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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Allegations Delay Vote on Gay Episcopal Bishop; Terrorism Advisory to Be Issued to Airlines Tomorrow; U.S. Army Continues to Search for Hussein

Aired August 04, 2003 - 22:00   ET

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

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


AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again, everyone.
Perhaps it could turn into a new form of movie or literature. We'll call it the social thriller. That seems to be what happened today in Minneapolis where the leaders of the Episcopal Church were about to vote on electing a gay man a bishop.

But, just before the vote could be called the mystery e-mail and now the church's prospective bishop is facing accusations of improper touching and, no, we're not exactly sure what that means, and promoting pornography.

If the accusations are true this is a bombshell and if they are false, as many believe, it is a smear and a beauty at that and it's where we begin the whip tonight. Susan Candiotti is in Minneapolis, Susan start us off with a headline please.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Aaron. Yes, this convention has been thrown a curve it did not expect, least of all Reverend Gene Robinson who had hoped to know by now whether he had become a bishop. We'll tell you about the allegations being made against him at the eleventh hour.

BROWN: Susan, thank you, we'll get to you at the top tonight.

On to the threat of terror and a new advisory being issued to the airlines in the country, Jeanne Meserve is on that tonight, Jeanne a headline from you.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, a camera flash device modified to convert to or carry a stun gun that's just some of the evidence recovered recently from al Qaeda safe houses that will lead to a new advisory for airport security personnel and other federal and local screeners -- Aaron.

BROWN: Jeanne, thank you.

To Iraq next, the latest on the hunt for Saddam Hussein, Harris Whitbeck is in Tikrit, Harris a headline.

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, the U.S. Army is bringing out its heavy guns as it continues its search for Saddam Hussein and his associates.

BROWN: Harris, thank you.

And on to Liberia next, West African peacekeepers arrived today. Jeff Koinange is in Monrovia on the videophone, Jeff a headline from you tonight.

JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, the phrase never have so few meant so much to so many can be used to describe this day as peacekeepers are finally on the ground in this battle-scarred country giving just a little bit of hope to what was until very recently a seemingly hopeless land -- Aaron.

BROWN: Jeff, thank you, back to you and the rest shortly.

Also coming up on this Monday edition of NEWSNIGHT, Candy Crowley on the presidential candidate who's shaken the democratic establishment to its core, we'll look at the how of Howard Dean. How has he gained so much momentum and how can he keep it?

Then, the baseball hall of fame you've probably never seen, the basement at Cooperstown like any basement has lots of treasures if you look closely enough.

And, the thing you won't see anytime, anywhere, anyplace but right here, probably a good thing too, our look through tomorrow morning's papers tonight, all that and more coming up in the hour ahead.

We begin with a debate that was already contentious. Today it turned ugly. How else can you describe the accusations made against Reverend Gene Robinson? Before today this case was complicated enough for the Episcopal Church, a church that many worry would be deeply damaged by the vote on Robinson no matter how it turned out.

Tonight, people of good conscience who already were grappling with serious theological and moral considerations have to ask themselves one other difficult question. Did Reverend Gene Robinson do it?

Here's CNN's Susan Candiotti.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): It was supposed to be a day of decision for Reverend Gene Robinson, full of optimism Sunday night.

REV. GENE ROBINSON, BISHOP-ELECT: God wants gay and lesbian people to know that he is including them in his embrace as children of God.

CANDIOTTI: But by Monday morning two groups revealed last minute allegations that put Robinson's possible elevation to bishop on hold.

REV. FRANK FRISWOLD, PRESIDING BISHOP: Questions have been raised and brought to my attention regarding the bishop-elect of the diocese of New Hampshire. CANDIOTTI: One allegation is made in an e-mail sent on the eve of the vote to the bishops doing the balloting. It's signed by a man named David Lewis of Vermont. He says he met the priest at a meeting a couple of years ago and reads in part: "He put his hands on my inappropriately every time I engaged him in conversation."

SUSAN RUSSELL, ROBINSON SUPPORTER: I have complete confidence in Gene Robinson and I also have confidence in the process this church has in place.

CANDIOTTI: The committee is also looking into what knowledge, if any, Robinson had of a Web site for an organization that counsels gay and bisexual young people. Robinson co-founded a Concord, New Hampshire chapter of the group. Links on the Web site eventually lead to another Web site that links to a pornographic site.

A spokesman for Reverend Robinson tells CNN he had no knowledge of the chapter's Web site. Robinson's opponents who brought forward the information are asking questions.

REV. DAVID ANDERSON, AMERICAN ANGLICAN COUNCIL: If that's true I'm surprised that he was so proud of that connection in his paperwork that he filed in the bishop's election with New Hampshire and that he spoke so glowingly of the ministry.

CANDIOTTI: A member of the Investigations Committee who supports Robinson says both issues are under review.

REV. HAYS JUNKIN, BISHOP'S INVESTIGATIVE TEAM: These accusations, of course, are very disappointing and we take them very, very seriously and we are investigating them fully and have been fully investigating them practically all day today.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI: There is no time table as to how long it will take to complete this investigation and there has been no direct comment or response from Reverend Gene Robinson, although there is a statement from the leaders of his diocese who are calling for a full and complete investigation. His supporters and those who have spoken with him tonight did tell me that he is tired but upbeat and positive about what is happening -- back to you.

BROWN: All right, one, and I suspect we're going to spend a little time on this tonight, what if anything do we know about the person who sent the e-mail, the person who makes the accusation?

CANDIOTTI: Colleagues of mine already on site in New Hampshire are starting to ask questions and finding out little things about him. For example, we don't know what his full time job is as yet but he does work as a theater critic for a small newspaper in the Manchester area and locals describe him as very outspoken and very argumentative, as they put it in their words, on various local issues. That's all we know for now -- Aaron.

BROWN: OK, we'll just keep working that. Susan, thank you. It's a curve ball that was sent your way.

Alan Cooperman writes about religion for "The Washington Post," a beat that down through the ages has always dealt with politics to one degree or another but starting today in a manner of speaking Mr. Cooperman became a crime reporter of sorts and we are quite pleased to have him with us tonight.

Can you add anything to what we know about the person who sent the e-mail?

ALAN COOPERMAN, "WASHINGTON POST": Well, I can add what the e- mail itself describes which is a single incident that took place the e-mail says, a couple of years ago in a public setting, a church convocation.

Now, he doesn't describe in the e-mail what the inappropriate touching was but it did take place in a public setting and the e-mail also describes, the author describes himself as a straight man -- Aaron.

BROWN: All right, I'm just going to work this a little bit more. Does he say it was sexual in nature?

COOPERMAN: No. He doesn't say it was sexual in nature and what I kept hearing today from deputies and bishops that I was talking to is that this allegation appears on its surface to be rather thin. There's no allegation that the activity was inherently sexual. The person making the allegation called it inappropriate touching.

BROWN: And, just one more thing on this and I want to move to the other one and a couple of other areas if I can. The person who writes the letter, he was an adult at the time of the incident if, in fact, or the alleged incident how's that?

COOPERMAN: Absolutely. He's about 52 years old and he says in the e-mail that he has 25 years of experience with gays in the show business arena.

BROWN: OK, so we're not talking about a child anything here.

COOPERMAN: No, Aaron.

BROWN: What are you hearing in the halls, Alan?

COOPERMAN: Well, in the halls people tell me they're baffled. They're shocked. They're frustrated and, above all, they're suspicious especially they're suspicious of the timing.

Let's go back and review just very quickly how Gene Robinson got here. It was more than a year ago that the current bishop of New Hampshire, Doug Thurner (ph) said he was ready to retire and Episcopalians in New Hampshire began an arduous process of selecting a new bishop.

They set up a search committee. They did a whole series of interviews and ultimately in June of this year they had an election. The election result was controversial from the very beginning. It was written about in newspapers all over the country. It was very public.

Two months have gone by. This week we had a series of public debates about Gene Robinson. We had a public hearing in which he spoke. We had supporters, members of his family, opponents from around the country describe him, talk about their experience with him.

Suddenly, we have a vote in the first house approves him and then, boom, this allegation is lowered. What deputies were saying to me today, again and again, independently making the same analogy, they kept saying I feel like I'm at a wedding and at the point where the priest or the minister says does anyone have due cause, just cause, suddenly someone jumps up and says yes.

BROWN: Do you hear that from people who opposed him as well as people who supported him?

COOPERMAN: Yes, actually I did hear today from people who opposed him who are also upset about the timing of this.

BROWN: And on the question of the pornographic link, which has been a little hard for me to understand his connection to it if, in fact, there is a connection to it, how thin does that seem because to me, sitting here, that one seemed thinner than the other one.

COOPERMAN: Well, certainly his proponents are saying it's very thin indeed and even some of the people who brought it up can see that there's no evidence at this point that Gene Robinson had either anything to do with setting up that Web site or even knew that it had a link to a link that would bring one to pornographic pictures.

Now, anyone who's been on the web knows within a very few links, a couple of clicks of your mouse, you could go from virtually any site on the Web site to virtually any other site, so there was a little bit of a dispute today as to whether it was one link, two links, or three links from the outright site to the pornographic site but by most accounts it was at least two links.

BROWN: Where do they go now? This convention, I think, runs to the end of the week. Is there -- does it seem likely it will be resolved before then?

COOPERMAN: Well, I don't know that. I don't think anybody knows that for sure at the moment. Something very interesting, Aaron, church lawyers say that if this investigation goes on beyond the end of the week it will be such an unprecedented extraordinary circumstance that they don't know what they would do next. They said that the possibilities include having bishops vote by mail in ballots or having a special session of the bishops at some later time.

BROWN: It was a fascinating story before today. It is no less so tonight. Alan thanks, good to have you with us tonight.

COOPERMAN: Thank you, Aaron.

BROWN: Alan Cooperman who writes religion for "The Washington Post," along with Susan Candiotti in Minneapolis tonight. And now, on to other matters, on to the substance behind the recent concerns that al Qaeda is planning new attacks similar to those executed on 9/11. Officials began talking up this story late last week, you'll recall, and late today CNN's Jeanne Meserve learned just what they have to go on and she filed this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE (voice-over): Air travelers can expect stepped up screening of electronic devices. Homeland officials say under the new advisory airport security personnel, federal screeners, and local authorities will be urged to pay particular attention to items like remote key locks and specific brands and models of cell phones, cameras, and boom boxes this after recent raids of al Qaeda safe houses overseas turned up evidence that the group was trying to modify electronic devices to carry weapons or explosives. For instance a camera flash was being modified to convert to or carry a stun gun.

PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: But they obviously have thought very carefully, just as they did with 9/11, about how they could go about hijacking American planes. Obviously that's much harder now than it was on 9/11 but with these modified electronic items clearly they thought through what were the possible holes in American security today.

MESERVE: Officials say the information about weaponized electronics was part of the intelligence that led to a warning last week about possible future hijackings. That advisory cautioned hijackers might exploit two programs that allowed foreign travelers to spend several hours on the ground in the U.S. without a visa. Over the weekend those programs were suspended indefinitely but there is no indication the nation's threat level will rise.

TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: We have specific intelligence that there is a narrow window in commercial aviation, a narrow area where the terrorist might take advantage of that. Basically, the door was opened a little bit and we shut the door.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: Officials say travelers can make their lives a little easier under the new advisory by removing all electronics from their carry-on bags to have them X-rayed separately during screening. One federal official argues tonight that this latest information should make flyers feel more secure not less so because now authorities know specifically what they're looking for -- Aaron.

BROWN: Well, I'll work on feeling more secure while you answer this. Do we know yet, have we been able to see yet how this is impacting airports and the screening process?

MESERVE: The advisory is going to go out tomorrow. It may contain some specifics that we have not been made aware of yet.

I talked to one airport official this evening though who was quite concerned. He said this could not happen at a worse time to airlines. They're going into their peak travel season. In the next two or three weeks he anticipates this could slow a 20-minute line down to 35 or 40 minutes.

One of the problems is that right now the x-ray machines that are used at passenger screening points don't detect explosives. They're looking for metal. They're looking for weapons. They can show you anomalies but it wouldn't necessarily let's say identify a plastic explosive.

So he anticipates there will have to be some more intensive types of screening. Perhaps those items will be swabbed. Perhaps they might have to be taken to a CTX machine for a closer look, or they'll be looked at more carefully manually.

BROWN: Jeanne, thank you very much, Jeanne Meserve in Washington on the security beat tonight.

Palace intrigue now and Colin Powell will he step down if his boss wins a second term? The answer this morning in the papers at least seemed to be yes. The answer tonight is no or maybe or maybe we ought to point out that the only man himself who knows for sure is the secretary, which of course doesn't stop Washington insiders from skipping past the whether he will and going straight to the what if he does?

Here's CNN's Andrea Koppel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The story hit Washington like a summer squall, a front page story in "The Washington Post" reporting Secretary of State Powell and his deputy Richard Armitage would not serve beyond January 21, 2005.

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think you have to love August when there's a news void to fill and there's a lot of the rumor mill going around Washington, D.C.

PHILIP REEKER, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: They're just baseless speculation, gossip, and rumor.

KOPPEL: In separate radio interviews, Armitage and Powell both dismissed the report out of hand.

RICHARD ARMITAGE, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE: I've got an eight letter word that describes it I think a little more accurately.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it is?

ARMITAGE: Well, nonsense of course.

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: The story has no substance and the so-called conversation that took place between my deputy Mr. Armitage and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice did not take place. KOPPEL: But a Powell aide told CNN Armitage did have a recent joking exchange with Ms. Rice and told her if she does move to the State Department, should President Bush win reelection, "don't expect any of us to be here."

Recent polls have found Powell even more popular than the president and other powerful members of the Bush cabinet but political analysts say even if Powell doesn't sign on to a second term that won't affect the president's shot at winning reelection.

STEPHEN HESS, THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: The president is going to be elected or not elected on his record in office.

KOPPEL (on camera): As for Powell's record, the administration's top diplomat has lost more battles than he's won perhaps one reason the story struck a nerve here at the State Department. As one Powell aide explained with 17 months remaining in this administration Powell has a lot less he'd like to accomplish and doesn't want to become a lame duck.

Andrew Koppel CNN, at the State Department.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And on the program tonight some of the day's other top stories from around the world, the latest from Liberia as the first peacekeepers hit the ground there.

This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Part of the news from Iraq. You can't say the U.S. military isn't going all out in the hunt for Saddam Hussein. The military conducted 17 raids in northern Iraq to prevent Saddam from reaching friends, money, or safe houses in the area in the last day or so.

Harris Whitbeck is in Tikrit. He joins us now with more on the search for Saddam, Harris good evening.

WHITBECK: Good evening, Aaron.

The U.S. Army's 4th ID continues its operations in the Tikrit area, Tikrit being Saddam Hussein's hometown. One of the raids that we were on just a little bit under 24 hours ago was rather massive compared to the ones that we've seen since we've been here.

An area a little less than one square mile was targeted. More than 300 infantrymen went and fanned out searching farmhouses. They were supported by Bradley fighting vehicles, by Apache attack helicopters, and by fighter jets from the U.S. Air Force.

They were looking for mid-level associates, including one top lieutenant of Saddam Hussein. They had received information that they might be meeting at one of the houses there. Now, the colonel in charge of that operation told us that they are using this heavy armament because they feel that as they get closer to the inner core of Saddam Hussein's associates they feel that these individuals might try to defend themselves as the U.S. troops close in so the U.S. troops want to be prepared to go in and fight as much as they have to.

Again, commanders on the ground feel that as they get closer to these men, these men are getting more desperate. They also feel that they are also getting closer to more information that might actually lead them to Saddam Hussein -- Aaron.

BROWN: In the operation that we just looked at did they find anything or anyone?

WHITBECK: They did not find the individual, the high -- it wasn't a high value target but the higher value target that they were looking for on that occasion but they did find documents and photographs that they feel will help the folks in the counterintelligence units plan more raids and look for more people as the days go by and this is really becoming an operation that is supported by intelligence that comes from previous raids and also from tips coming in from local informants.

BROWN: Harris, thank you, Harris Whitbeck who is in Tikrit tonight.

The first group of West African peacekeepers has arrived in Liberia. They got there today. Before they begin doing what they need to do they need to convince Liberians to stop slowing them down, mobbing them with cheers and tears and celebrations.

It's a testament to their despair that Liberians are greeting the peacekeepers not just as heroes but as saviors and some Liberians insist this is the beginning of the end. One welcome sign today said simple "Peace at Last."

But considering the years of fighting, the blood spilled, the lives lost, skeptics aren't betting on peace just yet. Reporting for us tonight here's CNN's Jeff Koinange.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOINANGE (voice-over): A sight many here never thought they'd live to see the arrival of long-awaited peacekeepers. Arriving in heavy rain showers these are Nigerian soldiers, veterans of numerous African civil wars who will serve as the corps of what's called in diplomatic speak Ecomil.

And, they wasted no time getting acquainted with their new terrain, quickly forming a tight perimeter around the airport. A few hundred Liberians, already accustomed to tough times, ignored the weather and instead turned the occasion into one of instant celebration.

For now the most serious threat faced by the Nigerians seem to be the overly enthusiastic Liberians. Liberian government officials seem just as glad to finally have peacekeepers on the ground.

DANIEL CHEA, LIBERIAN DEFENSE MINISTER: And we'll do everything as a government to support their endeavor.

KOINANGE (on camera): Only 300 peacekeepers to begin with but many more hundred in the coming days as the Ecomil peacekeeping mission officially gets underway in an effort to bring lasting peace to this war-ravaged nation.

(voice-over): These displaced Liberians are just a fraction of the tens of thousands who fled their homes. Many now say they feel hope. After what seemed like endless suffering and misery another sign of hope much needed food arriving on the heels of the peacekeepers. Late in the afternoon the rain gave way to some much needed sunshine for Liberians a sign this country may be on the road to recovery.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOINANGE: And, Aaron, these peacekeepers no doubt have their work cut out for them. On the one hand they'll have to try and secure the capital Monrovia and make sure that the guns are finally silent on the other, securing both the free port of Monrovia and the second port city of Buchanan, both under rebel control so that they could provide a corridor for much needed food aide, much needed humanitarian relief for Liberia's suffering masses.

And, one more thing, Aaron, remember those U.S. naval ships anchored 50 kilometers off the coast of Liberia? Well, they're slowly making their way forward up to about five, six miles just to show an imposing U.S. presence and also just to await if and when the call comes to deploy -- Aaron.

BROWN: Jeff, thank you very much, Jeff Koinange who is in Monrovia in Liberia.

A few more items from around the world tonight starting with the war on terrorism; a Saudi official telling CNN that the FBI has paid another call on Omar al-Bayoumi, he's the man you might recall who helped a pair of 9/11 hijackers get settled in the United States.

His name, we are told, comes up in those 28 classified pages on the congressional report on 9/11. A number of sources saying he might have been working for Saudi intelligence at the time, a notion Saudi Arabia's foreign minister calls baseless.

South Korea next and the suicide of a top executive at Hyundai, he jumped from the 12th floor of the company's headquarters. At the time of his death he was embroiled in a major bribery scandal involving secret government payments to North Korea.

And, in Europe the heat wave has turned into a firestorm in places. Forest fires have taken at least nine lives in Portugal firefighters dealing with 72 fires in a country that's about one-third forest. Across the border in Spain, flames have forced hundreds of people to evacuate their homes. Switzerland is under a no campfire order tonight. In fire or not the heat is killing dozens across the continent, tough summer in Europe.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, the latest twists and turns and there are a lot of them in the California recall story as Governor Gray Davis goes to court to have his name on the ballot as a candidate.

From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: There are some things we know for certain about the political battle in California to recall Governor Gray Davis. We know it will be a huge story. California is a huge state. To turn a phrase it's about the size of Iraq.

We know that it will get ugly. What political contest these days doesn't? And, we know the stakes are high for both parties, we know that, and we also know there's a whole lot we don't know; reporting for us tonight CNN's Jeff Greenfield.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST (voice-over): Here's California Governor Gray Davis last November celebrating his narrow reelection victory which gave him four more years we thought.

And, here's Governor Gray Davis just a few days ago trying to keep his job. The signatures of one and a half million registered voters in California have forced Davis into a recall election. That's something that no governor anywhere in the United States has had to face in more than 80 years.

(on camera): And that may account for the fact that with every passing day the political terrain in California looks more and more like the coastline in the grip of a killer fog. What do we know? It's much easier to tell you what we don't know like when will the election take place and who's running?

(voice-over): We thought we knew that the recall election would take place October 7. At least, that's what the lieutenant governor announced. But a number of legal challenges threaten to change that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have just filed a lawsuit on behalf of the governor.

GREENFIELD: Today, lawyers for the governor went to the state Supreme Court asking that the election be delayed. An October vote, they argued, would force some counties to use the unreliable punch- card process. That, they said, would threaten the vote count. The precedent the lawyers for Democrat Davis cited?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is the swinging-door chad.

GREENFIELD: Bush vs. Gore, the Supreme Court decision that effectively ended the 2000 presidential election. We thought we knew that Davis can't run to succeed himself. The state's constitution provides that, if voters dump the governor, they immediately vote on his successor, and he can't be in that fight.

Davis' lawyers want that rule thrown out. We do know some of the candidates who will be running to succeed Davis. Republican Congressman Darrell Issa, who bankrolled the recall, is likely in. Bill Simon, who lost to Davis last November, is probably in as well. But actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who runs ahead of all of the Republicans in public opinion polls, is waiting until Wednesday to announce his decision. He will do it on "The Tonight Show."

That has most Californians thinking that, since that is not the best way for an entertainer to convince voters that he's a policy wonk kind of guy, Schwarzenegger is probably saying no. And that leaves the door open for former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, a fellow moderate Republican. We thought we knew that no Democrat would enter the race. That's what Democratic National Chair Terry McAuliffe proclaimed recently.

TERRY MCAULIFFE, DNC CHAIRMAN: There will be no Democrat on this ballot.

GREENFIELD: But, over the last several days, a growing number of Democratic voices have said: Hold it. If Davis loses, we have to have a Democrat on the ballot to replace him. Their favorite, Senator Dianne Feinstein, who has left the door open just a bit to just such a possibility.

REP. CALVIN DOOLEY (D), CALIFORNIA: Senator Feinstein has the stature, has the record, has the ability to provide the strong leadership that this state of California needs.

REP. LORETTA SANCHEZ (D), CALIFORNIA: She is the 800-pound gorilla in the room. She'll walk away with it, if we say, remove Gray.

GREENFIELD: Today, state Senate President John Burton, one of the most powerful Democrats in the state, met with Democratic senators to plot strategy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GREENFIELD: And, Aaron, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer says, on Friday, she'll let the people of California know whether she thinks another Democrat should enter the race.

If Democrats are nervous, here's one reason why. A California Teachers Association poll show, if the election were held now, Davis would lose by some 15 points.

BROWN: How split are the Democrats, not just on whether to enter the race, but on everything here?

GREENFIELD: You know the old saying of Will Rogers: "I am a member of no organized party. I'm a Democrat"? The people around Davis clearly are after a slash-and-burn campaign. They want to paint the recall as a right-wing bunch of people who couldn't get elected anyway. There are many other Democrats who want to fight the recall, but want to fight it on the grounds that this isn't the way to do it. We elected the governor. Let's stand by him. That's a big split.

And the real split, of course, is, they've got until Saturday, we think, to file. Do the Democrats hold back? That's better for Davis, maybe worse for Democrats. If one Democrat gets in the race like Feinstein, they'll keep the governor's mansion. Probably, it kills Davis.

BROWN: But the theory, at least the Davis camp theory -- tell me if I'm right -- is, if a credible Democrat enters the race, he's toast?

GREENFIELD: Yes, that's the theory.

BROWN: So his best chance to survive is that, in a predominantly Democratic state, he's the only Democratic option?

GREENFIELD: Yes. But he's running approval ratings in the low 20s. And that's why the other Democrats are saying, this is a chance we can't take. It's better for you, Governor Davis. But Willie Brown, who opposes the recall, when asked, what's Davis' problem, basically said, nobody likes him.

(LAUGHTER)

BROWN: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: Well, with friends like that -- other than the senator, what other Democrats might get in?

GREENFIELD: Well, Congresswoman Sanchez says she might get in. There's talk about Leon Panetta, former White House chief of staff, former congressman, as a caretaker governor. And as we get closer to Saturday, you know the song, "All the Girls Look Prettier at Closing Time?" A whole lot of Democrats are going to think a whole lot of other Democrats look a lot better, because Saturday, unless the courts tell us otherwise, is the filing deadline for this.

BROWN: Thank you, Jeff. It's going to be just -- it's going to be a great story, however it plays out.

GREENFIELD: I hate to be that personally self-involved, but yes.

BROWN: It's going to be a great story.

GREENFIELD: Yes.

BROWN: Thank you. Political tremors back East as well, no small thing, this. Ernest Hollings, senior senator from South Carolina, said today he will not seek an eighth term next year. Senator Hollings is 81, a Democrat, called it high time someone else took the job. And for the first time in a long time, that someone stands a good chance of being a Republican elected outside of South Carolina -- out of South Carolina.

An ad agency executive had this to say about companies paying Laker Kobe Bryant to pitch their products. Time for plan B. Today, an Italian food maker announced it's dropping Mr. Bryant for a spokesman for its chocolate hazelnut concoction, Nutella, the spokesman saying this had been in the works for quite some time, long before the rape allegations came to light.

And, yes, J.Lo was right this time. It is turkey time. "Gigli" opened this weekend to the sound of rotten vegetables whizzing at the screen. OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration, because it takes people to throw rotten vegetables at the screen. The film made just about $3.8 million over the weekend, about one-tenth of what the top- grossing picture,"American Wedding," not exactly "Gone With the Wind" in its own right, took in.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT: He's got the early buzz, but can Howard Dean make it last until it really matters? Candy Crowley on the Dean phenomenon after the break.

Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Howard Dean is the it candidate of the moment. Who knows how long the moment lasts. There is always an it candidate. John McCain was one two years ago. Ross Perot had his moment of it-ism. Go even farther back, there was John Anderson. He was very it. The other its, of course, all lost. No President McCain, Perot or Anderson. So being the it candidate this early doesn't guarantee a thing, except for this. It's a whole lot better being the it candidate than the non-it candidate. And right now, the Democrats have a fair number of those.

Here's CNN's Candy Crowley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): George Bush, the first one, called it big mo, momentum. Howard Dean has big mo.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got my parents into him. They just donated to him. And now he's getting more press, people are going, oh, yes, this Dean guy, I actually kind of like him.

CROWLEY: Actually, Howard Dean has the only mo, cover boy on two national magazines this week, first-page story in another, first or second name in Iowa and New Hampshire polls. He is the moving object in a field that has been otherwise stagnant for months.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Howard. How are you? How are you doing?

HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Very well.

CROWLEY: The '04 race began with a decorated veteran, a fresh face with a Clintonesque touch, the former No. 2 on the Democratic ticket, an old hand, and an obscure governor from a small state.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that he created a whole buzz, especially with the war in Iraq, got people interested in politics that hadn't been thinking about politics in a really long time.

CROWLEY: With anti-war, anti-Bush rhetoric, Dean worked the church basements of Iowa, the restaurant of New Hampshire, tapping into a mother lode of anger at the base of the Democratic Party, anger at the Republican president for his war and his tax cuts, anger at the Democrats who let him have both. Now, nine presidential candidates pretty much court for the angry vote.

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D-CT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I share the anger of my fellow Democrats with George Bush and the wrong direction he has taken our nation. But the answer to his outdated, extremist ideology is not to be found in outdated extremes of our own.

CROWLEY: Translation: The darling of left-of-center Democrats will get creamed in a general election, where moderates and swing voters make the difference. As it happens, that's exactly how a happy White House views the Democrats' current it candidate. Dean neatly dismisses his bipartisan critics with his own brand of, bring it on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, AD)

DEAN: And has anybody really stood up against George Bush and his policies? Don't you think it's time somebody did?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CROWLEY: Primaries? What primaries? This ad began running in Texas, just as the president began his Crawford ranch vacation.

The only thing that stands between Howard Dean and the Democratic nomination are six long, unpredictable months, and eight other candidates who know a thing or two about the blood sport of politics. So don't count Howard Dean in just yet.

CROWD: We want Dean! We want Dean!

CROWLEY: And definitely don't count him out.

Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: More on the Dean momentum, what it means for the other Democratic candidates. Peter Beinart joins us. He's with "The New Republic." He's in Washington tonight.

Peter, good to see you.

What does your instinct tell you? Does Howard Dean have legs in this?

PETER BEINART, "THE NEW REPUBLIC": Yes, I think he does.

For one thing, there's a hunger in American politics for authenticity. That transcends ideology. There are people who are so upset about politics that anyone who seems to say what he thinks has an advantage. And Dean does. Secondly, in a Washington-centered field, a governor has advantages, because Washington-centered politicians who are in Congress are always going to be seen as having made compromises and maybe not looking like leaders, in the way governors have -- governors can do. And those two things give Dean a big structural advantage.

BROWN: When you look at his record, his record as governor, he was governor a lot of times in Vermont. Is he as liberal as the war issue perhaps makes him seem?

BEINART: No.

He's actually -- on fiscal issues, in many ways, he's to the right of the field. He's more committed to a balanced budget than someone like Richard Gephardt, for instance. His health care plan is actually considerably smaller than Gephardt's. He's a real fiscal conservative.

In some ways, he reminds me a little bit of Paul Tsongas, that kind of Yankee, kind of flinty or Michael Dukakis tradition. It's on national security where his persona has become that of the candidate further left. And I think that's where he's vulnerable.

BROWN: Right. And there is this perception -- and talk to enough strategists and you come to believe it's real -- I do -- that the soccer mom, to some extent, has been replaced by the security mom and that security is going to be a huge issue. And that is a huge problem for Mr. Dean, Governor Dean, they believe.

BEINART: Yes. That's right.

People point to the fact that George W. Bush and Bill Clinton came into office as governors with no national security experience. But that was in an era where foreign policy and national security weren't preeminent, like they are now. And Dean, in a way, has exacerbated his problem, as someone who didn't work on national security, not only with his opposition to the war, but with a series of comments that seemed a bit flip, and now in association with the left of the Democratic Party, which doesn't seem to take the national security issue seriously. It's going to take him a lot, I think, to make up for that.

BROWN: A couple of other things. Do you think that the -- Karl Rove in the White House is just sort of chomping at the bit to get at Howard Dean, that he is their George McGovern, the candidate they would really like most to run against?

BEINART: Yes, I certainly think they think that. There's no question about it, because they think that Dean is completely out of touch with the South. And I think there is actually some reason to believe that he doesn't have the instinct for how you would win some of the states that Al Gore lost. So, yes, they think that he can be marginalized to a few states on the West Coast and the Northeast.

BROWN: He has an interesting message in the South, I think. He goes there and basically says, you all have been voting Republican for 30 years and look at it. Your schools are still not very good. You still have all the problems that you had all along. Maybe it's time to rethink this.

BEINART: Yes, that's right.

But, as either the "TIME" or "Newsweek" article pointed out, that can sound a little bit patronizing. And what Bill Clinton understood, I think, was, he had a way, a cultural way, of toning down some of the things that sound shrill south of the Mason-Dixon Line on cultural issues. Dean, even though he is actually not a big supporter of gun control, I'm not sure he'll be able to appeal culturally in the way that Democrats need to if they are going to win in Southern states.

BROWN: Well, all right since we've wandered off on that road, which of the Democrats can, then?

BEINART: Well, I think either -- probably the two with the best shot would be Edwards, because he obviously is a Southerner and was hawkish on the war, and Lieberman, because he's more religious. He feels comfortable with the language of faith. And I think -- so those would probably be the two with the best chance, I think.

BROWN: And where does this all leave John Kerry, then?

BEINART: Well, in an interesting place. The problem is that Kerry's base is, in some ways, the same as Dean's base. It tends to be on the left end of the party, amongst more highly educated, white voters. And the concern is that it's hard -- many people think it will be hard for this to come down to a Dean-Kerry race, because they have such similar bases and because they both need to win New Hampshire, in a sense.

So the fear for Kerry is, say he finishes behind Dean in Iowa, loses New Hampshire, then he could be out of the race and someone else emerges as the anti-Dean candidate.

BROWN: Peter, good to have you with us. Nice to see you again. Thank you.

BEINART: Nice to be back.

BROWN: Thank you, Peter Beinart of "The New Republic."

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT: the boys of summer and the stuff they left behind, a tour of the real treasures at the Baseball Hall of Fame. We take a break, first. From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Sometimes, we run across a story we just like. It isn't the lead story. It often lacks a hook, a specific reason to run it. And this is one of those.

Ted Spencer is a historian of sorts and a curator of a great and valuable collection. It includes old costumes, tools that look ancient compared to today. Some of it is very fragile. And all of it, every single piece of it, has to do with baseball. Mr. Spencer works at Baseball's Hall of Fame.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED SPENCER, BASEBALL HALL OF FAME: So we're headed down below ground. Everything is protected by state-of-the-art security. Nobody is allowed down here without escort.

It was found in Boston by the power company. They were down about 40 feet. And down 40 feet, they found this bat. The neat thing about this bat, that it was found probably 200 yards from home plate, where the first World Series game was played. This is Russ Hodges', the announcer's, scorecard from the 1951 famous Bobby Thomson National League playoff game, which he hit the famous home run. Hodges got so excited that he never filled in Thomson's home run.

And this is a baseball signed by Pope John Paul II and given to Sparky Anderson. And this is one of our most storied items. And that is -- "This is the Gillette razor blade used by Cy Young at my home on the morning of September 9, 1953."

The reason everything is not on display is because there's just not enough room. It's not good from them to be out in the light. We have a lot of things in the collection that don't need to be out. But they have historical significance.

One of the best stories to be able to tell is that of World War II. This is Phil Rizzuto Navy jumper. This is the bottle used to christen the S.S. Lou Gehrig. This is a Japanese baseball that was sent to us by a Marine battalion upon the surrender of the Japanese. This is a pocket edition Major League Baseball game that were given to troops. They could carry it in their knapsacks. And if you look on it, you'll see it says, buy war bonds, save for victory, and things like that.

This happens to be a Hall of Famer Rube Waddell's shillelagh. This wonderful stuff is Lou Gehrig's tea set. This is a waitress uniform from the Metropolitan Stadium in Minneapolis. We're going to go right in here to the central archive. The Department of the Interior for the Cincinnati Reds to play an exhibition game an Indian baseball team in 1904.

So you never know, when you pick up one of these things, what you're going to find. I want to be able to find one -- so beat up -- I want to find one from the right period. Here we go. "The New York Clipper," this is a newspaper from New York City. And this particular volume is from the last year of the Civil War. You have the 14th and 9th regiments out of New York playing ball during the height of the Civil War. They actually played two games.

Let's go down to the photography department now. I think it's about 40 degrees in here, maybe a little warmer. Ruth's files go from here to here. Just to follow along with Lou Gehrig. This is he and Gehrig fishing. Great shot, huh? They complain about these guys wearing their hats backwards. Al Naples. Al Naples played two games in the Major Leagues. He got up seven times and got one hit. And he played for the St. Louis Browns. Everybody counts here.

We're providing a service for the country, for the culture, by preserving and storing and making available an important part of American history, a very, very important part of American history.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Morning papers after the break.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(ROOSTER CROWING)

BROWN: I've decided this week, I'm just going to love the rooster. And maybe that will help.

Okeydokey, time to check the morning papers from around the country, perhaps around the world. We'll see how it goes in the next couple of minutes.

It's August, OK? I'm just telling you right now, it's August. And if you're in the news business, that's not necessarily good news. "The New York Times," though, has a full front page. They managed to fill it all up just for you and certainly for those of us in New York. They play the episcopal bishop story in the center of the front page -- sexual allegations -- accusations, rather -- why do you take your glasses off if you still can't read it? -- delay vote on Episcopalian gay bishop in the center of the front page.

But a fascinating story up top here: "New York Pursues Old Cases of Rape Based Just on DNA, Indicting With No Name." I'd read that. And down in the corner, by the way, did you read this? This is kind of sad. Everybody's got strong feelings about Mike Tyson, but it appears he squandered about $300 million, Tyson's bankruptcy a lesson in ways to squander a fortune. I'd like to try.

"Chicago Sun-Times," "Governor to Judges." This is a good local story. "Tighten Your Belt, Drop Your Suit." It's also a great headline, isn't it? Judges are suing to try and get a pay raise. The governor is none too happy. It's going to be whiz-bang in Chicago tomorrow, if you're in the area. "The Oregonian," kind of a soft news day in Portland, it seems to me. They put Liberia on the top of the front page. And then a really cool story. This is why a slow news day can sometimes be cool. "In Two Worlds, Marty Jennings (ph), a Superb Violinist, Crippled by Heroin, Moved Between the Symphonic Stage and the Portland's Greediest Streets." I would read that story. I would want to know more about that. I have never heard of Mr. Jennings, so that would be kind of cool. Actually, I know another Mr. Jennings, but I don't want to talk about that.

"The Washington Times" -- how we doing on time?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thirty seconds.

BROWN: Oh, music to my ears.

"The Washington Times." "Lieberman Calls Dean a Ticket to Nowhere: Sees Center as the Way to the White House." "The Washington Times."

"Detroit Free Press." It's got to have one right? "Ford to Ground its Lincoln Aviator in '05." It doesn't make you want to rush out and buy one in '04, does it? That's "The Detroit Free Press."

Why don't we quit while we're ahead? That's morning papers tonight. That's the program. We're back here tomorrow at 10:00 Eastern time. Come join us.

Until then, good night for all of us at NEWSNIGHT.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





Advisory to Be Issued to Airlines Tomorrow; U.S. Army Continues to Search for Hussein>


Aired August 4, 2003 - 22:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again, everyone.
Perhaps it could turn into a new form of movie or literature. We'll call it the social thriller. That seems to be what happened today in Minneapolis where the leaders of the Episcopal Church were about to vote on electing a gay man a bishop.

But, just before the vote could be called the mystery e-mail and now the church's prospective bishop is facing accusations of improper touching and, no, we're not exactly sure what that means, and promoting pornography.

If the accusations are true this is a bombshell and if they are false, as many believe, it is a smear and a beauty at that and it's where we begin the whip tonight. Susan Candiotti is in Minneapolis, Susan start us off with a headline please.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Aaron. Yes, this convention has been thrown a curve it did not expect, least of all Reverend Gene Robinson who had hoped to know by now whether he had become a bishop. We'll tell you about the allegations being made against him at the eleventh hour.

BROWN: Susan, thank you, we'll get to you at the top tonight.

On to the threat of terror and a new advisory being issued to the airlines in the country, Jeanne Meserve is on that tonight, Jeanne a headline from you.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, a camera flash device modified to convert to or carry a stun gun that's just some of the evidence recovered recently from al Qaeda safe houses that will lead to a new advisory for airport security personnel and other federal and local screeners -- Aaron.

BROWN: Jeanne, thank you.

To Iraq next, the latest on the hunt for Saddam Hussein, Harris Whitbeck is in Tikrit, Harris a headline.

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, the U.S. Army is bringing out its heavy guns as it continues its search for Saddam Hussein and his associates.

BROWN: Harris, thank you.

And on to Liberia next, West African peacekeepers arrived today. Jeff Koinange is in Monrovia on the videophone, Jeff a headline from you tonight.

JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, the phrase never have so few meant so much to so many can be used to describe this day as peacekeepers are finally on the ground in this battle-scarred country giving just a little bit of hope to what was until very recently a seemingly hopeless land -- Aaron.

BROWN: Jeff, thank you, back to you and the rest shortly.

Also coming up on this Monday edition of NEWSNIGHT, Candy Crowley on the presidential candidate who's shaken the democratic establishment to its core, we'll look at the how of Howard Dean. How has he gained so much momentum and how can he keep it?

Then, the baseball hall of fame you've probably never seen, the basement at Cooperstown like any basement has lots of treasures if you look closely enough.

And, the thing you won't see anytime, anywhere, anyplace but right here, probably a good thing too, our look through tomorrow morning's papers tonight, all that and more coming up in the hour ahead.

We begin with a debate that was already contentious. Today it turned ugly. How else can you describe the accusations made against Reverend Gene Robinson? Before today this case was complicated enough for the Episcopal Church, a church that many worry would be deeply damaged by the vote on Robinson no matter how it turned out.

Tonight, people of good conscience who already were grappling with serious theological and moral considerations have to ask themselves one other difficult question. Did Reverend Gene Robinson do it?

Here's CNN's Susan Candiotti.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): It was supposed to be a day of decision for Reverend Gene Robinson, full of optimism Sunday night.

REV. GENE ROBINSON, BISHOP-ELECT: God wants gay and lesbian people to know that he is including them in his embrace as children of God.

CANDIOTTI: But by Monday morning two groups revealed last minute allegations that put Robinson's possible elevation to bishop on hold.

REV. FRANK FRISWOLD, PRESIDING BISHOP: Questions have been raised and brought to my attention regarding the bishop-elect of the diocese of New Hampshire. CANDIOTTI: One allegation is made in an e-mail sent on the eve of the vote to the bishops doing the balloting. It's signed by a man named David Lewis of Vermont. He says he met the priest at a meeting a couple of years ago and reads in part: "He put his hands on my inappropriately every time I engaged him in conversation."

SUSAN RUSSELL, ROBINSON SUPPORTER: I have complete confidence in Gene Robinson and I also have confidence in the process this church has in place.

CANDIOTTI: The committee is also looking into what knowledge, if any, Robinson had of a Web site for an organization that counsels gay and bisexual young people. Robinson co-founded a Concord, New Hampshire chapter of the group. Links on the Web site eventually lead to another Web site that links to a pornographic site.

A spokesman for Reverend Robinson tells CNN he had no knowledge of the chapter's Web site. Robinson's opponents who brought forward the information are asking questions.

REV. DAVID ANDERSON, AMERICAN ANGLICAN COUNCIL: If that's true I'm surprised that he was so proud of that connection in his paperwork that he filed in the bishop's election with New Hampshire and that he spoke so glowingly of the ministry.

CANDIOTTI: A member of the Investigations Committee who supports Robinson says both issues are under review.

REV. HAYS JUNKIN, BISHOP'S INVESTIGATIVE TEAM: These accusations, of course, are very disappointing and we take them very, very seriously and we are investigating them fully and have been fully investigating them practically all day today.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI: There is no time table as to how long it will take to complete this investigation and there has been no direct comment or response from Reverend Gene Robinson, although there is a statement from the leaders of his diocese who are calling for a full and complete investigation. His supporters and those who have spoken with him tonight did tell me that he is tired but upbeat and positive about what is happening -- back to you.

BROWN: All right, one, and I suspect we're going to spend a little time on this tonight, what if anything do we know about the person who sent the e-mail, the person who makes the accusation?

CANDIOTTI: Colleagues of mine already on site in New Hampshire are starting to ask questions and finding out little things about him. For example, we don't know what his full time job is as yet but he does work as a theater critic for a small newspaper in the Manchester area and locals describe him as very outspoken and very argumentative, as they put it in their words, on various local issues. That's all we know for now -- Aaron.

BROWN: OK, we'll just keep working that. Susan, thank you. It's a curve ball that was sent your way.

Alan Cooperman writes about religion for "The Washington Post," a beat that down through the ages has always dealt with politics to one degree or another but starting today in a manner of speaking Mr. Cooperman became a crime reporter of sorts and we are quite pleased to have him with us tonight.

Can you add anything to what we know about the person who sent the e-mail?

ALAN COOPERMAN, "WASHINGTON POST": Well, I can add what the e- mail itself describes which is a single incident that took place the e-mail says, a couple of years ago in a public setting, a church convocation.

Now, he doesn't describe in the e-mail what the inappropriate touching was but it did take place in a public setting and the e-mail also describes, the author describes himself as a straight man -- Aaron.

BROWN: All right, I'm just going to work this a little bit more. Does he say it was sexual in nature?

COOPERMAN: No. He doesn't say it was sexual in nature and what I kept hearing today from deputies and bishops that I was talking to is that this allegation appears on its surface to be rather thin. There's no allegation that the activity was inherently sexual. The person making the allegation called it inappropriate touching.

BROWN: And, just one more thing on this and I want to move to the other one and a couple of other areas if I can. The person who writes the letter, he was an adult at the time of the incident if, in fact, or the alleged incident how's that?

COOPERMAN: Absolutely. He's about 52 years old and he says in the e-mail that he has 25 years of experience with gays in the show business arena.

BROWN: OK, so we're not talking about a child anything here.

COOPERMAN: No, Aaron.

BROWN: What are you hearing in the halls, Alan?

COOPERMAN: Well, in the halls people tell me they're baffled. They're shocked. They're frustrated and, above all, they're suspicious especially they're suspicious of the timing.

Let's go back and review just very quickly how Gene Robinson got here. It was more than a year ago that the current bishop of New Hampshire, Doug Thurner (ph) said he was ready to retire and Episcopalians in New Hampshire began an arduous process of selecting a new bishop.

They set up a search committee. They did a whole series of interviews and ultimately in June of this year they had an election. The election result was controversial from the very beginning. It was written about in newspapers all over the country. It was very public.

Two months have gone by. This week we had a series of public debates about Gene Robinson. We had a public hearing in which he spoke. We had supporters, members of his family, opponents from around the country describe him, talk about their experience with him.

Suddenly, we have a vote in the first house approves him and then, boom, this allegation is lowered. What deputies were saying to me today, again and again, independently making the same analogy, they kept saying I feel like I'm at a wedding and at the point where the priest or the minister says does anyone have due cause, just cause, suddenly someone jumps up and says yes.

BROWN: Do you hear that from people who opposed him as well as people who supported him?

COOPERMAN: Yes, actually I did hear today from people who opposed him who are also upset about the timing of this.

BROWN: And on the question of the pornographic link, which has been a little hard for me to understand his connection to it if, in fact, there is a connection to it, how thin does that seem because to me, sitting here, that one seemed thinner than the other one.

COOPERMAN: Well, certainly his proponents are saying it's very thin indeed and even some of the people who brought it up can see that there's no evidence at this point that Gene Robinson had either anything to do with setting up that Web site or even knew that it had a link to a link that would bring one to pornographic pictures.

Now, anyone who's been on the web knows within a very few links, a couple of clicks of your mouse, you could go from virtually any site on the Web site to virtually any other site, so there was a little bit of a dispute today as to whether it was one link, two links, or three links from the outright site to the pornographic site but by most accounts it was at least two links.

BROWN: Where do they go now? This convention, I think, runs to the end of the week. Is there -- does it seem likely it will be resolved before then?

COOPERMAN: Well, I don't know that. I don't think anybody knows that for sure at the moment. Something very interesting, Aaron, church lawyers say that if this investigation goes on beyond the end of the week it will be such an unprecedented extraordinary circumstance that they don't know what they would do next. They said that the possibilities include having bishops vote by mail in ballots or having a special session of the bishops at some later time.

BROWN: It was a fascinating story before today. It is no less so tonight. Alan thanks, good to have you with us tonight.

COOPERMAN: Thank you, Aaron.

BROWN: Alan Cooperman who writes religion for "The Washington Post," along with Susan Candiotti in Minneapolis tonight. And now, on to other matters, on to the substance behind the recent concerns that al Qaeda is planning new attacks similar to those executed on 9/11. Officials began talking up this story late last week, you'll recall, and late today CNN's Jeanne Meserve learned just what they have to go on and she filed this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE (voice-over): Air travelers can expect stepped up screening of electronic devices. Homeland officials say under the new advisory airport security personnel, federal screeners, and local authorities will be urged to pay particular attention to items like remote key locks and specific brands and models of cell phones, cameras, and boom boxes this after recent raids of al Qaeda safe houses overseas turned up evidence that the group was trying to modify electronic devices to carry weapons or explosives. For instance a camera flash was being modified to convert to or carry a stun gun.

PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: But they obviously have thought very carefully, just as they did with 9/11, about how they could go about hijacking American planes. Obviously that's much harder now than it was on 9/11 but with these modified electronic items clearly they thought through what were the possible holes in American security today.

MESERVE: Officials say the information about weaponized electronics was part of the intelligence that led to a warning last week about possible future hijackings. That advisory cautioned hijackers might exploit two programs that allowed foreign travelers to spend several hours on the ground in the U.S. without a visa. Over the weekend those programs were suspended indefinitely but there is no indication the nation's threat level will rise.

TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: We have specific intelligence that there is a narrow window in commercial aviation, a narrow area where the terrorist might take advantage of that. Basically, the door was opened a little bit and we shut the door.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: Officials say travelers can make their lives a little easier under the new advisory by removing all electronics from their carry-on bags to have them X-rayed separately during screening. One federal official argues tonight that this latest information should make flyers feel more secure not less so because now authorities know specifically what they're looking for -- Aaron.

BROWN: Well, I'll work on feeling more secure while you answer this. Do we know yet, have we been able to see yet how this is impacting airports and the screening process?

MESERVE: The advisory is going to go out tomorrow. It may contain some specifics that we have not been made aware of yet.

I talked to one airport official this evening though who was quite concerned. He said this could not happen at a worse time to airlines. They're going into their peak travel season. In the next two or three weeks he anticipates this could slow a 20-minute line down to 35 or 40 minutes.

One of the problems is that right now the x-ray machines that are used at passenger screening points don't detect explosives. They're looking for metal. They're looking for weapons. They can show you anomalies but it wouldn't necessarily let's say identify a plastic explosive.

So he anticipates there will have to be some more intensive types of screening. Perhaps those items will be swabbed. Perhaps they might have to be taken to a CTX machine for a closer look, or they'll be looked at more carefully manually.

BROWN: Jeanne, thank you very much, Jeanne Meserve in Washington on the security beat tonight.

Palace intrigue now and Colin Powell will he step down if his boss wins a second term? The answer this morning in the papers at least seemed to be yes. The answer tonight is no or maybe or maybe we ought to point out that the only man himself who knows for sure is the secretary, which of course doesn't stop Washington insiders from skipping past the whether he will and going straight to the what if he does?

Here's CNN's Andrea Koppel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The story hit Washington like a summer squall, a front page story in "The Washington Post" reporting Secretary of State Powell and his deputy Richard Armitage would not serve beyond January 21, 2005.

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think you have to love August when there's a news void to fill and there's a lot of the rumor mill going around Washington, D.C.

PHILIP REEKER, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: They're just baseless speculation, gossip, and rumor.

KOPPEL: In separate radio interviews, Armitage and Powell both dismissed the report out of hand.

RICHARD ARMITAGE, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE: I've got an eight letter word that describes it I think a little more accurately.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it is?

ARMITAGE: Well, nonsense of course.

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: The story has no substance and the so-called conversation that took place between my deputy Mr. Armitage and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice did not take place. KOPPEL: But a Powell aide told CNN Armitage did have a recent joking exchange with Ms. Rice and told her if she does move to the State Department, should President Bush win reelection, "don't expect any of us to be here."

Recent polls have found Powell even more popular than the president and other powerful members of the Bush cabinet but political analysts say even if Powell doesn't sign on to a second term that won't affect the president's shot at winning reelection.

STEPHEN HESS, THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: The president is going to be elected or not elected on his record in office.

KOPPEL (on camera): As for Powell's record, the administration's top diplomat has lost more battles than he's won perhaps one reason the story struck a nerve here at the State Department. As one Powell aide explained with 17 months remaining in this administration Powell has a lot less he'd like to accomplish and doesn't want to become a lame duck.

Andrew Koppel CNN, at the State Department.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And on the program tonight some of the day's other top stories from around the world, the latest from Liberia as the first peacekeepers hit the ground there.

This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Part of the news from Iraq. You can't say the U.S. military isn't going all out in the hunt for Saddam Hussein. The military conducted 17 raids in northern Iraq to prevent Saddam from reaching friends, money, or safe houses in the area in the last day or so.

Harris Whitbeck is in Tikrit. He joins us now with more on the search for Saddam, Harris good evening.

WHITBECK: Good evening, Aaron.

The U.S. Army's 4th ID continues its operations in the Tikrit area, Tikrit being Saddam Hussein's hometown. One of the raids that we were on just a little bit under 24 hours ago was rather massive compared to the ones that we've seen since we've been here.

An area a little less than one square mile was targeted. More than 300 infantrymen went and fanned out searching farmhouses. They were supported by Bradley fighting vehicles, by Apache attack helicopters, and by fighter jets from the U.S. Air Force.

They were looking for mid-level associates, including one top lieutenant of Saddam Hussein. They had received information that they might be meeting at one of the houses there. Now, the colonel in charge of that operation told us that they are using this heavy armament because they feel that as they get closer to the inner core of Saddam Hussein's associates they feel that these individuals might try to defend themselves as the U.S. troops close in so the U.S. troops want to be prepared to go in and fight as much as they have to.

Again, commanders on the ground feel that as they get closer to these men, these men are getting more desperate. They also feel that they are also getting closer to more information that might actually lead them to Saddam Hussein -- Aaron.

BROWN: In the operation that we just looked at did they find anything or anyone?

WHITBECK: They did not find the individual, the high -- it wasn't a high value target but the higher value target that they were looking for on that occasion but they did find documents and photographs that they feel will help the folks in the counterintelligence units plan more raids and look for more people as the days go by and this is really becoming an operation that is supported by intelligence that comes from previous raids and also from tips coming in from local informants.

BROWN: Harris, thank you, Harris Whitbeck who is in Tikrit tonight.

The first group of West African peacekeepers has arrived in Liberia. They got there today. Before they begin doing what they need to do they need to convince Liberians to stop slowing them down, mobbing them with cheers and tears and celebrations.

It's a testament to their despair that Liberians are greeting the peacekeepers not just as heroes but as saviors and some Liberians insist this is the beginning of the end. One welcome sign today said simple "Peace at Last."

But considering the years of fighting, the blood spilled, the lives lost, skeptics aren't betting on peace just yet. Reporting for us tonight here's CNN's Jeff Koinange.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOINANGE (voice-over): A sight many here never thought they'd live to see the arrival of long-awaited peacekeepers. Arriving in heavy rain showers these are Nigerian soldiers, veterans of numerous African civil wars who will serve as the corps of what's called in diplomatic speak Ecomil.

And, they wasted no time getting acquainted with their new terrain, quickly forming a tight perimeter around the airport. A few hundred Liberians, already accustomed to tough times, ignored the weather and instead turned the occasion into one of instant celebration.

For now the most serious threat faced by the Nigerians seem to be the overly enthusiastic Liberians. Liberian government officials seem just as glad to finally have peacekeepers on the ground.

DANIEL CHEA, LIBERIAN DEFENSE MINISTER: And we'll do everything as a government to support their endeavor.

KOINANGE (on camera): Only 300 peacekeepers to begin with but many more hundred in the coming days as the Ecomil peacekeeping mission officially gets underway in an effort to bring lasting peace to this war-ravaged nation.

(voice-over): These displaced Liberians are just a fraction of the tens of thousands who fled their homes. Many now say they feel hope. After what seemed like endless suffering and misery another sign of hope much needed food arriving on the heels of the peacekeepers. Late in the afternoon the rain gave way to some much needed sunshine for Liberians a sign this country may be on the road to recovery.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOINANGE: And, Aaron, these peacekeepers no doubt have their work cut out for them. On the one hand they'll have to try and secure the capital Monrovia and make sure that the guns are finally silent on the other, securing both the free port of Monrovia and the second port city of Buchanan, both under rebel control so that they could provide a corridor for much needed food aide, much needed humanitarian relief for Liberia's suffering masses.

And, one more thing, Aaron, remember those U.S. naval ships anchored 50 kilometers off the coast of Liberia? Well, they're slowly making their way forward up to about five, six miles just to show an imposing U.S. presence and also just to await if and when the call comes to deploy -- Aaron.

BROWN: Jeff, thank you very much, Jeff Koinange who is in Monrovia in Liberia.

A few more items from around the world tonight starting with the war on terrorism; a Saudi official telling CNN that the FBI has paid another call on Omar al-Bayoumi, he's the man you might recall who helped a pair of 9/11 hijackers get settled in the United States.

His name, we are told, comes up in those 28 classified pages on the congressional report on 9/11. A number of sources saying he might have been working for Saudi intelligence at the time, a notion Saudi Arabia's foreign minister calls baseless.

South Korea next and the suicide of a top executive at Hyundai, he jumped from the 12th floor of the company's headquarters. At the time of his death he was embroiled in a major bribery scandal involving secret government payments to North Korea.

And, in Europe the heat wave has turned into a firestorm in places. Forest fires have taken at least nine lives in Portugal firefighters dealing with 72 fires in a country that's about one-third forest. Across the border in Spain, flames have forced hundreds of people to evacuate their homes. Switzerland is under a no campfire order tonight. In fire or not the heat is killing dozens across the continent, tough summer in Europe.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, the latest twists and turns and there are a lot of them in the California recall story as Governor Gray Davis goes to court to have his name on the ballot as a candidate.

From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: There are some things we know for certain about the political battle in California to recall Governor Gray Davis. We know it will be a huge story. California is a huge state. To turn a phrase it's about the size of Iraq.

We know that it will get ugly. What political contest these days doesn't? And, we know the stakes are high for both parties, we know that, and we also know there's a whole lot we don't know; reporting for us tonight CNN's Jeff Greenfield.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST (voice-over): Here's California Governor Gray Davis last November celebrating his narrow reelection victory which gave him four more years we thought.

And, here's Governor Gray Davis just a few days ago trying to keep his job. The signatures of one and a half million registered voters in California have forced Davis into a recall election. That's something that no governor anywhere in the United States has had to face in more than 80 years.

(on camera): And that may account for the fact that with every passing day the political terrain in California looks more and more like the coastline in the grip of a killer fog. What do we know? It's much easier to tell you what we don't know like when will the election take place and who's running?

(voice-over): We thought we knew that the recall election would take place October 7. At least, that's what the lieutenant governor announced. But a number of legal challenges threaten to change that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have just filed a lawsuit on behalf of the governor.

GREENFIELD: Today, lawyers for the governor went to the state Supreme Court asking that the election be delayed. An October vote, they argued, would force some counties to use the unreliable punch- card process. That, they said, would threaten the vote count. The precedent the lawyers for Democrat Davis cited?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is the swinging-door chad.

GREENFIELD: Bush vs. Gore, the Supreme Court decision that effectively ended the 2000 presidential election. We thought we knew that Davis can't run to succeed himself. The state's constitution provides that, if voters dump the governor, they immediately vote on his successor, and he can't be in that fight.

Davis' lawyers want that rule thrown out. We do know some of the candidates who will be running to succeed Davis. Republican Congressman Darrell Issa, who bankrolled the recall, is likely in. Bill Simon, who lost to Davis last November, is probably in as well. But actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who runs ahead of all of the Republicans in public opinion polls, is waiting until Wednesday to announce his decision. He will do it on "The Tonight Show."

That has most Californians thinking that, since that is not the best way for an entertainer to convince voters that he's a policy wonk kind of guy, Schwarzenegger is probably saying no. And that leaves the door open for former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, a fellow moderate Republican. We thought we knew that no Democrat would enter the race. That's what Democratic National Chair Terry McAuliffe proclaimed recently.

TERRY MCAULIFFE, DNC CHAIRMAN: There will be no Democrat on this ballot.

GREENFIELD: But, over the last several days, a growing number of Democratic voices have said: Hold it. If Davis loses, we have to have a Democrat on the ballot to replace him. Their favorite, Senator Dianne Feinstein, who has left the door open just a bit to just such a possibility.

REP. CALVIN DOOLEY (D), CALIFORNIA: Senator Feinstein has the stature, has the record, has the ability to provide the strong leadership that this state of California needs.

REP. LORETTA SANCHEZ (D), CALIFORNIA: She is the 800-pound gorilla in the room. She'll walk away with it, if we say, remove Gray.

GREENFIELD: Today, state Senate President John Burton, one of the most powerful Democrats in the state, met with Democratic senators to plot strategy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GREENFIELD: And, Aaron, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer says, on Friday, she'll let the people of California know whether she thinks another Democrat should enter the race.

If Democrats are nervous, here's one reason why. A California Teachers Association poll show, if the election were held now, Davis would lose by some 15 points.

BROWN: How split are the Democrats, not just on whether to enter the race, but on everything here?

GREENFIELD: You know the old saying of Will Rogers: "I am a member of no organized party. I'm a Democrat"? The people around Davis clearly are after a slash-and-burn campaign. They want to paint the recall as a right-wing bunch of people who couldn't get elected anyway. There are many other Democrats who want to fight the recall, but want to fight it on the grounds that this isn't the way to do it. We elected the governor. Let's stand by him. That's a big split.

And the real split, of course, is, they've got until Saturday, we think, to file. Do the Democrats hold back? That's better for Davis, maybe worse for Democrats. If one Democrat gets in the race like Feinstein, they'll keep the governor's mansion. Probably, it kills Davis.

BROWN: But the theory, at least the Davis camp theory -- tell me if I'm right -- is, if a credible Democrat enters the race, he's toast?

GREENFIELD: Yes, that's the theory.

BROWN: So his best chance to survive is that, in a predominantly Democratic state, he's the only Democratic option?

GREENFIELD: Yes. But he's running approval ratings in the low 20s. And that's why the other Democrats are saying, this is a chance we can't take. It's better for you, Governor Davis. But Willie Brown, who opposes the recall, when asked, what's Davis' problem, basically said, nobody likes him.

(LAUGHTER)

BROWN: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: Well, with friends like that -- other than the senator, what other Democrats might get in?

GREENFIELD: Well, Congresswoman Sanchez says she might get in. There's talk about Leon Panetta, former White House chief of staff, former congressman, as a caretaker governor. And as we get closer to Saturday, you know the song, "All the Girls Look Prettier at Closing Time?" A whole lot of Democrats are going to think a whole lot of other Democrats look a lot better, because Saturday, unless the courts tell us otherwise, is the filing deadline for this.

BROWN: Thank you, Jeff. It's going to be just -- it's going to be a great story, however it plays out.

GREENFIELD: I hate to be that personally self-involved, but yes.

BROWN: It's going to be a great story.

GREENFIELD: Yes.

BROWN: Thank you. Political tremors back East as well, no small thing, this. Ernest Hollings, senior senator from South Carolina, said today he will not seek an eighth term next year. Senator Hollings is 81, a Democrat, called it high time someone else took the job. And for the first time in a long time, that someone stands a good chance of being a Republican elected outside of South Carolina -- out of South Carolina.

An ad agency executive had this to say about companies paying Laker Kobe Bryant to pitch their products. Time for plan B. Today, an Italian food maker announced it's dropping Mr. Bryant for a spokesman for its chocolate hazelnut concoction, Nutella, the spokesman saying this had been in the works for quite some time, long before the rape allegations came to light.

And, yes, J.Lo was right this time. It is turkey time. "Gigli" opened this weekend to the sound of rotten vegetables whizzing at the screen. OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration, because it takes people to throw rotten vegetables at the screen. The film made just about $3.8 million over the weekend, about one-tenth of what the top- grossing picture,"American Wedding," not exactly "Gone With the Wind" in its own right, took in.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT: He's got the early buzz, but can Howard Dean make it last until it really matters? Candy Crowley on the Dean phenomenon after the break.

Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Howard Dean is the it candidate of the moment. Who knows how long the moment lasts. There is always an it candidate. John McCain was one two years ago. Ross Perot had his moment of it-ism. Go even farther back, there was John Anderson. He was very it. The other its, of course, all lost. No President McCain, Perot or Anderson. So being the it candidate this early doesn't guarantee a thing, except for this. It's a whole lot better being the it candidate than the non-it candidate. And right now, the Democrats have a fair number of those.

Here's CNN's Candy Crowley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): George Bush, the first one, called it big mo, momentum. Howard Dean has big mo.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got my parents into him. They just donated to him. And now he's getting more press, people are going, oh, yes, this Dean guy, I actually kind of like him.

CROWLEY: Actually, Howard Dean has the only mo, cover boy on two national magazines this week, first-page story in another, first or second name in Iowa and New Hampshire polls. He is the moving object in a field that has been otherwise stagnant for months.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Howard. How are you? How are you doing?

HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Very well.

CROWLEY: The '04 race began with a decorated veteran, a fresh face with a Clintonesque touch, the former No. 2 on the Democratic ticket, an old hand, and an obscure governor from a small state.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that he created a whole buzz, especially with the war in Iraq, got people interested in politics that hadn't been thinking about politics in a really long time.

CROWLEY: With anti-war, anti-Bush rhetoric, Dean worked the church basements of Iowa, the restaurant of New Hampshire, tapping into a mother lode of anger at the base of the Democratic Party, anger at the Republican president for his war and his tax cuts, anger at the Democrats who let him have both. Now, nine presidential candidates pretty much court for the angry vote.

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D-CT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I share the anger of my fellow Democrats with George Bush and the wrong direction he has taken our nation. But the answer to his outdated, extremist ideology is not to be found in outdated extremes of our own.

CROWLEY: Translation: The darling of left-of-center Democrats will get creamed in a general election, where moderates and swing voters make the difference. As it happens, that's exactly how a happy White House views the Democrats' current it candidate. Dean neatly dismisses his bipartisan critics with his own brand of, bring it on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, AD)

DEAN: And has anybody really stood up against George Bush and his policies? Don't you think it's time somebody did?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CROWLEY: Primaries? What primaries? This ad began running in Texas, just as the president began his Crawford ranch vacation.

The only thing that stands between Howard Dean and the Democratic nomination are six long, unpredictable months, and eight other candidates who know a thing or two about the blood sport of politics. So don't count Howard Dean in just yet.

CROWD: We want Dean! We want Dean!

CROWLEY: And definitely don't count him out.

Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: More on the Dean momentum, what it means for the other Democratic candidates. Peter Beinart joins us. He's with "The New Republic." He's in Washington tonight.

Peter, good to see you.

What does your instinct tell you? Does Howard Dean have legs in this?

PETER BEINART, "THE NEW REPUBLIC": Yes, I think he does.

For one thing, there's a hunger in American politics for authenticity. That transcends ideology. There are people who are so upset about politics that anyone who seems to say what he thinks has an advantage. And Dean does. Secondly, in a Washington-centered field, a governor has advantages, because Washington-centered politicians who are in Congress are always going to be seen as having made compromises and maybe not looking like leaders, in the way governors have -- governors can do. And those two things give Dean a big structural advantage.

BROWN: When you look at his record, his record as governor, he was governor a lot of times in Vermont. Is he as liberal as the war issue perhaps makes him seem?

BEINART: No.

He's actually -- on fiscal issues, in many ways, he's to the right of the field. He's more committed to a balanced budget than someone like Richard Gephardt, for instance. His health care plan is actually considerably smaller than Gephardt's. He's a real fiscal conservative.

In some ways, he reminds me a little bit of Paul Tsongas, that kind of Yankee, kind of flinty or Michael Dukakis tradition. It's on national security where his persona has become that of the candidate further left. And I think that's where he's vulnerable.

BROWN: Right. And there is this perception -- and talk to enough strategists and you come to believe it's real -- I do -- that the soccer mom, to some extent, has been replaced by the security mom and that security is going to be a huge issue. And that is a huge problem for Mr. Dean, Governor Dean, they believe.

BEINART: Yes. That's right.

People point to the fact that George W. Bush and Bill Clinton came into office as governors with no national security experience. But that was in an era where foreign policy and national security weren't preeminent, like they are now. And Dean, in a way, has exacerbated his problem, as someone who didn't work on national security, not only with his opposition to the war, but with a series of comments that seemed a bit flip, and now in association with the left of the Democratic Party, which doesn't seem to take the national security issue seriously. It's going to take him a lot, I think, to make up for that.

BROWN: A couple of other things. Do you think that the -- Karl Rove in the White House is just sort of chomping at the bit to get at Howard Dean, that he is their George McGovern, the candidate they would really like most to run against?

BEINART: Yes, I certainly think they think that. There's no question about it, because they think that Dean is completely out of touch with the South. And I think there is actually some reason to believe that he doesn't have the instinct for how you would win some of the states that Al Gore lost. So, yes, they think that he can be marginalized to a few states on the West Coast and the Northeast.

BROWN: He has an interesting message in the South, I think. He goes there and basically says, you all have been voting Republican for 30 years and look at it. Your schools are still not very good. You still have all the problems that you had all along. Maybe it's time to rethink this.

BEINART: Yes, that's right.

But, as either the "TIME" or "Newsweek" article pointed out, that can sound a little bit patronizing. And what Bill Clinton understood, I think, was, he had a way, a cultural way, of toning down some of the things that sound shrill south of the Mason-Dixon Line on cultural issues. Dean, even though he is actually not a big supporter of gun control, I'm not sure he'll be able to appeal culturally in the way that Democrats need to if they are going to win in Southern states.

BROWN: Well, all right since we've wandered off on that road, which of the Democrats can, then?

BEINART: Well, I think either -- probably the two with the best shot would be Edwards, because he obviously is a Southerner and was hawkish on the war, and Lieberman, because he's more religious. He feels comfortable with the language of faith. And I think -- so those would probably be the two with the best chance, I think.

BROWN: And where does this all leave John Kerry, then?

BEINART: Well, in an interesting place. The problem is that Kerry's base is, in some ways, the same as Dean's base. It tends to be on the left end of the party, amongst more highly educated, white voters. And the concern is that it's hard -- many people think it will be hard for this to come down to a Dean-Kerry race, because they have such similar bases and because they both need to win New Hampshire, in a sense.

So the fear for Kerry is, say he finishes behind Dean in Iowa, loses New Hampshire, then he could be out of the race and someone else emerges as the anti-Dean candidate.

BROWN: Peter, good to have you with us. Nice to see you again. Thank you.

BEINART: Nice to be back.

BROWN: Thank you, Peter Beinart of "The New Republic."

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT: the boys of summer and the stuff they left behind, a tour of the real treasures at the Baseball Hall of Fame. We take a break, first. From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Sometimes, we run across a story we just like. It isn't the lead story. It often lacks a hook, a specific reason to run it. And this is one of those.

Ted Spencer is a historian of sorts and a curator of a great and valuable collection. It includes old costumes, tools that look ancient compared to today. Some of it is very fragile. And all of it, every single piece of it, has to do with baseball. Mr. Spencer works at Baseball's Hall of Fame.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED SPENCER, BASEBALL HALL OF FAME: So we're headed down below ground. Everything is protected by state-of-the-art security. Nobody is allowed down here without escort.

It was found in Boston by the power company. They were down about 40 feet. And down 40 feet, they found this bat. The neat thing about this bat, that it was found probably 200 yards from home plate, where the first World Series game was played. This is Russ Hodges', the announcer's, scorecard from the 1951 famous Bobby Thomson National League playoff game, which he hit the famous home run. Hodges got so excited that he never filled in Thomson's home run.

And this is a baseball signed by Pope John Paul II and given to Sparky Anderson. And this is one of our most storied items. And that is -- "This is the Gillette razor blade used by Cy Young at my home on the morning of September 9, 1953."

The reason everything is not on display is because there's just not enough room. It's not good from them to be out in the light. We have a lot of things in the collection that don't need to be out. But they have historical significance.

One of the best stories to be able to tell is that of World War II. This is Phil Rizzuto Navy jumper. This is the bottle used to christen the S.S. Lou Gehrig. This is a Japanese baseball that was sent to us by a Marine battalion upon the surrender of the Japanese. This is a pocket edition Major League Baseball game that were given to troops. They could carry it in their knapsacks. And if you look on it, you'll see it says, buy war bonds, save for victory, and things like that.

This happens to be a Hall of Famer Rube Waddell's shillelagh. This wonderful stuff is Lou Gehrig's tea set. This is a waitress uniform from the Metropolitan Stadium in Minneapolis. We're going to go right in here to the central archive. The Department of the Interior for the Cincinnati Reds to play an exhibition game an Indian baseball team in 1904.

So you never know, when you pick up one of these things, what you're going to find. I want to be able to find one -- so beat up -- I want to find one from the right period. Here we go. "The New York Clipper," this is a newspaper from New York City. And this particular volume is from the last year of the Civil War. You have the 14th and 9th regiments out of New York playing ball during the height of the Civil War. They actually played two games.

Let's go down to the photography department now. I think it's about 40 degrees in here, maybe a little warmer. Ruth's files go from here to here. Just to follow along with Lou Gehrig. This is he and Gehrig fishing. Great shot, huh? They complain about these guys wearing their hats backwards. Al Naples. Al Naples played two games in the Major Leagues. He got up seven times and got one hit. And he played for the St. Louis Browns. Everybody counts here.

We're providing a service for the country, for the culture, by preserving and storing and making available an important part of American history, a very, very important part of American history.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Morning papers after the break.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(ROOSTER CROWING)

BROWN: I've decided this week, I'm just going to love the rooster. And maybe that will help.

Okeydokey, time to check the morning papers from around the country, perhaps around the world. We'll see how it goes in the next couple of minutes.

It's August, OK? I'm just telling you right now, it's August. And if you're in the news business, that's not necessarily good news. "The New York Times," though, has a full front page. They managed to fill it all up just for you and certainly for those of us in New York. They play the episcopal bishop story in the center of the front page -- sexual allegations -- accusations, rather -- why do you take your glasses off if you still can't read it? -- delay vote on Episcopalian gay bishop in the center of the front page.

But a fascinating story up top here: "New York Pursues Old Cases of Rape Based Just on DNA, Indicting With No Name." I'd read that. And down in the corner, by the way, did you read this? This is kind of sad. Everybody's got strong feelings about Mike Tyson, but it appears he squandered about $300 million, Tyson's bankruptcy a lesson in ways to squander a fortune. I'd like to try.

"Chicago Sun-Times," "Governor to Judges." This is a good local story. "Tighten Your Belt, Drop Your Suit." It's also a great headline, isn't it? Judges are suing to try and get a pay raise. The governor is none too happy. It's going to be whiz-bang in Chicago tomorrow, if you're in the area. "The Oregonian," kind of a soft news day in Portland, it seems to me. They put Liberia on the top of the front page. And then a really cool story. This is why a slow news day can sometimes be cool. "In Two Worlds, Marty Jennings (ph), a Superb Violinist, Crippled by Heroin, Moved Between the Symphonic Stage and the Portland's Greediest Streets." I would read that story. I would want to know more about that. I have never heard of Mr. Jennings, so that would be kind of cool. Actually, I know another Mr. Jennings, but I don't want to talk about that.

"The Washington Times" -- how we doing on time?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thirty seconds.

BROWN: Oh, music to my ears.

"The Washington Times." "Lieberman Calls Dean a Ticket to Nowhere: Sees Center as the Way to the White House." "The Washington Times."

"Detroit Free Press." It's got to have one right? "Ford to Ground its Lincoln Aviator in '05." It doesn't make you want to rush out and buy one in '04, does it? That's "The Detroit Free Press."

Why don't we quit while we're ahead? That's morning papers tonight. That's the program. We're back here tomorrow at 10:00 Eastern time. Come join us.

Until then, good night for all of us at NEWSNIGHT.

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