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Health Reform Strategy Shift?; Afghanistan to Vote Under Threats From the Taliban; "60 Minutes" Creator Don Hewitt Dies at 86

Aired August 19, 2009 - 11:00   ET

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

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: It is Wednesday, the 19th day of August. Here are the top stories in this CNN NEWSROOM.

Democrats consider the go-it-alone health care strategy, ramming reform through Congress without Republican support.

Why are prescription drugs often 10 times more expensive than the very same drugs sold overseas? Reform may get generics on the market faster.

And shoppers armed with plastic are about to get more consumer rights. The first phase of new federal credit card rules take effect.

Good morning, everybody. I'm Drew Griffin, in today for Tony.

And you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

The health care fight could be headed for a major shift in strategy, a make-or-break maneuver. Sources tell CNN Democrats and the White House may be preparing to push through health care reform without Republican support. When we say sources tell CNN, they're actually telling Senior Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash, who has been all over the story, joining us from Washington. We also have Elaine Quijano, live with the latest on all this from the White House.

But Dana, what is this all about? What is happening?

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, I think this is very interesting, and I think that the context of this should be that this idea, this idea of pushing health care through without Republican support, it has been privately discussed for some time, that this is a possibility, even a probability, when we get to the fall, when it's do or die time for this bill.

We should emphasize that both at the White House and on Capitol Hill, our sources are telling us nothing has been decided, and they're going to continue to work through the process with Republicans. However, what is going on here is that more and more from the White House and from Capitol Hill, what Democrats are saying is that when they hear statements from Republicans over the past 48 hours or so, like Chuck Grassley, a top Republican, who has said that he doesn't necessarily think that this can be done with just four Republicans votes, or something that he said at a town hall last week, suggesting that the meetings he is having are just that, meetings, not negotiations. More and more you're hearing from Democrats that comments like those and from other Republican leaders suggest that they're not serious. And that is why they're saying, look at these Republican statements, that's why we probably are going to have to, at the end of the day, do this without Republicans. But again, no decision has been made.

GRIFFIN: Yes. Dana, we're going to get into the strategy of all this a little later in the show and in our noon hour, but Republicans have said for a long time they haven't been invited to a lot of these -- it's either agree with us or move away from the table.

Elaine, what is being said over at the White House? Is this White House still trying to reach out to Republicans, or are they now saying, look, we will go it alone?

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs just finished up a gaggle last hour, Drew, and he was asked this over and over again, and he was asked, are you giving up, basically, on a bipartisan route here? He said absolutely not, that the administration is still hopeful, of course, that it can work with Republicans on this issue. And specifically, he went into a little bit more detail, saying, look, it wouldn't make any sense. Why on August 19th would we go out there saying we've given up on Republicans when there are still several more weeks of negotiations left?

But again, those questions continue. Can this White House, can Democrats really get Republicans on board with this? Obviously, the White House saying, look, we're still very open, at least what they're saying publicly, is that they're still very open to getting Republicans on board here, if they're willing -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: Dana, I want to ask you, why the big push anyway? Democrats could do this alone. Why did they ever want to get Republicans on board? Why don't they just ram it through?

BASH: Well, in fact, when you look at the votes, they probably do need Republicans, because although they have 60 votes in the Senate, they have an ailing Senator Kennedy who has not been there for a long time. That's one Democrat down. There's Robert Byrd, who is very old and has been ailing, and is somebody who has not been there as a reliable vote. So, right there, you do need at least a couple of Republicans.

And, you know, the fact of the matter is, it's not just that, you also have a healthy number of Democrats, of conservative Democrats who have said that they don't want to do this because their constituents don't want them to do this with just a party line vote, that their constituents want this to be bipartisan. So, those are just a couple of reasons.

And one other thing, Drew. You heard Elaine talk about the fact that they're not going to give up now. Well, we just got a statement from that lead Republican, Chuck Grassley, who the Democrats are kind of blaming for suggesting that this is not going to happen on a bipartisan basis, and I'll read you the statement.

He's saying that he still is working. He said, "I've said all year that something as big and important as health care legislation should have broad-based support. So far, no one has developed that kind of support either in Congress or at the White House. That doesn't mean we should quit, it means we should keep working until we can put something together that gets that widespread support."

So, he says that he is still willing to work at the table, and I can tell you that those negotiators in the Senate who have been talking for months and months, they are going to have a conference call tomorrow. And they say that they are going to continue to talk.

GRIFFIN: All right, guys. We'll be talking about this a lot through the next two hours. Thank you guys, both, for this.

And we want to know what our viewers think. Should Democrats and the White House move forward on health care reform without Republican support?

Go to our blog and at CNN.com/newsroom and take a vote on this. You can also leave us a comment. We're going to share the results from our "QuickVote" a little later in the CNN NEWSROOM.

The health care debate is likely to heat up in the South today. Lawmakers holding a dozen town hall meetings across the region, really across the whole bottom half of the country, from South Carolina to Texas, Oklahoma. Most of today's town halls are sponsored by House members, some holding multiple meetings in different cities.

Well, things got pretty hot at a town hall up North last night. Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank firing back at a crowd in Dartmouth.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why do you continue to support a Nazi policy, as Obama has expressly supported this policy? Why are you supporting it?

REP. BARNEY FRANK (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Let me -- I will...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A real solution.

FRANK: When you ask me that question, I am going to revert to my ethnic heritage and answer your question with a question. On what planet do you spend most of your time?

(APPLAUSE)

FRANK: Don't answer the question.

Yes, you stand there with a picture of the president defaced to look like Hitler and compare the effort to increase health care to the Nazis. My answer to you is, as I said before, it is a tribute to the First Amendment that this kind of vile, contemptible nonsense is so freely propagated.

(APPLAUSE)

FRANK: Ma'am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table. I have no interest in doing it.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Well, they weren't the only ones in the crowd. They were the loudest though.

Despite that, Frank stayed. He answered questions for two hours. He's one guy who doesn't mind taking heat.

Well, one question a lot of you are asking, will health care reform lead to rationing? You've heard the arguments, and now Josh Levs and the CNN Truth Squad have a verdict on this -- Josh.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You'll see soon enough.

GRIFFIN: Oh, it's coming.

LEVS: It's coming.

GRIFFIN: That's a tease. Josh, I was all setting you up.

Hey, if you'd like to see if any town halls are being held in your area, check out the special "Health care in America" Web site on CNN.com. It's really a great site. You'll find the latest from the town hall meetings, fact-checks, iReports, and other health care news. You can just go to CNN.com/health care.

Signing off on health care. Answers to your questions about what we can expect as part of all this reform.

We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Wednesday is the day we often listen in to our chief business correspondent, Ali Velshi, on CNN Radio. Christine Romans is sitting in while Ali...

I guess Ali's recuperating from driving across the country last week, huh?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he totally is. I think he needed some time off because he ate all that terrible food, Drew. Did you hear the kind of food Ali was eating on the bus traveling through the country?

GRIFFIN: Yes. I was kind of disgusted and feeling sick just watching it.

Hey, are a lot of people talking about health care on your show?

ROMANS: That's all they're talking about. That's all they're talking about. And they want to know about waste in the system, they want to know about personal responsibility and prevention.

And we've got a lot of e-mails. I mean, and you've been doing some of the myth-busting on this, too. But even as we've been trying to do the myth-busting on some of the more outlandish kind of claims out there, people are still e-mailing. CNN viewers and others are still e-mailing.

They believe what they're hearing from other people, the word of mouth, the kind of grapevine rumors. They're still believing that stuff, and so we're still kind of going through the bill and showing people exactly where something is, where something isn't, and how many their worst fears are not going to come to fruition on some of these things.

GRIFFIN: It always amazes me. People believe what they hear standing in line in a McDonald's rather than going to an actual bill and reading what's in it.

But anyway...

ROMANS: And that says something, Drew, about the trust; right?

GRIFFIN: Yes. That's what it's all about.

You know, people do not trust these people in Washington, D.C., because they've been burned so many times. A bill passes, it completely changes.

We're going to run through some questions, though, for you. You ready for these?

ROMANS: Sure. OK. Go for it.

GRIFFIN: These are from our Web site.

And here's a question: "Why are the drug companies not more involved in these debates? I may be wrong, but isn't a large reason that health care costs are so high due to the fact that drugs are so high and being so marked up by these companies?" That's from Kate.

ROMANS: Well, the drug industry -- Kate, the drug industry is involved in these debates and sent out a press release yesterday and again today. They are for health coverage, universal health coverage. They're for people having access to affordable health insurance. They think that, you know, too many people are lacking insurance coverage or their co-pays are too high, so they pass unneeded medical treatment, and that just costs the system down the road. They've been working with the White House to cut $80 billion in drug costs over the next 10 years, I think.

But, you know, Robert Reich, the former labor secretary, has been very critical of what he says is too much drug industry interaction with the White House on this. He thinks it's kind of an unholy alliance and the drug industry is just trying to make sure that it has easy access to a big and growing population of people who have to buy their drugs longer term. So, they can agree in the near-term system cuts, big cuts, $80 billion in drug costs cut, but they're going to get the access to a very big and growing baby boomer market that's going to need more drugs in the future.

But the pharmaceutical industry, Kate, contrary to what you suggested there, is at the table here in health care reform. They're in this.

GRIFFIN: OK. Good to know.

Here's a question from Ed. "My insurance premiums for two adults for the same type of coverage has gone from just over $200 a month in 2003 to just under $900 a month in 2009." This is more of a statement. "The quality and accessibility of care is not, in my experience, the problem -- it is the cost."

ROMANS: And that's when we look through this bill, Drew. I mean, don't you try to find the parts where we're going to make sure that people aren't paying a rent payment, essentially, for health coverage? And in some cases, you're paying a lot of money for health coverage that might not actually cover you for everything you think it's going to, too.

I mean, there's something about the math of paying more for your health insurance than you do for your rent that just seems off. And that's what they're trying to kind of address in health reform.

And the cost issue is something that has bedeviled this whole process, because the president said he is not going to sign a bill that isn't good for the American middle class, that doesn't provide quality health care, but that's also affordable. And that's the question, and doesn't add to the debt, you know, deficit-neutral. And that's the question, meeting all of those goals in this big, monster legislation with all the political horse trading that you have to do to get something like this done.

GRIFFIN: And I know I'm putting you on the spot, but have you seen that bill yet that he could sign with all those? I have not,

ROMANS: I have. I have. No, and I have done it -- and, you know, you've looked at enough bills, as I'm sure you have in your career, that you start to know what the coded language is and what the language is you can't understand. You know, it's still a work in progress. But I can see why people who have taken this bill and put it in their own hands and are trying to read it might be confused or might believe rumors out there, because some of the language, it's legislative language. It's a little dense. It doesn't seem to -- there's a lot of jargon.

What we need here is a flowchart, and maybe the House can do it, maybe Congress will do this before something is actually voted on and passed. But a flowchart that says if you are 65 years old, you are on Medicare and you have pre-existing conditions, go to page 25, this is what it means to you. You know, if you're 38 years old, mother of two, have your job, and your company pays for your health insurance, this is what happens for you.

You know, if we could break it out like that, but we can't because it's all changing so much. And it's just such a big, complicated problem, and it's a big, complicated bill.

GRIFFIN: Absolutely.

Hey, we have to leave you, but if anybody wants to call you right now while you're on the radio, we're going to give out your phone number.

Is that OK?

ROMANS: That's good.

GRIFFIN: 877-266-4189.

I'm sure you guys are clogged already, but take a few more calls. 877-266-4189.

Thanks, Christine.

ROMANS: Thanks, Drew. Bye.

GRIFFIN: OK. So, what do you think? Should Democrats and the White House move forward on health care without Republican support?

You can go to our blog at CNN.com/newsroom and you can vote. You can vote. You can also leave us a comment. We'll share the results from our "QuickVote" a little later in the NEWSROOM.

Well, it's the final hours before Afghanistan voters head to the polls. A government appeal to the media -- don't cover the violence.

And there's been a lot of violence in Iraq, a bloody day. Six separate explosions, apparently part of a coordinated effort.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: There has been an explosion of violence in Baghdad today. Six attacks all within an hour of each other, apparently coordinated. Listen to this -- 95 people reported dead and over 500 wounded. A car bomb outside the Foreign Ministry building was the deadliest. The blast so fierce, it damaged windows inside the parliament building a mile away.

Iraqi forces arrested two suspected al Qaeda members. They were driving a car rigged with explosives, too. It's Iraq's bloodiest day since U.S. troops left the cities and turned security over to Iraqi troops.

When you head to bed tonight, Afghans will be heading to the polls to choose a president. Voting begins at 10:30 Eastern tonight, and it takes place under threats from the Taliban.

CNN's Ivan Watson joins me from Bamiyan Province east-central Afghanistan.

Ivan, I have been watching your reporting, which has been excellent. How is the security in that province at this hour, you know, the eve before voting starts?

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this province is remarkably safe, Drew. It has not had the drumbeat of violence that we've seen in southern and eastern Afghanistan, the car bombs, the suicide bombs, the assassinations, and the campaign of intimidation that we have seen in those parts of the country. I mean, increasingly, in northern parts of Afghanistan, as well, disturbingly, over the course of the past year.

This province is remarkably safe. And we were able to (INAUDIBLE) easily with election observers, election workers. They say all the polling stations will be open.

Drew, one quick thing to add. The province directly to the south of it, election workers say 11 of more than 160 polling centers there will be closed on election day, tomorrow, due to Taliban threats, the fact that they basically control those pockets of territory there.

GRIFFIN: And Ivan, the Taliban is telling people, you don't vote. And in Afghanistan, you dip your finger in a bottle of ink to show that you have voted. So, if you do vote, you come out of there somewhat of a marked man.

Are the people you're talking to, the Afghans, are they fearful to go to the voting boxes?

WATSON: Again, Drew, I think it depends on the area. I mean, there has been a very effective campaign of intimidation, and there are broad swaths of this country that are controlled by the Taliban. And people there will say, OK, we may like the Afghan government, or we may not have anything against foreign troops or the Afghan government, but they do not remain here. It's the Taliban who are here at night, and it's very intimidating to try to stand up to armed men who are willing to break down your door at night.

In this area, the locals that I've talked to in Bamiyan Province, they are all enthusiastic about the election tomorrow. They all said they're going to participate in the vote -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: Yes.

I want to ask you one question about the media. The Afghan government doesn't want the media reporting any violence. You're there, you're reporting. Atia is also reporting from there.

Are you guys being affected by this? Are you being told, listen, you do not report any violence until this election is over?

WATSON: Well, the Afghan government has effectively thrown down the gauntlet here, Drew. I mean, the rationale behind it is the Afghan Foreign Ministry is saying that it's trying to protect the elections, it's trying to protect Afghan citizens. And we know that the Taliban are trying to carry out spectacular sensational attacks to try to intimidate people.

That said, do we have a responsibility in the event of major loss of life, of loss of American troops, perhaps? Can we be asked not to speak and to comment about something like that taking place?

I think this is raising probably a lot of eyebrows around in western capitals that have been donating millions, billions of dollars to fund the Afghan government. What they are arguing is, is a democratic government to operate on the ground.

Of course, the Afghan Foreign Ministry is arguing that it is within the Afghan constitution to take such drastic measures in order to protect the Afghan people. So, we'll just have to see what happens tomorrow -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: All right, Ivan. Good luck with your reporting tomorrow. We'll be looking forward to it as the Afghan people go to the votes there.

Let's switch gears and talk economy for General Motors. It's been one crisis after another. It began with terrible sales and a bloated budget that led to a government bailout and finally bankruptcy. But the new GM is out of Chapter 11 and, believe it or not, it's calling some of its workers back.

(BUSINESS REPORT)

GRIFFIN: We have some bad news -- or I should say some sad news to report. You know, we lost a legend yesterday, Bob Novak. Now another news giant has apparently passed away. CBS News' Web site saying that Don Hewitt, the creator of "60 Minutes," has passed away.

We're going to have more on that as the hour develops.

Well, it is the start of a new era for managing credit and debt. So, how can the new credit card law help you?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Breaking news, former CBS -- from the CBS News Web site, we should say, they're reporting the passing of a legend in journalism. Don Hewitt, the creator, really, of "60 Minutes" and newsmagazine format reporting, a true legend in the business has died. He was 86 years old.

Mr. Hewitt just served as a pallbearer for Walter Cronkite and his funeral. He had been in New York with CBS since 1948, worked with some of the legends there. "See It Now" was one of those that he produced. Also directed the "Harvest of Shame" series for CBS Reports, working alongside Edward R. Murrow, Fred Friendly, all the real true giants of this business.

We'll be getting more on this as it happens. But again, CBS reporting the passing of Don Hewitt, 86 years old, a true legend in this business.

Well, as the debate over health care has grown, we've all been bombarded with ads and messages about how this reform could affect you. so, the CNN truth squad is weeding out fact from fiction and getting answers to your questions, as well.

Josh Levs joins us now with the latest. At long last, Josh.

LEVS: I've got that verdict for you.

GRIFFIN: There you go.

LEVS: You knew it was coming, right?

GRIFFIN: I did.

LEVS: Look, I want to tell everyone off the top, cnn.com/healthcare. You can see these at any time. In fact, let's zoom in. Just click on the fact checks, and it will bring you to these along with a lot of information about them.

And Drew, what I really like that we're doing is we're focusing on answering a lot of questions from viewers out there, including this one. Came from Jason Rogers, who asked us whether health care will be rationed under a government-run health care system. Now, we are hearing from the White House that that will not be the case.

For example, the White House set up what they're calling their Reality Check Web site. And they say right here reform will stop rationing, not increase it. And President Obama made a comment the other day. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So, what we've proposed is not to reduce benefits. Benefits on Medicare would stay the same. It's not to ration. What we are asking is that we eliminate some of the practices that aren't making people healthier.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: Now, when you look at what's actually been proposed, sure, it is true that no one is officially proposing any kind of government rationing. But there are groups that study this that say, you know what, the costs of health care are going to go way up, and that could ultimately lead to some rationing.

There's a group that's a nonprofit think tank, libertarian, that's right here. I'll show you a quote from them, the Cato Institute. And here's what an official over there said, and we have it right there before you: "Since the government will be the only entity with any incentive to control costs, the government will have to ration care." Now, that's their position.

So, the CNN truth squad took a look at these different arguments, and we weighed how these look, and what we decided, you can see in the verdict right here on the next screen. We're saying the verdict here is in dispute.

Now, you might hear that and say, wait a second. You just gave me two sides, and you told me it's in dispute. But the key here, and something important to understand, is that even when you hear some lawmakers say it definitively will lead to rationing or it definitively won't, there really is no way to know at this point.

And Drew, what we can keep in mind is that if something passes, if there is health care reform legislation, concerns about the possibility of rationing will last months, years into the future. This will be something that people will continue to watch out for. And ultimately, we will just have to see how it plays out -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: You know, Josh, it occurs to me when the president says that eliminate practices that are not making people healthier, a lot of the skepticism is, who's going to decide that, and what is he talking about? And I know that there's a lot of confusion out there. But that's one issue that I know people are concerned about, that somebody would have to make the decision.

LEVS: That is one part of it. And ultimately who would make that -- you're also hearing some people on the other side say, wait a second, I feel like my care is being rationed right now by bureaucrats at these health insurance companies who are saying, you can have this procedure, not this procedure, unless you want to suddenly find tens of thousands of dollars that you don't have. So, we are continuously hearing those arguments. But we can say even though that rationing is not proposed, what will ultimately result out of this? We're all going to have to keep a close eye and see what happens.

GRIFFIN: Democrats talking about doing this on their own. So, what do you think? Should Democrats and the White House move forward on health care without Republican support? You can go to our blog at cnn.com/newsroom and vote. You can also leave us a comment. We'll share the final results from our quick check a little later in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Let's take a quick look at the results so far, though. Surprisingly, a big portion of you, 83 percent, say, yes, the Democrats should go alone without support from the Republicans. So, there you have it. More now on Don Hewitt, who has passed away, according to CBS News, the 86-year-old creator of "60 Minutes" who passed away really just weeks after Walter Cronkite passed away. Don Hewitt was a legend in this business. He went to CBS in 1948. He worked with the monsters over there, really, Edward R. Murrow, Fred Friendly, developing the style of news that we call television news and of documentary-style reporting on TV.

This was the man who really put it together and created, I think what still is probably the most successful television show ever created, "60 Minutes," which continues to bring in record numbers and such fantastic reporting. We will get more on Don Hewitt from those who know him as we go through the hour, but again, Don Hewitt, 86 years old, has passed away today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Breaking news, sad news out of New York. CBS News reporting the passing of Don Hewitt, legendary newsman who created "60 Minutes," who worked with the giants in the pioneering industry which is TV news. Don Hewitt, 86-year-old, has passed away. We're talking to people who have known him, who have worked with him as we gather more information on what was an incredible life, honored with eight Emmys, two Peabody Awards and the producer of a show that continues to get fantastic, record-busting ratings, even last Sunday with their exclusive interview with Michael Vick. Just bringing in some incredible ratings as the staff there such great reporters.

You know, Don Hewitt, he came to "60 Minutes" back in 1948. Almost, you would say it's almost in the invention of TV. And joining us now from New York is a man who knew him well and who we know well, the president of CNN News, John Klein. John, you worked at "60 Minutes" for some 16 years. You actually oversaw this program.

JOHN KLEIN, PRESIDENT, CNN: Yes, I never got to actually work on the staff of "60 Minutes." At one point when they finally -- when they made me a suit, I was overseeing "60 Minutes" along with other stuff. But, you know, Don Hewitt didn't need a boss. What he needed was somebody to bounce ideas off of.

The very first day on the job, so here I was 37 years old, supposedly on paper overseeing a legend like Don Hewitt. And he took me to lunch. He says, listen, kid, it's very simple. I have 10 ideas a day. Nine of them are terrible. Your job is to tell me which one is great. And that was pretty much the relationship.

And he lived up to that. I'd say he had more than 10 ideas a day. He was bursting with passion for what we do: telling stories. That was it in a nutshell for Don.

GRIFFIN: What was it like in the story process, because I'm always fascinated by their stories, by their writing, by how they put stories together. How involved was he in directing the traffic there and directing the prose that eventually lands on "60 Minutes"?

KLEIN: He had a really brilliant system, which was he empowered all of those great reporters, like Morley Safer and Mike Wallace and Ed Bradley and Harry Reasoner at the beginning and Dan Rather and later others, he empowered them to decide what stories they wanted to do. And then they brought those stories to him, and he picked and chose which ones made on the air.

He always said that it was a brilliant system because they did all the hard work of being reporters, which he said, look, I'm not a great reporter. I'm a great editor. And he would take what they did and shape it. He was brilliant in the edit room, and he was a terrific writer. He took great pride in writing. He started in newspapers.

And he loved to tell the story of how he shocked his friends and family when he left newspapers for this newfangled startup medium called radio back in the '40s, and then left radio for television. You know, he was always cutting-edge, always looking for the next thing. I remember him telling me in the '90s, he says, this Internet thing, everybody's so up in arms about it. It's just a newspaper delivery truck. It's just the vehicle that's delivering the information to people. Why don't they understand that?

GRIFFIN: You joined him when he was kind of at the pinnacle of his career. They were riding high in the '80s. Did he ever talk about whether or not he was scared or knew what he was doing when they actually started out those old programs?

KLEIN: He had exuberance. I don't think he had time to be scared. He was brimming with ideas, and he had so many new thoughts all the time. I mean, just as an example, for our folks who are watching right now, the influence that Don has, if you look on the bottom third of the screen, all those graphics, the thing that says my name or the subject matter, that Don Hewitt, you know, has died, those are called supers, right? Don invented supers.

He said, you know what, on the screen we need another way to convey information to viewers. Maybe we can superimpose them, and he figured out technically a way to do it. He was a director, which is a technical job in television, and he figured that out.

He also invented the term "anchorman." Because he says, you know, these guys, they're like, and as I recall, the way he told it to me, it wasn't that they anchored the broadcast in terms of holding it down. He said it was more like a relay race where you had your best guy run the anchor leg, and you have all of these correspondents in the field, but your absolute best one, that would be your anchorman. And that's where that term came from.

So, that came straight out of Don's head. Another thing that you see when you watch the news, you'll see a reporter, and then we cover the reporter's image with other pictures. that's called B roll, because in the old days, you had the A role of film. This is back in the days of film. You had the A role of film, which was the reporter talking, and then Don invented this idea that you could then roll a B roll of film and lay it over to illustrate what the TV reporter was talking about. He made all this stuff up as he went along. And that was his joy was constantly thinking about new and better ways to tell stories. He also thought the writing was extremely important. You know, don't worry so much about having quote-unquote "great pictures." Tell a story. He said, I never like to do subjects, I always cover people, and those people illustrate subjects. Not the other way around.

GRIFFIN: All that still rings true in my head, John, from just what you tell me.

KLEIN: Yes. I'm just parroting Don. I really am. I mean, it's -- I learned so much from him when I was theoretically his boss, and so many others have learned just as much, if not more. He was really a phenomenon, one of a kind.

GRIFFIN: John, thanks for coming to the set and talking about...

KLEIN: You bet.

GRIFFIN: ... Don Hewitt. Such a great guy, 86-year-old passed away today. Thank you.

We'll be right back.

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ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Rob Marciano, your hurricane headquarters. Here's the latest on what's going on with Hurricane Bill. Right now, winds of 135 miles an hour. A well-defined eye. Hurricane hunters have been in this thing. And there it is, 32 nautical miles wide. And the hurricane winds are now extending outwards in all directions at about -- or almost all directions at about 80 miles. So, it has expanded in its scope of its actual size.

I want to show you a couple things here. First of all, this is one of the -- some of the computer models that we actually use to illustrate exactly where Bill's going, or at least one of them is going. This thing will actually show you the strength here, and the brighter colors that you get there, the stronger it is.

And the actual path, you can kind of see it starting down here and then scooting around Bermuda and then scooting -- making that right turn. We certainly hope that that happens. A lot of our computer models are saying that, and that's where the forecast track is going. And that's a good thing.

Check out this as well. Anywhere you see yellow, that's where temperatures are above average. So, up around here in through the Delmarva, New Jersey coastline, even through Long Island off Cape Cod, temperatures there are above average. And as far north as, say, Cape May, temperatures are conducive for hurricane strengthening. So we certainly want this thing to go out to sea.

All right, here's the last forecast from the National Hurricane Center as of 11:00. Category four now, remains that and makes that northerly turn and then northeasterly turn and then splits the gap between Bermuda and North Carolina. Notice as it passes Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, it's still a category three storm, probably because those winds or those waters are still pretty toasty.

All right, I want to show you a couple other things, what's going on around the country. We do have a threat for severe weather across the nation's heartland. Look at this video that came into us from Beaumont, Texas, where yesterday an F-1 tornado actually touched down and tore up a Wal-Mart and also a Kohl's department store. Their winds 110 or so miles per hour doing damage there, flipping cars over at one point and also injuring a few people. This video courtesy of performancecaraudio.com.

All right, that's the latest. Again, here's Hurricane Bill, category four storm moving north -- west-northwest at 18 miles an hour. Still a little less than 400 miles east of the Leeward Islands but getting closer to the U.S. Likely will not affect us or take a direct hit. But still too close to rule northeastern coastline interaction out.

All right, that's the latest from here, Don. We'll pass -- or...

GRIFFIN: Big storm, Rob.

MARCIANO: Yes, Drew, we'll pass it over to you.

GRIFFIN: All right, thanks a lot.

Well, here is what we're working on the next hour. The politics of going it alone on health care. We're going to have the latest on the rumored shift strategy for Democrats to pass reform without Republicans.

We'll also hear from this man. He is the mayor of Milwaukee. He was beaten over the weekend just trying to help a woman in distress. His first news conference on the attack is next hour.

And Michael Jackson's doctor is speaking out. What he has to say about the singer's death and his involvement.

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GRIFFIN: Lots of questions and concerns in this heated debate over health care reform, and we've got the answers from our insider, chief medical correspondent, practicing neurosurgeon, the world's surgeon general, the only Dr. Sanjay Gupta, has the answers to your question.

And this question comes via Twitter. Will the current reform push the sale of generic drugs?

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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's a great question and something we've been looking in to quite a bit, this whole idea of brand-name drugs, generic drugs, what costs what. Let me give you a couple of numbers first. On average, about seven out of 10 prescriptions that area filled in the United States currently are for generic drugs. And these generic drugs on average are about 80 to 85 percent cheaper. To give you an idea of why there's so much interest in here in terms of cost savings, we've asked the White House specifically about your question, trying to figure out how exactly can you make it so the generic drugs are more easily available.

Here's what they say, and this is a lot of language or lingo, but attention: Establish legal pathways for generic drugs overall, create incentives for research and innovation, and try and prohibit anti- competitive agreements.

One thing that's interesting to me is sometimes there's these collusions. For example, you'll have a brand-name drugmaker who will go to a potential generic drugmaker and say, you know what, how about we give you money so you don't make the generic drugs? Potentially good for the company but bad for the public because they don't get access to these generic drugs as quickly.

For you at home, what it really means if health care reform passes and some of these measures take place, is that you should be able to get generic drugs on average a little bit faster. But again, a lot of this is still fluid. A lot of it's still dynamic. It could help cut costs if it happens.

There was a discussion. A lot of people may have had heard about the discussions between the White House and the pharmaceutical industry. Now, the pharmaceutical industry promising to reduce their draws on Medicare by about $80 billion. Now, we really wanted to know what that meant and what it would mean for you.

What we found was that ultimately it would probably eliminate some of the coverage gap. People talk about a doughnut hole. Let's say you have lots of prescriptions that you have to fill, and they cost more than $10,000 every year. The way the doughnut hole works is for the first $2,100, or $2,700, rather, it's covered. And then there's a gap in coverage until you spend at least $6,100, again. That's a huge gap, over $3,000. So, that $80 billion might go towards reducing that doughnut hole and also trying to create discounts for certain drugs as well.

Critics will say, look, if you negotiate with the pharmaceutical industry like this, how can you possibly negotiate with them later on? What is that dynamic going to be in the future? Again, as I pointed out several times, this is a fluid situation. Lots happening even as I talk to you now. As it comes to us, we'll bring it to you. Back to you for now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)