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Sen. Byrd Dies at 92; Kagan Confirmation Hearings; Payback for Drilling Ban; Raids on Catholic Church in Belgian Include Drilling into Crypts

Aired June 28, 2010 - 09:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, good morning, everybody. I'm Kyra Phillips. Here's what we're working on this morning.

A respected voice of the Senate silenced. West Virginia Democrat Robert Byrd has died at the age of 92.

Here come the questions. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan about to start a marathon week of questions. The vetting getting underway.

And a killer storm hits Michigan tossing trailers, shredding trees and taking at least one life. A close look at the campground where it all happened.

Up first this morning, on Capitol Hill, flags are lowered to half-staff for U.S. Senator Robert Byrd. The West Virginia Democrat died early this morning at the age of 92. He was the longest serving member in Congress with more than a half century just in the U.S. Senate.

We'll take a closer look at his remarkable career.

Senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash joins us from the Hill and interviewed him a number of times -- Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kyra.

Look, the statements are pouring in from senators on both sides of the aisle. He was certainly not only embodying the Senate, I think that's probably a fair thing to say, he loved the United States Senate. He was the longest serve member of the United States Senate.

And just to give you one example of the statements we're getting. The current senator majority leader Harry Reid said that Robert Byrd was one of the great minds the world has ever seen.

He served here in the Senate alongside of 13 -- if you can believe that -- 13 U.S. presidents. He came in when Dwight D. Eisenhower was in the White House. And he loved the history of the Senate, the tradition of the Senate.

He was unofficial keeper of the rules. You often saw him on the Senate floor during his hay day, and what a long hay day it was. Often whipping out the U.S. Constitution he kept in his breast pocket. Kyra, he always talked about the fact it was the legislative branch that was named before the executive branch, before the president. And he tried to keep control of the legislative branch as much as he possibly could.

When he was talking, and quoting Greek philosophers, Roman philosophers, this is a man who was self-educated. Came from a very, very poor upbringing. And on that note, he also is somebody who very proudly used his position to send millions and millions of dollars back to his home state of West Virginia throughout his long career.

It is something the whole concept of pork-barrel spending that has begun kind of dirty word but he never thought so. He said he was very proud of it. Something I talked to him about back in 2006.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: You have gotten the label the king of pork, but you wear that as a badge of honor, don't you?

SEN. ROBERT BYRD (D), WEST VIRGINIA: I do. I'm here to represent the people of West Virginia. And they want me to serve them. My state has been a landlocked state, a poverty-ridden state.

My memory is as good as it ever was, and it's stock full of recollections about the poor people of West Virginia. How they were laughed at, they were a laughing stock.

Yes, I'm a hillbilly. Proud of it. Proud of it. But I knew what the people of West Virginia sent me to Washington for. They sent me to Washington to represent them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: And he certainly did represent them for more than half a decade. Interestingly, Kyra, he talked about the fact that he -- about his upbringing. He also, back in 1964, waged the longest filibuster of his life, more than 14 hours and 13 minutes. It was against the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

And we also probably should mention that briefly, briefly as a young man in West Virginia, he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan which he always said was going to be an albatross around his neck.

He said he knew it would be in his obituary and the greatest mistake of his life, but on this day, on this morning, everybody around here in a bipartisan way is mourning the man that -- I think it's fair to say -- senators revered for his knowledge of the institution of the United States Senate.

PHILLIPS: And, Dana, before we let you go, we want to take a second just to explain where you are this morning. You're actually just outside the room where the confirmation hearings for Elena Kagan will take place today.

BASH: That's right. Speaking of -- I think Robert Byrd would be the first person to say that this is evidence of how important this body is, because it is this body in this room behind me where senators will begin confirmation hearings for Elena Kagan.

In the next hour, Kyra, I'm going down to the floor and give you kind of a behind-the-scenes look of where she is going to sit and the senator she is going to be facing.

People think at the end of the day she is going to be OK, but that's not before a good grilling from the senators over the next few days -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. We look toward to that. Dana, thanks so much.

There may be no legacy more lasting for any U.S. president than choosing a Supreme Court justice. As Dana just told us, confirmation hearings begin in just a few hours for President Obama's latest nominee.

Elena Kagan will face some tough questions. Some Republicans say she was too political when working in the Clinton administration. They also point out that she's never been a judge.

Kagan is President Obama's second nominee to the nation's highest court. His first, Sonya Sotomayor, was confirmed just last August.

The stakes are huge and the passions are high and the hearings are sure to be contentious. Let's take a look at some of the issues that will likely to dominate the proceedings.

CNN's Josh Levs joins us now with a preview -- Josh.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Kyra. Look, we know Elena Kagan has got a lot of support on Capitol Hill. We also know she's got her detractors particularly among some Republicans.

And the way that these hearings works for Supreme Courts posts, these hearings are largely dictated by the critics out there who have some issues they want to raise.

We've got a taste of may be to come this morning from one of those lawmakers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JEFF SESSIONS (R), ALABAMA: She has the least experience of any nominee in 50 years. She was a Clinton operative for quite a number of years. The point person on efforts to restrict gun rights. The point person on blocking partial birth abortion.

In Harvard, she barred the military from the recruiting offices, demean them in violation of law, and her legal brief was rejected 8-0 by the Supreme Court. There are a number of things here that caused us to believe and any American to be concerned that she would be an activist judge.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: All right. Let me just touch on a few issues now and then we'll show you where you can find some more information. One of the things we're going to be hearing a lot about is military recruiting.

Now during her time at Harvard, she did -- launched some efforts against military recruiting on campus over concerns involving "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." She also supported some other schools in their efforts to combat a federal law that basically was pushing them to allow military recruiting or risk losing federal funding. So that's one thing we're likely to hear.

Some things about abortion is an interesting one. There's not a lot about this in her professional background, but there's something that she wrote way back when she was an undergrad at Princeton that we might be hearing about. And I have a quote here, she would have classed as a deriding conservatives at the time as quote, "these avengers of innocent life."

But, you know what? Later in the Clinton White House, she took what a lot of her supporters say is a very pragmatic approach on the issue of late-term abortions, and they point to some documents that were recently released. So we'll take a look at what happens with that.

And one more to mention right here, campaign finance reform, because this is an instance in which she argued before the Supreme Court. Now she ultimately lost this battle, but she launched these efforts are -- before the Supreme Court defending the government restrictions on a corporate refinancing of campaigns.

So this is a really good example of her involvement with the Supreme Court when she was there arguing.

This is just a handful of what you'll find at CNN.com/politics right now. If you want to learn more about some of these issues and we'll be following this every step of the way throughout the hearings -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Josh. Thanks.

LEVS: You got it.

PHILLIPS: And we of course got live coverage of the Kagan confirmation hearings hosted by the best political team on television. It all begins once again at noon Eastern, 9:00 Pacific.

One person is dead and at least four more people injured after suspected tornado touched down in a Michigan campground. It happened last night in Clyde Township some 60 miles north of Detroit.

Police say the twister tore through the Ft. Trodd campground around 7:00 p.m. local time. Plenty of trailers got tossed. Some ripped apart. St. Claire County officials can't confirm if indeed it was a tornado. Eyewitnesses disagree.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My dad came up and he said you could actually see the tornado coming down and going up. Coming down and going up. And he actually seen the spinning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I went out towards the west window and looked out that way. And all I saw the funnel cloud coming right down almost right over the top of our hill over there.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, the National Weather Service will be checking to determine whether if it was indeed a tornado or just straight-line winds. By the way, there was another reported tornado sighting in Wayne County, Michigan.

Meteorologist Reynolds Wolf joining us with the bigger picture.

So what do we have?

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: All right, Reynolds, thanks.

WOLF: You bet.

PHILLIPS: And as Reynolds just mentioned, Tropical Storm Alex definitely a concern for oil cleanup efforts in the Gulf. And while the storm should stay away from the spill area, the oil recovery efforts would be shut down for two weeks if a hurricane or a tropical storm did move in.

Also for the first time, tar balls have washed up on the Mississippi shores. Cleanup crews have been deployed so far. No beaches are closed.

BP says today that it spent around $2.65 billion on the money response. That money includes containment, relief well drilling and paying claims.

Thousands of oil drilling support workers have been out of work and out of pay due to a temporary drilling ban. But now they'll be able to file claims and hopefully recovers some of their losses.

Chris Lawrence is covering that story for -- that story for us in New Orleans.

Hey, Chris.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kyra, yes, I know when you were down here, you saw a lot of this anger. I mean people just furious at the federal government for imposing this six-month ban on the deepwater drilling.

You know now some people say, look, they don't even have a plan to clean up this spill. How can we go back and let them go back to keep drilling again? Others were arguing that it's safe. That the fact that these rigs are shut down, the oil rig workers themselves are covered by a $100 million fund from BP. They're all right.

But it's the truckers, the cleaners, the loaders, the caterers, all the support jobs. They were in limbo. They have no where -- no way to try to recoup some of their losses. So we took their concerns to Ken Feinberg, the man that President Obama appointed to head up this whole claims process.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAWRENCE: Will you be handling any claims at all for people whose businesses have been affected by the moratorium?

KEN FEINBERG, COMPENSATION ADMINISTRATOR: Yes. I now have discovered -- I didn't realize this until yesterday, but the moratorium claims will fall under my jurisdiction.

LAWRENCE: That's a huge development. And we didn't know that before because a lot of --

FEINBERG: I didn't either. I just learned yesterday that the administration and BP have agreed that the moratorium claims will fall under my jurisdiction.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAWRENCE: You might want to tell a doctor what patients he's going to be operating on. You know, let the boss know exactly who he is in charge of. But this really just sound like a very recent deal between the Obama administration and BP.

We know this is something that BP did not agree to early on. They took responsibility for the oil spill itself, but the moratorium was something that was imposed by the federal government. So those workers were falling under sort of a different jurisdiction for a while.

This isn't going to -- you know, cure all their problems, but it at least gives them somewhere to go to try to get back some of that money that they're losing -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, talk about another problem. Reynolds just mentioned the latest on Tropical Storm Alex. I'm assuming the folks there are getting ready for this?

LAWRENCE: Yes. One of the things, we've been talking to a lot of the emergency management officials down here, a lot of the parishes, what they're really concerned about is the storm surge that it may push a lot of the oil on shore, you know, if this -- if the waves were to react in that way.

In fact, one of the parishes down here ordered 5,000 Hazmat suits so his workers will be able to start to collect that oil.

Again, BP says it will take about five days to disconnect everything and move everything off. And you mentioned earlier, two weeks of that oil just gushing freely; so right now, it is good news that this storm does not appear to be taking a direct path and going to affect operations.

But, that new system that they have that can disconnect a lot faster and sort of whether a hurricane; it is not going to be ready until probably the mid-part of July. So even if they make it through this one, there is still a chance next week or the week after; if you get some more bad weather, that could still be a problem. Kyra --

PHILLIPS: Chris Lawrence, live in New Orleans. Chris, thanks.

Deplorable, is what Pope Benedict calls it; harsh words over the latest tactic to investigate the priest sex abuse scandal.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Cameras and the crypts, confiscated computers, and detaining bishops. Now the pope is lashing out. He says the latest tactic to investigate the priest sex abuse scandal is deplorable.

The criticism follows Belgian police raids on a cathedral and several Brussels Archdiocese buildings. They were looking for letters exchanged between sex abuse victims and church authorities.

Two cardinals' tombs were also searched for alleged hidden documents. Holes were actually drilled in the tombs and cameras lowered inside.

CNN's Diana Magnay has covered the Catholic Church sex abuse extensively. She joins us now from Berlin, Germany.

Diana, we are hearing about these cameras in the crypt. It is pretty amazing details.

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra. It really is, yes. In fact, it was described to me by one of the lawyers for the Belgian Catholic Church. It is a bit like "The Da Vinci Code"; in that police, as you say, bored a very small hole, but a hole, into one of these cardinals' tombs; inserting a camera to see if there were any hidden documents inside. And also they removed the tombstone of another cardinal, causing some damage to it; to see if there was some kind of hidden trap door or something underneath.

And you said this kind of thing really does make me think of "The Da Vinci Code". And what the Catholic church is trying to find out from Belgian authorities is really what it was that they were looking for; just as officials as said, "We are trying to find documents relating to our investigation and to abuse of children by church figures."

But what the church is questioning, is really whether these measures to insert cameras into the crypt were really appropriate or proportional, given what it is that they are trying to find out. Kyra --

PHILLIPS: Diana, did they find anything?

MAGNAY: They have not confirmed what it is that they have found, but they have taken huge amounts of documents from the headquarters of the Archdiocese. They have taken the entire archives. And also from the commission at the church set up an independent commission, in fact, which is there so that victims of church abuse in Belgium can go forward and talk to an independent commissioner that can then investigate their claims.

They have taken all the documents relating to those victims' claims, and the church says that that is really deeply unfair and invades the privacy of those victims, because this was an independent commission that was really opened to provide documents to the authorities; and had done so. In fact, that entire commission's leading body has now resigned in protest because of the measures that the police took. Kyra --

PHILLIPS: All right, so we are still waiting to see what those documents are all about. There are resignations, and the Vatican's Secretary of State says that the way the bishops were detained made him think of Communist regimes. What do you know about that?

MAGNAY: This was a third raid on the premises, the headquarters of the Archdiocese; where, coincidentally -- and the justice authorities say this was not planned that way - but, coincidentally, all the Belgian bishops were holding their bishops' conference. And because it was such a significant meeting, there was also a Papal Nuncio, a Papal delegate, who also visited.

And they were detained there from 10:30 in the morning until 7:30 at night; although the Papal Nuncio could come and go as he pleases, because he had diplomatic immunity. And all of their possessions, their personal possessions, were taken from them. Their diaries were taken from them; and have still been taken from them.

So the church is now saying that it is very difficult to go about just the general state of organizing the Archdiocese' affairs; they can not pay anyone, and they do not know what is coming up, because they do not have their documents.

But I think Cardinal Bastuni (ph) was suggesting that they were being detained in a manner without food and drink, and he likened that to Communist regimes. But in fact, from the church officials I have been speaking to, that was not the case. They were given a meal at 2 p.m., but they certainly were not allowed to leave the premises while the search was going on. Kyra --

PHILLIPS: We will definitely follow this investigation with you. Diana Magnay, thank you so much.

For the first time, oil from the Gulf spill has reached the shores of Mississippi. We are going to tell you what is being done to clean it up; plus, the latest on the beaches.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: It is day 70 in the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster. Oil from the spill has washed up on Mississippi's shores for the first time. Clean-up crews have been collecting tar balls; and so far, no beaches are closed.

Senator Robert Byrd died today at the age of 92. The nine-term Democrat was the longest serving member of Congress. Byrd called his 2002 vote against authorizing military action in Iraq the proudest moment of his career.

And Senate confirmation hearings begin just over three hours from now for Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan. Kagan is currently Solicitor General, arguing cases for the government. If confirmed, Kagan would be the first non-judge in decades to get a seat on the high court.

Strange flavors and smells in your cereal box? You better check your breakfast options this morning. Details about a massive cereal recall, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Last week was a rough one on Wall Street. The Dow fell nearly 3 percent. But this week is a busy one for investors; Alison Kosik with the New York Stock Exchange with what this means for trading. Alison --

ALISON KOSIK, NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE: Good morning, Kyra. With just seconds to go before the opening bell, we are expecting a flat open today. But it is going to be a busy week on Wall Street. Investors will get readings on home prices, home sales, auto sales, and several reports on the labor market.

That is the biggie; the monthly job support. There has been some talk about a double-dip recession, and the reports this week could shed some light on the issue. We can get a better gauge on the health of the economy. But in the meantime, the G-20 meeting this weekend ended with an ambitious target. Leaders of the world's wealthiest countries pledged to cut debt in half by 2013.

There is a bit of a balancing act, though, with this, because if governments cut spending too quickly, it could hurt the recovery. All right. In the first few seconds of the opening bell of the trade today, the Dow Industrial is up 14. The Nasdaq is higher by four. And we are keeping our eyes on shares of BP. Right now, they are up 2.5 percent. Even though the company says cleanup costs have hit $2.6 billion, Kyra, BP is also denying reports that CEO, Tony Hayward, will resign soon.

Kyra, back to you.

PHILLIPS: All right. Alison, thanks.

KOSIK: You bet.

PHILLIPS: Wall Street is looking at some new rules on how business is done. Lawmakers worked for more than a year on reforms aimed at protecting you, the consumer. That's only half the story.

CNN's Christine Romans takes a look at some proposals not making the cut.

So, what changes will consumers feel first, Christine?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: This is what you are going to feel first. I mean, there's going to be one place, Kyra, where deceptive and abusive practices that target consumers will be sniffed out. That's going to be the fed in this consumer protection agency. They're going to end liar loans. That means you're going to have to prove that you have income and that you can pay back a loan before you get it. I know it sounds illusionary (ph), right, but that's part of the problem. There's nobody making sure that people can actually pay back their loans, and above all now, that's going to be a rule.

No pre-payment penalties for people who have mortgages. And limit time, (ph) mortgage brokers, Kyra, in particular, mortgage brokers during the bubble got bonuses for steering people into riskier more expensive loans. Now you're going to have this new agency that's going to make sure that can't happen, among other things -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. So, what changes didn't make it into the bill?

PHILLIPS: Quite a few things didn't make it. In your autos, for example, did not make it in your auto loan, will not fall into the purview of this consumer protection agencies. So, mortgages, private student loans, credit cards, just about everything you touch with your money makes it in there, but not oversight for auto loans. They didn't get the mortgage reduction by the courts that some Democrats had wanted. They'd wanted it when you went into bankruptcy to be able to lower, you know, what you owe on the mortgage, but that didn't make it.

There are no credit card caps. You can still be charged just about anything for an interest rate on a credit card. There are no caps. Earlier in this process, many have hoped they could cap credit card interest rates at 36 percent. That didn't make in the end. And neither is going to be fixed for Fannie and Freddie. Everyone agrees that something has to happen for this home mortgage giant which are essentially a war (ph) to the state. This is you and I supporting, the taxpayer, supporting the American housing industry. A lot of problems there, but this particular financial regulation just perform the biggest in 70 years did not address Fannie and Freddie, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Christine Romans, thanks.

And hey, you may want to double check your breakfast cereal this morning before you eat it. A strange flavor and smell is causing a massive Kellogg's cereal recall. Kellogg's is removing 28,000 million boxes of corn pops, honey smacks, fruit loops, and apple jacks from shelves. If you have a box with the letters KN before the use by date, don't open it and don't eat it. For more information about the recall, just go to Kellogg's.com and click on the alert button. Arizona's new illegal immigration law and today's face-off between the state's governor and the Obama administration with the back job (ph) of a potential federal lawsuit that hangs in the balance.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Arizona's in battled governor, Jan Brewer gets a visit from a contingent of White House official today. Yep, it's because of her state's controversial new immigration enforcement policy set to go into effect later next month. Brewer sat down with CNN affiliate, KPNX, in advance of today's meeting and the federal lawsuit that she's expecting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR JAN BREWER, (R) ARIZONA: I don't like the idea that they are suing. Let's make that perfectly clear. I think that's outrageous. The fact of the matter is I think that if they are, they should notify my office, myself personally, rather than hearing the news maybe on another nation's news broadcast.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Brewer says that she found out about the intended lawsuit through a news report out of Ecuador. Secretary Clinton discussed the lawsuit in front of TV cameras during a visit there earlier this month.

Checking top stories, for the first time since the BP oil disaster began 70 days ago, oil is now washing up on Mississippi' beaches. A crew of nearly two dozen workers collected tar balls from four locations yesterday, but so far, no beaches have been closed.

One person is dead, four others injured by severe weather at a campground in Michigan. That campground is about 60 miles northeast of Detroit. Several vehicles at that area were overturned by high winds as well.

Senator Robert Byrd, the nation's longest-serving member of Congress, died early this morning. The senator from West Virginia was 92. He had been in the Senate for more than a century. Flags on Capitol Hill have been lowered to half-staff.

And here he goes again. Iran's president declaring that he wants to punish the U.S. and its allies for imposing new sanctions. Those sanctions were passed just a few days ago to stop Iran from building a nuclear bomb. CNN's senior U.N. correspondent, Richard Roth, in New York with the lengthy news conference still going on. Richard, are we hearing anything new or is this just more the same?

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR U.N. CORRESPONDENT: It sounds like more of the same. A hint of something with the president of Iran saying his country was now ready to resume negotiations. But as you mentioned, after Iran disciplines other countries and says it's ready by late August for talks, and he also mentioned there were three conditions, though, he said there was nothing really new in them. Yesterday, Leon Panetta, the CIA director in Washington had an alarming forecast once again about Iran's nuclear intentions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, IRAN: The wrong dispersion (ph) in order to create obstruction in the face -- in the way of the --

LEON PANETTA, CIA DIRECTOR: We think they have enough low enrich uranium right now for two weapons. They do have to enrich it fully in order to get there, and we would estimate it if they made that decision, it probably would take a year to get there, probably another year to develop the kind of weapon delivery system in order to make that viable. But having said that, the president and the international community has said to Iran, you got to wake up. You got to join the family of nations. You got to abide by international law. That's in the best interest of Iran.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: Now, in response to the news conference, the Iranian leaders scoffed at what the CIA director was warning about and again used the press conference to blast the United States' large nuclear arsenal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AHMADINEJAD: Are they so afraid of two bombs? There are 20,000 bombs stockpiled, 20,000 bombs are stockpiled, and they are so afraid of the possibility of making two bombs? This is really amazing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: The Iranian leader said that Brazil and Turkey should be present at those Talks that Iran is now proposing for late August. It was Brazil and Turkey that worked out, Kyra, a nuclear fuel swap deal on the eve of the latest round of U.N. sanctions on Tehran. The United States does not think much of that deal because it still gives Iran the ability to enrich uranium capable for use of nuclear weapons -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Now, we (ph) understand the Iranian president was also asked about the Gulf oil spill?

ROTH: Yes, very briefly. He really questioned why the United States does not allow other countries, and including his own, I think he was hinting to come in and participate in help stop the spill.

PHILLIPS: Interesting. I wonder what kind of help he would provide, actually. Richard, thanks.

The road to the Supreme Court just a few hours from now. Nominee Elena Kagan begins her first day of confirmation hearings. We're going to look ahead to some of the tough questions that lie ahead.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kate Bolduan and I'm at the Supreme Court. On this final day of the court's term this year, the justices are expected to rule on a blockbuster case having to do with the right to bear arms. Will the justices uphold or strike down a strict handgun ban in Chicago? The ripple effects will be felt across the country. I'll be live with the ruling.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: It's shaping up to be a pretty tough day of questioning on Capitol Hill. Less than three hours from now, the first confirmation hearing gets underway for Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan. Right now, she serves as President Obama's solicitor general, but if she's confirmed, she would become the first person in decades to become a justice without first serving as a judge at any level. This is going to be a marathon job interview for Elena Kagan.

Don't expect Republican to just hand her the robe. They're getting their questions ready, that's for sure. John Roberts live in New York with our "AM Extra" this morning. John, you talked to the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee just a little while ago. Senator Jeff Sessions says that Kagan has the thinnest resume ever.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR, "AMERICAN MORNING": But at the same time, he has supported people who had thin resumes before. Certainly, Senator Sessions wants to find out more from Elena Kagan about her experience, her background, her potential judicial philosophy, the time that she spent in the White House. He's concerned that she might be more of a political operative than she would be an honest jurist. But remember back in 2005, when Harriet Myers was first nominated to the bench by President George W. Bush. This is what Jess Sessions said about Harriet Myers back then.

He said, quote, it is not necessary that she had previous experience as a judge in order to serve on the Supreme Court. It's perfectly acceptable to nominate outstanding lawyers to that position. I asked Senator Sessions what's different between then and now, other than the fact that this is a democratic, not a Republican nominee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN JEFF SESSIONS, (R) ALABAMA: I was a bit uneasy about Myers, but I did support her initially. She had 26 years of law practice, and it worked in the White House a number of years. This nominee has only two or three years of practice, mostly academic and mostly political activities in government. This is the thinnest resume ever. She just hasn't had the depth. She's never tried a case. Never cross-examined a witness before a jury. This is a severely limited level of experience. I think you can overcome it, but it's clearly a deficiency.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: She certainly has argued cases, if not actually cross examined witnesses, before the Supreme Court in her role as solicitor general. And, Kyra, when you look at it, she was the dean of the Harvard Law School, and all of the justices with John Paul Stevens' Departure will have either gone to Harvard or Yale, so you would think, maybe at some point at confirmation hearings, that type of experience would count for something.

PHILLIPS: It's interesting. I mean, as we look at so many positions within politics and justice, and you know, when it comes to women and minorities, you know, let's lay it out there, in many times they're treated very differently. And that leads me to the study that was done by the University Of Georgia School Of Law and the University of North Texas.

And in this study, it said we find that female and minority nominees face a significantly different hearing environment than do white male nominees. And, John, it goes on to say that senators, quote/unquote, "chat with minority and women nominees during confirmation hearing far less than they do with white men".

Now, it's going to be interesting seeing how these hearings go, learning that information from that study.

ROBERTS: Yes. And you pointed me toward the study. I printed it out and I've been looking at it this morning. Chatter is not the only part where there's a big, big difference. As women and minorities faced, on the overall, more substantive questioning than white men did particularly on the issue of judicial philosophy.

On that point, Professor Paul Collins, who is the co-author of this from the University of North Texas said in "The New York Times," today, quote, "There might be a concern that they would bring their unique backgrounds to the bench on judicial philosophy."

Women and minorities were also asked more about banking and finance than white men were. And when it came to criminal justice, minorities were asked far more about that than either women or men.

So definitely some differences over the course of history in the Supreme Court confirmation hearings and it's -- it's rather -- it's rather dense. Let's put it that way. It's some 65 pages, but it is very interesting reading, this study from the University of Georgia Law School.

PHILLIPS: I don't know. I'm just convinced men are just intimidated by strong women, John.

ROBERTS: Let's -- let's not have that discussion in this forum.

PHILLIPS: OK. I thought I'd put you on the spot. It's so true.

John Roberts, thank you.

Well, we're going to have live coverage of the Elena Kagan confirmation hearings beginning at noon Eastern, 9:00 Pacific.

It's the talk on Twitter and on blogs this morning. Chris Brown with a tear-jerking performance at the BET Awards last night, but who was he crying for? M.J., Rihanna, his floundering career since? We're going to take a hard look as we get your opinions next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Forgive and forget? Some are calling singer Chris Brown's so-called breakdown last night at the BET Awards show a comeback moment for him. But before we forgive, let's not forget this is the same guy who pleaded guilty last year to beating his girlfriend, fellow pop singer Rihanna.

Now back to last night, let's take a look at the moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CHRIS BROWN PERFORMING AT BET AWARDS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Yes, during Brown's tribute to the late Michael Jackson, Brown begins crying, drops to his knees and looks to the heavens. You get the picture? Now this happened during his rendition of Jackson's "Man in the Mirror" song. The crowd went crazy.

But let's not forget how Rihanna must have felt when she looked in the mirror post beat down and saw the fat lip and bloodied mouth and swollen eyes compliments of Brown. So we're discussing it today, are we as a nation, society or as pop culture, far too forgiving and forgetful when it comes to stars behaving badly.

That's our blog question of the day. I want to hear from you. Are you buying Brown's breakdown? E-mail us at CNN.com/kyra. We're going to select some of the best responses and share them with you the next hour right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

All right, we've got a lot going on. Let's check in with our reporters and see what they're working on. Let's begin with Dana Bash.

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, we are here on the floor where Elena Kagan's Supreme Court confirmation hearings will begin in just about two and a half hours. We will talk to you about what the senators who will be sitting in these seats want to ask her and how she might respond. That's at the top of the hour.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And tropical storm Alex continues to churn in the Gulf of Mexico. Before the day is out we may be talking about the first named hurricane of the 2010 Atlantic season. And coming up, we'll let you know what affect it may have on the oil cleanup efforts in just a few moments.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Five infants die in California from whooping cough. What's going on and what can do you to protect your baby? I'll have that at the top of the hour.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, guys.

A group of New Yorkers out, proud and Catholic. The group and its supporters have plenty to say but their parade banner doesn't, it's blank at the request of the archdiocese, and it's not sitting well with some parishioners. That's coming up in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, a quick action spared Britain's Prince Harry a trip to the hospital. Princess Diana's youngest son fell off his horse. You'll see it right here, during a charity polo match on Sunday in New York.

Now look closely, you can actually see Harry kept holding the reins. He rolled over and landed on his back side. He didn't appear to be hurt. Harry did get back on that horse and he continued the match to raise money for AIDS victims in Southern Africa.

Oh, World Cup refs are often scrutinized and today they can count on a whole lot more, particularly the ref in Sunday's Germany/England match who didn't count an England goal that clearly, hello, went in. England's Frank Lampard thought that he had the equalizer in the first half to tie the match at 1-1, but the ref simply didn't see the goal.

CNN's Alex Thomas joins us live from soccer city in South Africa. Alex, a lot of people are saying football should be using new technology and even instant replays to keep the games fair.

ALEX THOMAS, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes and not just a few people, Kyra, lots and lots of people around the world. You can argue that football is the biggest global sport of any of them and millions are watching that England versus Germany match, a heavy weight encounter between two old rivals with a great pedigree in the World Cup.

But sadly, despite millions around the world instantly being able to see it was a goal. And I was privileged enough to be in the stadium, and it looked a goal to me from my seat as well. The referee and his assistant linesmen are not allowed to turn to TV replays to check as we do in other sports like American football or rugby or cricket.

So it is a bit of a puzzle. And it all boils down to the head of football's world governing body FIFA, his name is Seth Blatter and consistently down the year, he's tried to refuse to use video technology and explained his reasons why earlier this year to my colleague, Pedro Pinto.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PEDRO PINTO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The objective of football is to score a goal and whether a goal is scored or not can change the lives of many people and it can change the fortunes of many clubs.

SETH BLATTER, FIFA: I agree if you have an absolute accurate and not complicated system, I would be in favor. I would be in favor.

(END VIDEO CLIP) THOMSA: So, that's Seth Blatter explaining why he doesn't like to use video technology in football. We get this cropping up every few months or so when there's a crucial decision that affects the outcome of the match. At least you can say, in the England and Germany match, and also, a bad refereeing decision in the evening game when Argentina beat Mexico, it didn't affect the results. The Bellatines (ph), Argentina and Germany went through to a quarterfinal match which is a mouthful (INAUDIBLE)

PHILLIPS: Now, it's that that one botched call didn't matter much since Germany ran away with the match in the second half anyway but it does beg the question the reason behind why the sport doesn't allow replay or goal sensing technology. What do you think?

THOMAS: It wasn't just those two decisions in the matches we saw yesterday, Kyra we also remember, particularly fans in the United States during one of America's group games against Slovenia, they could have got an amazing win, one of the greatest comebacks in history. (INAUDIBLE), the United States blast, he hit the back of the net; the goal was disallowed and when you look to the replays, you just couldn't work out why.

The player has even asked the referee on the pitch at the time. He couldn't give them an answer. But there is no appeal recourse and no going to video replays. It's something that FIFA is going to continue to be hammered about.

In their daily briefing today, they are asked about it and said, "Sorry, this isn't the right forum to discuss it. When is it the right forum? You can imagine Seth Blatter in his home maybe playing a gramophone record and looking at this funny box in the corner with pictures and lights coming out of it?

It's a TV set, use it.

PHILLIPS: There you go. It went beyond that. Thanks Alex.