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CNN Live Saturday

Bill Schneider Top Five Political Plays of the Year; Rescue Workers in Selma, California Save Elderly Woman From Car; Pakistani Buried Alive 65 Days, Survives

Aired December 31, 2005 - 12:30   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
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(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Checking stories now in the news, a subway strike is expected to disrupt new year's eve celebrations in Britain's capital. Subway workers in London started walking off the job earlier today as part of a 24-hour strike. The transit union says the walkout is over safety issues.

Officials in Germany say kidnappers in Yemen have released five members of a German family. The father is former German ambassador to the United States. Kidnappers took him hostage along with his wife and three adult sons. German officials say they were abducted earlier this week while on a guided tour.

And while we wait for the arrival of the new year in the United States, it's already 2006 in parts of the world including Australia, Japan, and China. This was the scene as the clock struck midnight in Taipei, Taiwan.

And parts of California are ringing in the new year with nasty weather. A half foot of new rain is expected this weekend. Rivers are already running high, and the soil is saturated. Flood and mudslide warnings extend across the north central part of the state, from the north bay area to the Nevada border. A mudslide has destroyed at least one hillside home. And yet another Pacific storm is expected to move in Sunday night. Crews say they have contained most of the grass fires that burned across Texas and Oklahoma this week. But the fire threat remains high. Temperatures are headed into the 80s again today, with gusty winds and no ray is in sight. Four deaths are blamed on the fires. They burned more than 100 homes already.

Let's check in with Bonnie Schneider. I wish you could give them some good news there.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WHITFIELD: Yeah. Indeed. You are busy. Thanks so much, Bonnie.

Coming up, is it a prosecutor from Texas or a judge in the nation's capital? Who is behind this year's top political play? CNN senior political analyst bill Schneider takes a look, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Well, President and Laura Bush are ringing in the new year at their ranch in Crawford, Texas. In this weekly radio address today, Mr. Bush touted political developments in Iraq and Afghanistan. And he tried to reassure Americans progress is being made there.

On the homefront, Mr. Bush stressed improvements in the U.S. economy and the need to make tax cuts permanent and expand trade.

This year has certainly been an interesting one on the political front. Among the big stories, a conservative uprising against the White House. Here's CNN's senior political analyst Bill Schneider with his political plays of the year.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): Five for 05, the political plays of the year.

Play number five, Texas prosecutor Ronnie Earle brought down the hammer on the hammer, Tom DeLay.

RONNIE EARLE, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, TRAVIS COUNTY, TEXAS: The indictment charges delay with conspiring with Illis and (INAUDIBLE) to violate the Texas election code by contributing corporate money to candidates for the Texas legislature.

SCHNEIDER: It was a classic act of partisan score-settling as DeLay did not fail to notice.

REP. TOM DELEY, (R) TEXAS: This act is the product of a coordinated, premeditated campaign of political retribution.

SCHNEIDER: But it was also a brilliant decapitation strategy. DeLay stepped aside as majority leader. House Republicans fell into leaderless disarray. And Democrats saw a chance to make ethics a partisan issue. Play number four, another prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, led another politically-charged probe. But in Fitzgerald's case, no one could find any partisan motive.

PATRICK FITZGERALD, U.S. SPECIAL COUNSEL: This is simply the indict that says in a national security investigation about the compromise of a CIA's officer's identity that may have taken place in the contest in very a heated debate over the war, whether a person, Mr. Libby, lied or not.

SCHNEIDER: Fitzgerald indicted Libby, continues to threaten Karl Rove and pretty much paralyzed the White House while he himself remained untouchable. A political Eliot Ness.

Play number three, conservatives declared their independence. They rose up in revolt over the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.

SEN. SAM BROWNBACK, (R) KANSAS: Well, a number of us would liked to have had somebody that a clear track record on these key issues.

SCHNEIDER: They brought Miers down. They also refused to toe the White House line on deficit spending, immigration, Medicare and torture.

After four years, a conservative uprising loosened the White House grip on the Republican Congress.

Play number two, John McCain managed to have it both ways: a principled maverick who remained Bush friendly and kept lines open to conservatives. After beating the White House into submission on the torture issue, McCain somehow made it look like President Bush won.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) ARIZONA: Thank you, Mr. President. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for the effort that you've made to resolve this very difficult issue.

SCHNEIDER: McCain is one of the few figures in American politics who appeals to both Democrats and Republicans.

And the political play of the year, that would be John Roberts who shut down what was supposed to be the ultimate political showdown. Roberts trumped what could have been a bitter, ideological controversy with strong credentials, and a limited paper trail, as well as considerable political finesse. Under close questioning, Roberts revealed almost nothing about how he might vote.

JOHN ROBERTS, SUPREME COURT NOMINEE: And there's nothing in my personal views based on faith or other sources that would prevent me from applying the precedence of the court faithfully under principles under stari decicis (ph).

SCHNEIDER: The Senate voted 78-22 to confirm Roberts as chief justice. Democrats were split down the middle. War was averted.

(on camera): New Year's is the time for predictions. But the message of 2005 is, political plays are rarely predictable. As the great American philosopher Yogi Berra once said, never make predictions, especially about the future. Good advice for a happy new year.

Bill Schneider, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And coming up, there's no dispute, an amazing survival story from Pakistan that you'll have to see it to believe. And more than two months after devastating earthquake flattened her home, this woman was found alive in the rubble.

CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta visits her as she recovers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Now, we've been reporting to you severe weather conditions out in California, northern and central portions of this state, specifically.

Well, now we're getting this video in of a rescue that has taken place earlier involving an elderly woman who we believe at the time of the shooting of his tape, the images that you're seeing right now, is trapped in one of those vehicles. And the rescue efforts are underway. The emergency crews are trying to get to that vehicle where we understand in the end, the successful rescue mission did take place retrieving this elderly woman, and then taking her to a nearby hospital where she is being treated for exposure.

And this video is just now coming in. So, when we are able to get to the portion of the video where we actually see the rescue taking place, we want to bring that to you as it happens. But you're looking at the torrential rain and the flooding that has taken place so forceful, that you see it's actually moving that rear vehicle.

A very volatile situation, but we do understand that in the end they were able to rescue the elderly woman in that vehicle. And this taking place specifically in an area called Selma, California, in northern California. So, of course when we get portions of that videotape in, the actual rescue, we'll be able to bring that to you as soon as we can.

Meantime, Pakistan, a story that defies science, a woman spent nine weeks trapped in earthquake wreckage. Amazingly, she survived. CNN's senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports from Islamabad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The earth shook. The mountains came down like rain. More than 80,000 people died, and were instantly buried. It all happened in just two minutes.

This 80-year-old man was convinced his daughter was among the dead. She was in the kitchen working, he told me. We heard her scream. And then nothing. We couldn't find her. Not in the mountain rubble that had buried their simple home.

But the family needed to rebuild. And as they cleared the ground for a new home, they finally found her, accidentally, more than two months after the quake, long after most victims had been given up for dead.

(on camera): The woman you're about to see is the longest survivor ever of someone trapped after an earthquake or after any sort of disaster. Supposedly she lived for two months, actually 65 days, with no food. Maybe only access to some muddy water. She weighed just 26 kilograms when she got in, that's just about 60 pounds. She was severely malnourished. Let's take a look for the first time.

Does she have any injuries?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's got (INAUDIBLE), and we have x-rays done, a C-scan (ph) was done. (INAUDIBLE) is OK. Her chest is OK, her heart is OK.

GUPTA (voice-over): Of course, the only person who really knows what happened to Noksha (ph) is Noksha (ph) herself, but she is still too weak to talk.

(on camera): What do you think? I mean, you're her doctor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think she must be getting some food or else water, maybe, from the rain or something like that, because something she must be eating or drinking, which kept her alive. And secondly, I think she was very healthy.

GUPTA (voice-over): Even if she did have food, she clearly didn't have much.

(on camera): Can I see her legs. I mean, how much weight did she lose here in her legs? Wow. There's no muscle mass, no fat, just skin and bones.

(voice-over): We don't know why she's hitting herself, but it could be that she is upset about her condition. Also, she has been told her mother died in the earthquake.

Still, she's in remarkable condition for her ordeal. Her father is in a hospital close by. He was at a market when the earthquake hit and his leg was crushed in the rubble. By the time he arrived here several days later, his shattered leg was infected. Doctors couldn't save it.

But then, good news. After his operation, confined to a hospital bed, he is told his daughter is alive. He doesn't believe it, until he sees her with his own eyes. It was a reunion seen and heard around all of Pakistan.

(on camera): They say that she survived two months with no food and hardly any water, the scientist in me is somewhat skeptical of that, but all the doctors here say it's a miracle.

(voice-over): Noksha (ph) is slowly rehabilitating her broken down and battered body. For the time being she doesn't seem to know that she survived when so many others died. And that when she was lifted from the rubble, she lifted the spirits of a broken country.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Islamabad, Pakistan.

WHITFIELD: That is a remarkable story.

Well, a tough transition now because a lot of people are focusing on new year's. And we are about 11 hours away from our new year's celebrations, at least on the East Coast. But many nations have already rung in the new year. Shannon Cook is with us now, and folks are already celebrating, they're already in 2006. Tell us what it's like.

SHANNON COOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Makes you feel kind of jealous. Not fair.

WHITFIELD: Especially for you, because you're seeing your friends and family.

COOK: Right!

WHITFIELD: In your homeland, already in 2006.

COOK: They're already swinging from the chandeliers and drunk under the tables!

WHITFIELD: With lamp shades on their heads!

COOK: Revelers around the world, as we're saying, are already partying like mad. And when we go global after the break, we'll show you the many ways nations have said good day to 2006, from Sydney to Tokyo.

WHITFIELD: Though it's not really good day, it's g'day.

COOK: It's g'day. It's a soft g.

WHITFIELD: I see. Wow.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Now, we continue to monitor this video just coming now in to CNN, video out of Selma, California, where you're seeing the result of heavy rains that have caused flash floodings as well as a mudslide warning in Northern California, as well as central parts of California. Here at out of Selma, we're looking at a frantic rescue under way. This videotape, taken earlier.

They're trying to get, by the use of these jet skis, trying to get to these vehicle there that you see submerged in the water, where inside one of those vehicles, we understand, an elderly woman is. And we know now, because this videotape is just coming in, the incident happened much earlier, that the elderly woman was rescued and has been take to a hospital where she is undergoing treatment for exposure.

But you see that time is of the essence of this rescue mission, because as we've been watching this video, the water has been rising.

But we know that the rescue efforts were fruitful. They were able to rescue this elderly woman where she is now currently being hospitalized.

And of course, when we get to the portion -- you can see it right now. The woman emerging from the top of what appeared to be an SUV or a minivan. They're rescuing her now. Let's listen in.

(VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Images of an incredible rescue mission underway here. You see the one rescue worker on top of this, either minivan or SUV where he was able to pull and elderly woman from the rooftop of this vehicle where they are both now on top of the vehicle, perhaps waiting for back-up. You see just right of those two vehicles is a jet ski. And earlier, we were seeing that jet ski with the emergency worker in it topple over quite a few times. So possibly right now, that emergency worker is waiting for some sort of back-up, whether it be another jet ski, or perhaps a rope, or something from his or her colleagues to help pull the rest of -- pull them, as well as the elderly woman to safety.

So again, as we understand it, that elderly woman is being currently hospitalized and treated for exposure.

All this taking place out of Selma, California earlier today where in many parts of northern and central California, very high water as a result of a heavy rains over the past couple of days. And we understand at least another half foot of rain is expected throughout the weekend.

And, of course, we will continue to keep a close watch on that as we get information.

All right. Still much more ahead on CNN LIVE SATURDAY. "IN THE MONEY" is coming up next.

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