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CNN Live At Daybreak

Samuel Alito Will be President Bush's Nominee for Supreme Court

Aired October 31, 2005 - 06:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: But first, now the news. It will be a complicated commute for nearly half a million Philadelphia workers who have to find another way to get to the office this morning. Thousands of city transit workers went on strike just after midnight, bringing buses, trolleys and subways to a halt.
In one hour more long lines are expected as people file past rows of Parks' coffin. The body of a civil rights icon is lying in honor at the U.S. Capitol rotunda. A memorial service will follow the viewing.

Beta has lost strength after tearing into Nicaragua after as a cat. two hurricane. It's now a tropical depression, but could regain strength and become a hurricane again. So far no reports of deaths from this storm, but let's head to the Weather Center now and check in with Jacqui Jeras.

Good morning.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Thank you Jacqui.

JERAS: OK.

COSTELLO: President Bush tries again today. He's expected to name a nominee to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court. There are several names being bandied about and you've probably heard them before.

Let's see if our Dick Uliano has been studying the...

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Oh, that sounds strange. Dick, are you there?

DICK ULIANO, CNN RADIO: Good morning, Carol. Just listening to some of the latest developments, so it may happen today in the choice of a Supreme Court nominee. And it's a real good bet the president will have an announcement today choosing his third nominee to replace Justice O'Connor.

Remember the first was John Roberts, of course, who later was nominated and confirmed to become chief justice, filling Rehnquist's seat and Harriet Miers, the second nominee, withdrawing Thursday.

COSTELLO: So what names are being bandied about for this and will he definitely name the nominee today?

ULIANO: Yes, it seems that the president is going to have an announcement today. As for names, The Associated Press is reporting that the two leading candidates are Federal Appeals Judge Samuel Alito and another federal judge, Michael Luttig. Both are conservatives, but I caution the viewers, speculation the first time around in July when Roberts was named all proved to be wrong.

And the speculation earlier this month when Harriet Miers was named was also wrong. But the AP is saying its sources say the president's list whittled to two, Samuel Alito and Michael Luttig.

COSTELLO: Well you know the president is in a tough spot. You mention these two possible nominees are conservatives and I know that they're both men as well, but the Democrats are saying if the president nominates a conservative, they might filibuster and you know on the conservative side, the conservatives want him to name a conservative and he has to repair his base.

ULIANO: Yes, I think you summed it up nicely there and I think we're going to have to wait and see what happens. Certainly the president is going to consider, Carol, that there are 55 Republican votes in the Senate and 45 Democrats, so certainly you would think that the president would want to appeal to his own party first and then worry about opposition. But you're right, the Democrats are saying echo (ph) dye to the wool conservative, you bring on a fight and let's see if the president is ready to scrap.

COSTELLO: Should be an interesting day. Dick Uliano from CNN Radio, reporting live this morning.

As to how you feel about the next Supreme Court nominee, we've got some new poll numbers for you this morning. Half of those questioned in a CNN/"USA Today" Gallup poll say it is essential the next Supreme Court justice be an experienced judge. Thirty percent say it's a good idea to have an experienced judge.

On the job approval subject, when asked how President Bush is handling his job, 41 percent say the president is doing a good job. Fifty-six percent say he is not. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are convinced this all indicates it is time for a shakeup in the White House. Here's the advice from veteran Republican Senator Trent Lott and the Senate's top Democrat Harry Reid.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TRENT LOTT (R), MISSISSIPPI: If he'll refocus the agenda, come up with a strong nominee, and then be prepared to bring in new energy, new blood in the administration, I think that this flow will be behind us and we'll be on offense in terms of doing the right thing for our country in very short order.

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MINORITY LEADER: The president has a couple of choices. He can do what was done by President Nixon. Just hunker down in the White House and pretend nothing is happening or he can do what Ronald Reagan did. Ronald Reagan when he had some problems with aid to the Contras and all such things, it caused a lot of controversy. He stepped forward and said I've got to clean house and he cleaned house.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: President Bush, though, has given no indication that he intends to bring in new blood or clean house, but of course we will be watching.

About 300 U.S. and Iraqi troops are conducting house-to-house searches this morning just south of Baghdad. The mission is called Operation Raging Bull. The military says its aim to tracking down about 50 militants. Officials say so far 15 suspected insurgents have been detained today including a former high-ranking intelligence official from Saddam Hussein's regime.

Over night, U.S. aircraft bombed a house near the Syrian border in the Iraqi town of Karabila (ph), which is near Qaim. The military describes the attack as a precision strike on an al Qaeda leader. CNN has not confirmed if that leader was killed or if there were any other casualties.

For the first time the Pentagon is providing a rough estimate of Iraqi civilian casualties from insurgent attacks. Hidden in a recent report to Congress, the Pentagon estimates that nearly 26,000 Iraqis have been killed or wounded from the beginning of last year through mid September of this year. That figure does not include civilians killed or wounded by coalition forces.

In Afghanistan, two American soldiers face charges for allegedly assaulting captives in their custody. The U.S. military says the soldiers punched two detainees in the chest, shoulders, and stomach, but the detainees did not require medical attention. Still the military coalition says it is committed to investigate all allegations of misconduct.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We see this as an extremely serious allegation of -- under unacceptable behavior. Therefore the command has initiated UCMJ or uniformed code of military justice proceedings against these soldiers. The coalition is committed to treating all persons under its control with dignity, respect and humanity. These alleged offenses do not reflect the values of the members of this command. We will not tolerate this kind of behavior that is alleged against these soldiers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: That comes less than two weeks after the military launched an investigation into TV footage reportedly showing U.S. soldiers burning the bodies of two dead Taliban rebels. Startling new accusations this morning that intelligence was deliberately distorted by government officials during a crucial incident in the Vietnam War. "The New York Times" is reporting the National Security Agency, the NSA, has kept the findings secret since 2001 fearing it might raise uncomparable comparisons to the Iraq war.

An agency historian says communications intercepted by the NSA in August of 1964 were falsified so it appeared there were two North Vietnamese attacks on American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. President Lyndon Johnson used the incident to persuade Congress to pass a resolution to fund the war. Most experts now say there was no second attack. The NSA historian says officers deliberately distorted the intelligence to cover up earlier mistakes.

In southern California investigators say they may never know why a man wearing a cape and mask went on a deadly shooting spree in an upscale neighborhood. Police say the 19-year-old suspect left his home Saturday morning, drove to a neighbor's house and shot the young woman and her father. They say he attempted to shoot another neighbor, but his shotgun misfired, so he went home and he killed himself. Police say the suspect hadn't had any previous run-ins with the law.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM AMORMINO, SHERIFF'S DEPT. SPOKESMAN: There are no prior contacts with the suspect. We have no prior calls location. I will say though that his behavior was definitely strange and bizarre. Anyone that leaves his home with a shotgun, dressed in a dark cape with some type of a helmet on is definitely -- does exhibit strange behavior. I'm not sure exactly what the problem was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The investigators say they're looking into the suspect's mental condition at the time of the attacks.

Pre hurricane evacuees face murder charges in the death of an elderly Texas woman. Seventy-seven-year-old Betty Blair was found strangled to death inside her Pasadena home on Friday night. Police say she'd met the evacuees at her church and she hired them to do odd jobs around her home.

Still to come on DAYBREAK, she said it was like a punch in the stomach. The husband of CIA operative Valerie Plame goes public about how the leak changed their lives forever.

And later, Carrie Lee on new no-fee credit cards. So what's the catch?

And job references, a lot of myths out there that could keep you from landing that perfect job.

But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Monday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On this edition of "Fortune First", for Brian Simmons work is a real blast.

BRIAN SIMMONS, CAVE DIGGER: I'm Brian Simmons and I build wine caves. Cave digging is a form of mining. It's kind of a specialized thing that they've developed in wine country, California. The traditional cave has been for wine storage and now we're starting to see all these other (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

The cave that we're in right now is going to be an entertainment cave. We've done personal caves for private dwellings. I know we've even done one that has a movie theater in it. It's very comparable to above ground buildings. Its sorbet romantic notion, people enjoy being able to go in there.

The temperature is always the same. It's quiet in there. I came from a mining background and I have some friends that were out here building wine caves and they said it was pretty fun, interesting, so I thought I'd give it a try.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: I'm just getting news into us about the -- President Bush's Supreme Court nominee. AP is reporting that President Bush will nominate 55-year-old Samuel Alito. In fact, CNN has now confirmed that.

Fifty-five-year-old Samuel Alito will be President Bush's nominee for the Supreme Court. As you can see, he was the 3rd Circuit Appeals -- he is now a 3rd Circuit Appeals Court judge in Philadelphia on the federal court. He was born in 1950.

He was nominated by President Bush's father in 1990 for the same post and he is also a former U.S. attorney. As for his politics, he has a reputation for intellectual brigor (ph). He's polite, but a frequent dissenter on the court that has been historical liberal in Philadelphia. He is said to be conservative.

We're trying to get Dana Bash. She's in Washington this morning. In fact, we have her right now.

Dana Bash, good morning. Tell us about Samuel Alito.

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well key sources familiar with the decision do confirm that it is Samuel Alito and this is certainly something that -- a decision that sources who have been involved in this have been hinting at for sometime. That it was between him and one of the (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

And look, when you talk to officials here about the lesson that they learned from the Harriet Miers' nomination, it is that they realize that the whole concept of putting somebody up without a clear judicial record simply didn't work. And by naming Samuel Alito, it proves from their perspective that they learned their lesson. He is somebody who has been on the federal bench, the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals for 15 years. He was nominated by the president's father and he is somebody who conservatives, the conservative base, they're extraordinarily comfortable with because they say he has a judicial record.

When you talk about a paper trail, Samuel Alito is somebody who has it. Not only that, but he is also somebody who conservatives will immediately -- unless I'm surprised by this -- will immediately rally around.

COSTELLO: Well what about the Democrats though? Because didn't Harry Reid come out this weekend and say you know, if you nominate a conservative person, you're going to find some trouble.

BASH: Well you know Wolf Blitzer actually asked Harry Reid specifically about Samuel Alito yesterday on "LATE EDITION" and asked if he would lead a filibuster against him and he declined to say that he would, simply saying that he wasn't on Harry Reid's list.

That's about all he would say. Look, I think the calculus at the White House is the fact that the president feels, they believe that it is a president -- the president's prerogative to put up a nominee and as long as they can prove that this nominee is somebody who is seriously qualified, they hope that it will be hard to not get -- to get it through.

But look, this is a nominee that is going to cause a political fight. And if you talk to people, Republicans around the president, they say that's actually exactly what he needs right now. He needs in a way a political fight to rally the base behind him, because in a nation that's really 50-50, Republicans and Democrats, if the president doesn't have his base, he's in big trouble. And as you know, he is -- because of the Harriet Miers' debacle and many other issues, he is in trouble.

COSTELLO: But Dana, by the same token, now that he's in a weakened state, and the polls today are just like absolutely -- they're absolutely negative towards President Bush's job approval rating and it doesn't look like many people have much hope for his next three years in office. Isn't this the prime time for the Democrats to pose a big fight?

BASH: It is and you know I would not be surprised if that is exactly what we are going to see, is a fight from the Democrats. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, how the Democrats kind of play this one. But from the perspective of the White House, it's actually a warp speed that they did this. It was just four days ago that Harriet Miers pulled her nomination and really ended what was something that frankly was doomed from the start.

It really, really caused a revolt within the president's own party and the bottom line for the White House is that by naming Samuel Alito, somebody who is a darling of the conservative movement, somebody who you know you're not going to see even close to the kind of immediate visual reaction from some of the GOP establishment to him as you saw from Harriet Miers, quite the opposite. He is somebody whom is admired.

COSTELLO: OK, so I have to ask you the female question because obviously he didn't nominate a woman. Why not?

BASH: Well I think that once they -- once the president put up Harriet Miers and that didn't go very well, they made it pretty clear here at the White House and talking to senior officials that he didn't feel necessarily that he had to put it up -- put up a woman again. Look, they definitely put it out there that there were still women on his short list for this particular pick, but the president wanted to pick somebody whom he felt comfortable with and if you talk to some -- the people who are very familiar with the record of sort of the last contenders, interestingly, some would argue that the women on the list had the most strident, if you will, records when it comes to you know whether or not how hard it would be to get them through with the Democrats. That they were perhaps the most conservative of the bunch, the women were.

COSTELLO: OK, a final question for you, Dana Bash. When President Bush introduces his nominee, which will probably happen at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time, will he say things like he said associated with Harriet Miers? That her mother would be proud of her? That she's a churchgoer, et cetera, et cetera? How will he introduce him?

BASH: Well I think that when you watch a president and when you watch a White House roll out, as the term goes, any nominee the goal is multifold and one of the key goals is, particularly in this case, will be to talk up the fact that he is very experienced and he has been on the bench for 15 years, and that he has a record.

But the other side of it is that they try to humanize the nominees and that is something that we will likely expect the president to do as well. So he's probably going to talk extensively about his record, but also try to introduce him to the American public as a person. So talking about his past and maybe his interests, I would expect the president to talk about that as well.

COSTELLO: All right. Dana Bash, you gather some more information for us. Dana Bash reporting live from Washington this morning.

And in case you're just joining us, we know who the president is going to nominate for the Supreme Court. He is Samuel Alito, a federal judge from Philadelphia and supposedly conservatives will like that choice.

We'll have much more on this throughout the day on CNN. DAYBREAK will take a short break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A little business buzz for you now. If you're tired of paying late fees on your credit cards, well some new cards are aimed right at you. It sounds like the credit card companies want to be your friend, but...

(LAUGHTER)

CARRIE LEE, CNN HEADLINE NEWS BUSINESS ANCHOR: Of course they make it sound this way, don't they?

COSTELLO: Yes, they do Carrie Lee.

LEE: They emphasize the good. You have to read the fine print, though, as always. Two new cards out in the past couple of weeks. Citigroup has a new card called Simplicity. American Express has Clear. These cards have no annual fee and do not charge flat late fees either.

Sounds pretty good, right? Well, if it seems too good to be true...

COSTELLO: It is.

LEE: ... that's because it is. Exactly. While the cards don't charge flat late fees, if you're late more than once in a year...

COSTELLO: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

LEE: ... the interest rate on your card could more than double to nearly 30 percent.

COSTELLO: Come on.

LEE: That's right. Yes. Yes.

COSTELLO: One time in a year...

LEE: Twice in a year...

COSTELLO: Twice in a year...

LEE: So you're late once, OK, they'll let you slide. If you're late twice in a year, boom your interest rate can double like that.

COSTELLO: Thirty percent.

LEE: Close to 30 percent...

COSTELLO: OK, I can't breathe now...

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Continue.

LEE: So people really need to be aware of this. You hear no annual fee, no late fee, OK, good, you know. And the type of people who are going to find this card appealing, of course, are people who aren't always on time in the first time.

COSTELLO: Unbelievable. Total of penalty fees expected to be what? LEE: Sixteen and a half billion dollars in 2005. Well that's just the late charges and over the limit charges alone. Expect it to hit 16 and a half billion this year. That's up 11 percent from last year, so they're really raking in the money here. These cards might help you if you're late once a year. But of course it's very hard to keep track of. Oh I was late once eight months ago, so I have to wait another four months. You get the idea here...

COSTELLO: Because you never know, some things just happen like I mean the mail could be late...

LEE: Exactly.

COSTELLO: ... or if you pay it online, maybe something happened. You don't know.

LEE: Exactly. I say the best thing of course always pay off the balance as soon as you get your bill. Don't have any carryover fees. If you can't do that, the best thing to do, go online with your bank, set up an automatic payment deduction. Pay maybe half every two weeks. That way at least you always have some money going to the bank, but really have to be aware of the catch...

COSTELLO: I'm telling you.

LEE: ... on these two cards.

COSTELLO: I know. It would be nice if everybody could just not use credit cards, but I know that's impossible for a lot of people, but man.

LEE: You can't do it. You can't do it. A lot of people can't. One other idea, use your debit card more than your credit card. Try to get in that mode, where the money just comes right out and that way you're not spending what you don't have.

COSTELLO: Look at the futures.

LEE: Futures looking up for today's session so far, so that would be good news and we are seeing a -- we're coming out off a huge gain on Friday, so continuing there. We do have a fed meeting coming tomorrow, so focus on inflation, a lot of people waiting for that.

COSTELLO: Thirty percent...

LEE: I know...

(CROSSTALK)

LEE: ... you're still reeling from that.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: Gee, thanks. Thank you, Carrie.

LEE: OK. COSTELLO: Actually, we're working on a bit of breaking news. I want to get that to you right after a break, so stay right there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: From the Time Warner Center in New York, this is DAYBREAK with Carol Costello.

COSTELLO: And good morning to you. In about 90 minutes, we're expecting to hear from President Bush about his new Supreme Court nominee. CNN has confirmed it is 3rd Circuit Appeals Court Judge Samuel Alito.

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