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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
Moderate Senators Reach Agreement to Avoid Showdown
Aired May 23, 2005 - 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, HOST "NEWSNIGHT": We don't often get to say it, but what an evening it's been on Capitol Hill in Washington. Tonight, neither the left nor the right won. The pressure groups that have been driving the fight over the nuclear option lost. The middle, the moderate center of the country, won. A group of senators, perhaps at least tacitly encouraged by their leadership, forged an agreement to vote on most of the men and women the president wants as judges, up or down, lifetime appointments, all, but allow others to be filibustered -- talked to death.
It was a loss for those who believe in winner-take-all politics, a victory for those who believe in compromise. A lot on this, beginning with the deal itself, and congressional correspondent Joe Johns.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: After days of intense negotiation and soul-searching, a bipartisan group of senators emerged from a final meeting Monday night, with a solution to the impasse over judicial nominations.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: The first question most of the media are going to ask is who won and who lost? The Senate won and the country won.
SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: The bipartisan center held.
JOHNS: The deal was reached less than day before a showdown vote to keep Democrats from blocking judicial nominations. It allows votes on all but two of the president's judicial nominees, including three of the most controversial, Janice Rogers Brown, William Pryor, and Priscilla Owen. No vote is promised for nominees William Myers and Henry Saad.
Under the agreement signed by 14 senators, Democrats can only block future nominees under extraordinary circumstances. In exchange, Republicans would not change Senate rules barring filibusters. Some senior senators had expressed concern that changing the rules would forever damage the Senate's tradition of unlimited debate.
SEN. JOHN WARNER (R), VIRGINIA: And the one unanswered question that guided me all the way through is -- it was unanswered -- what would happen to the Senate if the nuclear option were done? And no one was able to answer that to my satisfaction. JOHNS: One Republican who came under extreme pressure from conservatives not to go for any deals said he expects to take some heat.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: People at home are going to be very upset at me for a while.
JOHNS: Some of the greatest pressure on Bill Frist, who may run for president. He had been warned by conservative groups that nothing less than up or down votes for all judges would be acceptable. Frist asserted he can still force a showdown.
SEN. BILL FRIST (R-TN), MAJORITY LEADER: But with this agreement, all options remain on the table, including the Constitutional option. If it had been necessary to deploy the Constitutional option it would have been successful and the Senate would have...
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JOHNS: A leading conservative activist said tonight that, on balance, Frist did all he could, and the decision was taken out of his hands. A Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid, tonight is declaring victory because the filibuster was preserved at least for now on judicial nominations, but the fact of the matter is, he and Democrats spent a tremendous amount of time trying to block some judges that will now go through -- Aaron.
BROWN: All right. Senator Frist says, we hear him say this just a moment ago, that the Constitutional option as he prefers it, the nuclear option, as Trent Lott called it, is still in play, but as I read the agreement, the senators said that for at least this session of Congress, they will not support that?
JOHNS: Well, going forward -- and that is as long as Democrats decide not to filibuster. So, both sides have to do something here in this agreement. The fact of the matter is, Aaron, as you know, there's still a possibility of a Supreme Court nominee somewhere down the road and there are some other nominations still coming out of committee headed to the Senate floor that may have to be dealt with.
So, the suggestion from Frist's office is, the process will test this agreement, Aaron.
BROWN: Just, quickly, do you believe -- do you believe anyone there really knew if either side had the votes to prevail?
JOHNS: Well, I just got an e-mail from Senate producer Steve Turnham, who's talked to some people who suggested to him that Democrats thought, at the beginning of this day, they might very well lose if this thing came to a vote. As it turns out, this agreement gets rid of the necessity for a vote, Aaron.
BROWN: Joe, thank you. You've worked hard tonight. We appreciate that. Joe Johns up on the Hill tonight. Robert Byrd, the senior Democrat in the Senate, called himself proud of his colleagues and both parties tonight. "We have lifted ourselves above politics," he said, or perhaps exercised the art of it.
Here's CNN's Ed Henry.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Senator Ben Nelson is right in the middle of the deal, a deal that promises to avoid a nuclear meltdown over President Bush's judges.
SEN. BEN NELSON (D), NEBRASKA: You're asking just the other day whether, whether -- how to handicap this? Well, I'd have to say right now, it's 100 percent.
HENRY: In a Senate that has become increasingly polarized, Nelson helped lead a group of moderates who are vowing to bring the chamber back to the middle on a whole range of issues.
NELSON: I think the good faith and mutual trust we've achieved here will carry over into this Senate on other business as well.
HENRY: The deal didn't come easy, and nobody knows the pressures it was forged under better than Nelson, a Democrat from the conservative state of Nebraska, a man facing a tough re-election next year.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good afternoon, Senator Ben Nelson's office. May I help you?
HENRY: His phones have been ringing off the hook with activists on the left and right digging in and urging no compromise.
NELSON: If you let the far left and the far right decide how to do things in Washington, this town will completely implode.
HENRY: The liberal group, MoveOn.org rallied at the Capitol, insisting Democrats block any deal. They believe President Bush wants to wipe out the filibuster as part of a plan to reshape the Supreme Court.
BEN BRANDZEL, MOVEON PAC: If the Republicans succeed in this power grab, those justices will -- nearer the far right extreme tendencies of the appellate nominees, and there's no telling how much damage that will do to the basic rights that ordinary Americans have treasured.
HENRY: Conservative activists were also suspicious of a deal that allowed a filibuster of any of the president's judicial nominees.
AMANDA BANKS, FOCUS ON THE FAMILY: You know, we're not in the baseball card trading business. We're not going to give a few to get a few. HENRY: Conservatives in Iowa circulated a letter warning John McCain and other Republican senators who might be eying a White House run in 2008, support the nuclear option or pay a price in the crucial Iowa caucuses.
And activists on both sides have been running TV ads, as if this conflict over basic congressional procedures was nothing more than a campaign for city council.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Priscilla Owen deserves an up or down vote.
HENRY: MoveOn's PAC ran one spot comparing Majority Leader Bill Frist to Darth Vader.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One senator, seduced by a dark vision of absolute power, seeks to destroy this fabled order, replacing fair judges with far right clones.
HENRY: Before the deal was cut, Nelson was optimistic, but fretting about the win-at-all-cost mentality that threatened to sink the compromise.
NELSON: The people are lined up on both sides, and about to do war with one another. That's why we need to find some sort of a peace agreement here.
HENRY: But even this self-proclaimed peacemaker says he had to let out a little aggression on eve of this historic agreement by doing a little hunting at his rural Nebraska cabin on Sunday morning.
NELSON: I went out and shot a turkey, yesterday morning, bright and early.
HENRY: Nelson says it just seemed like a good time to be on the right side of the trigger, for a change.
Ed Henry, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: CNN's Dana Bash over at the White House is reporting the administration is still digesting the compromise. The president took no public position on the so-called nuclear, and tonight neither did his spokesman Scott McClellan. "Nominees that have been waiting for a long time for an up or down vote are now going to get one," he said. "That's progress." He went on to say, "we will continue working to push for an up or down vote on all nominees." That's out of the White House.
Now, to the nominees themselves, what this agreement means to a series of judges, five, at least. For that are we turn to our legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, who joins us tonight in Reno, Nevada.
Jeffrey, good to see you.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Aaron. BROWN: Democrats fought hard against -- certainly against all three of the nominees. They agreed to an up or down vote on Owen, Brown and Pryor. Is there a common thread to allowing those to go to a vote and not the other two?
TOOBIN: Well, they were the highest profile of the people up for these nominations, and they are two women, and the former attorney general of Alabama, Pryor, who is a popular figure in his own right. They are -- they have been the focal point of this fight, and I think these are the ones that the Republicans needed to get through to have any chance that any Republicans would sign on to this agreement.
BROWN: So, to get a deal -- it's really reversing my question. To get deal, the Republicans had to have those three?
TOOBIN: Exactly. But the Democrats got a lot in return.
BROWN: OK, because if you read, and we will later in the program, a little bit of the reaction from the political interest groups, the conservative interest groups are more unhappy than are the liberal interest groups.
TOOBIN: Very much so. I've been surfing the blogs for the past hour or so, and the Republicans are beside themselves with anger, and the Democrats, while not delighted, are certainly happy with this result. And it really is all about the Supreme Court. It's not about these nominees.
BROWN: Because it keeps in play -- this goes back to the question I asked Joe Johns a minute ago --- Senator Frist says the nuclear option, or the constitutional option, is still in play. At least as I read this agreement, each senator decides what an extraordinary circumstance is, and whether to filibuster a nominee or not, and so should a nominee for the Supreme Court to come before Congress, that nominee could be filibustered?
TOOBIN: Absolutely. And that's why Democrats are happy, because this vague phrase, extraordinary circumstances, 40-plus Democrats could say, this Supreme Court nominee presents extraordinary circumstances, requiring a filibuster. We can filibusterer, and the Republicans, as I read this agreement, have agreed not to change the rules, at least through 2007. That's a major victory for the Democrats.
BROWN: The three judges, do three judges change in a significant way any appellate court? I mean, they're not on a single appellate court. They're scattered around the country.
TOOBIN: They don't change a lot. They are, you know, more conservative judges on the court. But, look, any judge President Bush is going to appoint would be conservative. These three I would say are more conservative than most of his nominees, but there are literally hundreds of federal appeals court judges. No one makes that much of a difference. So you know, even though they were the focus of this fight, this has always been about the Supreme Court. And that's where the Democrats have, have survived, at least for this round. BROWN: How big a deal -- maybe this sounds a little goofy. I hope not. How big a deal do you think the issue ever abortion is in all of these fights? If somehow you could lift abortion out of it, would all of these fights be less intense than they are now?
TOOBIN: You bet, Aaron. Abortion transcends all of these issues. Think about, you know, the issues that the judges -- that have been politically controversial for judges -- abortion and Terri Schiavo. Well, Terri Schiavo so just about what President Bush calls the culture of life. It's about the end of life. Abortion is about the beginning of life. But federal judges and abortion, it has been the issue for 30 years, and it's going to continue to be the issue as we look at the prospect of Supreme Court nominations, perhaps as early as this summer.
BROWN: Tempted though I am to ask you why you're in Reno. I'll just say thank you for joining us tonight.
TOOBIN: Thank you. You'll have to wonder.
BROWN: No. I'll just send you an e-mail.
Our legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin with us tonight.
We'll have more on this developing story tonight. It's actually been an extraordinary night on the Hill, and we have more of it. We'll talk with two of the people responsible for the deal a little bit later.
Later, also, the story about Viagra, sex offenders and your money. You're paying for it.
But first at, almost a quarter past the hour, some of the other stories that made news today. Erica Hill with us again. She is in Atlanta -- Erica.
ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS: Hi, Aaron.
A bloody day in Iraq after a series of car bombings and suicide attacks killed at least 49 people and wounded more than 100. A senior Iraqi general assassinated by insurgents. Now, since Iraq's new government formed last month, more than 600 people have been killed in the escalating violence.
A Pennsylvania man is under arrest accused of offering to build a bomb and sell it to al Qaeda. Ron Grecula was taken into custody late last week in a Texas during a meeting with undercover FBI agents he allegedly believed were members of al Qaeda. Officials say, Grecula told the agents he has no loyalty to America, and that his bomb would be used against Americans.
Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai met with President Bush in Washington today. They singed an agreement establishing what they call a strategic partnership. But there are strains in the relationship. The president didn't agree to give Afghanistan more control over American troops stationed there, nor did he promise that Afghan prisoners at Guantanamo Bay will be sent home.
And it happened again today, a small plane flew into restricted airspace near Washington. Two air force F-16's were dispatched to intercept the plane. They dropped a warning flare. The pilot responded immediately, landing in suburban Maryland where he was questioned by police. An order given to evacuate the Capitol Building, but withdrawn within just minutes.
Now, meantime, the pilot of that other small plane that strayed further into Washington airspace two weeks ago has had his license taken away. The incident did force the evacuation, of course, of thousands of government employees, from the White House and Capitol Hill. Federal aviation officials call the pilot Hayden Sheaffer, an unacceptable risk to air safety.
And that's the latest from Headline News at this hour.
Aaron, back to you.
BROWN: Erica, thank you. Talk to you in about a half hour from now.
In a moment, stories of survival.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I lean over, flip it open. It falls back just like that. I start looking in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Beneath the rubble a little girl.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that's first thing I, you know -- the first thing that came out of my mouth, her finger just moved.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Also tonight, the call was chilling enough.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The pilot of the plane is not well. We have to go back to Laconia. Please help me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Now, a pilot on the ground would have to help a non-pilot in the air land an airplane.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a complete outrage. It's like giving a loaded gun to a murderer. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: No. It's like giving Viagra to a sex offender. And guess what, you're paying for it. No guessing needed here, though. Because this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: A bit more on the deal announced tonight on the president's judicial nominees. The interest groups are weighing in, and their reaction is fascinating, at least to us.
James Dobson, the head of Focus on the Family, not pleased at all. "This Senate agreement represent a complete bailout and betrayal by a cabal of Republicans, he said, and a great victory for united Democrats. I am certain," says Mr. Dobson, "Voters will remember both Democrats and Republicans who betrayed their trust."
On the other side, people for the American Way released a statement saying, in part, This "agreement embodies the very principle of the consultation and consensus that filibuster encourages. This is good news for the American people." The statement went to say, though, they were not altogether happy at giving up those three judges.
Fair to say, there's no shortage of pressure from all across the political spectrum. Pressure and money and the kind of people who turn out on election day, backdrop to the debate to be certain. Perhaps more than a backdrop, we don't know.
We're joined now by two of the senators who've worked hard over the last couple of weeks to find a deal, find the common ground. Senator Mark Pryor, a Democrat out of the state of Arkansas, and Susan Collins, a Republican from the state of Maine.
Well, congratulations to both of you. I know, from watching you earlier, it was a lot of hard work. Senator Collins, was there a tipping point? Was there a moment where it became clear what the deal had to be?
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: Well, I think that moment really came at the 11th hour. The vote had been scheduled. We knew that we had very little time left. We have been negotiating on and off for three weeks and very intensively for the last week, and both sides realized that we couldn't get everything. This had to truly be a compromise. But I'm really proud of what we achieved.
BROWN: Have you talked to your leadership yet?
COLLINS: I have. The Republicans immediately upon the conclusion of the negotiations went to meet with Senator Frist and Senator McConnell, and I know the Democrats did likewise.
BROWN: And can you characterize their reaction? Before we ask the same thing of your colleague there? COLLINS: Well, I don't want to put words in the mouths of my leaders, but I would say that I thought the meeting went very well. After all, we achieved the principle that judicial nominees in general should not be filibustered. And that's an important principle. Only in the most extraordinary cases, would the Democrats who signed the agreement launch a filibuster. That's a big change from what happened last year, and I think it represents real progress.
BROWN: Let me turn to Senator Pryor here, for a minute or two. What do Democrats get out of this deal?
SEN. MARK PRYOR (D), ARKANSAS: Well, I think one thing we get is we get a chance to show the American people that we can all work together. And I think this is a big win for Democrats and for Republicans. They may not feel that right now, but a big win for Democrats and Republicans, but mostly for the American people.
BROWN: Well, OK. I mean -- and I mean this with all due respect, I knew you were going to say it was a big win for the American people. But I want to know what the Democrats in the Senate got out of the deal? You give up three judges you'd fought really hard against, against a kind of vague, seemed to me vague, statement in support of the concept of filibuster?
PRYOR: Well, I think that one thing that we clearly established tonight was trust between Democrats and Republicans, although it was a small group of 14. And I think based on that trust, we hope that we have taken the nuclear option off the table for this Congress, and we hope that we've maintained the right not just for Democrats but for all senators to use their best judgment and their discretion when it comes to filibustering.
BROWN: Senator, let me ask you one more, then we'll throw this -- expand this just a little bit. Tell me what extraordinary circumstance means to you? The deal is, there will be no filibuster except in extraordinary circumstance. And tell me what it means to you.
PRYOR: Well, I think that it's defined in the agreement as to be something within the senator's discretion, and in our judgment, and I think that the people from all 50 states have sent their two senators here to Washington to use their best judgment and their discretion, and I don't know what circumstances will come down the pike. I have no idea. But I think that I'm -- I'm gratified that my colleagues said that they do trust me to make that decision.
BROWN: Senator Collins, do you think if we could hook all 100 of you up to a lie detector, that let's say 90 or so of you breathed a heavy sigh of relief tonight when the deal was done?
COLLINS: Well, I'm not sure how many would be, but it's certainly more than just the 14. Both of us have had the experience of some of our colleagues who were not involved in the negotiation coming up to us and saying, oh, I hope you succeed, please keep working. This isn't good for the Senate. We need to work together. So I think a great many of our colleagues did breathe a sigh of relief, and whether they're saying it publicly or not, believe we achieved a very fair and reasonable agreement.
BROWN: And, Senator just -- I'm sorry. Senator Pryor, just in the last few seconds here, do you think this is a watershed moment of -- of the two sides coming off the edges of the extreme -- and both sides have played there -- will we see a Senate that operates more like the Senate, if you will, and less like the House?
PRYOR: Well, I hope so. And I hope that we can look back in, say, 10 years and say, do you remember how things used to get? And we bottomed out with the nuclear option debate, but things started getting better when 12 -- or 14 senators came together, decided to make a difference. And I hope -- in fact, Susan and I were talking about that a moment ago -- I hope we're able to build on this and tackle other big issues, whether Social Security or whatever it may be, and try to get things done for this country.
BROWN: Well, to both of you, I've no polling on this, but my instinct is that a lot of Americans think you did -- probably most think you did the right thing, working out a deal, and are proud of the effort you made and the conclusion reached. So thank you.
PRYOR: Thank you.
COLLINS: Thank you.
BROWN: Thanks for your time tonight.
Coming up on the program still, an 8-year-old girl buried alive, and the story didn't end there.
And convicted sexual predators -- this is unbelievable to me -- getting Viagra, and you're paying for it. Seems fair, doesn't it? Take a break first. From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Pat Tillman, the former NFL player who joined the Army after 9/11 was an extraordinary young man. He loved his country and decided he could best show that love by enlisting and going to war in Afghanistan, where he died.
Like the death of any soldier, his death was a tragic by-product of war. It was a friendly fire death, we know that now, though the Army didn't call it that at the time, even as the Army knew that at the time. And that is what has upset his parents so, that they believe their son was used by the Army he joined and loved.
From the Pentagon tonight, Jamie McIntyre.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By the time of his memorial service May 3rd, 2004, the Army already knew the sad truth. Corporal Pat Tillman, the former NFL player who gave up a multimillion dollar football deal to serve his country as an Army Ranger, died from friendly fire 11 days earlier.
The Army had rushed to approve his posthumous Silver Star, in the accompanying singing his praises. Tillman died, it said, engaging a well-armed enemy while displaying audacious leadership and issuing commands to take the fight to the enemy.
His parents now charge it was all a sham and a cover-up.
Tillman's father, Patrick Sr., told "The Washington Post," "They realized that their recruiting efforts were going to hell in a hand basket if the truth about his death got out. They blew up their posterboy."
An Army investigation that has not yet been released found that there was no official reluctance to report the truth, but an Army official confirms to CNN the report also concluded the failure to acknowledge Tillman was killed by friendly fire created an atmosphere of suspicion on the part of the family.
And in a statement, the Army told CNN: "The Army made mistakes in reporting the circumstances of his death to the family. For these, we apologize. We cannot undo those early mistakes. In the 393 days since his death, the Army actively and directly informed the Tillman family, keeping them apprised of the results of three separate investigations, to answer questions with candor and completeness."
Among the mistakes an Army official concedes was keeping Tillman's own brother in the dark for over a month, even though he's also an Army Ranger in the same unit and was there at the time. But the Army insists that Tillman deserved his silver star, which can only be awarded for gallantry against an enemy force. The Army argues that Tillman's courage under fire came well before the tragic accident that claimed his life.
Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Now, a story with an ending no one expected. It starts way man searching a landfill for an 8-year-old girl. What he found, courage.
Here's CNN Susan Candiotti.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HALL: I got here. I got over the corner right here, looked in like here and then about right here within arm's reach was a yellow recycle bin.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The bin inside the dumpster looked like this.
HALL: And I lean over. I flip it open, it falls back just like that. I start looking in.
CANDIOTTI: It was halfway filled with rocks. He started shaking the bin.
HALL: In between the rocks, I see a small little hand and a small little foot.
CANDIOTTI: But not moving.
HALL: But no movement. No movement, no sound. I start shaking, shaking the bin as best I can. I start -- I ask, can you hear me? Can you hear me? Are you OK? I hear nothing. I see no movement.
CANDIOTTI: Sergeant Hall called in a supervisor, Lieutenant Dave Matthews. He looked in, prepared for the worst. And then...
LT. DAVE MATTHEWS: The first thing that came out might have mouth, her finger just moved, and then, also thinking that these guys are going to think I'm nuts. But it moved again.
CANDIOTTI: Stunningly, the child was breathing, after seven hours apparently buried alive under rocks. Police say she had been raped and left for dead.
HALL: He put her in there, left her for dead. I mean, he made sure that even if she was still alive, there was no way she was going crawl out of this. I mean, in the heat, with the lid down, plastic -- she was just going to bake in there. There is no way she was going get out.
CANDIOTTI: You're talking about boulders this size that were on top of her.
HALL: This size right here, yes, ma'am.
CANDIOTTI: How heavy is this?
HALL: This right here, that's probably about 30 pounds right there. Heavy.
CANDIOTTI: I can barely lift this thing myself.
A teenager, police say, confessed to the alleged crime, was in court Monday. Seventeen year old Milagro Cunningham faces charges of attempted murder, sexual battery, false imprisonment. Prosecutors say they'll ask a grand jury to indict him as an adult later this week.
The teen had been living at the home of a friend's mother, the alleged victim's godmother. She says she took in Cunningham when he had some trouble with his own relatives. She now feels betrayed.
LISA TAYLOR, ALLEGED VICTIM'S GODMOTHER: It's changed a lot inside me, as far as trusting myself and trusting other people, because I thought I had made -- it let me know that my decision that he was a good person was totally off.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, officer, thank you!
CANDIOTTI: The little girl's relatives and friends say she's doing well enough, considering her ordeal.
As an ambulance rushed her to the hospital Sunday...
TAYLOR: She asked for her pastor, and we asked why she wanted a pastor. She said that she wanted a pastor to pray with her so that she could thank God for saving her life.
CANDIOTTI: Sergeant Mike Hall, her reluctant hero.
SGT. MIKE HALL, SAVED LITTLE GIRL FROM DUMPSTER: If anything, I mean, she's the hero. I mean, she's the one that needs to be sitting here and America needs to be calling a hero. Not me.
CANDIOTTI: Susan Candiotti, CNN, Lake Worth, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: We get so few happy endings around here. You know?
What happened to Jennifer Truman was sudden and shocking: while traveling with her parents, both had passed out in a small airplane, 4,000 feet in the sky. With no idea how to pilot a plane, Jennifer had to take over the controls, with some help.
Here's CNN's Dan Lothian.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEN HOPF, FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR: You can just leave it open there.
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ken Hopf is a veteran pilot and flight instructor who has plenty of experience keeping his students calm and focused. Those skills came in handy last August at his day job as an FAA air traffic controller in New Hampshire when a distress call came in.
TRUMAN: And the pilot of the plane is not well. We have to go back to Laconia. Please help me.
HOPF: My first thing that popped into my head is, I need to try to do something to calm her down.
HOPF: They came out of this Laconia airport.
LOTHIAN: The six-seater plane was flying more than 4,000 feet above New Hampshire, 15 miles from the airport, destination, Utica, New York, when suddenly, the pilot, William Truman, stopped responding. His daughter, Jennifer, sitting in the co-pilot seat, knew something was terribly wrong.
TRUMAN: And he looked at me, and his eyes were all glassy.
LOTHIAN: She took the controls, and radioed for help. TRUMAN: I mean, having never soloed and having never landed that plane, I mean, there's a lot of little things that need to be done that I didn't know.
HOPF: I had asked her to do a couple basic maneuvers for me, asked her to make some turns, maintain altitude.
Do you know how to slow the airplane up, you know, reduce the throttle settings and prepare the aircraft for landing?
TRUMAN: No. This one, no.
HOPF: Do you know where the gear selector knob is?
TRUMAN: Gear selector knob? No.
HOPF: We're going to do the best question to help you right now.
TRUMAN: You're trying to land this plane add the last thing you need to do is remember all the various steps of something that you have no idea what the various steps are.
LOTHIAN: Truman had taken flying lessons but was not a licensed pilot. She did know how to turn the plane to the right heading and make a gradual descent. Everything seemed OK, but that was about to change.
TRUMAN: I was on the mike again, and my emotions were, you know, had kind of gone off the deep end again.
LOTHIAN: As Hopf sat at radar station like this one, Truman made another distress call. The third person on the plane, her mother, Diane Truman, had passed out.
TRUMAN: Um, I need to get down, too. My mom's also -- my mother -- something's really weird. She's flopping all over like a doll now.
LOTHIAN: What are you thinking at that point?
TRUMAN: That I have no idea what's going on.
HOPF: We all became very concerned that this was, maybe, carbon monoxide that was leaking into the airplane.
LOTHIAN: The controller asked her to open vents, ordered a more direct route, and quicker descent. Soon, the runway was in sight.
TRUMAN: Maybe half a mile.
HOPF: Just line it up with the center line of the runway.
TRUMAN: A couple hundred yards.
LOTHIAN: She kept repeating four words.
TRUMAN: Just get it down. I'm not sure if I actually bounced on the ground, but I was coming in pretty hot and I just remember the plane going about 50 feet in the air. As soon as I felt all wheels on the ground, I was on those brakes.
TRUMAN: I'm down. There's the fire department. Thank you very much.
HOPF: The people that were working around me were just as relieved as I was that it was over.
LOTHIAN: Emergency crews raced to assist Truman's parents but tragically, each suffered a stroke and could not be revived. A sad ending, but a potential air disaster averted with the help of a controller who answered the call.
TRUMAN: It was helpful to have somebody on the other side of the mike, just a calm, you know, steady voice.
LOTHIAN: Dan Lothian, CNN, Laconia, New Hampshire.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, one of those stories you simply cannot believe: Viagra for convicted sex offenders, and you have the honor of paying for it. Around the world, a generous world it is. This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: There's a certain class of stories that news editors classify as, this is just too stupid to ignore. This is one of them. There's no other way to explain it. Convicted sex offenders, serious sex offenders have been getting Viagra from the government, and you're paying for it. They really are, and you really are. Here's CNN's Mary Snow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The New York State Comptroller's Office found it was true: Taxpayers had reimbursed over a five-year period 198 level three sex offenders, convicts classified by the courts as the most likely to reoffend. Their victims ranged from toddlers, to age 90, and the crimes included first-degree rape.
From the public to politicians, strong reaction.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just think that's outrageous.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Those particular people are getting Viagra? May I ask why?
SNOW: That question is echoed by Laura Ahearn, the head of Parents for Megan's Law, a law adopted in some form by all 50 states, that requires sex offenders to register where they live.
LAURA AHEARN, PARENTS FOR MEGAN'S LAW: It's a complete outrage. It's like giving a loaded gun to a murderer. SNOW: Congressman Joe Barton in a statement said "it's hard to imagine a more perverse misuse of the taxpayers' money, and I'm going to do everything in my power to stop it."
New York's comptroller says the policy is a result of unintended consequences of a 1998 Health and Human Services directive to reimburse recipients for Viagra.
ALAN HEVESI, COMPTROLLER, NEW YORK STATE: This problem is not a New York problem. It's a national problem. This is -- this directive was applied to every state.
SNOW: Are other states also paying for Viagra for sex offenders through Medicaid? The Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services says it doesn't know.
The issue generated some tension between state and federal officials, but Medicaid administrators say states can stop the problem, adding "Medicaid should not pay for the cost of erectile dysfunction drugs for sex offenders." But New York lawmakers say Medicaid needs to take action.
New York Senator Charles Schumer is calling for federal legislation.
SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: Now, they ought to do a thorough check and see what kind of medications is Medicaid giving out to people who shouldn't have them, for one reason or another.
SNOW: For their part, Medicaid administrators say it is now advising state officials that they can deny coverage to sex offenders, for any erectile dysfunction drugs.
Mary Snow, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Ahead on the program, another case of identity theft. This time by employees of four of the largest banks in the country.
From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Coming up still on the program, an A-plus edition of "Morning Papers" is coming up. Erica Hill joins us first with some of the other headlines. Erica, do you stay through "Morning Papers?"
HILL: I do. I have to tell you, Aaron, "Morning Papers" is one of my favorites.
BROWN: Thank you very much.
HILL: You're welcome. Not to say anything nice, either.
BROWN: You can have your time now. HILL: Thank you.
We start off actually in Hackensack, New Jersey, where authorities say thousands of bank records have been stolen. Police say bank employees swiped the financial records of more than 670,000 customers of four big banks, including Wachovia and Bank of America, then sold that information to collection agencies. The banks are alerting customers who may be affected.
Police in Idaho offering $100,000 reward for information that either leads to the safe return of two missing children, or reveals who abducted them. Dylan and Shasta Groene vanished last Monday after mother and older brothers were found murdered. Their father has been ruled out as a suspect.
A trial is under way in Washington state over the outcome of last November's election for governor. Republicans claim Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire's election should be nullified, because fraud was committed. They claim ballot boxes were stuffed. Democrats insist Republicans lack any evidence to support their claim.
"Tonight's Show" host Jay Leno will testify for the defense tomorrow in Michael Jackson's child molestation trial. He's expected to tell jurors about a phone call he received from Jackson's teenage accuser. Jackson's attorneys -- attorney, rather, claims the boy asked for money. The defense could rest its case sometime this week.
And finally for you, what's a bear to do when it wonders into a backyard with an inviting pool? Go for a dip, of course. A little swim there for this 140-pound female bear, which caused quite a scare for the people who lived there. They were actually swimming when it showed up. Luckily, mom got everybody out of the pool. Nobody was hurt. The bear was tranquilized and taken to a nearby mountain range, where it was released.
BROWN: Yikes!
HILL: Can you imagine that?
BROWN: You pay all that money for a fence around your pool, and the bear still gets in.
HILL: And the bear finds a way in.
BROWN: Thank you, Ms. Hill. Thank you.
Tonight, our anniversary series "Then & Now," profiles Douglas Wilder. Right now, he is the mayor of Richmond, Virginia, but 15 years ago, he earned a place in history.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Lawrence Douglas Wilder has earned a reputation exploring unchartered territory, politically as well as racially. He graduated from the private all- black Virginia Union University, after being turned away from all- white schools in his native Virginia.
Doug Wilder went on to become a celebrated criminal lawyer, state senator, lieutenant governor, and in 1990, the first black governor ever elected in the U.S.
GOV. DOUGLAS WILDER (D), VIRGINIA: The people of Virginia have spoken tonight.
PHILLIPS: To demonstrate distaste for his state's history of slavery, Wilder chose to take his oath of office outside Virginia's Capitol, a building that had served as the Confederate Capitol during the Civil War.
Now, at 74, he's beginning a new phase of public service. Last November, following a historic change in the city charter, he became the first mayor elected by the people, rather than the council, in his hometown, Richmond.
WILDER: What is it that we are to do and who are you there for? You're there to represent the people.
PHILLIPS: Today, Mayor Doug Wilder is a common sight on the streets of Richmond, and Virginia Commonwealth University, where he teaches political science.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: All year long as we celebrate 25 years reporting the news, we look back on the people and the stories that have shaped the era in which we live. Next Wednesday night, right, cross prime-time, 25 years of defining moments. Terrific piece. Next Wednesday night.
Morning papers, a terrific piece when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Okey-doke. Time to check morning papers from around the country, around the world. Expect on the east coast, particularly, they're scrabbling to redo their front pages because the Senate deal, broke, you know, what 7:00-ish or so Eastern time tonight?
But the "Washington Times" has it on the front page, "Deal Rules Out Nuclear Option Use." Reid praises, that's the Senate Democratic leader, Frist hits pack on judicial nominees. That's their lead. There was something else I liked here. Well, I'll tell you tomorrow.
"The Christian Science Monitor" down at the bottom with President Karzai in the country meeting with the president. "Afghan's Left Out of Their own Rebuilding." President Karzai discussed reconstruction during his White House visit yesterday. He took the blame in a -- in a Washington report over their ineffective dealings in the opium business. He wasn't very happy about that.
The "Washington Examiner" the free newspaper. The nuclear option things from the front page, but the picture is what I liked here. "Hundreds of Area Police Officers bid Somber Farewell." We forget sometimes about all the police officers who are shot or killed in the line of duty. "The Examiner" didn't forget that. And so, they put it on the front page. That's a very nice shot at that.
Now just some odd front pages stories to me.
The "Cincinnati Inquirer," up here. "Reds cut pitcher Danny Graves," club may have to eat closer's $6.25 million salary. He's a fantasy -- he was being boo yesterday I think it was, and he flipped off a fan -- so they cut him. I don't know, an apology would work. Guys do worse than that every day in New York. I mean, not players.
"Chattanooga Times," "Senate Moderates Strike Judge Deal." I don't know what the proper punishment is for doing that, now that I think about it. "Bush Rebuffs Karzai on Control of Troops," also Chattanooga.
I love this from the "New York Daily News," "New York's 10 Most Wanted. Police want your help in finding these killers." That will sell some papers on the street tomorrow. And then up top so will this, "Pat Ewing," the basketball player's "ex dishes on sex and the NBA." Hmm. I don't understand this story.
How are we going on time, Will?
OK. "The Detroit News" "Radio D.J. wins $10.6 million in stink over perfume." The person she was working with wore perfume that made her sick. She got $10 million for that?
"Chicago Sun-Times" quickly. Look at that picture. "What was he uses for bait?" I don't know, but that's one ugly fish. I'll tell you that. Some sort of catfish. The weather tomorrow in Chicago, however -- is dandy.
We'll wrap it up in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Viagra for sex offenders and $10.5 million for bad perfume. We'll see you tomorrow, you never know. Until then, good for all of us.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 23, 2005 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, HOST "NEWSNIGHT": We don't often get to say it, but what an evening it's been on Capitol Hill in Washington. Tonight, neither the left nor the right won. The pressure groups that have been driving the fight over the nuclear option lost. The middle, the moderate center of the country, won. A group of senators, perhaps at least tacitly encouraged by their leadership, forged an agreement to vote on most of the men and women the president wants as judges, up or down, lifetime appointments, all, but allow others to be filibustered -- talked to death.
It was a loss for those who believe in winner-take-all politics, a victory for those who believe in compromise. A lot on this, beginning with the deal itself, and congressional correspondent Joe Johns.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: After days of intense negotiation and soul-searching, a bipartisan group of senators emerged from a final meeting Monday night, with a solution to the impasse over judicial nominations.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: The first question most of the media are going to ask is who won and who lost? The Senate won and the country won.
SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: The bipartisan center held.
JOHNS: The deal was reached less than day before a showdown vote to keep Democrats from blocking judicial nominations. It allows votes on all but two of the president's judicial nominees, including three of the most controversial, Janice Rogers Brown, William Pryor, and Priscilla Owen. No vote is promised for nominees William Myers and Henry Saad.
Under the agreement signed by 14 senators, Democrats can only block future nominees under extraordinary circumstances. In exchange, Republicans would not change Senate rules barring filibusters. Some senior senators had expressed concern that changing the rules would forever damage the Senate's tradition of unlimited debate.
SEN. JOHN WARNER (R), VIRGINIA: And the one unanswered question that guided me all the way through is -- it was unanswered -- what would happen to the Senate if the nuclear option were done? And no one was able to answer that to my satisfaction. JOHNS: One Republican who came under extreme pressure from conservatives not to go for any deals said he expects to take some heat.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: People at home are going to be very upset at me for a while.
JOHNS: Some of the greatest pressure on Bill Frist, who may run for president. He had been warned by conservative groups that nothing less than up or down votes for all judges would be acceptable. Frist asserted he can still force a showdown.
SEN. BILL FRIST (R-TN), MAJORITY LEADER: But with this agreement, all options remain on the table, including the Constitutional option. If it had been necessary to deploy the Constitutional option it would have been successful and the Senate would have...
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JOHNS: A leading conservative activist said tonight that, on balance, Frist did all he could, and the decision was taken out of his hands. A Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid, tonight is declaring victory because the filibuster was preserved at least for now on judicial nominations, but the fact of the matter is, he and Democrats spent a tremendous amount of time trying to block some judges that will now go through -- Aaron.
BROWN: All right. Senator Frist says, we hear him say this just a moment ago, that the Constitutional option as he prefers it, the nuclear option, as Trent Lott called it, is still in play, but as I read the agreement, the senators said that for at least this session of Congress, they will not support that?
JOHNS: Well, going forward -- and that is as long as Democrats decide not to filibuster. So, both sides have to do something here in this agreement. The fact of the matter is, Aaron, as you know, there's still a possibility of a Supreme Court nominee somewhere down the road and there are some other nominations still coming out of committee headed to the Senate floor that may have to be dealt with.
So, the suggestion from Frist's office is, the process will test this agreement, Aaron.
BROWN: Just, quickly, do you believe -- do you believe anyone there really knew if either side had the votes to prevail?
JOHNS: Well, I just got an e-mail from Senate producer Steve Turnham, who's talked to some people who suggested to him that Democrats thought, at the beginning of this day, they might very well lose if this thing came to a vote. As it turns out, this agreement gets rid of the necessity for a vote, Aaron.
BROWN: Joe, thank you. You've worked hard tonight. We appreciate that. Joe Johns up on the Hill tonight. Robert Byrd, the senior Democrat in the Senate, called himself proud of his colleagues and both parties tonight. "We have lifted ourselves above politics," he said, or perhaps exercised the art of it.
Here's CNN's Ed Henry.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Senator Ben Nelson is right in the middle of the deal, a deal that promises to avoid a nuclear meltdown over President Bush's judges.
SEN. BEN NELSON (D), NEBRASKA: You're asking just the other day whether, whether -- how to handicap this? Well, I'd have to say right now, it's 100 percent.
HENRY: In a Senate that has become increasingly polarized, Nelson helped lead a group of moderates who are vowing to bring the chamber back to the middle on a whole range of issues.
NELSON: I think the good faith and mutual trust we've achieved here will carry over into this Senate on other business as well.
HENRY: The deal didn't come easy, and nobody knows the pressures it was forged under better than Nelson, a Democrat from the conservative state of Nebraska, a man facing a tough re-election next year.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good afternoon, Senator Ben Nelson's office. May I help you?
HENRY: His phones have been ringing off the hook with activists on the left and right digging in and urging no compromise.
NELSON: If you let the far left and the far right decide how to do things in Washington, this town will completely implode.
HENRY: The liberal group, MoveOn.org rallied at the Capitol, insisting Democrats block any deal. They believe President Bush wants to wipe out the filibuster as part of a plan to reshape the Supreme Court.
BEN BRANDZEL, MOVEON PAC: If the Republicans succeed in this power grab, those justices will -- nearer the far right extreme tendencies of the appellate nominees, and there's no telling how much damage that will do to the basic rights that ordinary Americans have treasured.
HENRY: Conservative activists were also suspicious of a deal that allowed a filibuster of any of the president's judicial nominees.
AMANDA BANKS, FOCUS ON THE FAMILY: You know, we're not in the baseball card trading business. We're not going to give a few to get a few. HENRY: Conservatives in Iowa circulated a letter warning John McCain and other Republican senators who might be eying a White House run in 2008, support the nuclear option or pay a price in the crucial Iowa caucuses.
And activists on both sides have been running TV ads, as if this conflict over basic congressional procedures was nothing more than a campaign for city council.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Priscilla Owen deserves an up or down vote.
HENRY: MoveOn's PAC ran one spot comparing Majority Leader Bill Frist to Darth Vader.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One senator, seduced by a dark vision of absolute power, seeks to destroy this fabled order, replacing fair judges with far right clones.
HENRY: Before the deal was cut, Nelson was optimistic, but fretting about the win-at-all-cost mentality that threatened to sink the compromise.
NELSON: The people are lined up on both sides, and about to do war with one another. That's why we need to find some sort of a peace agreement here.
HENRY: But even this self-proclaimed peacemaker says he had to let out a little aggression on eve of this historic agreement by doing a little hunting at his rural Nebraska cabin on Sunday morning.
NELSON: I went out and shot a turkey, yesterday morning, bright and early.
HENRY: Nelson says it just seemed like a good time to be on the right side of the trigger, for a change.
Ed Henry, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: CNN's Dana Bash over at the White House is reporting the administration is still digesting the compromise. The president took no public position on the so-called nuclear, and tonight neither did his spokesman Scott McClellan. "Nominees that have been waiting for a long time for an up or down vote are now going to get one," he said. "That's progress." He went on to say, "we will continue working to push for an up or down vote on all nominees." That's out of the White House.
Now, to the nominees themselves, what this agreement means to a series of judges, five, at least. For that are we turn to our legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, who joins us tonight in Reno, Nevada.
Jeffrey, good to see you.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Aaron. BROWN: Democrats fought hard against -- certainly against all three of the nominees. They agreed to an up or down vote on Owen, Brown and Pryor. Is there a common thread to allowing those to go to a vote and not the other two?
TOOBIN: Well, they were the highest profile of the people up for these nominations, and they are two women, and the former attorney general of Alabama, Pryor, who is a popular figure in his own right. They are -- they have been the focal point of this fight, and I think these are the ones that the Republicans needed to get through to have any chance that any Republicans would sign on to this agreement.
BROWN: So, to get a deal -- it's really reversing my question. To get deal, the Republicans had to have those three?
TOOBIN: Exactly. But the Democrats got a lot in return.
BROWN: OK, because if you read, and we will later in the program, a little bit of the reaction from the political interest groups, the conservative interest groups are more unhappy than are the liberal interest groups.
TOOBIN: Very much so. I've been surfing the blogs for the past hour or so, and the Republicans are beside themselves with anger, and the Democrats, while not delighted, are certainly happy with this result. And it really is all about the Supreme Court. It's not about these nominees.
BROWN: Because it keeps in play -- this goes back to the question I asked Joe Johns a minute ago --- Senator Frist says the nuclear option, or the constitutional option, is still in play. At least as I read this agreement, each senator decides what an extraordinary circumstance is, and whether to filibuster a nominee or not, and so should a nominee for the Supreme Court to come before Congress, that nominee could be filibustered?
TOOBIN: Absolutely. And that's why Democrats are happy, because this vague phrase, extraordinary circumstances, 40-plus Democrats could say, this Supreme Court nominee presents extraordinary circumstances, requiring a filibuster. We can filibusterer, and the Republicans, as I read this agreement, have agreed not to change the rules, at least through 2007. That's a major victory for the Democrats.
BROWN: The three judges, do three judges change in a significant way any appellate court? I mean, they're not on a single appellate court. They're scattered around the country.
TOOBIN: They don't change a lot. They are, you know, more conservative judges on the court. But, look, any judge President Bush is going to appoint would be conservative. These three I would say are more conservative than most of his nominees, but there are literally hundreds of federal appeals court judges. No one makes that much of a difference. So you know, even though they were the focus of this fight, this has always been about the Supreme Court. And that's where the Democrats have, have survived, at least for this round. BROWN: How big a deal -- maybe this sounds a little goofy. I hope not. How big a deal do you think the issue ever abortion is in all of these fights? If somehow you could lift abortion out of it, would all of these fights be less intense than they are now?
TOOBIN: You bet, Aaron. Abortion transcends all of these issues. Think about, you know, the issues that the judges -- that have been politically controversial for judges -- abortion and Terri Schiavo. Well, Terri Schiavo so just about what President Bush calls the culture of life. It's about the end of life. Abortion is about the beginning of life. But federal judges and abortion, it has been the issue for 30 years, and it's going to continue to be the issue as we look at the prospect of Supreme Court nominations, perhaps as early as this summer.
BROWN: Tempted though I am to ask you why you're in Reno. I'll just say thank you for joining us tonight.
TOOBIN: Thank you. You'll have to wonder.
BROWN: No. I'll just send you an e-mail.
Our legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin with us tonight.
We'll have more on this developing story tonight. It's actually been an extraordinary night on the Hill, and we have more of it. We'll talk with two of the people responsible for the deal a little bit later.
Later, also, the story about Viagra, sex offenders and your money. You're paying for it.
But first at, almost a quarter past the hour, some of the other stories that made news today. Erica Hill with us again. She is in Atlanta -- Erica.
ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS: Hi, Aaron.
A bloody day in Iraq after a series of car bombings and suicide attacks killed at least 49 people and wounded more than 100. A senior Iraqi general assassinated by insurgents. Now, since Iraq's new government formed last month, more than 600 people have been killed in the escalating violence.
A Pennsylvania man is under arrest accused of offering to build a bomb and sell it to al Qaeda. Ron Grecula was taken into custody late last week in a Texas during a meeting with undercover FBI agents he allegedly believed were members of al Qaeda. Officials say, Grecula told the agents he has no loyalty to America, and that his bomb would be used against Americans.
Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai met with President Bush in Washington today. They singed an agreement establishing what they call a strategic partnership. But there are strains in the relationship. The president didn't agree to give Afghanistan more control over American troops stationed there, nor did he promise that Afghan prisoners at Guantanamo Bay will be sent home.
And it happened again today, a small plane flew into restricted airspace near Washington. Two air force F-16's were dispatched to intercept the plane. They dropped a warning flare. The pilot responded immediately, landing in suburban Maryland where he was questioned by police. An order given to evacuate the Capitol Building, but withdrawn within just minutes.
Now, meantime, the pilot of that other small plane that strayed further into Washington airspace two weeks ago has had his license taken away. The incident did force the evacuation, of course, of thousands of government employees, from the White House and Capitol Hill. Federal aviation officials call the pilot Hayden Sheaffer, an unacceptable risk to air safety.
And that's the latest from Headline News at this hour.
Aaron, back to you.
BROWN: Erica, thank you. Talk to you in about a half hour from now.
In a moment, stories of survival.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I lean over, flip it open. It falls back just like that. I start looking in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Beneath the rubble a little girl.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that's first thing I, you know -- the first thing that came out of my mouth, her finger just moved.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Also tonight, the call was chilling enough.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The pilot of the plane is not well. We have to go back to Laconia. Please help me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Now, a pilot on the ground would have to help a non-pilot in the air land an airplane.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a complete outrage. It's like giving a loaded gun to a murderer. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: No. It's like giving Viagra to a sex offender. And guess what, you're paying for it. No guessing needed here, though. Because this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: A bit more on the deal announced tonight on the president's judicial nominees. The interest groups are weighing in, and their reaction is fascinating, at least to us.
James Dobson, the head of Focus on the Family, not pleased at all. "This Senate agreement represent a complete bailout and betrayal by a cabal of Republicans, he said, and a great victory for united Democrats. I am certain," says Mr. Dobson, "Voters will remember both Democrats and Republicans who betrayed their trust."
On the other side, people for the American Way released a statement saying, in part, This "agreement embodies the very principle of the consultation and consensus that filibuster encourages. This is good news for the American people." The statement went to say, though, they were not altogether happy at giving up those three judges.
Fair to say, there's no shortage of pressure from all across the political spectrum. Pressure and money and the kind of people who turn out on election day, backdrop to the debate to be certain. Perhaps more than a backdrop, we don't know.
We're joined now by two of the senators who've worked hard over the last couple of weeks to find a deal, find the common ground. Senator Mark Pryor, a Democrat out of the state of Arkansas, and Susan Collins, a Republican from the state of Maine.
Well, congratulations to both of you. I know, from watching you earlier, it was a lot of hard work. Senator Collins, was there a tipping point? Was there a moment where it became clear what the deal had to be?
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: Well, I think that moment really came at the 11th hour. The vote had been scheduled. We knew that we had very little time left. We have been negotiating on and off for three weeks and very intensively for the last week, and both sides realized that we couldn't get everything. This had to truly be a compromise. But I'm really proud of what we achieved.
BROWN: Have you talked to your leadership yet?
COLLINS: I have. The Republicans immediately upon the conclusion of the negotiations went to meet with Senator Frist and Senator McConnell, and I know the Democrats did likewise.
BROWN: And can you characterize their reaction? Before we ask the same thing of your colleague there? COLLINS: Well, I don't want to put words in the mouths of my leaders, but I would say that I thought the meeting went very well. After all, we achieved the principle that judicial nominees in general should not be filibustered. And that's an important principle. Only in the most extraordinary cases, would the Democrats who signed the agreement launch a filibuster. That's a big change from what happened last year, and I think it represents real progress.
BROWN: Let me turn to Senator Pryor here, for a minute or two. What do Democrats get out of this deal?
SEN. MARK PRYOR (D), ARKANSAS: Well, I think one thing we get is we get a chance to show the American people that we can all work together. And I think this is a big win for Democrats and for Republicans. They may not feel that right now, but a big win for Democrats and Republicans, but mostly for the American people.
BROWN: Well, OK. I mean -- and I mean this with all due respect, I knew you were going to say it was a big win for the American people. But I want to know what the Democrats in the Senate got out of the deal? You give up three judges you'd fought really hard against, against a kind of vague, seemed to me vague, statement in support of the concept of filibuster?
PRYOR: Well, I think that one thing that we clearly established tonight was trust between Democrats and Republicans, although it was a small group of 14. And I think based on that trust, we hope that we have taken the nuclear option off the table for this Congress, and we hope that we've maintained the right not just for Democrats but for all senators to use their best judgment and their discretion when it comes to filibustering.
BROWN: Senator, let me ask you one more, then we'll throw this -- expand this just a little bit. Tell me what extraordinary circumstance means to you? The deal is, there will be no filibuster except in extraordinary circumstance. And tell me what it means to you.
PRYOR: Well, I think that it's defined in the agreement as to be something within the senator's discretion, and in our judgment, and I think that the people from all 50 states have sent their two senators here to Washington to use their best judgment and their discretion, and I don't know what circumstances will come down the pike. I have no idea. But I think that I'm -- I'm gratified that my colleagues said that they do trust me to make that decision.
BROWN: Senator Collins, do you think if we could hook all 100 of you up to a lie detector, that let's say 90 or so of you breathed a heavy sigh of relief tonight when the deal was done?
COLLINS: Well, I'm not sure how many would be, but it's certainly more than just the 14. Both of us have had the experience of some of our colleagues who were not involved in the negotiation coming up to us and saying, oh, I hope you succeed, please keep working. This isn't good for the Senate. We need to work together. So I think a great many of our colleagues did breathe a sigh of relief, and whether they're saying it publicly or not, believe we achieved a very fair and reasonable agreement.
BROWN: And, Senator just -- I'm sorry. Senator Pryor, just in the last few seconds here, do you think this is a watershed moment of -- of the two sides coming off the edges of the extreme -- and both sides have played there -- will we see a Senate that operates more like the Senate, if you will, and less like the House?
PRYOR: Well, I hope so. And I hope that we can look back in, say, 10 years and say, do you remember how things used to get? And we bottomed out with the nuclear option debate, but things started getting better when 12 -- or 14 senators came together, decided to make a difference. And I hope -- in fact, Susan and I were talking about that a moment ago -- I hope we're able to build on this and tackle other big issues, whether Social Security or whatever it may be, and try to get things done for this country.
BROWN: Well, to both of you, I've no polling on this, but my instinct is that a lot of Americans think you did -- probably most think you did the right thing, working out a deal, and are proud of the effort you made and the conclusion reached. So thank you.
PRYOR: Thank you.
COLLINS: Thank you.
BROWN: Thanks for your time tonight.
Coming up on the program still, an 8-year-old girl buried alive, and the story didn't end there.
And convicted sexual predators -- this is unbelievable to me -- getting Viagra, and you're paying for it. Seems fair, doesn't it? Take a break first. From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Pat Tillman, the former NFL player who joined the Army after 9/11 was an extraordinary young man. He loved his country and decided he could best show that love by enlisting and going to war in Afghanistan, where he died.
Like the death of any soldier, his death was a tragic by-product of war. It was a friendly fire death, we know that now, though the Army didn't call it that at the time, even as the Army knew that at the time. And that is what has upset his parents so, that they believe their son was used by the Army he joined and loved.
From the Pentagon tonight, Jamie McIntyre.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By the time of his memorial service May 3rd, 2004, the Army already knew the sad truth. Corporal Pat Tillman, the former NFL player who gave up a multimillion dollar football deal to serve his country as an Army Ranger, died from friendly fire 11 days earlier.
The Army had rushed to approve his posthumous Silver Star, in the accompanying singing his praises. Tillman died, it said, engaging a well-armed enemy while displaying audacious leadership and issuing commands to take the fight to the enemy.
His parents now charge it was all a sham and a cover-up.
Tillman's father, Patrick Sr., told "The Washington Post," "They realized that their recruiting efforts were going to hell in a hand basket if the truth about his death got out. They blew up their posterboy."
An Army investigation that has not yet been released found that there was no official reluctance to report the truth, but an Army official confirms to CNN the report also concluded the failure to acknowledge Tillman was killed by friendly fire created an atmosphere of suspicion on the part of the family.
And in a statement, the Army told CNN: "The Army made mistakes in reporting the circumstances of his death to the family. For these, we apologize. We cannot undo those early mistakes. In the 393 days since his death, the Army actively and directly informed the Tillman family, keeping them apprised of the results of three separate investigations, to answer questions with candor and completeness."
Among the mistakes an Army official concedes was keeping Tillman's own brother in the dark for over a month, even though he's also an Army Ranger in the same unit and was there at the time. But the Army insists that Tillman deserved his silver star, which can only be awarded for gallantry against an enemy force. The Army argues that Tillman's courage under fire came well before the tragic accident that claimed his life.
Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Now, a story with an ending no one expected. It starts way man searching a landfill for an 8-year-old girl. What he found, courage.
Here's CNN Susan Candiotti.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HALL: I got here. I got over the corner right here, looked in like here and then about right here within arm's reach was a yellow recycle bin.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The bin inside the dumpster looked like this.
HALL: And I lean over. I flip it open, it falls back just like that. I start looking in.
CANDIOTTI: It was halfway filled with rocks. He started shaking the bin.
HALL: In between the rocks, I see a small little hand and a small little foot.
CANDIOTTI: But not moving.
HALL: But no movement. No movement, no sound. I start shaking, shaking the bin as best I can. I start -- I ask, can you hear me? Can you hear me? Are you OK? I hear nothing. I see no movement.
CANDIOTTI: Sergeant Hall called in a supervisor, Lieutenant Dave Matthews. He looked in, prepared for the worst. And then...
LT. DAVE MATTHEWS: The first thing that came out might have mouth, her finger just moved, and then, also thinking that these guys are going to think I'm nuts. But it moved again.
CANDIOTTI: Stunningly, the child was breathing, after seven hours apparently buried alive under rocks. Police say she had been raped and left for dead.
HALL: He put her in there, left her for dead. I mean, he made sure that even if she was still alive, there was no way she was going crawl out of this. I mean, in the heat, with the lid down, plastic -- she was just going to bake in there. There is no way she was going get out.
CANDIOTTI: You're talking about boulders this size that were on top of her.
HALL: This size right here, yes, ma'am.
CANDIOTTI: How heavy is this?
HALL: This right here, that's probably about 30 pounds right there. Heavy.
CANDIOTTI: I can barely lift this thing myself.
A teenager, police say, confessed to the alleged crime, was in court Monday. Seventeen year old Milagro Cunningham faces charges of attempted murder, sexual battery, false imprisonment. Prosecutors say they'll ask a grand jury to indict him as an adult later this week.
The teen had been living at the home of a friend's mother, the alleged victim's godmother. She says she took in Cunningham when he had some trouble with his own relatives. She now feels betrayed.
LISA TAYLOR, ALLEGED VICTIM'S GODMOTHER: It's changed a lot inside me, as far as trusting myself and trusting other people, because I thought I had made -- it let me know that my decision that he was a good person was totally off.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, officer, thank you!
CANDIOTTI: The little girl's relatives and friends say she's doing well enough, considering her ordeal.
As an ambulance rushed her to the hospital Sunday...
TAYLOR: She asked for her pastor, and we asked why she wanted a pastor. She said that she wanted a pastor to pray with her so that she could thank God for saving her life.
CANDIOTTI: Sergeant Mike Hall, her reluctant hero.
SGT. MIKE HALL, SAVED LITTLE GIRL FROM DUMPSTER: If anything, I mean, she's the hero. I mean, she's the one that needs to be sitting here and America needs to be calling a hero. Not me.
CANDIOTTI: Susan Candiotti, CNN, Lake Worth, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: We get so few happy endings around here. You know?
What happened to Jennifer Truman was sudden and shocking: while traveling with her parents, both had passed out in a small airplane, 4,000 feet in the sky. With no idea how to pilot a plane, Jennifer had to take over the controls, with some help.
Here's CNN's Dan Lothian.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEN HOPF, FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR: You can just leave it open there.
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ken Hopf is a veteran pilot and flight instructor who has plenty of experience keeping his students calm and focused. Those skills came in handy last August at his day job as an FAA air traffic controller in New Hampshire when a distress call came in.
TRUMAN: And the pilot of the plane is not well. We have to go back to Laconia. Please help me.
HOPF: My first thing that popped into my head is, I need to try to do something to calm her down.
HOPF: They came out of this Laconia airport.
LOTHIAN: The six-seater plane was flying more than 4,000 feet above New Hampshire, 15 miles from the airport, destination, Utica, New York, when suddenly, the pilot, William Truman, stopped responding. His daughter, Jennifer, sitting in the co-pilot seat, knew something was terribly wrong.
TRUMAN: And he looked at me, and his eyes were all glassy.
LOTHIAN: She took the controls, and radioed for help. TRUMAN: I mean, having never soloed and having never landed that plane, I mean, there's a lot of little things that need to be done that I didn't know.
HOPF: I had asked her to do a couple basic maneuvers for me, asked her to make some turns, maintain altitude.
Do you know how to slow the airplane up, you know, reduce the throttle settings and prepare the aircraft for landing?
TRUMAN: No. This one, no.
HOPF: Do you know where the gear selector knob is?
TRUMAN: Gear selector knob? No.
HOPF: We're going to do the best question to help you right now.
TRUMAN: You're trying to land this plane add the last thing you need to do is remember all the various steps of something that you have no idea what the various steps are.
LOTHIAN: Truman had taken flying lessons but was not a licensed pilot. She did know how to turn the plane to the right heading and make a gradual descent. Everything seemed OK, but that was about to change.
TRUMAN: I was on the mike again, and my emotions were, you know, had kind of gone off the deep end again.
LOTHIAN: As Hopf sat at radar station like this one, Truman made another distress call. The third person on the plane, her mother, Diane Truman, had passed out.
TRUMAN: Um, I need to get down, too. My mom's also -- my mother -- something's really weird. She's flopping all over like a doll now.
LOTHIAN: What are you thinking at that point?
TRUMAN: That I have no idea what's going on.
HOPF: We all became very concerned that this was, maybe, carbon monoxide that was leaking into the airplane.
LOTHIAN: The controller asked her to open vents, ordered a more direct route, and quicker descent. Soon, the runway was in sight.
TRUMAN: Maybe half a mile.
HOPF: Just line it up with the center line of the runway.
TRUMAN: A couple hundred yards.
LOTHIAN: She kept repeating four words.
TRUMAN: Just get it down. I'm not sure if I actually bounced on the ground, but I was coming in pretty hot and I just remember the plane going about 50 feet in the air. As soon as I felt all wheels on the ground, I was on those brakes.
TRUMAN: I'm down. There's the fire department. Thank you very much.
HOPF: The people that were working around me were just as relieved as I was that it was over.
LOTHIAN: Emergency crews raced to assist Truman's parents but tragically, each suffered a stroke and could not be revived. A sad ending, but a potential air disaster averted with the help of a controller who answered the call.
TRUMAN: It was helpful to have somebody on the other side of the mike, just a calm, you know, steady voice.
LOTHIAN: Dan Lothian, CNN, Laconia, New Hampshire.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, one of those stories you simply cannot believe: Viagra for convicted sex offenders, and you have the honor of paying for it. Around the world, a generous world it is. This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: There's a certain class of stories that news editors classify as, this is just too stupid to ignore. This is one of them. There's no other way to explain it. Convicted sex offenders, serious sex offenders have been getting Viagra from the government, and you're paying for it. They really are, and you really are. Here's CNN's Mary Snow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The New York State Comptroller's Office found it was true: Taxpayers had reimbursed over a five-year period 198 level three sex offenders, convicts classified by the courts as the most likely to reoffend. Their victims ranged from toddlers, to age 90, and the crimes included first-degree rape.
From the public to politicians, strong reaction.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just think that's outrageous.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Those particular people are getting Viagra? May I ask why?
SNOW: That question is echoed by Laura Ahearn, the head of Parents for Megan's Law, a law adopted in some form by all 50 states, that requires sex offenders to register where they live.
LAURA AHEARN, PARENTS FOR MEGAN'S LAW: It's a complete outrage. It's like giving a loaded gun to a murderer. SNOW: Congressman Joe Barton in a statement said "it's hard to imagine a more perverse misuse of the taxpayers' money, and I'm going to do everything in my power to stop it."
New York's comptroller says the policy is a result of unintended consequences of a 1998 Health and Human Services directive to reimburse recipients for Viagra.
ALAN HEVESI, COMPTROLLER, NEW YORK STATE: This problem is not a New York problem. It's a national problem. This is -- this directive was applied to every state.
SNOW: Are other states also paying for Viagra for sex offenders through Medicaid? The Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services says it doesn't know.
The issue generated some tension between state and federal officials, but Medicaid administrators say states can stop the problem, adding "Medicaid should not pay for the cost of erectile dysfunction drugs for sex offenders." But New York lawmakers say Medicaid needs to take action.
New York Senator Charles Schumer is calling for federal legislation.
SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: Now, they ought to do a thorough check and see what kind of medications is Medicaid giving out to people who shouldn't have them, for one reason or another.
SNOW: For their part, Medicaid administrators say it is now advising state officials that they can deny coverage to sex offenders, for any erectile dysfunction drugs.
Mary Snow, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Ahead on the program, another case of identity theft. This time by employees of four of the largest banks in the country.
From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Coming up still on the program, an A-plus edition of "Morning Papers" is coming up. Erica Hill joins us first with some of the other headlines. Erica, do you stay through "Morning Papers?"
HILL: I do. I have to tell you, Aaron, "Morning Papers" is one of my favorites.
BROWN: Thank you very much.
HILL: You're welcome. Not to say anything nice, either.
BROWN: You can have your time now. HILL: Thank you.
We start off actually in Hackensack, New Jersey, where authorities say thousands of bank records have been stolen. Police say bank employees swiped the financial records of more than 670,000 customers of four big banks, including Wachovia and Bank of America, then sold that information to collection agencies. The banks are alerting customers who may be affected.
Police in Idaho offering $100,000 reward for information that either leads to the safe return of two missing children, or reveals who abducted them. Dylan and Shasta Groene vanished last Monday after mother and older brothers were found murdered. Their father has been ruled out as a suspect.
A trial is under way in Washington state over the outcome of last November's election for governor. Republicans claim Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire's election should be nullified, because fraud was committed. They claim ballot boxes were stuffed. Democrats insist Republicans lack any evidence to support their claim.
"Tonight's Show" host Jay Leno will testify for the defense tomorrow in Michael Jackson's child molestation trial. He's expected to tell jurors about a phone call he received from Jackson's teenage accuser. Jackson's attorneys -- attorney, rather, claims the boy asked for money. The defense could rest its case sometime this week.
And finally for you, what's a bear to do when it wonders into a backyard with an inviting pool? Go for a dip, of course. A little swim there for this 140-pound female bear, which caused quite a scare for the people who lived there. They were actually swimming when it showed up. Luckily, mom got everybody out of the pool. Nobody was hurt. The bear was tranquilized and taken to a nearby mountain range, where it was released.
BROWN: Yikes!
HILL: Can you imagine that?
BROWN: You pay all that money for a fence around your pool, and the bear still gets in.
HILL: And the bear finds a way in.
BROWN: Thank you, Ms. Hill. Thank you.
Tonight, our anniversary series "Then & Now," profiles Douglas Wilder. Right now, he is the mayor of Richmond, Virginia, but 15 years ago, he earned a place in history.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Lawrence Douglas Wilder has earned a reputation exploring unchartered territory, politically as well as racially. He graduated from the private all- black Virginia Union University, after being turned away from all- white schools in his native Virginia.
Doug Wilder went on to become a celebrated criminal lawyer, state senator, lieutenant governor, and in 1990, the first black governor ever elected in the U.S.
GOV. DOUGLAS WILDER (D), VIRGINIA: The people of Virginia have spoken tonight.
PHILLIPS: To demonstrate distaste for his state's history of slavery, Wilder chose to take his oath of office outside Virginia's Capitol, a building that had served as the Confederate Capitol during the Civil War.
Now, at 74, he's beginning a new phase of public service. Last November, following a historic change in the city charter, he became the first mayor elected by the people, rather than the council, in his hometown, Richmond.
WILDER: What is it that we are to do and who are you there for? You're there to represent the people.
PHILLIPS: Today, Mayor Doug Wilder is a common sight on the streets of Richmond, and Virginia Commonwealth University, where he teaches political science.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: All year long as we celebrate 25 years reporting the news, we look back on the people and the stories that have shaped the era in which we live. Next Wednesday night, right, cross prime-time, 25 years of defining moments. Terrific piece. Next Wednesday night.
Morning papers, a terrific piece when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Okey-doke. Time to check morning papers from around the country, around the world. Expect on the east coast, particularly, they're scrabbling to redo their front pages because the Senate deal, broke, you know, what 7:00-ish or so Eastern time tonight?
But the "Washington Times" has it on the front page, "Deal Rules Out Nuclear Option Use." Reid praises, that's the Senate Democratic leader, Frist hits pack on judicial nominees. That's their lead. There was something else I liked here. Well, I'll tell you tomorrow.
"The Christian Science Monitor" down at the bottom with President Karzai in the country meeting with the president. "Afghan's Left Out of Their own Rebuilding." President Karzai discussed reconstruction during his White House visit yesterday. He took the blame in a -- in a Washington report over their ineffective dealings in the opium business. He wasn't very happy about that.
The "Washington Examiner" the free newspaper. The nuclear option things from the front page, but the picture is what I liked here. "Hundreds of Area Police Officers bid Somber Farewell." We forget sometimes about all the police officers who are shot or killed in the line of duty. "The Examiner" didn't forget that. And so, they put it on the front page. That's a very nice shot at that.
Now just some odd front pages stories to me.
The "Cincinnati Inquirer," up here. "Reds cut pitcher Danny Graves," club may have to eat closer's $6.25 million salary. He's a fantasy -- he was being boo yesterday I think it was, and he flipped off a fan -- so they cut him. I don't know, an apology would work. Guys do worse than that every day in New York. I mean, not players.
"Chattanooga Times," "Senate Moderates Strike Judge Deal." I don't know what the proper punishment is for doing that, now that I think about it. "Bush Rebuffs Karzai on Control of Troops," also Chattanooga.
I love this from the "New York Daily News," "New York's 10 Most Wanted. Police want your help in finding these killers." That will sell some papers on the street tomorrow. And then up top so will this, "Pat Ewing," the basketball player's "ex dishes on sex and the NBA." Hmm. I don't understand this story.
How are we going on time, Will?
OK. "The Detroit News" "Radio D.J. wins $10.6 million in stink over perfume." The person she was working with wore perfume that made her sick. She got $10 million for that?
"Chicago Sun-Times" quickly. Look at that picture. "What was he uses for bait?" I don't know, but that's one ugly fish. I'll tell you that. Some sort of catfish. The weather tomorrow in Chicago, however -- is dandy.
We'll wrap it up in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Viagra for sex offenders and $10.5 million for bad perfume. We'll see you tomorrow, you never know. Until then, good for all of us.
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