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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Bush Goes on Offensive; Nader Announces Presidential Run; U.S. Marines Land in Haiti

Aired February 23, 2004 - 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.


JUDY WOODRUFF, GUEST HOST: And good evening to everybody once again.
The election year has a decidedly different feel tonight. After months of focusing on an ever shrinking field of Democrats, there are two new factors today and neither spells good news for whoever winds up as the nominee of that party.

Factor one, President Bush and that's where we begin the whip tonight. John King, our Senior White House Correspondent, starts us off with a headline -- John.

JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Judy, the president delivered his most aggressive, most partisan speech of the campaign year tonight. As for the Democratic front-runner, John Kerry, the president didn't mention him by name but said a certain Massachusetts senator wants to have it both ways on taxes, both ways on trade and both ways on the war in Iraq -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: All right, John.

And on to a spoiler last time and a wild card this time, although he would probably disagree with the first part. Ralph Nader got into the running. We'll talk with him, first, a headline from CNN's Candy Crowley.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Edwards and Kerry agree, Bush engaged great, Nader in not so great.

WOODRUFF: All right and we'll be back to Candy too.

Next to Haiti, the fighting and efforts to stop it, CNN's Lucia Newman on the videophone for us, Lucia a headline from you.

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Judy, U.S. Marines land in Haiti, not to support the besieged president but rather to give protection to the U.S. Embassy here.

WOODRUFF: All right and Lucia we'll be back to you as well.

Finally to California, 100 days into the Schwarzenegger administration, CNN's Frank Buckley with the story and a headline -- Frank.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Judy, Arnold Schwarzenegger was an action star before he became the governor. His staffers now say that his mantra is action, action, action, stupid. Is the governor delivering? We'll be taking a look in later in the program -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: Okay, Frank, and we'll be talking to you as well.

Also coming up tonight on the program, my interview with Ralph Nader, is he a spoiler and, if so, for whom?

And in Segment 7 tonight, eating through New Orleans, not the Creole food, the Creole restaurants and everything else for that matter the battle against the Formosan termite, all that to come in the hour ahead.

But we begin tonight with the president, who not so long ago said the time for politics had yet to arrive but that was before a Democratic front-runner emerged, before the White House was seen by some as struggling with its message on the economy.

It was before Mr. Bush's approval numbers began slipping below 50 percent. In other words, that was then. This is now, time for a tougher message and plenty of money to tell it.

Here again, CNN's John King.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KING (voice-over): The new phase of the Bush campaign included the president's first direct assault on the Democratic front-runner.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For tax cuts and against them, for NAFTA and against NAFTA, for the Patriot Act and against the Patriot Act, in favor of liberating Iraq and opposed to it and that's just one Senator from Massachusetts.

KING: His rhetoric was sharper and more partisan as the president tested a new stump speech on a supportive Republican crowd. Mr. Bush says Democrats would hurt the economy by raising taxes and undermine national security by giving the United Nations too much influence over decisions to go to war.

BUSH: We must never outsource America's national security decisions to the leaders of other governments.

KING: The election is more than eight months away and the president and his campaign team wanted to wait a bit longer before turning more aggressive, at least until the Democratic candidate is clear.

But Iraq's political transition is in doubt, the economy is not generating jobs as fast as the White House would like, the president's poll numbers are in decline and some Republicans are getting nervous.

SCOTT REED, GOP STRATEGIST: Republicans across the country, especially the grassroots, feel now is time to slug back a little. Let's get the president back on the offense, talk about his message and get the Republican grassroots excited again about this campaign.

KING: The new speech is just the beginning. Next Tuesday's primaries could settle the Democratic race and the president will launch his first TV ads two days later.

The Bush-Cheney campaign is delivering daily critiques of Democratic front-runner John Kerry's Senate voting record and Republican governors are among the Bush surrogates being asked to campaign more aggressively.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: Not all of tonight's speech was aimed at the Democrats. Some Republicans have quietly questioned whether the vice president is suddenly a liability on the GOP ticket. For them the president said this. "They don't come any better and I am proud to have Dick Cheney by my side" -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: John, does the White House see any downside at all to the president coming out slugging so early in the year? After all it is only February and even though his poll numbers have been slipping this is -- we've got a long way to go until the election.

KING: They do see a downside and the president alluded to it himself during a meeting with a bipartisan group of governors here at the White House earlier today. The president said he knew this was the year of sharp elbows and sharp tongues.

The president does want to get some things done this year and now that he is much more aggressive on the campaign trail, he will be even more viewed through a political scope, if you will.

Anything the president does this year, of course, was going to be viewed politically but the more he engages in opposing the Democrats and fighting day to day with the Democrats the more everything he does will be viewed politically and makes it harder to get anything accomplished.

WOODRUFF: We noticed that he urged the governors to stay above politics.

KING: Yes, the governors. I don't know that anyone in the country is going to stay above politics this year when it comes to elected officials anyway, Judy. The president, it's a tough job being an incumbent president in an election year, any president, Democrat or Republican, and look the White House was getting urgent appeals from Republicans across the country to get more aggressive, start spending money and tonight is a key turning point.

WOODRUFF: OK, John King there to record it. We appreciate it.

President Bush's shift in strategy is not the only twist on the election trail. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader has gone ahead and done what many Democrats had dreaded announcing yesterday that he will run as an independent. For Democratic front-runner John Kerry and his closest rival John Edwards, two more issues to address on the stump. Here's CNN's Candy Crowley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY (voice-over): Earlier than most expected, the president is stepping up his campaign. Make of that what you will.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think George Bush is on the run and I think he's on the run because he doesn't have a record to run on.

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Unless he's improved the security that this administration is providing for the American people here at home, I can't imagine he's got all that much to say tonight.

CROWLEY: In a day of harmony, John Edwards and John Kerry were separately delighted to have George Bush in their line of sight but none too pleased to see this man.

RALPH NADER (I), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Relax, rejoice that you have another front carrying the ancient but unfulfilled pretensions and aspirations of the Democratic Party.

CROWLEY: Which is to say that Ralph Nader whom some Democrats blame for taking away critical votes from Al Gore, is running for president again. Some top Democrats call Nader an opportunist, a spoiler and that was in public. No such freedom of speech on the campaign trail where the Senators John merely suggested Ralph's run is redundant.

EDWARDS: I believe that it is important for the Democrats to have somebody at the top of the ticket who is appealing to the people who voted for Nader last time. I think that candidate is me.

KERRY: I think my candidacy will speak to and appeal to many of the people who were attracted in the year 2000 to Ralph Nader.

CROWLEY: Mostly these days, Edwards and Kerry ignore each other, partly because Kerry wants to seem like but never say that his nomination is a done deal and he is in stage two.

KERRY: I'd never put my arm around a firefighter here in New York City after 9/11 and promise help and then not give it.

CROWLEY: The Kerry-Edwards no contact contest is also the natural result of Edwards' speak-no-evil campaign. Still, Edwards can't help but make the point, re: the Kerry-Bush rehash of Vietnam.

EDWARDS: This campaign and this election is not about George Bush's past, John Kerry's past or John Edwards' past. This is about the future of the American people.

CROWLEY (on camera): Edwards' warm and fuzzy campaign has made him a hit among many voters. Still even aides concede all that sunshine has made it difficult to rain on John Kerry's front-running parade.

Candy Crowley CNN, Columbus, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: Later in the program we'll hear from Mr. Nader himself about why he did what so many had begged him not to do.

Well, Mr. Nader himself has said that it will be difficult to collect enough signatures to get himself on the ballot in all 50 states but safe to say a lot of Democrats are worried and angry tonight about the potential Nader effect and then there's the new offense from the White House, plenty to hash over tonight.

Joining us in Sacramento is Mindy Tucker, former press secretary for the Bush-Cheney 2000 presidential campaign and in New York Katrina Vanden Heuvel. She's editor of "The Nation" magazine, which last month urged Mr. Nader not to run. We're glad that both of you are with us.

Katrina Vanden Heuvel to you first, Ralph Nader, is this clearly a negative for whoever the Democratic nominee is?

KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL, "THE NATION": Ralph Nader is public citizen number one and he has many issues that should be part of the Democratic candidate's portfolio speaking to the over waning corporate power in this country, speaking to living wage, speaking to universal health insurance but as a citizen, not as a candidate.

The overwhelming mass of progressive Democratic voters this year understand this is not 2000 that the stakes are too high in 2004 with the most extremist administration in our lifetime in this White House.

So, we had hoped Ralph Nader would speak as the great American he is to the issues we care about but not as a candidate. He may well do very poorly and the danger is that those issues will do poorly with him.

WOODRUFF: Mindy Tucker, I talked to Ralph Nader today. He says that he is going to be taking votes away from President Bush as well. He said people are going to vote for him who are disappointed in the president. He said he think he'll persuade some Republicans just to sit home.

MINDY TUCKER, FORMER BUSH SPOKESWOMAN: I don't think that's true. I think if anything he causes a rift in the Democrat Party. They would love to come out of this primary showing unity behind one candidate but they've got this little crack that just emerged today and I think it shows there is still a liberal wing of the Democrat Party that's not entirely happy with what's going on at the top of their ticket right now.

VANDEN HEUVEL: But, if you look at the issues that John Edwards and John Kerry are speaking to, what's important for the Democratic Party to do is steal Nader's issues and speak as progressive populists. That was the mistake in 2000 and I think that Kerry and Edwards have already learned that they need to speak about fair trade, about corporate power, about two Americas, about poverty in this country. Those will be winning issues and I think if they do that they will marginalize Ralph Nader.

WOODRUFF: All right. Mindy, I want to turn to President Bush now. Any doubt I in your mind now that this president is keeping Dick Cheney on the ticket? He had something nice to say about him in a speech tonight.

TUCKER: There's never been any doubt in my mind. I think the president said over a year ago that he's going to be on the ticket with him and he believes what he said when he nominated or when he asked Dick Cheney to be his vice president that if something were to happen to President Bush, he would be an excellent president.

That's the one thing he looks at in a vice president and I'm glad and I know a lot of Americans are glad that he's keeping him on the ticket. I think it's important to have that kind of strength and that kind of stature and experience between the president and the vice president at the top of our ticket.

WOODRUFF: Katrina, let me read to you something else the president said tonight in this speech to the Republican governors. He said the choice in this election is clear. He said between an America that leads the world with strength and confidence or an America that is uncertain in the face of danger, clearly a reference to what he says would happen if the Democrats were to win in November.

VANDEN HEUVEL: This administration has misled a nation into war. Think of the 500 or more men and women who have been killed because of that -- the way this administration has misled us into war. And I think that this administration had undermined America's security not strengthened. It is a mess in Iraq. Our military is stretched thin. The National Guard is strained.

When you look at Dick Cheney you understand the stakes in this election. A preemptive war doctrine that undermines security, an administration that is gutting our nation for the sake of tax cuts for the rich.

I come back to Ralph Nader, I'm sorry. I cannot give, as he did, a B-plus to the Democrats and a D-minus to the Republicans. This is the most extremist reactionary government and Dick Cheney represents the fact that we have a big corporation masquerading as an administration.

WOODRUFF: Mindy Tucker, the president clearly trying to paint the Democrats as the party that would make it unsafe to be living in this country.

TUCKER: He doesn't have to try to paint it. All you have to do is look at the record of the man that right now is the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination.

This is a guy who says he's for the war and then says he's against the war, says he's for an increase in strong national defense but has a record of voting against it. In fact, he voted against increasing intelligence funding after the first World Trade Center bombing.

This is not somebody who you can believe what he says because he doesn't act upon what he says and this is not somebody who I frankly want sitting in that chair when America's security is on the line.

WOODRUFF: Katrina Vanden Heuvel.

VANDEN HEUVEL: This is an administration, Mindy, that has lost the trust of over one-third of the American people because their sons and daughters are dying because this administration hyped the intelligence and is now stonewalling the investigation that Americans are due that it is an insult to this country.

We haven't had a fair 9/11 investigation or now do not have a fair investigation into what led us to declare there was an imminent threat from the government of Iraq. Finally, this administration is gutting the money that should go to first responders that should go to homeland security for tax cuts for the rich.

WOODRUFF: All right.

TUCKER: You know it's just not accurate what you said and I can say personally my husband is over there and I know there are a lot of people in America who believe we're there for the exact right reasons. They know why we're there and they're going to finish the job they were sent there to do by a commander-in-chief who knows how to protect our country.

WOODRUFF: We're going to have to leave it there. Mindy Tucker, Katrina Vanden Heuvel, it's good to see you both.

VANDEN HEUVEL: Thank you.

WOODRUFF: We appreciate it. Thank you for being on NEWSNIGHT.

Also coming up tonight on the program American Marines arrive in Haiti but will both sides accept a peace plan in time to avoid more bloodshed?

And later a tasting of New Orleans, the battle to save the city from the voracious Formosan termite.

From Washington this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOODRUFF: In Haiti tonight, chaos appears to be growing and diplomacy dying on the vine. Opposition leaders have backed away from a U.S. supported plan that calls for sharing power with Haiti's president. American officials say they will extend the deadline until tomorrow. By then, however, rebel forces could make the whole thing moot and a small number of American forces could have their hands pretty full.

Here again CNN's Lucia Newman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NEWMAN (voice-over): The Marines have landed, arriving in Haiti by air dressed in full combat gear here to protect the U.S. Embassy. That's where they went straight from the airport to significantly boost security for American diplomatic personnel, those who are left. All non-essential staff and hundreds of American citizens living here were being sent home as the Marines arrived.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are problems in the country. My country, the U.S., has asked me to leave.

NEWMAN: This as rebels led by former Haitian military and paramilitary officers remain in control of Haiti's second largest city, Cap-Haitien, overrun on Sunday.

LOUIS JODEL CHAMBLAIN, REBEL LEADER (through translator): We are proud to liberate this town, the second city of the country, which was ostracized by a government of armed thugs.

NEWMAN: This said by a former paramilitary leader accused of gross human rights violations himself. Still, many cheered while many others went on a looting rampage. Poor Haitians grabbing all the grain they could carry from warehouses by the port city's dock.

Rebels and their supporters are hunting down government sympathizers vowing to march on to the capital next. Nervous and frightened, government supporters near the capital put up barricades on roads and patrolled the streets to try and prevent a rebel advance.

The White House, meanwhile, have given the political opposition 24 hours more to consider a power sharing deal with President Aristide, a deadline that was supposed to have expired Monday afternoon.

Washington is still holding out hope that a negotiated settlement can be reached before the breakdown of law and order becomes complete but it's unwilling to send in U.S. troops at this stage to prevent it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWMAN: Yes, Judy, the Marines are here but only and absolutely only to protect Americans, not to answer President Aristide's international plea for others to come in here and help him restore that law and order -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: All right, CNN's Lucia Newman reporting for us tonight live from Haiti.

Raymond Kelly is New York City's police commissioner but a decade ago he served as the head of a United Nations group that had the job of revamping Haiti's police force.

Commissioner Kelly joins us now from New York. Raymond Kelly, based on what you know about that island nation, 50 U.S. troops going to be enough to restore law and order?

RAYMOND KELLY, NEW YORK CITY POLICE COMMISSIONER: No, that's not their mission. Their mission is to secure the U.S. Embassy and I think that's a pretty formidable force to do that but in terms of securing the country, no, obviously you need a lot more than that.

I think Haiti needs an international security presence. Ideally that would be some force under United Nations sponsorship that would go in there and give some order maintenance to a troubled place.

WOODRUFF: And what is to stop an international force like what you described from going in and doing what you suggest they should do?

KELLY: Well, I don't think there's anything to stop it. I don't know if there is enthusiasm to do that. There's been some talk about the French and the Canadians sending some troops there. They have a long history in Haiti of course. The Canadians have been very supportive of Haitians through the years.

So, I wouldn't be surprised if we see something like that under the U.N. sponsorship but I think that's the only way that you're going to see order restored in Haiti.

WOODRUFF: You were just telling me that based on what you know of Haiti you really are not all that surprised that it's come to this.

KELLY: Well, it's a troubled land. Aristide was the only democratically elected president of Haiti. There's been lots of trouble before that. Since they won their independence from France in 1804, there was the Duvaliers and people who followed them.

So, it's been a place that's racked with problems. It's the poorest place in the western hemisphere, 70 percent unemployment, 70 percent illiteracy, virtually no potable water in the country. It needs help. It needs international help. That's the only way that you're going to see order restored in Haiti in my judgment.

WOODRUFF: What do the Haitian people themselves want?

KELLY: Well, the Haitian people want what everybody else wants. They're gritty, tough, very impressive people. They have a great work ethic. They just, they need a little assistance. They would love to see intervention obviously by the United States but I don't think that's going to happen. So, any sort of international presence, I think, is what the majority of the Haitian people are hoping for.

WOODRUFF: So, if the United States is not going to make that happen what could make it happen? Is it going to have to come from the rebels, the different rebel groups themselves or from where?

KELLY: Well, I think ideally it would come from the U.N., possibly the CARICOM, the Caribbean community nations, possibly the OAS. They don't have, I think, the clout or the forces to do that though. I think the U.N.-sponsored intervention would be something very much accepted, as I said, by the Haitians and would restore order. I don't think it would take much. It's not going to take a large force. Haiti is a rather primitive country in many ways and I think a professional military force could restore order there fairly quickly.

WOODRUFF: New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly who a decade ago was in Haiti heading up a United Nations group charged with revamping the security in that country, Commissioner Kelly good to see you again. We thank you very much for talking to us tonight.

KELLY: Glad to be with you, Judy.

WOODRUFF: We appreciate it.

And coming up on the program the situation in Iraq as a new possible time table for elections emerges.

Around the world this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOODRUFF: In Iraq today, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld got a blunt report from coalition officials. They told him in no uncertain terms that Iraqi security forces are not ready to police the country on their own. Mr. Rumsfeld is visiting Iraq in part to assess the security situation as the deadline for handing over power approaches. Today, the United Nations had more to say on how and when that should happen.

Here's CNN's Jane Arraf.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Although the U.S. and Britain will hand over power on June 30th, a U.N. report released Monday suggests Iraq won't be ready for elections until late this year or early 2005.

KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: We both agree that electoral issue is extremely important and we need to find a way of moving forward.

ARRAF: The first step will be to draft laws for elections and for a government.

CARINA PERELLI, UNITED NATIONS: We have come to the conclusion that once those basic agreements are reached among the Iraqis it would take at least a month to be able to conduct a credible, well organized election that has results accepted by everybody.

ARRAF: In January, tens of thousands of Shias took to the streets in support of their spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who called for elections immediately after the handover. A statement from his office this week indicates that Sistani will go along with the U.N. recommendations. The Shias, who make up the majority of Iraq's population, have been the most visibly worried about election delays. JEREMY GREENSTOCK, BRITISH REPRESENTATIVE TO IRAQ: It's the concern of the Shias that they might be denied the power they've never had for some of these decades previously. There are competing concerns but Iraq has been a traumatized nation out of this recent period and therefore you would expect fears to be on the top of everybody's mind because they've been a frightened people.

ARRAF: One of those competing concerns is how much power Iraqi Kurds, who have controlled their own territory since 1991, will retain in a new unified Iraq. Greenstock said Arabs and Kurds could be nearing agreement.

GREENSTOCK: There is a compromise between they're playing a part in the center and they're getting autonomy in their region. I think we're very close to realizing that compromise in language in the law that is going to be adopted.

ARRAF: As for what sort of caretaker governments the U.S. and Britain will hand over to in June, that's the next step to be decided and the next comprise.

Jane Arraf, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: And a few more stories around the world before we go to break.

As Defense Secretary Rumsfeld was arriving in Iraq today, a suicide bomber attacked a police station in the northern city of Kirkuk. Coalition officials said the explosion killed at least eight Iraqi police officers and wounded 33 others. Two children were also hurt.

In Iran, hard-line conservatives have reclaimed power after a landslide victory in disputed parliamentary elections. The vote was widely boycotted by reformists and Iran's Interior Ministry said just half of eligible voters cast ballots, a record low turnout. Hard- liners say turnout was closer to 60 percent.

And at the Hague, the International Court of Justice today began hearings on whether the barrier that Israel is building along the West Bank violates international law. The court's decision, which will be nonbinding, is expected in a few months.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, a 100-day update. How has Arnold Schwarzenegger done in dealing with California's problems?

That story and more ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOODRUFF: Back when he was mayor of New York City, with the city in pretty dire shape, Ed Koch became known for asking just about anyone he would meet, how am I doing? Twenty years later and three times zones away, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor Schwarzenegger is tackling many of the same problems that Ed Koch did, only on a larger scale, with more at stake.

The question itself hasn't changed. After a little more than three months on the job, how is he doing?

Here is CNN's Frank Buckley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: We are here, ladies and gentlemen, to clean house.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As a candidate, Arnold Schwarzenegger promised to do a lot during his first 100 days in office.

SCHWARZENEGGER: I will consolidate programs, streamline bureaucracy and get more money directly to the classroom.

BUCKLEY: As a governor, he wasted no time doing what he could on his own. On day one, he ordered a repeal of the tripling of the car license fee.

SCHWARZENEGGER: This is action, not just dialogue.

BUCKLEY: Since then, he's enlisted the legislature in repealing the law that gave illegal immigrants driver's licenses and cultivated bipartisan support for ballot initiatives that if enacted will refinance the state's massive debt and force balanced budgets in the future.

SCHWARZENEGGER: I need your help.

BUCKLEY: Staffers say the former action star's mantra is right out of Hollywood.

ROB STUTZMAN, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: It is action, action, action, stupid is our watch word, our phrase.

BUCKLEY: Has he delivered?

FABIAN NUNEZ (D), CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLY SPEAKER: I think this governor really has done a very good job in his first 100 days in office.

BUCKLEY: One of his Republican supporters? Hardly. Fabian Nunez is the Democrat assembly speaker. He opposed Schwarzenegger in the recall. He's taken off the gloves since the election, to put them away.

NUNEZ: And what you don't hear from me and I think many others of my colleagues is that we're not beating up this governor. And the reason why we're not beating him up is, he doesn't deserve to be beaten up.

BUCKLEY: Sacramento is governed by a new tone, say most observers. partisanship rules the day. SEN. JIM BRULTE (R), CALIFORNIA SENATE REPUBLICAN LEADER: This is a governor who is changing the culture in the capital.

BUCKLEY: They even smoke here now. The governor has got a cabana where he enjoys cigars with legislators he wants to know better. And it is not, say capital veterans, governing in a smoke- filled tent, but rather a breath of fresh air.

JOHN BURTON (D), CALIFORNIA STATE SENATOR: I've been through a whole lot of governors. And none of them never ever came up to see me. So he's pretty good at that. And he supplies me with candy and flowers and Bon Bons and DVDs. So he's pretty good at courting.

BUCKLEY: But it is early. And social issues like the gay marriages taking place in San Francisco could force the governor into distracting battles. And while proposals and ballot initiatives are action, they're not accomplishments. Still, the governor is eternally optimistic.

DANIEL WEINTRAUB, "THE SACRAMENTO BEE": And sometimes a little bit delusional that everything is fantastic with him, as he's known to say, everything is wonderful, but there is no denying that he is a force for optimism and hope and this idea that California is governable.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BUCKLEY: So, in short, Governor Schwarzenegger is at least getting an A for effort and has a few accomplishments under his belt.

But March 2, when this bond measure is up on the initiative ballot, that's what is really going to be telling, Judy, because if it in fact passes, then the state will have the financial slate wiped clear, according to the governor. He will have a great deal of leverage for other things that he wants to accomplish. If it doesn't pass, then the governor may be looking at some very serious cuts and most observers here, believe, Judy, that he will in fact have to call for a raising of taxes -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: I don't think you can overstate how much is riding on that March 2 bond measure, Frank, coming up next Tuesday.

All right, who would have thought a smoke-filled cabana, right? OK, Frank Buckley.

And before we go to break, our "Moneyline Roundup," starting tonight with the Comanche helicopter. After 20 years of development at a cost of $7 billion, the Army today pulled the plug. Boeing and United Technologies were expecting another $14 billion when the Comanche went into production.

Halliburton next. The Pentagon says the question of whether a subsidiary overcharged for gasoline in Iraq is now a criminal matter.

And Martha Stewart got a boost today from a business manager of hers. Heidi DeLuca was testifying on behalf of co-defendant Peter Bacanovic. She told the jury that, in November of 2001, Mr. Bacanovic talked about selling Ms. Stewart's ImClone shares even before they fell to $60. It somewhat weakens the government's theory that Mr. Bacanovic and Ms. Stewart cooked up the $60 figure as a cover story after ImClone collapsed and the feds came knocking.

Next up on the program, why is Ralph Nader running for president again? And what effect does he think he'll have on the race? My conversation with him in just a moment.

This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOODRUFF: Many Democrats were using the S-word today, calling Ralph Nader a spoiler. Mr. Nader, as you might imagine, doesn't see it that way. The S-word he prefers is second front.

OK, sticking with the military-speak, how does he see the battle then? I spoke with him earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: You ran four years ago. You got, what, three percent of the vote. Do you honestly and seriously believe that you have a real shot at winning this election this year?

RALPH NADER (I), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, you know, the stock answer, it depends on the voters and the media. But there are other purposes for the campaign.

I don't think there's too much political organization behind 45 million workers who don't make a living wage in this country, or 45 million people who don't have health insurance, of which 18,000 die every year. Or there's enough organized effort to crack down on corporate crime, fraud and abuse, or the environment. In other words, we need more voices, more energies, more political and civic involvement.

WOODRUFF: I hear what you're saying, but the practical effect -- if you're saying, in essence, there are other reasons, beside actually going to win this election, the practical effect is to help or hurt the other candidates. And as you know, every Democrat who's practically got a vocal chord today is out there saying, Ralph Nader you're making a mistake.

NADER: Well, first of all, they're wrong. I mean, I've seen the assertions that New Hampshire was lost, you know, because of my vote. I got more Republican votes than Democrat in New Hampshire in 2000. So if CNN does a poll for my supporters, and breaks them down in the next few weeks, how many come from Republicans, how many come from Independents, how many come from Democrats, very few are going to come from Democrats, because the out-of-power party members come back into the fold, as Senator Kerry said quite correctly two days ago.

WOODRUFF: So you're saying you think you will be drawing as many Republicans as you are Democrats in this campaign, given your positions on the issues?

NADER: Yes, because look at the overlap of concurrence here. The conservatives are furious with Bush over corporate subsidies and the energy and Medicare bill. OK? Now, I agree with that. They're furious with him over the Patriot Act and big brother and surveillance. I agree with that.

WOODRUFF: But why would they turn to Ralph Nader rather than some other conservative who's running?

NADER: Because there isn't any other conservative. They're either going to vote for an Independent or stay home. And, by the way...

WOODRUFF: But aren't they more likely to stay home, which is what a lot of analysts are saying?

NADER: They can be encouraged to stay home by an Independent candidacy. You see, I can probe that area, because there's so many overlaps. They don't like the idea of Congress increasing their pay regularly. They don't like the idea of softness on corporate crime, the Enron thing. They're very upset by that. They hate the deficits that are growing.

There's a real revolt brewing in conservative circles. And then there's the liberal Democrats -- excuse me, the liberal Republicans, who never liked Bush to begin with.

WOODRUFF: Well, we're familiar with what the Democrats are saying, because they -- but essentially, you're arguing that the White House should be worried about your candidacy. But they're not saying anything negative about it. They're saying it doesn't affect anything they're doing.

NADER: Well, that remains to be seen. But I think we have ways to take the Bush administration apart that the Democrats are either too cautious or indentured through their financial contributors.

For example, President Bush is raising $200 million. Now, he's raising it from all the corporate fat cats who've got business before the Bush administration: contracts, grants, deregulation, things they want, right? Why aren't the Democrats exposing that? Because they're dialing for the same dollars. I'm not dialing for those dollars.

WOODRUFF: You endorsed Dennis Kucinich back in January.

NADER: Yes.

WOODRUFF: And you said you were supporting him. What happened? He's still in the race.

NADER: Well, I still urge Democrats in the primary to support him. I've worked with him for 30 years. I would love him to be the Democratic nominee.

WOODRUFF: But what? I mean, but you've announced you're running.

NADER: It doesn't seem like he's a front-runner yet. That's the problem. The real Democrats in the progressive tradition of the Democratic Party are getting nowhere in the midst of the corporate Democrats.

WOODRUFF: We've already heard from John Kerry, John Edwards. They both have said they wish you weren't running. We've heard from any number of other Democrats.

Howard Dean just put out a statement saying -- he said, if George Bush is re-elected, all of the health, the safety, the consumer, the environmental, the open government things that you've spent your life working for will all be undermined. And he said that the judges that the president is appointing will still be in office 50 years from now.

NADER: Agreed.

WOODRUFF: In other words, that's going to be on your shoulders.

NADER: Agreed. I think that a second front against Bush is going to be very, very effective.

By the way, Governor Dean did his best to rip into Kerry. Remember -- I mean, they ought to talk. The main thing is we need more competition, more voices and choices. We're asking for volunteers to get on the ballot in those difficult states.

And, by the way, Judy, you should see the bias in state laws against third parties, Independent candidates. We've got a whole listing of the 50 states' requirements on our Web site, VoteNader.org.

WOODRUFF: But you're saying you can get beyond that. Ralph Nader, finally, all these people are saying this is all about Ralph Nader's ego, about himself, and not about the party, and not about the cause.

NADER: This is a commitment to justice, Judy. I've been working for 40 years on behalf of the health, safety and economic well being of the American people. I don't like citizen groups being shut out by both parties in this city, corporate occupied territory, not having a chance to improve their country.

WOODRUFF: Doesn't hurt you to hear that?

NADER: Hurt me to hear what?

WOODRUFF: That people are saying this is all about your ego?

NADER: That's because they have no other argument. You see, that's name-calling, like Governor Bill Richardson, who is a chronic speedster in his car as governor. He violates speed laws. He's probably a little irritated that I pointed that out.

WOODRUFF: OK. All right, Ralph Nader fighting back. He's running -- you're running as an Independent. Thank you very much. NADER: Yes, thank you.

WOODRUFF: We appreciate you coming by.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: We may try to find out what Governor Bill Richardson has to say about that.

Well, still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, eating their way through New Orleans. But these are the kind of tourists you don't want in your town.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOODRUFF: Tomorrow is Fat Tuesday, another way of saying it, Mardi Gras, the last party before lent.

In New Orleans, it adds up to a lot of crayfish, a little bourbon and letting the good times roll. But if it is last party for people, at least for a while, there is a team in New Orleans working day and night to make sure it is also the last supper, period, for some other creatures.

Here is CNN's Mike Schulder.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL SCHULDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the old French quarter of New Orleans, a lesson in warfare. In order to defeat your enemy, you must understand your enemy.

NAN-YAO SU, TERMITE EXPERT: The problem with human beings, that we are very visual animals. If we don't understand them, we have a hard time understanding them.

The sideboard, huh?

SCHULDER: After spending his childhood playing with insects, Nan-Yao Su has devoted his entire career to understanding the enemy in question, one of the most veracious insects in on the planet, the Formosan Termite.

SU: Wow.

Now, this is probably only part of the large nesting structure, we are seeing.

SCHULDER: Formosan Termites arrived on a ship returning from Asia after World War II underground, out of sight, they steadily built up their colonies digging webs of tunnels that extended more than 300 feet infesting the historic buildings put up when this territory belonged to France and Spain. You'd have to dig up the entire city to find them all.

ED BORDAS, HEAD OF THE NEW ORLEANS EXTERMINATION EFFORTS: Basically these buildings are 200 years old and older and older, and to lose these structures to the Formosan Termite would have been tragic.

SCHULDER: New Orleans native, Ed Bordas is the city's chief commander in the war on termites.

BORDAS: I knew nothing, really, about what was going on, and I was guilty. I had a pest control business, I used chlordane and I thought when I sprayed that chlordane, I killed all those. I was fooling myself and fooling the world.

SU: You know, it's human reaction to insects -- when you see insects most people say, Ah-uh, yuk, spray them. So, basically you are doing is what I call the spray and pray.

SCHULDER: Year after year of spraying and praying did not work, which is why during spring mating season, the air in New Orleans is thick with the Formosan Termite's version of speed dating. The termites were winning. The strategy had to change.

SU: We don't even use any chemicals unless we find them. And we only put where we found them.

BORDAS: Thinking, why not bring the termite to us, rather than us trying to protect the building, chase the termites, move them around, and not kill the colonies.

SCHULDER: Small holes were drilled throughout the French Quarter. Simple blocks of wood inserted without any chemicals. When the termite tunnels hit the blocks of wood and the termites start eating...

SU: Now we are going to replace this one with bait. So termite come in connecting to this station here, it will carry this bait and going back to the nest and give the poison to everybody else.

SCHULDER (on camera): And you can insert enough poison on this bait to get the whole colony?

SU: It does not takes a lot.

SCHULDER: Now let me ask you something, because I'm looking at this bait station here, and if I'm a smart termite, I'm going to say, That does not look like wood to me. How do you convince them to eat that stuff?

BORDAS: They're blind.

(LAUGHTER)

SCHULDER: Is that right?

ED: Oh, absolutely.

SCHULDER: How convenient. That's got to taste different from wood. ED: Better.

SU: Better

ED: It's paper. That's whey they eat paper between the wood first.

SU: They love soft paper more than the wood. SCHULDER (voice- over): And, so these super termites, which have spread from a mere four colonies in the 1960s to countless infestations throughout the southeast, may have finally met their match. There are signs that their numbers are decreasing, and the progress is being made using just a tiny amount of chemicals strategically placed using the enemy against itself.

SCHULDER (on camera): What makes you think that you two guys Ed Bordas and NAN-YAO Su can outsmart these -- this species that's been around for a hundred thousand of years?

SU: We never promised we will, but we are making good progress.

SCHULDER (voice-over): From the French Quarter in New Orleans, Michael Schulder, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: Boy, that's optimism. It gives a whole new meaning to the term Fat Tuesday.

Well, coming up next, we'll update our top story and we'll preview tomorrow.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOODRUFF: Before we go, a quick recap of our top story: President Bush tonight launching a tougher phase of his campaign for reelection. He dished up red meat on taxes, saying Democrats would hurt the economy by raising them. He did not, however, mention an opponent by name.

Tomorrow night on the program, the message, the marketing and the theology behind Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ."

That's NEWSNIGHT for tonight. Thanks for watching. Aaron is back tomorrow. And for those of you left wondering from Friday and our segment on "Sex and the City," it was Big.

I'm Judy Woodruff. Please join me tomorrow at 3:30 Eastern for "INSIDE POLITICS." Good night.

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





U.S. Marines Land in Haiti>


Aired February 23, 2004 - 22:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, GUEST HOST: And good evening to everybody once again.
The election year has a decidedly different feel tonight. After months of focusing on an ever shrinking field of Democrats, there are two new factors today and neither spells good news for whoever winds up as the nominee of that party.

Factor one, President Bush and that's where we begin the whip tonight. John King, our Senior White House Correspondent, starts us off with a headline -- John.

JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Judy, the president delivered his most aggressive, most partisan speech of the campaign year tonight. As for the Democratic front-runner, John Kerry, the president didn't mention him by name but said a certain Massachusetts senator wants to have it both ways on taxes, both ways on trade and both ways on the war in Iraq -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: All right, John.

And on to a spoiler last time and a wild card this time, although he would probably disagree with the first part. Ralph Nader got into the running. We'll talk with him, first, a headline from CNN's Candy Crowley.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Edwards and Kerry agree, Bush engaged great, Nader in not so great.

WOODRUFF: All right and we'll be back to Candy too.

Next to Haiti, the fighting and efforts to stop it, CNN's Lucia Newman on the videophone for us, Lucia a headline from you.

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Judy, U.S. Marines land in Haiti, not to support the besieged president but rather to give protection to the U.S. Embassy here.

WOODRUFF: All right and Lucia we'll be back to you as well.

Finally to California, 100 days into the Schwarzenegger administration, CNN's Frank Buckley with the story and a headline -- Frank.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Judy, Arnold Schwarzenegger was an action star before he became the governor. His staffers now say that his mantra is action, action, action, stupid. Is the governor delivering? We'll be taking a look in later in the program -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: Okay, Frank, and we'll be talking to you as well.

Also coming up tonight on the program, my interview with Ralph Nader, is he a spoiler and, if so, for whom?

And in Segment 7 tonight, eating through New Orleans, not the Creole food, the Creole restaurants and everything else for that matter the battle against the Formosan termite, all that to come in the hour ahead.

But we begin tonight with the president, who not so long ago said the time for politics had yet to arrive but that was before a Democratic front-runner emerged, before the White House was seen by some as struggling with its message on the economy.

It was before Mr. Bush's approval numbers began slipping below 50 percent. In other words, that was then. This is now, time for a tougher message and plenty of money to tell it.

Here again, CNN's John King.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KING (voice-over): The new phase of the Bush campaign included the president's first direct assault on the Democratic front-runner.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For tax cuts and against them, for NAFTA and against NAFTA, for the Patriot Act and against the Patriot Act, in favor of liberating Iraq and opposed to it and that's just one Senator from Massachusetts.

KING: His rhetoric was sharper and more partisan as the president tested a new stump speech on a supportive Republican crowd. Mr. Bush says Democrats would hurt the economy by raising taxes and undermine national security by giving the United Nations too much influence over decisions to go to war.

BUSH: We must never outsource America's national security decisions to the leaders of other governments.

KING: The election is more than eight months away and the president and his campaign team wanted to wait a bit longer before turning more aggressive, at least until the Democratic candidate is clear.

But Iraq's political transition is in doubt, the economy is not generating jobs as fast as the White House would like, the president's poll numbers are in decline and some Republicans are getting nervous.

SCOTT REED, GOP STRATEGIST: Republicans across the country, especially the grassroots, feel now is time to slug back a little. Let's get the president back on the offense, talk about his message and get the Republican grassroots excited again about this campaign.

KING: The new speech is just the beginning. Next Tuesday's primaries could settle the Democratic race and the president will launch his first TV ads two days later.

The Bush-Cheney campaign is delivering daily critiques of Democratic front-runner John Kerry's Senate voting record and Republican governors are among the Bush surrogates being asked to campaign more aggressively.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: Not all of tonight's speech was aimed at the Democrats. Some Republicans have quietly questioned whether the vice president is suddenly a liability on the GOP ticket. For them the president said this. "They don't come any better and I am proud to have Dick Cheney by my side" -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: John, does the White House see any downside at all to the president coming out slugging so early in the year? After all it is only February and even though his poll numbers have been slipping this is -- we've got a long way to go until the election.

KING: They do see a downside and the president alluded to it himself during a meeting with a bipartisan group of governors here at the White House earlier today. The president said he knew this was the year of sharp elbows and sharp tongues.

The president does want to get some things done this year and now that he is much more aggressive on the campaign trail, he will be even more viewed through a political scope, if you will.

Anything the president does this year, of course, was going to be viewed politically but the more he engages in opposing the Democrats and fighting day to day with the Democrats the more everything he does will be viewed politically and makes it harder to get anything accomplished.

WOODRUFF: We noticed that he urged the governors to stay above politics.

KING: Yes, the governors. I don't know that anyone in the country is going to stay above politics this year when it comes to elected officials anyway, Judy. The president, it's a tough job being an incumbent president in an election year, any president, Democrat or Republican, and look the White House was getting urgent appeals from Republicans across the country to get more aggressive, start spending money and tonight is a key turning point.

WOODRUFF: OK, John King there to record it. We appreciate it.

President Bush's shift in strategy is not the only twist on the election trail. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader has gone ahead and done what many Democrats had dreaded announcing yesterday that he will run as an independent. For Democratic front-runner John Kerry and his closest rival John Edwards, two more issues to address on the stump. Here's CNN's Candy Crowley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY (voice-over): Earlier than most expected, the president is stepping up his campaign. Make of that what you will.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think George Bush is on the run and I think he's on the run because he doesn't have a record to run on.

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Unless he's improved the security that this administration is providing for the American people here at home, I can't imagine he's got all that much to say tonight.

CROWLEY: In a day of harmony, John Edwards and John Kerry were separately delighted to have George Bush in their line of sight but none too pleased to see this man.

RALPH NADER (I), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Relax, rejoice that you have another front carrying the ancient but unfulfilled pretensions and aspirations of the Democratic Party.

CROWLEY: Which is to say that Ralph Nader whom some Democrats blame for taking away critical votes from Al Gore, is running for president again. Some top Democrats call Nader an opportunist, a spoiler and that was in public. No such freedom of speech on the campaign trail where the Senators John merely suggested Ralph's run is redundant.

EDWARDS: I believe that it is important for the Democrats to have somebody at the top of the ticket who is appealing to the people who voted for Nader last time. I think that candidate is me.

KERRY: I think my candidacy will speak to and appeal to many of the people who were attracted in the year 2000 to Ralph Nader.

CROWLEY: Mostly these days, Edwards and Kerry ignore each other, partly because Kerry wants to seem like but never say that his nomination is a done deal and he is in stage two.

KERRY: I'd never put my arm around a firefighter here in New York City after 9/11 and promise help and then not give it.

CROWLEY: The Kerry-Edwards no contact contest is also the natural result of Edwards' speak-no-evil campaign. Still, Edwards can't help but make the point, re: the Kerry-Bush rehash of Vietnam.

EDWARDS: This campaign and this election is not about George Bush's past, John Kerry's past or John Edwards' past. This is about the future of the American people.

CROWLEY (on camera): Edwards' warm and fuzzy campaign has made him a hit among many voters. Still even aides concede all that sunshine has made it difficult to rain on John Kerry's front-running parade.

Candy Crowley CNN, Columbus, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: Later in the program we'll hear from Mr. Nader himself about why he did what so many had begged him not to do.

Well, Mr. Nader himself has said that it will be difficult to collect enough signatures to get himself on the ballot in all 50 states but safe to say a lot of Democrats are worried and angry tonight about the potential Nader effect and then there's the new offense from the White House, plenty to hash over tonight.

Joining us in Sacramento is Mindy Tucker, former press secretary for the Bush-Cheney 2000 presidential campaign and in New York Katrina Vanden Heuvel. She's editor of "The Nation" magazine, which last month urged Mr. Nader not to run. We're glad that both of you are with us.

Katrina Vanden Heuvel to you first, Ralph Nader, is this clearly a negative for whoever the Democratic nominee is?

KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL, "THE NATION": Ralph Nader is public citizen number one and he has many issues that should be part of the Democratic candidate's portfolio speaking to the over waning corporate power in this country, speaking to living wage, speaking to universal health insurance but as a citizen, not as a candidate.

The overwhelming mass of progressive Democratic voters this year understand this is not 2000 that the stakes are too high in 2004 with the most extremist administration in our lifetime in this White House.

So, we had hoped Ralph Nader would speak as the great American he is to the issues we care about but not as a candidate. He may well do very poorly and the danger is that those issues will do poorly with him.

WOODRUFF: Mindy Tucker, I talked to Ralph Nader today. He says that he is going to be taking votes away from President Bush as well. He said people are going to vote for him who are disappointed in the president. He said he think he'll persuade some Republicans just to sit home.

MINDY TUCKER, FORMER BUSH SPOKESWOMAN: I don't think that's true. I think if anything he causes a rift in the Democrat Party. They would love to come out of this primary showing unity behind one candidate but they've got this little crack that just emerged today and I think it shows there is still a liberal wing of the Democrat Party that's not entirely happy with what's going on at the top of their ticket right now.

VANDEN HEUVEL: But, if you look at the issues that John Edwards and John Kerry are speaking to, what's important for the Democratic Party to do is steal Nader's issues and speak as progressive populists. That was the mistake in 2000 and I think that Kerry and Edwards have already learned that they need to speak about fair trade, about corporate power, about two Americas, about poverty in this country. Those will be winning issues and I think if they do that they will marginalize Ralph Nader.

WOODRUFF: All right. Mindy, I want to turn to President Bush now. Any doubt I in your mind now that this president is keeping Dick Cheney on the ticket? He had something nice to say about him in a speech tonight.

TUCKER: There's never been any doubt in my mind. I think the president said over a year ago that he's going to be on the ticket with him and he believes what he said when he nominated or when he asked Dick Cheney to be his vice president that if something were to happen to President Bush, he would be an excellent president.

That's the one thing he looks at in a vice president and I'm glad and I know a lot of Americans are glad that he's keeping him on the ticket. I think it's important to have that kind of strength and that kind of stature and experience between the president and the vice president at the top of our ticket.

WOODRUFF: Katrina, let me read to you something else the president said tonight in this speech to the Republican governors. He said the choice in this election is clear. He said between an America that leads the world with strength and confidence or an America that is uncertain in the face of danger, clearly a reference to what he says would happen if the Democrats were to win in November.

VANDEN HEUVEL: This administration has misled a nation into war. Think of the 500 or more men and women who have been killed because of that -- the way this administration has misled us into war. And I think that this administration had undermined America's security not strengthened. It is a mess in Iraq. Our military is stretched thin. The National Guard is strained.

When you look at Dick Cheney you understand the stakes in this election. A preemptive war doctrine that undermines security, an administration that is gutting our nation for the sake of tax cuts for the rich.

I come back to Ralph Nader, I'm sorry. I cannot give, as he did, a B-plus to the Democrats and a D-minus to the Republicans. This is the most extremist reactionary government and Dick Cheney represents the fact that we have a big corporation masquerading as an administration.

WOODRUFF: Mindy Tucker, the president clearly trying to paint the Democrats as the party that would make it unsafe to be living in this country.

TUCKER: He doesn't have to try to paint it. All you have to do is look at the record of the man that right now is the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination.

This is a guy who says he's for the war and then says he's against the war, says he's for an increase in strong national defense but has a record of voting against it. In fact, he voted against increasing intelligence funding after the first World Trade Center bombing.

This is not somebody who you can believe what he says because he doesn't act upon what he says and this is not somebody who I frankly want sitting in that chair when America's security is on the line.

WOODRUFF: Katrina Vanden Heuvel.

VANDEN HEUVEL: This is an administration, Mindy, that has lost the trust of over one-third of the American people because their sons and daughters are dying because this administration hyped the intelligence and is now stonewalling the investigation that Americans are due that it is an insult to this country.

We haven't had a fair 9/11 investigation or now do not have a fair investigation into what led us to declare there was an imminent threat from the government of Iraq. Finally, this administration is gutting the money that should go to first responders that should go to homeland security for tax cuts for the rich.

WOODRUFF: All right.

TUCKER: You know it's just not accurate what you said and I can say personally my husband is over there and I know there are a lot of people in America who believe we're there for the exact right reasons. They know why we're there and they're going to finish the job they were sent there to do by a commander-in-chief who knows how to protect our country.

WOODRUFF: We're going to have to leave it there. Mindy Tucker, Katrina Vanden Heuvel, it's good to see you both.

VANDEN HEUVEL: Thank you.

WOODRUFF: We appreciate it. Thank you for being on NEWSNIGHT.

Also coming up tonight on the program American Marines arrive in Haiti but will both sides accept a peace plan in time to avoid more bloodshed?

And later a tasting of New Orleans, the battle to save the city from the voracious Formosan termite.

From Washington this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOODRUFF: In Haiti tonight, chaos appears to be growing and diplomacy dying on the vine. Opposition leaders have backed away from a U.S. supported plan that calls for sharing power with Haiti's president. American officials say they will extend the deadline until tomorrow. By then, however, rebel forces could make the whole thing moot and a small number of American forces could have their hands pretty full.

Here again CNN's Lucia Newman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NEWMAN (voice-over): The Marines have landed, arriving in Haiti by air dressed in full combat gear here to protect the U.S. Embassy. That's where they went straight from the airport to significantly boost security for American diplomatic personnel, those who are left. All non-essential staff and hundreds of American citizens living here were being sent home as the Marines arrived.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are problems in the country. My country, the U.S., has asked me to leave.

NEWMAN: This as rebels led by former Haitian military and paramilitary officers remain in control of Haiti's second largest city, Cap-Haitien, overrun on Sunday.

LOUIS JODEL CHAMBLAIN, REBEL LEADER (through translator): We are proud to liberate this town, the second city of the country, which was ostracized by a government of armed thugs.

NEWMAN: This said by a former paramilitary leader accused of gross human rights violations himself. Still, many cheered while many others went on a looting rampage. Poor Haitians grabbing all the grain they could carry from warehouses by the port city's dock.

Rebels and their supporters are hunting down government sympathizers vowing to march on to the capital next. Nervous and frightened, government supporters near the capital put up barricades on roads and patrolled the streets to try and prevent a rebel advance.

The White House, meanwhile, have given the political opposition 24 hours more to consider a power sharing deal with President Aristide, a deadline that was supposed to have expired Monday afternoon.

Washington is still holding out hope that a negotiated settlement can be reached before the breakdown of law and order becomes complete but it's unwilling to send in U.S. troops at this stage to prevent it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWMAN: Yes, Judy, the Marines are here but only and absolutely only to protect Americans, not to answer President Aristide's international plea for others to come in here and help him restore that law and order -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: All right, CNN's Lucia Newman reporting for us tonight live from Haiti.

Raymond Kelly is New York City's police commissioner but a decade ago he served as the head of a United Nations group that had the job of revamping Haiti's police force.

Commissioner Kelly joins us now from New York. Raymond Kelly, based on what you know about that island nation, 50 U.S. troops going to be enough to restore law and order?

RAYMOND KELLY, NEW YORK CITY POLICE COMMISSIONER: No, that's not their mission. Their mission is to secure the U.S. Embassy and I think that's a pretty formidable force to do that but in terms of securing the country, no, obviously you need a lot more than that.

I think Haiti needs an international security presence. Ideally that would be some force under United Nations sponsorship that would go in there and give some order maintenance to a troubled place.

WOODRUFF: And what is to stop an international force like what you described from going in and doing what you suggest they should do?

KELLY: Well, I don't think there's anything to stop it. I don't know if there is enthusiasm to do that. There's been some talk about the French and the Canadians sending some troops there. They have a long history in Haiti of course. The Canadians have been very supportive of Haitians through the years.

So, I wouldn't be surprised if we see something like that under the U.N. sponsorship but I think that's the only way that you're going to see order restored in Haiti.

WOODRUFF: You were just telling me that based on what you know of Haiti you really are not all that surprised that it's come to this.

KELLY: Well, it's a troubled land. Aristide was the only democratically elected president of Haiti. There's been lots of trouble before that. Since they won their independence from France in 1804, there was the Duvaliers and people who followed them.

So, it's been a place that's racked with problems. It's the poorest place in the western hemisphere, 70 percent unemployment, 70 percent illiteracy, virtually no potable water in the country. It needs help. It needs international help. That's the only way that you're going to see order restored in Haiti in my judgment.

WOODRUFF: What do the Haitian people themselves want?

KELLY: Well, the Haitian people want what everybody else wants. They're gritty, tough, very impressive people. They have a great work ethic. They just, they need a little assistance. They would love to see intervention obviously by the United States but I don't think that's going to happen. So, any sort of international presence, I think, is what the majority of the Haitian people are hoping for.

WOODRUFF: So, if the United States is not going to make that happen what could make it happen? Is it going to have to come from the rebels, the different rebel groups themselves or from where?

KELLY: Well, I think ideally it would come from the U.N., possibly the CARICOM, the Caribbean community nations, possibly the OAS. They don't have, I think, the clout or the forces to do that though. I think the U.N.-sponsored intervention would be something very much accepted, as I said, by the Haitians and would restore order. I don't think it would take much. It's not going to take a large force. Haiti is a rather primitive country in many ways and I think a professional military force could restore order there fairly quickly.

WOODRUFF: New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly who a decade ago was in Haiti heading up a United Nations group charged with revamping the security in that country, Commissioner Kelly good to see you again. We thank you very much for talking to us tonight.

KELLY: Glad to be with you, Judy.

WOODRUFF: We appreciate it.

And coming up on the program the situation in Iraq as a new possible time table for elections emerges.

Around the world this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOODRUFF: In Iraq today, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld got a blunt report from coalition officials. They told him in no uncertain terms that Iraqi security forces are not ready to police the country on their own. Mr. Rumsfeld is visiting Iraq in part to assess the security situation as the deadline for handing over power approaches. Today, the United Nations had more to say on how and when that should happen.

Here's CNN's Jane Arraf.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Although the U.S. and Britain will hand over power on June 30th, a U.N. report released Monday suggests Iraq won't be ready for elections until late this year or early 2005.

KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: We both agree that electoral issue is extremely important and we need to find a way of moving forward.

ARRAF: The first step will be to draft laws for elections and for a government.

CARINA PERELLI, UNITED NATIONS: We have come to the conclusion that once those basic agreements are reached among the Iraqis it would take at least a month to be able to conduct a credible, well organized election that has results accepted by everybody.

ARRAF: In January, tens of thousands of Shias took to the streets in support of their spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who called for elections immediately after the handover. A statement from his office this week indicates that Sistani will go along with the U.N. recommendations. The Shias, who make up the majority of Iraq's population, have been the most visibly worried about election delays. JEREMY GREENSTOCK, BRITISH REPRESENTATIVE TO IRAQ: It's the concern of the Shias that they might be denied the power they've never had for some of these decades previously. There are competing concerns but Iraq has been a traumatized nation out of this recent period and therefore you would expect fears to be on the top of everybody's mind because they've been a frightened people.

ARRAF: One of those competing concerns is how much power Iraqi Kurds, who have controlled their own territory since 1991, will retain in a new unified Iraq. Greenstock said Arabs and Kurds could be nearing agreement.

GREENSTOCK: There is a compromise between they're playing a part in the center and they're getting autonomy in their region. I think we're very close to realizing that compromise in language in the law that is going to be adopted.

ARRAF: As for what sort of caretaker governments the U.S. and Britain will hand over to in June, that's the next step to be decided and the next comprise.

Jane Arraf, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: And a few more stories around the world before we go to break.

As Defense Secretary Rumsfeld was arriving in Iraq today, a suicide bomber attacked a police station in the northern city of Kirkuk. Coalition officials said the explosion killed at least eight Iraqi police officers and wounded 33 others. Two children were also hurt.

In Iran, hard-line conservatives have reclaimed power after a landslide victory in disputed parliamentary elections. The vote was widely boycotted by reformists and Iran's Interior Ministry said just half of eligible voters cast ballots, a record low turnout. Hard- liners say turnout was closer to 60 percent.

And at the Hague, the International Court of Justice today began hearings on whether the barrier that Israel is building along the West Bank violates international law. The court's decision, which will be nonbinding, is expected in a few months.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, a 100-day update. How has Arnold Schwarzenegger done in dealing with California's problems?

That story and more ahead.

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WOODRUFF: Back when he was mayor of New York City, with the city in pretty dire shape, Ed Koch became known for asking just about anyone he would meet, how am I doing? Twenty years later and three times zones away, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor Schwarzenegger is tackling many of the same problems that Ed Koch did, only on a larger scale, with more at stake.

The question itself hasn't changed. After a little more than three months on the job, how is he doing?

Here is CNN's Frank Buckley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: We are here, ladies and gentlemen, to clean house.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As a candidate, Arnold Schwarzenegger promised to do a lot during his first 100 days in office.

SCHWARZENEGGER: I will consolidate programs, streamline bureaucracy and get more money directly to the classroom.

BUCKLEY: As a governor, he wasted no time doing what he could on his own. On day one, he ordered a repeal of the tripling of the car license fee.

SCHWARZENEGGER: This is action, not just dialogue.

BUCKLEY: Since then, he's enlisted the legislature in repealing the law that gave illegal immigrants driver's licenses and cultivated bipartisan support for ballot initiatives that if enacted will refinance the state's massive debt and force balanced budgets in the future.

SCHWARZENEGGER: I need your help.

BUCKLEY: Staffers say the former action star's mantra is right out of Hollywood.

ROB STUTZMAN, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: It is action, action, action, stupid is our watch word, our phrase.

BUCKLEY: Has he delivered?

FABIAN NUNEZ (D), CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLY SPEAKER: I think this governor really has done a very good job in his first 100 days in office.

BUCKLEY: One of his Republican supporters? Hardly. Fabian Nunez is the Democrat assembly speaker. He opposed Schwarzenegger in the recall. He's taken off the gloves since the election, to put them away.

NUNEZ: And what you don't hear from me and I think many others of my colleagues is that we're not beating up this governor. And the reason why we're not beating him up is, he doesn't deserve to be beaten up.

BUCKLEY: Sacramento is governed by a new tone, say most observers. partisanship rules the day. SEN. JIM BRULTE (R), CALIFORNIA SENATE REPUBLICAN LEADER: This is a governor who is changing the culture in the capital.

BUCKLEY: They even smoke here now. The governor has got a cabana where he enjoys cigars with legislators he wants to know better. And it is not, say capital veterans, governing in a smoke- filled tent, but rather a breath of fresh air.

JOHN BURTON (D), CALIFORNIA STATE SENATOR: I've been through a whole lot of governors. And none of them never ever came up to see me. So he's pretty good at that. And he supplies me with candy and flowers and Bon Bons and DVDs. So he's pretty good at courting.

BUCKLEY: But it is early. And social issues like the gay marriages taking place in San Francisco could force the governor into distracting battles. And while proposals and ballot initiatives are action, they're not accomplishments. Still, the governor is eternally optimistic.

DANIEL WEINTRAUB, "THE SACRAMENTO BEE": And sometimes a little bit delusional that everything is fantastic with him, as he's known to say, everything is wonderful, but there is no denying that he is a force for optimism and hope and this idea that California is governable.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BUCKLEY: So, in short, Governor Schwarzenegger is at least getting an A for effort and has a few accomplishments under his belt.

But March 2, when this bond measure is up on the initiative ballot, that's what is really going to be telling, Judy, because if it in fact passes, then the state will have the financial slate wiped clear, according to the governor. He will have a great deal of leverage for other things that he wants to accomplish. If it doesn't pass, then the governor may be looking at some very serious cuts and most observers here, believe, Judy, that he will in fact have to call for a raising of taxes -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: I don't think you can overstate how much is riding on that March 2 bond measure, Frank, coming up next Tuesday.

All right, who would have thought a smoke-filled cabana, right? OK, Frank Buckley.

And before we go to break, our "Moneyline Roundup," starting tonight with the Comanche helicopter. After 20 years of development at a cost of $7 billion, the Army today pulled the plug. Boeing and United Technologies were expecting another $14 billion when the Comanche went into production.

Halliburton next. The Pentagon says the question of whether a subsidiary overcharged for gasoline in Iraq is now a criminal matter.

And Martha Stewart got a boost today from a business manager of hers. Heidi DeLuca was testifying on behalf of co-defendant Peter Bacanovic. She told the jury that, in November of 2001, Mr. Bacanovic talked about selling Ms. Stewart's ImClone shares even before they fell to $60. It somewhat weakens the government's theory that Mr. Bacanovic and Ms. Stewart cooked up the $60 figure as a cover story after ImClone collapsed and the feds came knocking.

Next up on the program, why is Ralph Nader running for president again? And what effect does he think he'll have on the race? My conversation with him in just a moment.

This is NEWSNIGHT.

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WOODRUFF: Many Democrats were using the S-word today, calling Ralph Nader a spoiler. Mr. Nader, as you might imagine, doesn't see it that way. The S-word he prefers is second front.

OK, sticking with the military-speak, how does he see the battle then? I spoke with him earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: You ran four years ago. You got, what, three percent of the vote. Do you honestly and seriously believe that you have a real shot at winning this election this year?

RALPH NADER (I), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, you know, the stock answer, it depends on the voters and the media. But there are other purposes for the campaign.

I don't think there's too much political organization behind 45 million workers who don't make a living wage in this country, or 45 million people who don't have health insurance, of which 18,000 die every year. Or there's enough organized effort to crack down on corporate crime, fraud and abuse, or the environment. In other words, we need more voices, more energies, more political and civic involvement.

WOODRUFF: I hear what you're saying, but the practical effect -- if you're saying, in essence, there are other reasons, beside actually going to win this election, the practical effect is to help or hurt the other candidates. And as you know, every Democrat who's practically got a vocal chord today is out there saying, Ralph Nader you're making a mistake.

NADER: Well, first of all, they're wrong. I mean, I've seen the assertions that New Hampshire was lost, you know, because of my vote. I got more Republican votes than Democrat in New Hampshire in 2000. So if CNN does a poll for my supporters, and breaks them down in the next few weeks, how many come from Republicans, how many come from Independents, how many come from Democrats, very few are going to come from Democrats, because the out-of-power party members come back into the fold, as Senator Kerry said quite correctly two days ago.

WOODRUFF: So you're saying you think you will be drawing as many Republicans as you are Democrats in this campaign, given your positions on the issues?

NADER: Yes, because look at the overlap of concurrence here. The conservatives are furious with Bush over corporate subsidies and the energy and Medicare bill. OK? Now, I agree with that. They're furious with him over the Patriot Act and big brother and surveillance. I agree with that.

WOODRUFF: But why would they turn to Ralph Nader rather than some other conservative who's running?

NADER: Because there isn't any other conservative. They're either going to vote for an Independent or stay home. And, by the way...

WOODRUFF: But aren't they more likely to stay home, which is what a lot of analysts are saying?

NADER: They can be encouraged to stay home by an Independent candidacy. You see, I can probe that area, because there's so many overlaps. They don't like the idea of Congress increasing their pay regularly. They don't like the idea of softness on corporate crime, the Enron thing. They're very upset by that. They hate the deficits that are growing.

There's a real revolt brewing in conservative circles. And then there's the liberal Democrats -- excuse me, the liberal Republicans, who never liked Bush to begin with.

WOODRUFF: Well, we're familiar with what the Democrats are saying, because they -- but essentially, you're arguing that the White House should be worried about your candidacy. But they're not saying anything negative about it. They're saying it doesn't affect anything they're doing.

NADER: Well, that remains to be seen. But I think we have ways to take the Bush administration apart that the Democrats are either too cautious or indentured through their financial contributors.

For example, President Bush is raising $200 million. Now, he's raising it from all the corporate fat cats who've got business before the Bush administration: contracts, grants, deregulation, things they want, right? Why aren't the Democrats exposing that? Because they're dialing for the same dollars. I'm not dialing for those dollars.

WOODRUFF: You endorsed Dennis Kucinich back in January.

NADER: Yes.

WOODRUFF: And you said you were supporting him. What happened? He's still in the race.

NADER: Well, I still urge Democrats in the primary to support him. I've worked with him for 30 years. I would love him to be the Democratic nominee.

WOODRUFF: But what? I mean, but you've announced you're running.

NADER: It doesn't seem like he's a front-runner yet. That's the problem. The real Democrats in the progressive tradition of the Democratic Party are getting nowhere in the midst of the corporate Democrats.

WOODRUFF: We've already heard from John Kerry, John Edwards. They both have said they wish you weren't running. We've heard from any number of other Democrats.

Howard Dean just put out a statement saying -- he said, if George Bush is re-elected, all of the health, the safety, the consumer, the environmental, the open government things that you've spent your life working for will all be undermined. And he said that the judges that the president is appointing will still be in office 50 years from now.

NADER: Agreed.

WOODRUFF: In other words, that's going to be on your shoulders.

NADER: Agreed. I think that a second front against Bush is going to be very, very effective.

By the way, Governor Dean did his best to rip into Kerry. Remember -- I mean, they ought to talk. The main thing is we need more competition, more voices and choices. We're asking for volunteers to get on the ballot in those difficult states.

And, by the way, Judy, you should see the bias in state laws against third parties, Independent candidates. We've got a whole listing of the 50 states' requirements on our Web site, VoteNader.org.

WOODRUFF: But you're saying you can get beyond that. Ralph Nader, finally, all these people are saying this is all about Ralph Nader's ego, about himself, and not about the party, and not about the cause.

NADER: This is a commitment to justice, Judy. I've been working for 40 years on behalf of the health, safety and economic well being of the American people. I don't like citizen groups being shut out by both parties in this city, corporate occupied territory, not having a chance to improve their country.

WOODRUFF: Doesn't hurt you to hear that?

NADER: Hurt me to hear what?

WOODRUFF: That people are saying this is all about your ego?

NADER: That's because they have no other argument. You see, that's name-calling, like Governor Bill Richardson, who is a chronic speedster in his car as governor. He violates speed laws. He's probably a little irritated that I pointed that out.

WOODRUFF: OK. All right, Ralph Nader fighting back. He's running -- you're running as an Independent. Thank you very much. NADER: Yes, thank you.

WOODRUFF: We appreciate you coming by.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: We may try to find out what Governor Bill Richardson has to say about that.

Well, still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, eating their way through New Orleans. But these are the kind of tourists you don't want in your town.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOODRUFF: Tomorrow is Fat Tuesday, another way of saying it, Mardi Gras, the last party before lent.

In New Orleans, it adds up to a lot of crayfish, a little bourbon and letting the good times roll. But if it is last party for people, at least for a while, there is a team in New Orleans working day and night to make sure it is also the last supper, period, for some other creatures.

Here is CNN's Mike Schulder.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL SCHULDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the old French quarter of New Orleans, a lesson in warfare. In order to defeat your enemy, you must understand your enemy.

NAN-YAO SU, TERMITE EXPERT: The problem with human beings, that we are very visual animals. If we don't understand them, we have a hard time understanding them.

The sideboard, huh?

SCHULDER: After spending his childhood playing with insects, Nan-Yao Su has devoted his entire career to understanding the enemy in question, one of the most veracious insects in on the planet, the Formosan Termite.

SU: Wow.

Now, this is probably only part of the large nesting structure, we are seeing.

SCHULDER: Formosan Termites arrived on a ship returning from Asia after World War II underground, out of sight, they steadily built up their colonies digging webs of tunnels that extended more than 300 feet infesting the historic buildings put up when this territory belonged to France and Spain. You'd have to dig up the entire city to find them all.

ED BORDAS, HEAD OF THE NEW ORLEANS EXTERMINATION EFFORTS: Basically these buildings are 200 years old and older and older, and to lose these structures to the Formosan Termite would have been tragic.

SCHULDER: New Orleans native, Ed Bordas is the city's chief commander in the war on termites.

BORDAS: I knew nothing, really, about what was going on, and I was guilty. I had a pest control business, I used chlordane and I thought when I sprayed that chlordane, I killed all those. I was fooling myself and fooling the world.

SU: You know, it's human reaction to insects -- when you see insects most people say, Ah-uh, yuk, spray them. So, basically you are doing is what I call the spray and pray.

SCHULDER: Year after year of spraying and praying did not work, which is why during spring mating season, the air in New Orleans is thick with the Formosan Termite's version of speed dating. The termites were winning. The strategy had to change.

SU: We don't even use any chemicals unless we find them. And we only put where we found them.

BORDAS: Thinking, why not bring the termite to us, rather than us trying to protect the building, chase the termites, move them around, and not kill the colonies.

SCHULDER: Small holes were drilled throughout the French Quarter. Simple blocks of wood inserted without any chemicals. When the termite tunnels hit the blocks of wood and the termites start eating...

SU: Now we are going to replace this one with bait. So termite come in connecting to this station here, it will carry this bait and going back to the nest and give the poison to everybody else.

SCHULDER (on camera): And you can insert enough poison on this bait to get the whole colony?

SU: It does not takes a lot.

SCHULDER: Now let me ask you something, because I'm looking at this bait station here, and if I'm a smart termite, I'm going to say, That does not look like wood to me. How do you convince them to eat that stuff?

BORDAS: They're blind.

(LAUGHTER)

SCHULDER: Is that right?

ED: Oh, absolutely.

SCHULDER: How convenient. That's got to taste different from wood. ED: Better.

SU: Better

ED: It's paper. That's whey they eat paper between the wood first.

SU: They love soft paper more than the wood. SCHULDER (voice- over): And, so these super termites, which have spread from a mere four colonies in the 1960s to countless infestations throughout the southeast, may have finally met their match. There are signs that their numbers are decreasing, and the progress is being made using just a tiny amount of chemicals strategically placed using the enemy against itself.

SCHULDER (on camera): What makes you think that you two guys Ed Bordas and NAN-YAO Su can outsmart these -- this species that's been around for a hundred thousand of years?

SU: We never promised we will, but we are making good progress.

SCHULDER (voice-over): From the French Quarter in New Orleans, Michael Schulder, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: Boy, that's optimism. It gives a whole new meaning to the term Fat Tuesday.

Well, coming up next, we'll update our top story and we'll preview tomorrow.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOODRUFF: Before we go, a quick recap of our top story: President Bush tonight launching a tougher phase of his campaign for reelection. He dished up red meat on taxes, saying Democrats would hurt the economy by raising them. He did not, however, mention an opponent by name.

Tomorrow night on the program, the message, the marketing and the theology behind Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ."

That's NEWSNIGHT for tonight. Thanks for watching. Aaron is back tomorrow. And for those of you left wondering from Friday and our segment on "Sex and the City," it was Big.

I'm Judy Woodruff. Please join me tomorrow at 3:30 Eastern for "INSIDE POLITICS." Good night.

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