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Fallout From Capitol Hill Scandal

Aired September 30, 2006 - 17:00   ET

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

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Our top story, major fallout from the latest scandal to rock Capitol Hill. Last night the House voted to launch a probe into allegations Congressman Foley sent a young male page sexually explicit messages. Well, House speaker Dennis Hastert has also asked Congressman John Shimkus who oversees the page program to investigate.
Now Foley quickly resigned yesterday just before the matter hit the media. So what exactly were in those alleged messages? Well, here's CNN's congressional correspondent Dana Bash.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Congressman Mark Foley's resignation was abrupt. "I am deeply sorry and apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent," said Foley in a short written statement.

The six-term Republican and member of the GOP leadership made no mention of his emails with a former male congressional page or concerns according to GOP sources close to Foley, that devastating information was about to be public. Hours later it did. ABC News reported a number of sexually graphic instant messages between Foley and male congressional pages using his personal screen name, Maf54.

"What are you wearing?" he asked in one. "T shirts and shorts," the teen replied. "Love to slip them off you," Foley allegedly said. And in another Foley asked, "Do I make you a little horny?" A little, said the teen. "Cool," replied Foley.

A GOP leadership aide tells CNN as soon as ABC confronted Foley's office with the explicit messages he knew he had to quit. There was no immediate response from Foley's office to those alleged messages but a spokesperson confirmed to CNN that Foley did have five email exchanges last year with a 16-year-old page, asking him, "How old are you?" in one and in another he asks the young man to "send me a pic of you "as well. The young man forwarded that e-mail, according to a government watchdog group that posted it online, to a congressional staffer, writing the word "sick" 13 times.

The group's director sent it to the House Ethics Committee and the FBI.

MELANIE SLOAN, ETHICS WATCHDOG: Because Representative Foley was using a personal e-mail account to send the page e-mails, the former page e-mails and the young man was clearly made uncomfortable by the e-mails we thought it was a matter appropriate for the House Ethics Committee to investigate.

BASH: Law enforcement sources won't comment but there is no indication at this point of any criminal probe. And it is unclear how the House Ethics Committee proceeded. Foley's resignation sent shock waves through the Capitol. House Speaker Dennis Hastert was visibly angry.

REP. DENNIS HASTERT, (R) HOUSE SPEAKER: I have asked John Shimkus, the head of the page board to look into the issue, regarding Congressman Foley, we want to make sure all of our pages are safe in the page system is safe.

QUESTION: (inaudible)

HASTERT: Well, none of us are very happy about it.

BASH: Yet at least one member of the GOP leadership and the congressional page board knew almost a near ago about Foley's e-mail asking the teenager for his picture.

According to Congressman John Shimkus, the head of the board they confronted Foley who insisted nothing inappropriate had occurred. The board ordered Foley to cease all contact with the former page, then dropped the matter.

(on camera): What makes this all the more troubling is Congressman Foley was co-chair of the Missing and Exploited Children Caucus and responsible for writing the most recent legislation to crack down on Internet predators. Dana Bash, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Today the White House reacted to the Foley scandal saying, and I'm quoting here, "We're surprised and disappointed, we have confidence that the House of Representatives will address this matter appropriately."

That is the burning question on the blogs right now. Did House majority leader John Boehner change his story about how he responded to reports Foley was e-mailing a teenage page. Well, bloggers point to a "Washington Post" story that quotes Boehner as saying he told House speaker Dennis Hastert about the matter this spring.

Well, later Boehner called the "Post" to ask for a correction saying he couldn't remember whether he talked to Hastert after all.

All right, we want to hear from you. Do you think the GOP leadership should have done more to intervene in the Foley matter? E- mail us at weekends@cnn.com. We're going to read some of your responses later this hour. Also later in the program we're going to ask two well-known bloggers if this will turn into political poison for Republicans come November. That's coming up in about 30 minutes.

Meantime, former White House chief of staff Andrew Card, not Donald Rumsfeld's biggest fan exactly. That's according to "The Washington Post." The paper quotes journalist Bob Woodward's new book "State of Denial," saying Card, unhappy with the situation in Iraq, tried to convince President Bush to fire his defense secretary twice. Instead it was Card who ended up leaving the administration in March, reportedly convinced Iraq will eventually be compared to Vietnam.

Now, Bob Woodward talks to LARRY KING LIVE about his new book, including his new allegations about the Iraq War and a scathing critique of Donald Rumsfeld. That's Monday night at 9:00 Eastern.

Also, another must-see CNN special, "Rumsfeld, Man of War", takes a revealing look at the Pentagon chief and his controversial decisions in Iraq. That's tonight and tomorrow night at 8:00 Eastern.

But now, to the tragic plane crash in Brazil. Emergency crews suspect they are dealing with their nation's worst air disaster. A GOL, Gol Airlines flight crashed in the Amazon Jungle with 155 people on board. Relatives are anxiously awaiting word on survivors. But there is not much hope here. The big Boeing plane apparently clipped a smaller plane before it crashed.

Now the crash site is so remote Brazil's air force had to lower rescue teams by ropes from helicopters. And as the search continues, Gol Airlines is looking after the families of the passengers and the crew. Tom Hennigan is on the phone from Sao Paolo, Brazil, he is a journalist covering the story there. Can you give us the latest on the situation?

TOM HENNIGAN, JOURNALIST (on phone): The latest we are being told by the Brazilian authorities is that they do not find any survivors, that they believe all 155 passengers and crew have died.

LIN: Do they have any idea what caused this crash?

HENNIGAN: At the moment they are saying that they are working on a number of theories but refuse to rule any in or out. The most common one being discussed here is that the Gol plane clipped a smaller corporate jet, the smaller corporate jet was forced into an emergency landing, that pilot has been interviewed by the Brazilian air force, he landed at a Brazilian air force base and Brazil's minister of defense has said that pilot saw a large shadow come out of nowhere, clip his plane and force him into an emergency landing. And we believe that plane that clipped him was the Gol jet.

LIN: So as the investigation goes on we are hearing also that there may have been as many as five Americans on board, possibly the corporate jet, we're also hearing that a "New York Times" reporter was on board. Do you have any more detail about the passengers on either the corporate jet or the passenger jet?

HENNIGAN: Gol Airlines have not said whether any foreigners were on the Gol plane. Looking down through the passenger list it looks to me to be mainly Brazilian. We do know that there were supposedly four Americans, one of whom was "New York Times" journalist Joe Sharkey (ph) and a Brazilian pilot. They were flying this corporate jet from the from a manufacturer in the state of Sao Paolo to the United States. It planned to stop in the Amazonian jungle city of Manaus to refuel and it was on its way to Manaus when the incident happened. LIN: All right. Tom Hennigan, journalist, close to the scene where this developing scene is happening. Thank you very much. We'll stay on top of that one.

Well, Baghdad is eerily quiet this weekend as authorities try to crackdown on violence with a strict curfew. The government and the U.S. military hope it will minimize sectarian violence that's left bodies scattered across the capital. Coinciding with the curfew reports of a bomb plot targeting the city's Green Zone. CNN's Arwa Damon has the latest on the security crackdown.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The announcement came pretty much as a surprise to everyone. It came very late Friday night on state- owned al Iraqiya television. The Iraqi government announcing both a vehicle and pedestrian ban that went into effect at 11:00 p.m. on Friday to last until 6:00 a.m. on Sunday.

The government did, however, lift the ban for a few hours Saturday evening to allow worshipers to go to the mosque to pray. This is the holy month of Ramadan. The U.S. military said that it did advise the Iraqi government to put a curfew in place. However, it was the Iraqi government's decision to then act upon that. They say that it is because in the last two weeks we have seen an increase in attacks and especially in the last week an increase in suicide attacks, all of this is part of an effort to bring the violence, especially in the capital Baghdad under control.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military has announced that it foiled a major terror plot that involved multiple suicide car bombings as well as possibly suicide vests against Baghdad's international zone. They say that they detained a suspect, a man believed to be part of this terror cell that was going to be carrying out this attack at the residence of a Adnan al Duleimi, a prominent Sunni politician here. He was one of Mr. Duleimi's body guards.

However, the U.S. military said that Mr. Duleimi was not involved in this attack, that he was not the target of the operation. Arwa Damon, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Coming up, held hostage. Assaulted and then shot and killed, a slain student remembered by her Colorado community. Also ...

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a strong statistical relation between Bush's approval rating and the price of gas.

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LIN: Are plummeting prices a Republican plot? Well, some say cheap gas, get it while you can. The nose dive might not last past November's elections.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There simply aren't enough soldiers, there aren't enough units to allow for the kind of rotation policy that the Pentagon created a couple years ago.

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LIN: Now these American soldiers are paying the price. You're watching CNN NEWsROOM.

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LIN: Now to the emotional tribute for Emily Keyes, the 16-year- old was killed on Wednesday when a gunman stormed her high school. Her family and friends are honoring her today with a public memorial. And they are focusing not on the violence of her death but the positive way she lived her life. These emotional words from the Park County sheriff.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF FRED WEGENER, PARK COUNTY, COLORADO: Emily will be with me in my heart forever. I'll live with what happened, I'll live with my decision, and it is mine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Even as the community honors Keyes, the investigation into the shooting is revealing new details about the gunman. Our Jonathan Freed reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The story behind the attack on Platte Canyon High School started before the gunman, Duane Morrison, even entered the building. The county sheriff says the 53-year-old man mailed a letter to a relative in Colorado that day. Fourteen handwritten pages described as part suicide note.

WEGENER: This letter also clearly acknowledges his impending death. It also apologizes to his family for his actions that will occur.

FREED: Police say Morrison made no references to the school or about intending to harm anyone other than himself. But at 11:40 a.m. on Wednesday, Morrison simply walked into the building, and entered room 206, and, according to a local newspaper account from a student who was there, ordered everyone to line up and face a black board. And then fired a shot into the ceiling to show he was serious.

Morrison then told the teacher and all of the male students to leave, leaving behind six teenage girls. By this time police had been called, a SWAT team activated and the school evacuated. Between 12:15 and 3:30 p.m. Morrison released four of the girls but investigators say some and possibly all of them were molested first. The girl who spoke to the media described what she heard as she was facing the wall.

"You could hear the rustling of clothes and elastic being snapped and zippers being opened and closed."

Morrison had the hostages talk to police and claimed he had a bomb in a backpack. At 3:30 he stopped communicating. His last message -- Something will happen at 4:00.

That's when the SWAT team moved in. One of the two remaining girls managed to get away, but police say Morrison shot 16-year-old Emily Keyes in the back of the head as she tried to escape. And then turned the gun on himself.

The next day, family and friends clung to each other looking for support. And answers.

What frame of mind are you in today?

WEGENER: Today, I'm just grieving with my community. You know, my son was in that building too.

FREED: The sheriff believes his county will never be the same again. A friend of Emily's who says she was in a classroom directly below room 206, believes grief counselors will only be able to do so much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think you have to go with your friends and kind of work it out.

FREED: Emily's parents say the last words they got from her was a text message that she sent during the ordeal. It said "I love U guys." The sheriff says Morrison's last message, the suicide letter confirmed his worst fear.

WEGENER: That he probably intended to kill both the young ladies and then kill himself or have us shoot him.

FREED: Still, Sheriff Wegener says he believes ordering the SWAT team to move in was the right decision. Jonathan Freed, CNN, Bailey, Colorado.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: News across America.

Wisconsin police say they now know the motive behind the fatal shooting of a high school principal. The suspect, a 15-year-old student told investigators he shot John Klang because he was upset after Klang reprimanded him.

And in Maryland a tornado with some major staying power. Meteorologists say a twister with winds of 90 miles per hour touched down Thursday and traveled two miles before lifting back into the air. It toppled trees which in turn damaged 33 homes. Thirteen of them were completely destroyed.

And in Atlanta today, a high rise gone in just seconds. The 12- story office building was imploded to make way for a new two and a half acre residential and retail development project.

And checking the popular stories on our Web sites, Isaac has become the fifth hurricane of the Atlantic season. It's not expected to hit the U.S. but it could reach eastern Canada by early next week.

And Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the hot seat again. According to Bob Woodward's new book, former White House chief of staff Andrew Card tried twice to persuade President Bush to fire him and on the second attempt had the support of First Lady Laura Bush.

And readers are devouring details of the congressional scandal rocking Washington. A colleague of Representative Mark Foley says he was told to stop emailing a page. Many believe the inappropriate nature of those e-mails led to Foley's resignation. Read more about it at cnn.com. Click on the most popular tab. And of course we're going to have more on that story right here.

Now the prices of plummeting and your wallet thanking you. But why is gas getting so much cheaper so fast? Well, some say politics are at play. That's next.

Plus, the Foley fallout. The congressman resigns. Now the focus shifts to the GOP leadership. That's coming up.

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LIN: Welcome aboard the CNN election express bus. Today's stop, the Los Angeles County Fair. The bus is crisscrossing the country to find out what is on your mind this election season. Now CNN's election express is in L.A. all weekend and then it moves on to Albuquerque next week.

In the meantime, gasoline prices are falling across the country. And well, you might be happy to have a few extra bucks in your pocket. Plunging prices have some wondering if something else is going on. Here is CNN's Ali Velshi.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Cheaper gas. Finally. But why? Well, the legendary summer driving season is over. No hurricanes have damaged Gulf Coast rigs and refineries. Things are calmer between Israel and Lebanon and Iran, well, at least we're not at war with Iran.

The blogs are buzzing with other theories. "Are lower gas prices a Republican plot?" This blogger wonders if Republicans are trying to soften voters who spent the last year angry about high gas prices. "I predict it will work," by the way. "The Republicans will retain control of Congress." "Those Republicans need all the help they can get and big oil is doing the best they can to assist. I would conclude that falling gas prices is just another example of manipulation of the public by Bush and company."

DOUG HENWOOD, LEFT BUSINESS OBSERVER: Certainly there is a strong statistical relation between Bush's approval rating and the price of gas.

Nine-eleven approval spike.

VELSHI: Doug Henwood, editor of the liberal newsletter, "The Left Business Observer" has charted President Bush's popularity against gas prices. He calls the correlation he found uncanny but he stopped short of calling it a conspiracy.

HENWOOD: More than three quarters of the movement in Bush's can be related to the price of gas.

VELSHI: But it's not just the blogs. A recent "USA Today" Gallup poll asked voters, "Do you think the Bush administration has deliberately manipulated the price of gasoline so that it would decrease before this fall's elections?" Forty two percent said yes. Big oil's P.R. operation calls the whole idea preposterous.

RAYOLA DOUGHER, AMERICAN PETROLEUM INSTITUTE: I think if politicians were really in charge of oil prices, I think they would be low, they would probably be free right now, and the very notion that we have some sort of command and control oil economy is silly.

VELSHI: Back in July both crude oil and gasoline hit their highest recorded prices. Gas was averaging about $3 a gallon. By mid September oil had dropped about $15 a barrel, so gas should have dropped about 45 cents a gallon. It actually dropped 50 cents a gallon and it's dropped more since then. Could President Bush have had anything to do with plummeting gas prices? We asked Professor Akshay Rao who studies pricing strategies

DR. AKSHAY RAO, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: Surely if you picked up the phone and made five or 10 strategic phone calls he might be able to influence prices to some degree. But I think that's a fairly far fetched theory.

VELSHI: What is more conceivable according to Rao is is that t he energy industry cut prices without prompting from Washington. That's because they are worried if the Democrats win they will follow up on threats to tax the energy industry more heavily. We put that idea to big oil's P.R. people.

DOUGHER: It cannot be done. They couldn't do it if they wanted to do it.

VELSHI (on camera): The government says one more thing. Remember back in spring when much of the country started to use ethanol as an additive for summer gasoline. That caused gas prices to spike. And now that we switched to winter blend gasoline we won't have that added cost until next spring again. Ali Velshi, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Capitol Hill is hanging its head and blogs are abuzz. The Foley fallout and what could it spell for November. That's coming up.

And too much turmoil, not enough troops. Now these soldiers are headed back to Iraq. Their story when CNN NEWSROOM comes back.

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