the hour. Christine Romans here "Minding Your Business" this morning. That financial reform bill, what's in it and more importantly, what's not in it. She's here this morning. Good morning.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: The biggest rewriting of how we're going to relate to finance and how government is going to relate with Wall Street in 70 years. So what's in it? Under one roof finally, a consumer protection agency that's supposed to keep you protected from deceptive and unfair practices.
It could be up to two years before that's put together. You could be seeing some results right away, like you might see the end of your free checking as the banks try to find ways to make money because they won't be able to make money on some of the ways they used to. So that's my first warning out to you.
There are a few things not in the bill, however. You are not going to have oversight for auto loans in here. That was exempt from this. So, every kind of mortgage loan, private student loan, everything you can think of that is your personal financial contract is included will be covered and you will be protected in theory by the government but not on auto loans. There can't be a mortgage reduction. This is the mortgage cramdown, mortgage reduction by the court. That was something that the consumer protection people really wanted. They wanted you to be able to go into bankruptcy and have the actual size of your mortgage reduced by the court that wasn't included. There are no caps on credit card interest rates. Early on in the debate, they were talking about 36 percent limits on how much -- 36 percent. I know. Thirty- six percent limits on how much you could be charged on your interest rate. No caps or no fixes for Fannie and Freddie, these are the two --
CHETRY: They tabled that, right?
ROMANS: They tabled that, which is basically a punt and it could be a very long time. So there are going to be a lot of changes for the banks, the plumbing. The whole financial system has been brought up to date. This is something we're working on for a very long time. You're going to start to feel some changes in your personal finances over the next year or two, but these are the areas that are not touched.
CHETRY: What about the "Romans' Numeral"?
ROMANS: The "Romans' Numeral" is 35 million a month.
CHETRY: How much banks collect in fees?
ROMANS: This is how much they spent lobbying to make sure that this bill would look the way they wanted it to look. Since the beginning of January 2009, about $600 million all told. So everyone who has a stake has been spending their money on this.
ROBERTS: Christine Romans "Minding Your Business" this morning, thanks.
CHETRY: Well, a grueling and constant struggle to stay on course and no guarantee that you'll come back alive. As teen sailor Abby Sunderland heads home from her failed attempt at going around the world solo, I had a chance to go on-board a 43-foot yacht and check out the dangers and demands of what it would be like to be out there alone. And we're going to take you out on the waters next.
It's 25 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Twenty-seven minutes now after the hour. Your top stories just minutes away. But first, an "A.M. Original," something that you'll see only on AMERICAN MORNING.
Teen sailor Abby Sunderland is on her way back to California this morning. She was trying to become the youngest person to sail around the world when she says a rogue wave hit her boat in the Indian Ocean snapping her mast and dashing her dreams.
CHETRY: Yes. She had a lot of other problems along the way. After her rescue, a lot of people questioned why would her parents allow her at age 16 to attempt to sail around the world all alone. So I had a chance to climb on-board a similar boat that Abby was on to see just how difficult it is to be solo at sea.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAPT. DICK YORK, ARAGORN SAILBOAT: Go to the other side. Pull that in. Pull that in.
CHETRY (voice-over): You have to move fast.
YORK: Now put the wind sail in there and turn it either way, whichever way it can go.
CHETRY: And it's physically demanding.
(on camera): Abby's doing all this by herself out there?
YORK: That's one of the simpler maneuvers.
CHETRY (voice-over): Captain Dick York may say it's simple, but when you're sailing solo, nothing is easy.
YORK: So Abby has now done her tack. Now, she may have to go things like go down and eat, go down and fix the watermaker, go down and make a radio call. There's all these other things that go on.
CHETRY: Captain York has been sailing for more than 30 years and has even sailed around the world with his wife, Leslie, who's also his first mate. He took us out on a Long Island Sound on his 43-foot sailboat. The conditions much calmer than what Abby Sunderland faced the day her 40-foot sailboat lost its mast in the Indian Ocean forcing her to make a distress call.
YORK: Keep going. Keep going. You've got a lot more to go, by another foot.
CHETRY: But one thing I learned fast from Captain York, the work never ends.
(on camera): There's that much of a shift when you have to wake up?
YORK: You would wake up.
CHETRY: How do you ever sleep?
YORK: I don't know how the single-handers do it. I don't know how they do it.
CHETRY (voice-over): Even with all of her experience, computerized navigation and constant contact with the command center, many question the judgment of her parents in allowing a 16-year-old girl to attempt something so dangerous. Captain York sees it differently. YORK: I'm not sure your average 16-year-old could do it. She's obviously very capable. All the things she did on her boat to keep it going, she obviously comes from a nautical family and has had training and has very good instincts.
CHETRY: Instincts put the test by chronic sleep deprivation. It's one of the many challenges of solo sailing. Without a crew to help, problems that Abby faced like autopilot failure and stormy weather can spell disaster.
YORK: And some single-handed around the world races, several people have died. But there's no certainty that when you set out, you're going to come back.
CHETRY (on camera): The single-handed sailing there's no guarantee that you come back alive.
YORK: No, absolutely. That's part of the -- I don't want to say thrill because -- but it's part of the challenge.
CHETRY (on camera): We talked a lot about the dangers that you face when you're solo sailing at sea and one of them is to obviously prevent you from falling over board and you wear a safety harness with a tether and there are safety points all across the (INAUDIBLE) that you clip on to so that if you were to slip on deck, you won't fall overboard. Abby had a more advanced one that had actually a life preserver attached to it so that if she were to fall in the water this will also inflate.
(voice-over): Another big challenge, dealing with being constantly alone. Abby was sailing as fast as she could with as few stops as possible. Leaving her alone at sea for weeks at a time.
(on camera): How do you deal with that isolation?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It takes a personality that says, it's beautiful, even when it's rough, it's beautiful. Because you're out here, you're self-sufficient and it is a kind of nirvana that you're in. It is absolutely a high.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: There you go. Captain York, I mean he loves it. They've done it many times, he and his wife did an around-the-world sail as well. And he just says there's nothing like it. As for doing it alone, he calls that an extreme sport not having somebody with you.
ROBERTS: I can imagine. Sailing is lovely. It's always better to do it if you're within a couple of hours of land though. The thrill of going around the world -- I remember when I was a kid, National Geographic followed the first 16-year-old who ever did an around the world circumnavigation solo Robin Lee Graham. It was fascinating to watch the progress of his trip.
CHETRY: And Captain York also -- he actually teaches a class over at the (INAUDIBLE) Yacht Club for kids Abby's age and even younger in life safety drills, dealing with man overboard, understanding what to do in the event of an emergency. But he says that solo sailing is unique to the sport. It is an extreme part of it. And so it is not something that many people attempt to do.
ROBERTS: Absolutely. You kind of have a certain sense of I guess real confidence to be able to do it. Maybe something else, too.
CHETRY: Exactly. Fearlessness is a good way to put it.
ROBERTS: Crossing the half hour now. Checking the top stories, tropical storm Alex in the Gulf of Mexico expected to become a hurricane, possibly some time today. The CNN weather team's forecasting that it will likely make landfall near the Mexico-Texas border but the storm could head north churning up waves that could affect clean-up efforts off of the coast of Louisiana for two weeks or more. Up to 2.5 millions gallons of crude oil are spilling into that Gulf of Mexico every day.
CHETRY: Also developing this morning, Senator Robert Byrd, the West Virginia Democrat, the longest serving member of Congress in history, has died. He was 92 years old. Senator Byrd's office says he died just a few hours ago at a Washington area hospital. He is a man who literally wrote the history of the Senate, both on the floor for more than 50 years and in four published volumes.
ROBERTS: And Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan will face tough questions when her confirmation hearings begin in a few hours. Republicans say she lacks judicial experience and is too liberal and they are poised for a fight. The top Republican on the judiciary committee joins us in 10 minutes' time.
CNN has got live coverage, by the way, of the Kagan confirmation hearings beginning at noon Eastern.
CHETRY: It will also be interesting to see just how much information senators can actually get out of Elena Kagan. Today, her career path to solicitor general and her academic record while impressive don't offer a lot of insight into her political leanings.
ROBERTS: So this morning we are digging deeper into the life of the Manhattan-raised, Ivy-League educated Elena Kagan, our Jason Carroll joins us now. And you spent some time with some of her closest friends and try to learn some more about her.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Sure did.
ROBERTS: What did you find out?
CARROLL: Well, you know, most of them tell me that she's modest. She's extremely approachable and that she's very intelligent. Obviously these are qualities you want to see in a nominee. But first Kagan has to get through the confirmation hearing, a process she finds fault with saying it doesn't help the public learn something significant about a nominee. Her friends are hoping the process shows she is the right person for the job.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Solicitor General and my friend, Elena Kagan.
CARROLL (voice-over): The announcement not entirely unexpected. Elena Kagan had been on the short list for some time. But it still came as somewhat of a shock to her friends, like Kevin Lovecchio and Josh Gottheimer.
JOSH GOTTHEIMER, KAGAN'S FRIEND: I sort of had to listen a few times to make sure I heard it right.
KEVIN LOVECCHIO, KAGAN'S STUDENT: It was very surreal seeing her standing next to the president.
CARROLL: And exiting moment for CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin as well.
(on camera): Do you remember what your thoughts were when you heard that the president had chosen her?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Holy (bleep) -- oh, sorry. But then I thought, a peer of mine is going to be on the Supreme Court? It's like -- and you cover the Michael Jackson case? You know.
CARROLL (voice-over): Toobin first met Kagan at Harvard Law School back in the '80s.
TOOBIN: My early impressions of Elena were, even at Harvard Law School, which is full of people who are smart, and who think they're very smart, she was unusually intelligent. But also unusually well adjusted.
CARROLL: Harvard would play an important role in Kagan's career. High points include law clerk for Justice Thurgood Marshall, domestic policy director in the Clinton White House, the first woman dean of the Harvard Law School, and Solicitor General in President Obama's administration.
These two remember Kagan back when they were Harvard Law students and she was the dean.
(on camera): If someone were, you know, were to ask you, what's she really like? What would you say?
LOVECCHIO: I would say she has an enormous appetite for information. In all capacities.
CARROLL (voice-over): Gottheimer also worked with Kagan when he was a speech writer in the Clinton administration.
GOTTHEIMER: She is obviously incredibly bright and always well prepared and you better know your stuff when you see her.
CARROLL: Kagan is not without critics who question her lack of judicial experience. If confirmed, she would be the first appointee in nearly 40 years who has not been a judge.
SEN. JEFFREY SESSIONS (R-AL), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: So she does have a lack in that area.
CARROLL: Senator Jeffrey Sessions is the ranking Republican on the judiciary committee. He plans to question Kagan on a number of topics during the hearing, including gun control and abortion. But will she answer? In 1995 Kagan criticized the process calling it a "hollow charade," saying senators should insist a nominee reveal their views on important legal issues.
(on camera): And I'm wondering if those words are going to come back to haunt her as she herself goes through the proceedings.
SESSIONS: Well, I think so.
CARROLL: You think so.
SESSIONS: Well, I think they'll be raised.
CARROLL: Jeffrey Toobin has a sense of how the hearings starting today will go.
TOOBIN: I think her critique of the hearings was dead-on. I expect she will not follow her own advice and will instead follow the advice of the people in the White House which is always, say as little as possible.
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CARROLL: Well, during Kagan's confirmation hearing for solicitor general, she was asked about her lack of judicial experience. She said then the communication skills she developed that made her an excellent teacher would also help her argue.
You know, most of the folks we talked to expect her to be confirmed but expect her also to face some tough and very real questions, especially given what she wrote in "Chicago Law Review" some time ago.
ROBERTS: Yes. Well, you know, you can't diss the hearings and say that they should be illuminating more of the background and character and political leanings of the nominee --
CARROLL: Better be prepared to talk a little bit.
ROBERTS: Yes. We'll see how that works out for her.
Jason Carroll, thanks so much.
CARROLL: All right.
ROBERTS: And coming up next, we're going to talk with the ranking Republican on the Senate judiciary committee, Senator Jeff Sessions to find out what Elena Kagan is in store for today. It's 38 minutes after the hour. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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ROBERTS: Coming up at 19 minutes now to the top of the hour. On the day the Supreme Court wraps up its current term, Elena Kagan, the president's nominee to become the next high court justice, goes before the Senate judiciary committee. Kagan is expected to win Senate confirmation but as our next guest says it is not going to be "a coronation."
Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions is the ranking Republican on the Judiciary committee and he joins us now live from Capitol Hill.
Senator, thanks for being with us this morning. Before I ask you about Elena Kagan and the upcoming hearings, I wanted to get your thoughts if I could on the passing of Senator Robert Byrd.
SESSIONS: You know, it is a sad day for all of us. There is no one who loved the institution of the Senate more and no one who is a better student of it. He'd written books about it, Senate rules and history. He was a great orator. Made a great speech one day that I heard and remember well on how to make a speech.
And I used to catch him on Friday mornings when he would come down and talk about various things. One day he raled against textbooks calling them touchy-feely twaddle.
He was a remarkable man, no doubt about it.
ROBERTS: Agree or disagree with his politics, no question that he had an infectious passion for politics in America.
So today we begin the confirmation hearings for Elena Kagan to be the next associate justice of the Supreme Court. And you have said that a filibuster still might be possible here. Why haven't you taken that off the table?
ROBERTS: Well, let's see how this hearing goes. I think that's the right approach. This nominee does have serious problems, John. She has the least experience of any nominee in 50 years. She was a Clinton operative for quite a number of years, the point person on efforts to restrict gun rights, the point person on blocking partial- birth abortion.
At Harvard, she barred the military from the recruiting offices, demeaned them in violation of law and her legal brief was rejected 8-0 by the Supreme Court. There are a number of things here that cause us to believe -- and any American to be concerned that she would be an activist judge, someone willing to promote her agenda from the bench, and not be objective. Because her top judicial heroes have all been some of the most active judges in our history.
ROBERTS: Yes, you know, on that point, one of the so-called activist judges that she has praised is retired Israeli Judge Aharon Barak. Many people have pointed to that as a sign that she may be an activist judge herself. But Aharon Barak even though he she said he disagreed with him on legal and philosophical grounds also won praise from Antonin Scalia. So can you look at her praise of Aharon Barak and say "oh, she's going to be an activist judge when conservative judges have praised him as well.
SESSIONS: Well, she's closest and most admiring of American activist judges, but with regard to that Justice Scalia in his praising him as a person clearly distinguished his view of the role of a judge from that of Judge Aharon Barak in Israel. She did not. She called him her hero and she said he was a great, great judge without the qualifications. I think that clearly should have been made there. This is a big deal. He, Judge Posner (ph) said his ideas are just outside the American tradition of law.
ROBERTS: I wanted to also ask you about this idea of legal experience. Five years ago, Senator Sessions, you said this of a Supreme Court nominee, "it is not necessary that she have previous experience as a judge in order to serve on the Supreme Court. It's perfectly acceptable to nominate outstanding lawyers to that position."
You said that of President Bush's nominee to the Supreme Court Harriet Miers. We all know what happened to her. But I'm wondering what's different between then and now other than the fact that this is a Democratic nominee.
SESSIONS: Well, I was a bit uneasy about Miers but I did support her initially. She had 26 years of law practice and it worked in the White House a number of years. This nominee has only two or three years of practice, mostly academic and mostly political activities in government.
This is the thinnest resume ever. She just hasn't had the depth of -- she's never tried a case. Never cross examined a witness before a jury. This is a severely limited level of experience, I think.
SESSIONS: ... in government. This is the thinnest resume ever. She just hasn't had the depth of -- she's never tried a case, never cross- examined a witness before a jury.
This is a severely limited level of experience, I think. You can overcome it, but it's clearly a deficiency.
ROBERTS: You -- just a second ago, Senator Sessions, you pointed to Harriet Miers' White House experience as a qualifying factor, but you point to Elena Kagan's White House experience as a potential disqualifying factor. What's the difference?
SESSIONS: I think a person who's worked as -- in the counsel's office in the White House does have some appreciation of some of the different kinds of issues that come before the court, but it's not the only thing. Most cases deal with lawsuits and cities and counties all over America, the kind of things that routine lawyers learn.
She had both. She had 26 years of practice.
ROBERTS: Yes. And -- and the experience that Elena Kagan has had as Solicitor General, is -- is that enough for you?
SESSIONS: No. It's only a little bit over a year, 14 months. She argued in -- in one of her cases, and I think wrongly, that the constitution would allow Congress to ban the publication of pamphlets before an Election Day. She's interviewed -- intervened against Arizona's law that said a business should not hire illegal aliens, just like the federal law does.
So I think her positions there are not so sound.
ROBERTS: And -- and one other point, it's well known, of course, many people have talked about this, that she wrote that the confirmation process for a Supreme Court judge is, quote, "a vapid and hollow process." Are those words going to come back to haunt her in the next couple of days?
SESSIONS: Well, you know it is -- sometimes that has been so.
I think in the last two nominations, Alito and Roberts, they've been really good exchanges. She was talking about hearings before that, so I think she will feel incumbent upon herself to be more open than a lot of nominees have.
I hope we have a very good discussion. She's a -- a good, you know, academic. She should be able to handle the questions easily.
ROBERTS: But you say, looking at some past hearings, she was actually right?
SESSIONS: Yes. See, some of the hearings, judges have virtually said nothing and -- and they've -- have been too restrained, I believe.
ROBERTS: Well, if --
SESSIONS: It's a balance you have to strike and it's hard do.
ROBERTS: Yes. Well, a point of agreement there between you and the -- the nominee.
We look forward to the hearings today. Thanks so much, Senator. Good to talk to you this morning.
SESSIONS: Thank you.
ROBERTS: And CNN of course is going to have live coverage of the Kagan confirmation hearings beginning at noon Eastern. CHETRY: And still ahead, former Vice President Dick Cheney hospitalized with a heart problem. He's had a history of heart trouble.
Elizabeth Cohen is going to be explaining what his latest ailment is.
Also, tropical storm Alex slowly gaining strength. Northeast, heat, though, again, thunderstorms, again. Is any relief in sight? Reynolds Wolf breaks down all the extreme weather for us, coming up.
It's 48 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: Good morning Dallas, Texas where it's cloudy right now, 80 degrees and a little bit later in the forecast, scattered thunderstorms, 91. Pretty much almost the exact forecast for New York City today as well.
ROBERTS: All up and down, I guess, from the Deep South and up along the East Coast, got a threat of a lot of thunderstorms, which of course can potentially affect air travel.
Reynolds Wolf here this morning with a closer look. Good morning, Reynolds. First of all, we're looking at the storm, though, in the gulf?
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. And this storm, it's amazing to see this thing intensify just over the last couple of hours. This was actually in a weakening state, say, about 12 hours ago as it crossed the Yucatan Peninsula, away from its primary power source, being the warm water.
But as it is moving back over open water, it's like putting a kettle of water on a burning eye of a stove. It's going to start building up. In fact, as we walk over here and take a look at this, the latest forecast path the National Hurricane Center has this storm system intensifying. It's moving into an area of not only warmer water but also minimal sheer loss (ph). So it's not as though the storm is going to be ripped apart by strong upper level winds, it's going to intensify.
In fact, the forecast brings it with winds as we make a way into Thursday and then even into Friday, notice this, possibly making its way up to about the south of the Texas border and into Mexico as we get towards the end of the week. So we're going to watch it for you very carefully. There's a lot of change that can occur with the storm and we're going to have, of course, both eyes on it very carefully.
Also, coming up next hour, we're going to take a look at our travel weather and show you what we can expect. You guys mentioned storms in Dallas. We could see some of those in New York, even in Philadelphia and of course the nation's capital before the day is out.
Let's send it back to you in New York. ROBERTS: Thanks so much.
This morning's top stories just minutes away now, including a developing story, Senator Robert Byrd, the longest-serving member of Congress in history, has died at the age of 92. Almost 21,000 days on Capitol Hill.
We'll take a look back at one of the most interesting people ever to serve our country.
CHETRY: Also, still business to attend to in Washington. It's Elena Kagan's big moment, a lifetime on the Supreme Court on the line, and we're going to take you inside the hearing room where her confirmation begins in just a few hours.
ROBERTS: Also, to catch a predator. Scientists tagging and tracking sharks. Can they sense where the oil in the gulf is going?
Those stories and more coming your way, beginning of the top of the hour.
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ROBERTS: Five minutes now to the top of the hour. We're following developing news this morning. Senator Robert Byrd, the nation's longest serving member of Congress has died. The 92-year-old West Virginia Democrat was rushed to the hospital last week. He initially was believed to be suffering from heat exhaustion and severe dehydration, but doctors say other conditions developed over the weekend.
Byrd was elected to the House in 1952, to the Senate in 1958, and he has been there ever since.
CHETRY: Also new development this morning, former Vice President Dick Cheney could be released from a Washington hospital today. Doctors say that over the weekend, Cheney was treated for pains related to his long-time battle with heart disease.
ROBERTS: Our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is live in Atlanta for us this morning. And they call this problem, quote, "progressive fluid retention in his heart". What does that really mean?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's related to what happened three years ago. If you remember, Cheney was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and what that means is that the heart isn't beating regularly. It's beating sort of erratically and often beating very fast.
So what that means is that the heart is not circulating blood through the body in a normal fashion, and what that leads to is fluid retention, swelling in the legs and the arms and the ankles and other places. It can also lead to weakness and to difficulty breathing.
So, again, this appears according to the cardiologists we talked to, to be a complication of the atrial fibrillation which he suffered now for about three years, John, Kiran.
CHETRY: In terms of the bigger picture, Elizabeth, how does this affect the vice president's health overall?
COHEN: You know, we asked several cardiologists this. We said if Dick Cheney were your patient, what would you be concerned about? And what they said is that this could possibly be a sign that his heart disease has progressed.
In other words, he's already had five heart attacks and that this swelling, this fluid retention could be a sign that he has more vessels blocked, vessels that deliver blood to the heart, and they said that's the first thing that they would check for to make sure that his coronary artery disease isn't even worse than it was before.
ROBERTS: You know, one thing we hear a lot about, particularly people who have had heart attacks in the past, is congestive heart failure. Does this indicate that potentially that may be a process that's underway?
COHEN: If this fluid retention is a sign that he does have more blocked -- blocked arteries and that this -- that his coronary heart disease has gotten even worse, then certainly congestive heart failure is something that they would want to consider. They want to make sure that they prevent that.
It's difficult to know, of course, exactly what the former vice president is going through because we don't have access --
ROBERTS: Yes.
COHEN: -- as we shouldn't, to his medical records. But certainly that would be a concern. It would be at the top of the list.
CHETRY: All right. Well, we hope everything is OK and that he is released. He's expected to be released today. So, thanks for the update. Elizabeth Cohen, we appreciate it.
ROBERTS: Top stories coming your way right after the break. Stay with us.
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