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American Morning

O'Donnell Back in the Spotlight: Phillies Pitcher Roy Halladay Makes History; Feds "Underestimated" Gulf Spill; Anti-Gay Church Versus Soldier's Dad

Aired October 07, 2010 - 07:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Working with the enemy. The explosive new report. That a key ally may be urging the Taliban to attack.

Catch me if you can politics. Jim Acosta wears out the campaign trail in pursuit of Christine O'Donnell.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ms. O'Donnell, any chance you could answer some questions from the press just for a few moments?

And reversing extinction. California's condor population soars to a half century high on the Most News in the Morning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good news for the birds (ph) this morning, and good morning. Thanks so much for being with us on this Thursday, the 7th of October. I'm John Roberts.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us. Everyone's talking about this. Baseball history made again last night. Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay throwing a no-hitter in his first postseason appearance. We're going to be talking a little bit about that.

ROBERTS: Yes. Max Kellerman, our sports guy, is going to join us to talk about that.

CHETRY: First, though, our top stories this morning. Mexican police are promising the U.S. that they will intensify their search for an American killed, David Hartley. There's still no word from them when. Last night they called off the efforts for fear of being ambushed after receiving threats.

Hartley was jet-skiing on a lake that borders to two countries last week when his wife says that pirates pulled up in a boat and shot him in the head.

ROBERTS: A federal grand jury may be expanding its investigation into former presidential candidate John Edwards. They're looking into whether campaign funds used to cover up Edwards' affair with Rielle Hunter. A bunch of new subpoenas have been issued. We're going to talk with the CNN producer who was embedded with the Edwards campaign in 2008 just ahead.

CHETRY: And the White House getting slammed for its handling of the oil spill in the Gulf. An independent commission finding that the Obama administration vastly underestimated the size of the spill or tried to deceive the public about it. Ed Henry's live from the White House this morning with the administration's response.

ROBERTS: Up first this morning, major developments to tell you about in Afghanistan. On the day we enter into our tenth year of the war, Afghan President Hamid Karzai says he has launched a peace council to negotiate with the Taliban and to find a way to end the war.

But this morning a Taliban spokesman told CNN that the group is not interested in peace talks. Chris Lawrence is live for us at the Pentagon this morning. So are they talking? Are they not talking? Do we know what's really going on?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, there was a lot of criticism right off the bat when the members of this peace council were announced. A lot of people in Afghanistan said look who's not on the list. Where are the business leaders, the civil affairs leaders, people like that? They said the peace council was stacked with former militia members, warlords, former members of the Taliban.

In fact, one person, one of the civil leaders in Afghanistan said these people have more experience in making war than in making peace.

But President Karzai has invested a lot in this peace council. In fact, he seems to be making more public overtures to the Taliban. Take a look what the he said in reference to what's going on here and how he -- especially pay attention to how he referred to the Taliban.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAMID KARZAI, AFGHAN PRESIDENT (via translator): The opposition are our Taliban brothers. Every son of his land and every youth, whether he is inside or outside of this country, wishes to serve this country. I call on them once again to use this opportunity and to say yes to this endeavor. I want them to come and bring peace to this land.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: And from all accounts, anything that would be brokered in terms of peace, the Taliban are going to want some sort of negotiated timetable for U.S. troops to leave.

Now, I asked a defense official here exactly how is the U.S. military figuring into all of this? And he said, well, if for some reason that the Karzai government would have to come to General Petraeus and say, look, your military efforts are hindering the reconciliation efforts, and at that point, perhaps we would, you know, re -- think about a different way of going back things.

But he said it's not like the U.S. has veto power over any agreement going on. John?

ROBERTS: As you pointed out, Chris, interesting that he referred to them as "our Taliban brothers." I mean, the Taliban is killing Afghan soldiers and civilians.

LAWRENCE: It's pretty significant. And as far as I know, I've never heard him quite use that term in that way before, to sort of, you know, sort of task the net wide to say, look, we're all in this together.

You know, this is a force that Karzai has criticized before. You know, he's come out publicly and criticized them after some of their more public bombings. And now to use the word "brothers" seems to signal a very significant shift at least in his thinking.

ROBERTS: It would seem to be that he's pretty eager for diplomacy. Chris Lawrence this morning for us at the Pentagon. Chris, thanks.

CHETRY: Mexican police are promising the United States they will intensify their search for American David Hartley, But still no word from them on when. Last night they called off efforts for fear of being ambushed after receiving threats.

All of it, this comes from the shooting that the wife of the missing man says took place while they were on Falcon Lake. It's located in a state park in Texas. It straddles the border between U.S. and Mexico. And it's a popular destination, great for bass fishing, boating, camping, nature trails.

But now Texas officials fear it could be becoming a casualty of Mexico's drug war. Tiffany and David Hartley were jet skiing there last Thursday when she says gunmen in three boats approached them and opened fire, ended up shooting her husband in the head. Her story has been openly questioned by some Mexican authorities.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIFFANY HARTLEY, WIFE OF DAVID HARTLEY: I think for anybody in my situation, and I know, there's been stories out there before, and people question. But I know what I know. I know what I saw. And I can just tell you what I know.

It is hard to be judged, but, you know, if you were looking at the end of a barrel of a gun, I think maybe then you could judge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Well, let's bring in CNN producer Justine Redman. She's on the phone right now from Zapata County, Texas. Good morning, let's just first explain to people how the story began, this allegation that they were ambushed by pirates while they were on this lake.

JUSTINE REDMAN, CNN PRODUCER, (via telephone): Hi, Kiran.

Well, it was last week, actually, when this young couple were out on jet skis on the lake. And there's been a lot of warnings issued to Americans who are out there that they shouldn't cross into the Mexican side of the water. There are markers that go down the lake showing you which side you're on.

But they got over on to the Mexican side to do some sightseeing. And apparently they were fired upon by three boat loads of pirates. Nobody witnessed the incident. But when Tiffany, the wife, was able to outrun these so-called pirates, she sped off on her jet ski to the American side of the lake and went up to the house of someone on that side and asked them to call 911. And that's how it got widely reported.

CHETRY: Right. Now, do U.S. authorities question her story or do they believe indeed her husband was the victim of a pirate ambush?

REDMAN: I think there's been a fair amount of skepticism on all sides. If you talk to people in this area, there's some skepticism that it has escalated to this point, because although there have been a handful of incidents on the lake this year with people brandishing AK-47s and roving fishermen, this is the first time that someone's actually been shot and the first time that someone's actually been killed.

So I think there's some skepticism about why this would have gone that far. But -- so it isn't -- so it isn't really anything more than that. And the sheriff who's leading the investigation on this side says that he has absolutely no reason to doubt this woman's story.

CHETRY: I got you. As we understand, there have been calls from the Obama administration to maybe step in, intervene, the State Department, perhaps, try to speed up this process. We'll continue to follow this story. Justine Redman for us, following this closely. Thanks so much.

ROBERTS: Well, there are new developments this morning in the federal investigation of former senator and presidential candidate John Edwards. A new round of subpoenas have gone out. At issue is whether Edwards used campaign funds to cover up his affair with Rielle Hunter.

Edwards publicly admitted for the first time earlier this year that he is the father of Hunter's child. CNN producer Raylin Johnson was embedded with the Edwards campaign in 2008. She joins us now. Do we have any idea who the subpoenas are targeted towards?

JOHNSON: We do. The subpoenas, according to my sources which I talked to last night, they're casting a very wide net, much wider than they did about a year ago. They're talking about people who were schedulers, staffers, small-time staffers, including very, very big people involved with the campaign.

CHETRY: What has been admitted so far by the Edwards camp about what may or may not have happened.

JOHNSON: Well, I think, first of all, we don't know what is true that comes from the Edwards campaign. We already know that. But the issue at hand are payments out of the political action committee.

Now, every politician has a PAC. However, $100,000 was given to Rielle Hunter for her video services, which we now know are for these shoddy webisodes that show the two of them being flirtatious.

But then it was an April payment in April of 2007 for $14,000 that went to her, and it was believed was hush money but was reported as a furniture purchase. And that and would be a violation of campaign finances. So that's why these subpoenas are out.

ROBERTS: And we know in Andrew Young's book, she was put up in a house, expenses were taken care of. And the question is where that money came from. So could this go well beyond this $114,000 that was paid out to her?

JOHNSON: Absolutely. The money trail in this story is far and wide. From New York, Bonnie Mellon to Fred Barren, who passed away. There are players who are dead and alive. People like to say baseball is America's favorite pastime. And it's politics. This story has proven worthy of an Andrew Ross Sorkin movie, which we know is going to happen.

CHETRY: And bottom line for John Edwards, what is the worst case scenario?

JOHNSON: The worst case scenario is that he'll be indicted. But at the end of the day, John Edwards is a lawyer and he'll find a way out of this.

ROBERTS: And we should point out the John Edwards' lawyer Wade Smith is saying we didn't do anything wrong, pleading innocence. Great to see you this morning. Thanks.

JOHNSON: Sure, thanks.

CHETRY: Coming soon to a Verizon wireless customer near you, if it's you, they're getting the iPhone. That's right, the "Wall Street Journal" reporting Apple is making a version of its iPhone for the Verizon network. And they say it will be available in the first quarter of 2011.

The new smart phone will resemble the iPhone 4 currently sold by AT&T which of course until now had a lock on the product.

ROBERTS: You're getting your iPhone, Verizon customers. And Jim Acosta is getting his interview with Christine O'Donnell, too.

And Roy Halladay's postseason debut not just memorable, it was historic -- the Phillies pitcher tossing a no-hitter against the Cincinnati Red. It was almost a perfect game to open the National League division series. It's only happened once before. That was back in 1956 when the Yankees Dan Larson pitched a perfect game in the World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers.

CHETRY: A lot of people have that poster up in their house still, including our own Rob Marciano who what, you were five when it happened?

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: In '56 -- no, I think I was 15.

ROBERTS: Well preserved.

(WEATHER BREAK)

CHETRY: Still to come, Christine O'Donnell hasn't appeared much in public since winning Delaware's Republican senate primary three weeks ago. But now the Tea Party darling may be reemerging and trying to reinvent herself in the days before the election. Our Jim Acosta tracked her down. She was in a public appearance last night in Newcastle. Did she talk to him?

ROBERTS: And an independent commission slamming the Obama administration for its handling of the crisis in the Gulf. Did the White House try to deceive the public about the size of the oil spill? We'll tell you what it said, coming up. It's 13 minutes not after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Sixteen minutes past the hour. She was a shooting star just three weeks ago. She had a stunning win in Delaware's Republican Senate primary, but since then, we haven't seen much of Christine O'Donnell since the infamous witch tape where she claimed she dabbled in witchcraft during an appearance on the Bill Maher show back in the '90s.

ROBERTS: Yes. Well, that could all be changing this underground campaign with less than a month to go now before the mid-term elections. The darling of the Tea Party may be remerging with an image makeover. Our Jim Acosta live in New Castle, Delaware this morning. And Jim was tracking the candidate yesterday, caught up with her and got a pledge from her last night.

Jim, what's that all about?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we'll have to see how it all works out, John. You say tracking the candidate. I say chasing the candidate. That's sort of the way it went down last night. But she did say, at the end of the evening that she would like to sit down with CNN at some point and talk to us about the issues of this campaign. So we'll have to see about that.

But as you just mentioned for reasons most Americans know by now, Christine O'Donnell has not made very many public appearances since she won that primary just three weeks ago. She doesn't do many interviews with the national news media. But as you said, she may be starting to change that. She's starting to do more public events, get out there and talk to Delaware voters. And it's all part of an effort, it appears, for Christine O'Donnell to remake her image.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Any chance we get a couple questions, Miss O'Donnell? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot.

ACOSTA (voice-over): And with that, Delaware GOP Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell blew past our camera and into what was billed as Republican forum. The event was staged in this shopping center, and oddly enough just two doors down from a Halloween costume shop.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We do want to welcome Christine O'Donnell.

ACOSTA: The discussion moderated by Republican Party officials started off with a softball, ended up being a curveball.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where did you grow up?

CHRISTINE O'DONNELL (R), DELAWARE SENATE CANDIDATE: I'm confused about the format.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

O'DONNELL: I thought I was going to share some remarks and then take audience questions? Are we not doing that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, we're not doing that.

O'DONNELL: OK.

ACOSTA: But the evening did get into specifics, and O'Donnell repeated her vow to vote to make the Bush tax cuts permanent.

O'DONNELL: Make sure that the taxes, the tax increases that are coming in January do not happen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O'DONNELL: I'm not a witch. I'm nothing you've heard. I'm you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: O'Donnell whose past statements about dabbling in witchcraft have come back to haunt her is in damage control mode these days. Her events are tightly controlled.

(on camera): Any chance you could now answer some questions from the press just for a few moments?

(voice-over): And she rarely takes questions from the national news media. But her opponent, Democrat Chris Coons, insists he is taking nothing for granted.

(on camera): Do you take her seriously?

CHRIS COONS (D), DELAWARE SENATE CANDIDATE: I take her seriously. She is the Republican Party nominee. She is my opponent. She's raised, if you believe her Web site, she's raised $2.8 million over the Internet in the last three weeks. ACOSTA (voice-over): A University of Delaware poll shows Coons with a commanding 19-point lead. Still the professor who conducted the poll says O'Donnell can turn her campaign around.

DAVID WILSON, POLLSTER, UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE: There are an awful lot of don't do or undecided voters still and this is across all three counties.

ACOSTA: One of her volunteers told us she's sticking with O'Donnell despite her missteps.

(on camera): Hasn't changed your mind at all?

CHRISTIE FOUND, O'DONNELL VOLUNTEER: Not at all. Not at all. If anything, I support her more.

ACOSTA (voice-over): At the end of the event while taking questions from the audience, O'Donnell complained of being under siege.

O'DONNELL: I've put my name on the line. And I've taken a lot of hits, a lot of slander and a lot of character assassination.

ACOSTA: Then she left out the back door where she promised she would give us an interview soon.

O'DONNELL: Call Dave and we'll set something up.

ACOSTA (on camera): Promise?

O'DONNELL: Yes, yes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: All right, so you heard her right there. She promised. I just have to call Dave. I have his number. He is the press secretary for the campaign. And she said she will talk to us.

I should mention we're standing in front of a gun range here in New Castle, Delaware. Her campaign says she will be out here later today. We don't know if she'll fire any weapons but she is going to be picking up the endorsement of a local gun rights group. And that's one of the core constituencies in Delaware if she hopes to win this campaign. She's going to need all of those conservative Republicans to show up as they did in the Ro primary -- John and Kiran.

ROBERTS: A national media correspondent standing outside a gun range. Careful, Jim.

ACOSTA: I will.

ROBERTS: All right. Thanks.

CHETRY: Thanks, Jim.

ACOSTA: I got my flap jacket.

CHETRY: Good.

ACOSTA: All right.

CHETRY: Last time you had trench coat, now you're switching to a flap jacket. That's cool.

Well, a quick programming note to tell you about. Next week on Wednesday, October 13th, Christine O'Donnell will be taking the stage for a 90-minute debate with Delaware Democrat Chris Coons and CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer is going to be moderating the debate. It will be carried here on CNN, and AMERICAN MORNING will be broadcasting live from Delaware, Wednesday and Thursday morning. So hope you'll join us for that.

We're going to take a quick break. Twenty-one minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: And what a start it was, almost 54 years to the day since Don Larsen pitched his perfect game in the World Series. Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay has joined that exclusive club. He threw a no- hitter against the Cincinnati Reds in game one of the National League division series.

CHETRY: That's right. Halladay's historic performance came, believe it or not, in his postseason debut. First time he made his appearance in the postseason. CNN's contributor, Max Kellerman, our resident sports guy joins us now. My husband is a huge Philly fan but he said it's on the front and back of the New York papers. This must be a big deal.

MAX KELLERMAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: You know, Halladay his entire -- the last several years of his career, he's been in the league awhile, major league awhile, had been begging to be traded either for Toronto where he was to really beef up their team and to start to spend money with the Red Sox and Yankees which may be they're incapable of or many unwilling to do, or else trade him to a place where he could possibly make a postseason because he didn't want to be -- he had more games pitched than any pitcher in baseball, currently, any active pitcher who hadn't been to a postseason. And he's just the type of guy that people always assumed he's going to be great under pressure, but you just never know. You figure you give him seven good innings. He threw a no-hitter and one pitch away from a perfect game. It's unbelievable.

ROBERTS: Talk about exceeding expectations, even the highest expectations. So what do you think makes him so good in the National League?

KELLERMAN: Well, he's used to pitching in the American League East which is the toughest division in baseball and the highest payrolls. The Yankees-Red Sox rivalry fuels that. Tampa has a much smaller payroll, but they're an excellent team now. And now, he's pitching against much weaker opposition in the National League. But just technically, he has a great fast ball, great sinking fast balls. Perfect command of all his pitches. He not only throws a good breaking ball but curve ball, but he throws it at different speeds. He can put the ball exactly where he wants. If there was any -- they're calling it "Doc-tober" now. His name is Doc Halladay, like Doc Holliday.

CHETRY: All right.

KELLERMAN: And they're calling October now in Philadelphia "Doc- tober."

CHETRY: There you go. It's the year of the pitcher though. I mean, it's a different era in baseball right now than when you saw the huge slugfest, the home run derbies.

KELLERMAN: Part of that is because, I think, not only did pitchers have to adapt to pitching to these monsters, and now the monsters aren't as prevalent as they were. But teams started investing in proprietary metrics, defensive metrics to figure out how do we limit offense, because offense became very expensive. So the big market teams had a lot of offense. The smaller market teams said we need to figure out a way to counteract this and start really investing time and resources into defense. So not only has the hitting may be gone done, but the defense has gotten better.

And in the year of the pitcher, it's Roy -- it's Halladay's lead. I mean, Halladay is the pitcher in the year of the pitcher. This is he threw a perfect game in the regular season. Came one pitch away from a perfect game in the postseason.

ROBERTS: Yes. And we should point out, too, that while it is a lot about the pitcher, the rest of the team deserves a lot of credit, too, particularly the catcher.

KELLERMAN: Carlos Ruiz, Roy Halladay gave him all the credit in the world right after the game. And Ruiz had a big postseason last year against the Yankees and even before they played the Yankees. He's a good hitter by catcher's standards. He's an excellent defensive player. And clearly he makes a great bat with Halladay. Halladay comes to the team, throws two no-hitters with Carlos Ruiz.

CHETRY: Yes, amazing.

ROBERTS: Pretty amazing.

CHETRY: It was fun to watch last night, that's for sure.

ROBERTS: The boys of Doc-tober.

KELLERMAN: "Doc-tober." Already sick of it, but you know --

ROBERTS: Max Kellerman, great to see you this morning. Thanks so much.

We got 28 minutes after the hour. We'll be back right after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROBERTS: Half past the hour. Time for this morning's top stories.

Mexican police promising the United States that they will intensify their search for American David Hartley. But still no word from them when. Last night, they called off efforts for fear of being ambushed after receiving threats about the search. Hartley was said to be jet skiing on Falcon Lake along the Mexican border last week when his wife said pirates pulled up in boats and shot him in the head. But both he and the jet ski are missing.

CHETRY: Well, an update now on the story in Chile. They're trying to rescue the trapped miners. Well, they hope to reach them this weekend. Officials say the planned drill is used to bore through to the trapped miners is within striking distance. A 16-member rescue team in on site and they're preparing to bring the men up to the surface.

ROBERTS: And a major milestone for California's endangered condors. The population of the wild free-flying birds has reached 100 for the first time in a half a century. The new benchmark is the result of a recovery effort by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Today there are 381 California condors in the world in captivity and in the wild.

CHETRY: When it came time to estimating the size and scope of this summer's oil spill in the gulf, the White House vastly underestimated it or trying to deceive the public about it. That was the conclusion of an independent commission that has been investigating the disaster since June. There was a commission that was appointed by the president himself.

Ed Henry is live at the White House this morning.

We remember the White House telling us 5,000 barrels a day were spilling into the gulf. The number ended up being 20 times higher than that. But at the end of the day, is it just underestimation or was it deception?

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's a question, Kiran. And this is really just a blistering series of report but as you say the president's own commission. So they have some credibility here and they're saying unless flow rate estimates, for example, that the White House just relied too much on BP's flawed numbers. That they were overly optimistic as well, about how much oil was in the gulf, near the end of this crisis. They were just overly optimistic. And that they hid a key information from the public throughout.

In fact, for example, the report goes back to just two weeks after the BP rig first exploded. They claim that there were government scientists telling the White House they wanted to put out the worst case scenarios for the public and that it was essentially blocked by the administration. Take a listen to what the report says.

It says "The federal government created the impression that it was either not fully competent to handle the spill or not fully candid with the American people about the scope of the problem. It is possible that inaccurate flow rate figures may have hindered the subsea efforts to stop and to contain the flow of oil at the wellhead."

The White House clearly thought this crisis was over. Maybe it's not. It's clear that the president's own commission is digging pretty deep into the details here. And the White House may not like the findings, Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. Ed Henry for us this morning at the White House. Thanks so much.

ROBERTS: Well, UPS is spreading some pre-holiday cheer. The company says it plans to hire 50,000 seasonal employees this holiday season. They need driver helpers, package sorters and other workers to handle an expected spike in business during its peak season. The hiring process is scheduled to begin this month.

CHETRY: Well, how hot is the cast of "Glee"? They just knock off the Beatles for the most songs in Billboard's hot 100 among non-solo acts. The "Glee" has six new songs in the Billboard chart this week, giving a 75 top 100 singles. That's compared to 71 by the fab four.

ROBERTS: And first it was vinyl LPs, but now could cassettes be making a comeback. At least 25 smaller record labels are producing and distributing their music on cassette tapes but no one is expecting the cassettes to regain the music ground that it lost years ago. But my question is, when I heard this is why?

CHETRY: I wondered the same thing. I mean I remember one of the best Christmases ever was getting that boom box, you know, knowing you could play your cassettes but now -

ROBERTS: it was cutting-edge technology. But now when you can put 200 songs on something the size of a postage stamp, (INAUDIBLE) that's it. What was your favorite?

CHETRY: We were talking about this in the NEWSROOM today. All right. My favorite was "Dr. Feel Good" by Motley Crew.

ROBERTS: Hair band?

CHETRY: Yes. I mean, when you're in the car, blasting that thing, absolutely.

ROBERTS: My favorite was Pink Floyd's "The Wall."

CHETRY: That was a good one, too.

ROBERTS: It was. I had a pretty high-quality cassette machine and a good stereo in the car so I used to crank that. That section where the drums come in, you know, that always sounded great in the car.

CHETRY: One of the songs, I think it was "Dr. Feel good," there was an ambulance, the sound of an ambulance coming by. And really, really loud sounds on the road. And my parents always thought it was an ambulance and always pulled over to the side of the road when I had this song on. They absolutely hated that cassettes.

ROBERTS: Cassettes, they're going to come back. Are you going to buy?

35 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

ROBERTS: It's 38 minutes now after the hour. It's an emotional battle at the Supreme Court of the United States, pitting free speech, no matter how vile and hate-filled against the family's right to privacy. A father is suing Pastor Fred Phelps of the anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church for protesting at his son's funeral.

This is what the scene looked like near the service for Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder. His daughter is representing her father. Here she is yesterday after arguing before the Supreme Court.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARGIE PHELPS, ATTORNEY FOR WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH: When you have a public funeral and you broadcast to the nation that that dead soldier is a hero and that god is blessing America, we will be there and tell you god is cursing America. It is a curse for your young men and women to be coming home in body bags. And if you want that to stop, stop sending.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Albert Snyder is the man at the center of it. He's Matthew Snyder's father. He is suing the church for emotional distress. He joins us this morning. Al, thanks so much for being with us. I want to talk about the Supreme Court proceedings because you were there yesterday.

But first of all, tell us a little bit about your son, Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder?

ALBERT SNYDER, FATHER OF LANCE CORPORAL MATTHEW SNYDER: Matt was a good kid. He was 20 when he was killed over in Iraq. He was the middle of three children. Matt always had just a great personality. I tell most people that if he wouldn't have gone into the Marine Corps, he may have been a stand-up comic. He was a very loyal person to his friends and family. And he just really loved his family.

ROBERTS: I mean, I can't imagine the extent of the loss. And then on top of it, to have the funeral protested by members of the Westboro Baptist Church, how did that impact you and the family?

SNYDER: Well, basically, John, the best way to describe it is being kicked in the face when you're laying on the ground. It hurts very badly. I talked to many Marines and soldiers' parents that have gone through the same thing I have and they tell me, it's bad enough when you get that knock on the door, but then an hour later, to think, "oh, my god, are these whack jobs going to show up and ruin the funeral."

ROBERTS: And protesters did show up at the funeral.

SNYDER: Yes.

ROBERTS: So take us into the Supreme Court. What's your sense of the arguments that you heard? Many people who were there believe that it looks like the justices sort of would like to help you out, but their hands may be tied by the first amendment?

SNYDER: Well, I don't think their hands are tied by the first amendment because there's no such thing as absolute free speech. As far as in the courtroom, you know, the big thing that they went over was pride but for public vigor (ph). Well, there's no way I was a public figure at the time.

When the Phelps get up there and talk and says that, you know, I gave all of these interviews before they did this to me and I talked about the war. And I called and talked to John Murtha, well, they're all wrong. I gave a couple interviews to my local paper. And I called John Murtha to see if he could find out for me what happened in that vehicle accident. I didn't call him to protest the war or anything else.

And one of the articles they may have asked me, you know, what I thought about the war. And I said, I thought it was senseless. But, you know, every parent that loses a child, somebody from that family gives a statement because your local papers want to know.

ROBERTS: Sure. Absolutely.

SNYDER: And if they're going to count that as being a public figure, it's not going to be bought by the U.S. Supreme Court, I don't think.

ROBERTS: You know, one of the issues being talked about by people who are witnessing the court proceedings yesterday or hearing about them, and writing about them, analyzing them is this idea of equal application of the first amendment.

For example, you didn't want protesters there but if they're head of a group there that was demonstrating in support of the military, would they have been welcomed?

SNYDER: Yes. This was for friends and family. And it's at time for people to be remembered and honored for what they did. That's what the traditional funerals is about. I mean, and for them - the thing that just strikes me absolutely amazing is they're saying there were two groups of protesters there besides them. The one group was the patriot guard which came because of them.

ROBERTS: Yes.

SNYDER: And the other group that was there was the parochial school children lining the driveway with American flags saying we love you.

ROBERTS: Right. Because I guess the argument is that the first amendment has to be applied equally. And if you didn't want the protesters against the military there, then the other people who are demonstrating in favor of the military shouldn't have been there either.

But Ruth Bader Ginsburg articulated the difficult points of law here. She said that the protesters weren't breaking any laws even under the current Maryland funeral picketing statute which was passed after Matthew's funeral. But she said this to the Phelps family, she said "Why should the first amendment tolerate exploiting this bereaved family when you have so many other forums for getting across your message?"

So I guess, the real crux of the argument here is, what they did might have been terribly offensive, but was it illegal?

SNYDER: It might not have been illegal, but it did cause emotional stress and emotional damage. And, you know, you have to look at this as tort law, too. There's a lot involved in this, just other than free speech. You know, it gets me so much, John, when I hear these people say, well, this is what your son died for. You know, you didn't know my sons, so don't tell me what he died for, first of all. But no soldier or veteran goes into the military and takes an oath that it's OK to target an innocent family and harass them.

And it wasn't just about them showing up at the funeral. It was about what they did before and after the funeral. Two days before that funeral, they sent out notices to press and emerge - you know, the authorities. This notice had Matt's picture on it. It had a military coffin. Underneath it, it's burial of an ass. Then it went on to say we will be protesting at St. John's Catholic dog kennel.

ROBERTS: Wow.

SNYDER: I knew they were go to be there. They stood 30 feet from the main vehicle entrance of the church, and when the funeral procession had to be rerouted, we still came within 200 to 300 feet of the church.

ROBERTS: Wow. Well, this is a very, very important case regarding free speech. We're definitely going to be watching this very closely. We're not expecting a decision for months, though.

SNYDER: Just remember, John, the slippery slope can go either way.

ROBERTS: Al Snyder, thanks so much for being with us this morning. And we do appreciate your loss and I just can't imagine what it would be like as a family to go through something like that.

Thanks for joining us this morning.

SNYDER: Thank you, John.

CHETRY: Well, still to come, a rare look this morning, inside the Sarah Palin political machine. Coming up, angry e-mails to Alaska's Senate candidate Joe Miller after she gave him the endorsement and a possible hint about Palin's own presidential ambitions.

Also, the rain is lingering in the northeast this morning. Rob Marciano is along with this morning's travel forecast right after the break. It's 46 minutes past the hour.

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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most Politics in the Morning. It's 54 minutes past the hour right now. Crossing the political ticker this morning, Todd Palin downplaying the fiery e-mail that sent to Alaska's Senate candidate Joe Miller.

ROBERTS: Our senior political editor Mark Preston live at the CNNPolitics.com desk with more for us this morning.

What's this all about, Mark?

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Hey, John, hey Kiran. Was Todd Palin being a protective husband or is he plotting for presidential bid? Well, let's just set up this whole story.

Todd Palin sent off a very sharp and nasty e-mail to Joe Miller, he's that Tea Party favorite up in Alaska who knocked off the incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski in the Republican primary. Well, he was on FOX News recently. He was asked if he thought if Sarah Palin was qualified to be president. He didn't give the strongest answer, or at least that's what Todd Palin though.

In doing so, Todd Palin fired off an e-mail to Mr. Miller. Let me just read a little bit from the e-mail. Quote, "Sarah put her (EXPLETIVE DELETED) on the line for the for Joe and yet he can't answer a simple question. Is Sarah Palin qualified to be president?"

So, is that the protective husband, or is that someone plotting a presidential bid? Well, after the e-mail got out, the media picked it up, a blog up in Alaska picked it up, was first to publish it. Todd Palin cane back and said, actually, I'm a little sorry. I think we got our wires crossed. He sent this statement to the "Weekly Standard," a conservative magazine here in Washington, D.C.

Quote, "My family has worked hard in supporting Joe Miller so when I heard he said something less than supportive of my wife's efforts I responded. But it turns out we got no wires crossed and Joe hadn't said anything like what I'd been told."

I have to say, Miller was on FOX again yesterday. He said some kind words about Sarah Palin, said that she elevated the debate and that she's done some phenomenal things for the country. Asked again if she was qualified to be president, Joe Miller said, well she's Constitutionally qualified. Again, not the ringing endorsement.

Michael Steele, Barack Obama. Will they have a beer summit at some point? I'll tell you, John and Kiran, I actually sat down with Michael Steele a couple of weeks ago. I have a story up on CNNPolitics.com that just talks about that subject. In fact, Michael Steele told me that he'd like to sit down with him just to talk about things other than politics. He says he has a standing request to the president. So far, the president hasn't taken him up on the offer.

John, Kiran.

CHETRY: Interesting stuff. If people were wondering what the expletive was, it rhymes with "bass."

PRESTON: Yes, something I don't think I could say on air. That's for sure.

CHETRY: I didn't want to put you in that position.

ROBERTS: There's a lot of places that do say that these days. But let's go back over this Todd Palin thing again. So Joe Miller says something, Todd Palin without verifying it, fires off a nasty note to him. And then comes back and says, oh, no, he didn't say that at all. And then Miller goes and says pretty much the same thing that Todd thought he said in the first place?

PRESTON: Yes. All Miller is doing is doing what any candidate would do, John. He's not taking sides. Look, Joe Miller needs all the help that he can going into Election Day. Having said that, the Palins are credited with helping really elevate his candidacy and helping knock off Lisa Murkowski.

ROBERTS: Sure. But, Constitutionally qualified? That's from the faint phrase club, I think.

CHETRY: Yes, he should have said yes after all of that drama.

PRESTON: And just move on. No question.

CHETRY: All right, Todd. I mean, I called him Todd.

Mark, thank you.

PRESTON: Thanks.

ROBERTS: Mark Preston, for us this morning.

Mark, thanks so much.

Top stories coming your way after a quick break. We've got three minutes until the top of the hour.

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