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Lou Dobbs Tonight
Hurricane Isabel Nears Landfall; Interview With Commerce Secretary Don Evans
Aired September 17, 2003 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Bracing for Isabel: High winds will hit the coast of North Carolina and Virginia by midnight tonight. We'll have live reports from both states.
Exporting America: Leading congressmen want action against China to protect American jobs. Commerce Secretary Don Evans is our guest.
Shut up and sing: Radio host Laura Ingraham takes a look at elites and the ways in which they're subverting America.
And tonight: success and satisfaction in life, the inspirational story of Brad Margus and his search for a cure for the illness that threatens his children.
ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT for Wednesday, September 17. Here now, Lou Dobbs.
DOBBS: Good evening.
Tonight, it appears that Richard Grasso's reign as the chairman and CEO of the New York Stock Exchange is all but over. At this hour, an emergency conference call of the board of directors is under way. That meeting was called late this afternoon in response to the storm of controversy surrounding Grasso's $140 million pay package, a package that was first revealed publicly three weeks ago. Several members of the board of directors are calling for his resignation.
Mary Snow is outside the New York Stock Exchange and has the very latest for us -- Mary.
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lou, certainly a sense of anticipation here outside the New York Stock Exchange.
There are a line of cameras waiting outside the building, as we await what appears to be Richard Grasso's, the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, imminent departure from the building. His car has been pulled up. So we are expecting perhaps for him to come out pretty soon.
As you mentioned, this meeting got under way shortly after the close of today's session. And it was hastily called, the latest in the furor over his $140 million benefit payment that was announced in late August. And it also comes just one day after California's pension fund called on the resignation of Richard Grasso. And that spurred a number of calls for his resignation from other pension funds to politicians.
And, also, Lou, it comes just a day ahead of a scheduled meeting that was called last week by three directors of the New York Stock Exchange, calling on active members to meet tomorrow. In terms of traders, certainly, momentum has been picking up in recent days. Just a few days ago, it might seem unimaginable for some traders to speculate on Grasso stepping down. At the close of today's session, a number of them saying that they felt it was time for him to go -- Lou.
DOBBS: Mary, thank you very much -- Mary Snow at the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street in downtown Manhattan. We'll have much more on this story later in the show, Christine Romans to report on what's at stake for the people who do business at that exchange, as well, the way in which it could change the way people in this country trade stocks, and the New York Stock Exchange, of course, the largest exchange in the world.
Tonight, there is a hostage drama unfolding in Tennessee. An armed man has taken 12 to 16 students -- police still do not know how many -- hostage at Dyersburg State Community College. Dyersburg Police SWAT teams are on the scene. The hostage-taker has, to this point, made no demands. He has released three of the students that he is holding. The campus has been evacuated as negotiators talk to the man through a wall. We will have a live report from the scene shortly.
Tonight, states on the East Coast are bracing for the arrival of Hurricane Isabel. States of emergency have been declared in North Carolina, Virginia, Delaware and Maryland. Isabel is now expected to hit the East Coast within the next 24 hours. Officials have ordered 200,000 people to evacuate the barrier islands in North Carolina and low-lying coastal areas of Virginia.
Forecasters expect Isabel to make landfall near Cape Lookout -- that's on the Outer Banks in North Carolina -- around midday tomorrow. Tropical-storm force wins are expected to begin, however, lashing the coast as early as midnight tonight.
We have two reports. Ed Lavandera is at North Topsail Beach, North Carolina; Jeanne Meserve at Virginia Beach, Virginia.
We go first to Ed Lavandera -- Ed.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Lou.
Well, you mentioned that the eye of the storm is expected to hit around Cape Lookout. We're further south from that point. And, as you look out there, the conditions rather calm here at this point, cloudy conditions, slight gusts from time to time. But here, of course, on this particular island, it's an island that has about 3,000 people that live here year-round. Another 35,000 come here during the summertime months.
But if you look there, this line across the beach here, that dune, and a lot of the homes here are built on stilts, if you will. So, of course, here the issue is going to be flooding. And that's what authorities and officials here in the state of North Carolina have been warning about all day, the governor of North Carolina urging people who live in areas like this, although there haven't been mandatory evacuations from this island -- it's voluntary at this point.
But they are urging people to be very careful in these types of low-lying areas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. MICHAEL EASLEY (D), NORTH CAROLINA: Low-lying areas to please evacuate and get to safer areas until the rain has passed. We're asking people especially on the Outer Banks and on the coastline to evacuate until we know the extent and the intensity of this hurricane.
LAVANDERA: We spent most of the day driving around Topsail Island here. And we've seen a lot of homes that have already been boarded up.
Many families who have summer vacation homes here have been coming in from wherever they live, as far away as Tennessee, we understand, coming here to board up their homes as well to protect what they need to protect. And many people here have already left the island altogether. As you drive around here, it's very quiet. And officials continue to urge, if you don't need to stick around here, it's best to move inland -- Lou.
DOBBS: Ed, thank you very much -- Ed Lavandera.
Jeanne Meserve is further north in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where officials tonight are urging residents to evacuate as well -- Jeanne.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lou, most visitors are welcome in Virginia Beach. Not this one.
We felt the winds intensify in just the last couple of minutes. If you look behind me, the surf has gotten very rough-and-tumble. But the real concern in this community is these hotels. Approximately 21,000 people are employed in the tourist industry here. If these buildings are badly damaged, it could devastate the local economy.
But, of course, people are what officials are really concerned about. Willoughby Spit is a community in the city of Norfolk. It's surrounded by water on two sides. Its power comes in on poles. Residents are afraid, if those go down, they could be without power possibly for weeks. Some people are going, but some people are staying, everybody mindful of the history of this particular piece of land.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The peninsula you're standing on was formed by a hurricane back in the Colonial days. And what Mother Nature deposits, she can certainly take away and probably will one day. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think we're going to leave. But my dad might stay because of the looting that went on the last time we had a hurricane.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MESERVE: Federal, state and local officials feel they're about as well prepared for this hurricane as they could possibly be.
The Department of Homeland Security has prepositioned personnel and supplies all up and down the Eastern Seaboard, including 5,500 cots, 18,000 blankets, 148,000 of gallons of water, all of this to deal with what you're seeing here and what's to come -- Lou, back to you.
DOBBS: Jeanne, thank you very much -- Jeanne Meserve. We appreciate it.
Later here in the show, we'll be joined by the director of the National Hurricane Center. Max Mayfield will have the very latest assessment for us on the center of Hurricane Isabel's path and the projected time at which it will make landfall, now projected for the barrier islands of North Carolina.
Isabel is already disrupting normal routines of all sorts along the East Coast. Tomorrow night's baseball games, for example, in Baltimore and Philadelphia have been moved up. They'll be played now at 1:00 in the afternoon. NASCAR canceled on-track activities tomorrow and Friday. And the San Antonio Spurs won't visit the White House tomorrow.
Amtrak canceled much of its train service in the Carolinas today. Tomorrow, it will cancel all service south of Washington, D.C. Train schedules all along the East Coast will be affected. U.S. Airways is the first airline to cancel flights in the Virginia and Carolinas. Other airlines are certain to follow with their own cancellations that will lead to delays, of course, across much of the country.
Hurricane Isabel will also have an economic impact and damage estimates have already been developed. Those estimates range from $1 billion to $4 billion. That depends, of course, on where and how strong the storm is when it makes landfall. Those costs do not include flood damage, most of which is covered and paid for by the federal government.
The federal budget is already heavily burdened. And today, the deficit hit a new record high. The Treasury Department reports, the deficit passed $400 billion and we still have another month left in this budget year. The budget deficit is now twice as high as a year ago.
The United States also has a huge trade deficit. And it is also at a record high. The trade deficit has many causes. But its impact is devastating American workers, who are losing their jobs. Congress has slowly awakened to what many say is already a crisis. Leading congressmen now plan to introduce a resolution urging retaliation against China.
Peter Viles has the report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): During the summer of war with Iraq, members of Congress heard something surprising back home: Do something about China.
REP. BARON HILL (D), INDIANA: When I went home for the August break, I thought that the discussion among town hall meetings would be mostly about Iraq. But it was about jobs, in particular the jobs that are being lost to the Chinese. I met with furniture manufacturers, tool and die operations and a lot of businesses, who know what's going on with the Chinese currency and want the United States Congress do something about it.
VILES: So four congressmen today pushed a bipartisan resolution that accuses China of manipulating its currency and urges the Bush administration to fight back by threatening retaliation under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.
JERRY JASINOWSKI, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MANUFACTURERS: I think the No. 1 problem with respect to unfair trade practices by the Chinese is their manipulation of their currency. It probably accounts for over half the trade problems we have with China.
VILES: Trade with China is turning into a one-way street. China sells. The United States buys. The trade deficit in goods nearly doubled over the past five years to $103 billion a year, nearly $400 billion in deficits over five years. Americans are partly to blame. They continue to invest in Chinese factories to the tune of $2.9 billion last year.
And Americans invite the Chinese to come to America on job- hunting missions like this one, where recruiters offer China's cheap labor to American companies.
CHANG YU, CHINA CHAMBER OF INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE: I talked with some local software companies. Based on the things they told me, they think here, you just hire one person. Maybe you can hire 10 in China.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VILES: Now, just to be clear, that Chinese recruiter was not talking about low-wage factory jobs. She was talking about jobs as software engineers. And tonight, no comment from the U.S. trade representative on whether that office will begin a Section 301 case against China, which is how the U.S. would begin the process of retaliating, if it chooses to -- Lou.
DOBBS: This is reaching, Peter, remarkable proportions in a hurry in terms of congressional reaction. The administration is now beginning to react. But, also, jobs continue to evaporate.
VILES: And members of Congress heard about it this summer. That congressman from Indiana said 100,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost in his state alone.
DOBBS: OK. Pete, thank you very much -- Peter Viles.
We'll be taking this up with the commerce secretary, Don Evans. He joins us to talk about the exporting of America and what the administration is now doing prepare to end it. And one American company that is fighting to survive and keep its workers in this country, no matter the cost. Jan Hopkins will have that story. And how this country's supposed elite are subverting American values -- author Laura Ingraham joins us to talk about her new book, "Shut Up and Sing."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Coming up next here, we'll be talking with Commerce Secretary Don Evans about trade, exporting America and American jobs.
And tracking Isabel: National Hurricane Center director Max Mayfield joins us to tell us where Isabel is mostly to strike and when.
That's coming right up. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: My guest announced this week that the White House will create a special team to track down and fight unfair trade practices in China, and around the world, for that matter.
Commerce Secretary Don Evans also plans to travel to China to address the concerns that he's heard from many U.S. manufacturers. Secretary Evans joins us tonight from Washington, D.C.
Mr. Secretary, good to have you with us.
DON EVANS, COMMERCE SECRETARY: Thank you, Lou. Great to be with you.
DOBBS: The administration take steps now, as we have just reported moments ago. The five-year deficit with China is staggering. This problem, why is it come to the forefront now for both Congress and this administration?
EVANS: Well, Lou, maybe there's a little more focus on it at this moment.
But let me tell you, we've been focused on it since January of 2001. I took a trip to China well over a year ago, talked to them about some of the unfair trade practices that we were very concerned about, intellectual property protection being one of them. And so this has been a dialogue discussion that's been going on certainly for the full 2 1/2 years of this administration.
We have been very clear with China that we are going to encourage them to adopt the kind of fiscal policies, monetary policies, that will create long-term growth in their country. But we expect for them to enforce the trade agreements that they sign. And we expect that there's going to be a level playing feel for the American workers.
DOBBS: A level playing field. As Peter Viles just reported, the Chinese, other nations as well, here in the United States recruiting with American corporations, suggesting that they move their enterprises to China, because you can hire 10 times as many, in the case of the Peter Viles report today, 10 software engineers for each one that you can hire in the United States.
EVANS: Yes.
Lou, listen, we're the most competitive nation in the world. And one of the things my travel across America really rang clearly to me was that we can compete against anybody on a level playing field. And that's true today. And so, when I think about the competition around the world and maybe lower wage rates in other countries, I assure you that this work force of ours in America can compete with anybody in the world, white collar or blue collar, as long as it's a level playing feel, we're all playing by the same rules.
Right now, our workers have got a choke collar around them, not only because of some of the unfair trade practices around the world, but also, quite frankly, Lou, a choke collar just because of some -- health care costs are rising dramatically in this country. The lawsuit burden that these companies face here in America is causing an excess burden on our manufacturers. So I'm not concerned about us competing with the rest of the world, as long as we're on a level playing field.
DOBBS: Well, I love what you said earlier this week. We can compete, blue-collar workers, white-collar works. It's the choke collar we have a problem with.
The choke collar, though, goes beyond health care costs and to litigation costs. It goes to the issue of environmental laws that American business employers have to deal with, as well as their workers. It goes to a host of other issues. The playing field is not level. The American worker is getting simply killed in this environment. Is this something that the administration, that you, Mr. Secretary, are going to deal with right away?
EVANS: Well, we are.
The president is going to deal with it. He has been dealing with it for the first 2 1/2 years of this administration, to begin with., We needed to cut the tax burden on the backs of the American people and American businesses all across this nation. And because of his leadership and three successive tax cuts, we're seeing our economy to begin to pick up steam now. GDP, as you know, in the second quarter was 3.1 percent.
We expect -- most economists expect it to be in the 4 to 5 percent range in the third and fourth quarter. But the president recently came out with an economic growth agenda that focused on the topics that you just talked about, rising health care costs. We need medical liability reform that's come out of the House to his desk. We need an energy bill to get to his desk. We need legal reform in this country to remove the lawsuit burden on the backs of the American people and American workers. And we also need to make tax cuts permanent, because families, as well as businesses, like to plan their future. And it's awful tough to plan your future if you don't know what the rules are going to be in the years head.
So the president was very strong about the permanency and certainty of tax cuts. This is what will create the conditions for more jobs in America. And, as I have said many, many times, the top three economic priorities of this administration and the president, the first one is jobs. The second one is jobs. And the third one is jobs. And we're going to continue to fight very hard for creating the conditions for creating more jobs in our economy.
DOBBS: Mr. Secretary, I think that most of us would, certainly at the very least, hypothetically, sign up for everything that you just said, endorse it, agree with you. I'll stipulate it.
At the same time, we can't grow our way out of the situation we have now. We cannot grow our way economically into a level playing field. That's going to require a number of structural adjustments. What do you and what does the president then plan to do about that?
EVANS: Well, in terms of structural adjustments, Lou, what I would say, we need to enter more free trade agreements with people around the world.
One of the disadvantages that American workers have today is, when we showed up in office, there were 100 free trade agreements around the world, markets open to other countries that were closed off to us or higher barriers to the American worker. When we showed up, there were 100 free trade agreements in the world and we were a party to three of them. Now, through the president's efforts, we got trade promotion authority passed.
DOBBS: Right.
EVANS: And now he has the authority to negotiate free trade agreements. And we're going to work very, very hard to open up markets for our small- and medium-sized companies, as well as large companies and our workers all around the world. So that's one of the structural adjustments that we will make.
DOBBS: Will the administration consider tariffs retaliation as well, should the Chinese, in particular, not live up to the standards of a level playing field?
EVANS: Lou, what we will do is, we will enforce our trade laws. I assure you of that. And we will be much more proactive than I think maybe people have been in the past.
We're not going to sit around and wait for industry to come to us with a petition for a dumping case or a countervailing duty case. We're going to be very proactive and try and find areas of the world where we see unfair trade practices taking place. And we're going to go after them. And so, instead of just waiting in a passive kind of way for petitions to come to us, we're going to go after them.
DOBBS: Mr. Secretary, I think this is where I say, go get 'em. And thank you for being with us.
EVANS: You bet, Lou. Good to be with you.
DOBBS: Commerce Secretary Don Evans.
Coming up next, we're going to that hostage situation at a community college in Tennessee. We'll have a live report for you. A gunman there is holding a number of people hostage.
Also tonight: an American company that's fighting to keep its workers and their jobs here in the United States. Jan Hopkins will have that story.
And then, "Shut Up and Sing." That's author Laura Ingraham's advice for celebrities and other so-called elites in this country, the advice she renders in her new book, "Shut Up and Sing." She's next.
And Richard Grasso's reign as the head of the New York Stock Exchange tonight appears to be all about over. Christine Romans will have the very latest for us.
Please stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: As we reported earlier, there is a hostage situation in Tennessee tonight.
An armed man has taken more then a dozen students hostage at Dyersburg State Community College. Dyersburg Police SWAT teams are on the scene. So far, the hostage-taker has still made no demands. Negotiators are talking with people inside with cell phones. And they are getting information through to the gunman through them.
Tommy Stafford of CNN affiliate WPTY joins us now from the scene in Dyersburg, Tennessee -- Tommy.
(CROSSTALK)
TOMMY STAFFORD, WPTY REPORTER: Good evening to you, Lou. Yes, I can hear you now. I had someone there covering you.
We're in Dyersburg, Tennessee, as you just mentioned a moment ago. You pretty much gave a good summary as to what is happening. This building behind me here, directly behind, that's the administration building here on the campus in northwestern Tennessee. This is a community college of 1,000 or 1,500 people. The gunman went in between 1:00 and 1:30 this afternoon, went on the second floor into a basic math class, took some folks hostage.
There may have been as many as 19 or 20 at time. We understand a minimum of three, maybe four, have been released. We were told he went in with a gun and went inside. We may be looking at some video of the scene earlier as well as to what was taking place (AUDIO GAP) other than he wanted some ice water. He told police he wanted something to drink. They gave him that. He agreed to release some of the hostages.
And now they're just in a standoff here, trying to negotiate with him, trying to figure out what their next move will be. They're keeping us briefed as to what's taking place here at the college. And, of course, we're out back live here. We're just waiting to see what happens. But the standoff here continues in northwestern Tennessee -- Lou.
DOBBS: Tommy, do we know how this man is armed? Do we know if all of the hostages to this point are safe and unharmed?
STAFFORD: As far as we know, from what the police chief, who is in charge here in Dyersburg, is telling us, no one has been harmed. The hostages are all safe and in good condition at this point.
And like you mentioned just a moment ago, they are talking by cell phone back and forth, though he's not directly speaking with them on cell phone. They're passing messages through the students.
DOBBS: Tommy Stafford in Dyersburg, Tennessee, of our affiliate WPTY, we thank you for that update.
The exporting of America tonight threatens jobs at a company that became famous for its dedication to its employees. Polartec manufacturer Malden Mills suffered a devastating fire at its Massachusetts plants six years ago. The company's operations were all but ended. But Malden Mills didn't miss a paycheck for those workers. That generosity helped land Malden Mills in bankruptcy. And now there are fears that its creditors will be exporting those jobs to China.
Jan Hopkins has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAN HOPKINS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The new Malden Mills factory has the latest in technology. It ships its fleece around the world, including to U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Now the company's creditors are set to take over operations and jobs may disappear.
NELSON ORTIZ, MALDEN MILLS EMPLOYEE: Well, my main concern is our jobs going overseas. That's really a main concern. And our concern is also, right now, we really don't know who our boss is.
HOPKINS: The boss now is Aaron Feuerstein. But he'll lose his job when the creditors take over. He kept his workers on the payroll after the 1995 fire destroyed the 100-year-old factory and for the two years that the replacement factory was being built. Feuerstein is fighting to get the company away from the creditors. He doesn't want jobs going overseas.
AARON FEUERSTEIN, CEO, MALDEN MILLS: It would be a horrible defeat, in my eyes, if the corporation succeeds and the workers get screwed. That would be the worst.
HOPKINS: A plan presented by the creditors proposes that only 300 of the current 1,200 U.S. jobs remain in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Most of the rest of the production would be moved to China.
(on camera): The creditors refused to do an interview on camera. But a spokesman for GE Capital, the lead creditor, says the decision about moving production to China will be made by the new management team.
(voice-over): The creditors have given the Feuersteins a year to come up with $125 million to buy back the company. But potential lenders want some loan guarantees from the federal Export-Import Bank. Many in Congress agree, this is a good use of taxpayer dollars.
REP. DON MANZULLO (R), ILLINOIS: The attitude of the U.S. government has to be that manufacturing jobs are worth helping out, not as a protectionist argument over the trade laws but simply as a matter of existence to maintain our strategic base.
HOPKINS: Malden Mills is one of the last textile factories left in Massachusetts. While workers continue to make fleece, they worry about what will happen to their jobs.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOPKINS: Mr. Feirstein (ph) told me that after 1 creditor's meeting a creditor took him aside and said, why are you fighting so hard to keep the jobs here? Our company has exported over 70 percent of our back office jobs overseas -- Lou.
DOBBS: And what company was that?
HOPKINS: Can't say. One of the major creditors.
DOBBS: One of the major creditors. And you can't say?
HOPKINS: No.
DOBBS: All right. We're going to start guessing.
HOPKINS: You can.
DOBBS: Jan, thank you very much. That's a horrible story. And it is emblematic of what's happening right now. The administration and Congress awakening to the issue. Now, let's see what they all do. Jan, thank you. Jan Hopkins.
Coming up next, "Subverting America" a new book looks how elites in this country are undermining America values subverting this country. Laura Ingraham, author of "Shut Up And Sing," noted radio personality and host joins us.
And polls, what are polls really worth? We will be talking with one expert, not two as we had planned. And we'll explain that later. Our expert who remains, says, those polls aren't worth much. And extraordinary careers tonight. A man struggle to save his family becomes a career on the cutting edge of science. That story. And we're joined by James Citrin, author of the "5 Patterns of Extraordinary Careers" joins us. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Well, radio talk show host Laura Ingraham has had it with Barbra Streisand and others who say they love the American way of life but don't do anything but criticize it. Her book is called "Shut Up And Sing." It's a fascinating look at those she calls American elite and elites and they, some of them, seem to be ashamed of their country. Laura Ingraham joins us now. Good to have you with us.
LAURA INGRAHAM, AUTHOR: Great to be here, Lou.
DOBBS: The elites of the country, you suggest, are subverting America. Are they doing so you think intentionally?
INGRAHAM: Well I think -- we used to think of elites as kind of the monied class. All went to fancy northeast schools and the old elite term from Europe. But the elites today are really -- it's not about money or where you went to school, it's about how you view sort of the average American.
DOBBS: How do the elites view?
INGRAHAM: Well I think, rather disdainfully. I got this impression over the last two years hosting a radio show where I talked to thousands of people every month and from e-mails to calls that they bring into the show. I am an KRLA in Los Angeles every morning from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. And the phone calls from people who are just tired of being talked down to by Hollywood celebrities who lead pampered lives and play make-believe or go up on a stage and sing who suddenly think they're foreign policy experts and have this urge to continually trash the Bush administration. Or call the president stupid as everyone from Cher to Barbra Streisand has done.
And I think when these celebrities call President Bush stupid or ignorant they're call the American people who support him ignorant and stupid as well. That's what they feel.
DOBBS: Well, the idea, one of the fascinating things that you brought up in the book, talking about Michael Moore, and the book is how stupid white guys...
INGRAHAM: Stupid white men.
DOBBS: You point out that he's one of the elites posing as populist extraordinaire.
INGRAHAM: Yes, well there's populous rhetoric and then there's the elite reality. The elite reality is that Michael Moore's daughter goes to an elite private school in New York as Michael Moore's out there, you know, talking for the everyman and talking about the need of the everyman to be supported. But of course most Americans support gun rights and Michael Moore says he's a member of the NRA but does a movie, "Bowling for Columbine" which includes monumental distortions of videotape and the way he cuts and splices tape. And so it's an elite reality versus Michael Moore's populist rhetoric.
DOBBS: And to be fair, you say there are even Republican elites too?
INGRAHAM: Oh, sure. I mean, President Bush, on the issue of border enforcement, Lou, total elite. He's with the elites on that. The American people want the borders enforced. The Democrats don't want them enforced because they want new Democrat voters and they think Hispanics will be Democrat boarders. President Bush has that same sensibility, plus his friends in the business elite community, all of those people...
DOBBS: Don't forget "The Wall Street Journal"
INGRAHAM: "The Wall Street Journal" editorial page I go after hard on this, because they think, well don't worry about illegals, the illegals bring in a lot of money into the United States, it's cheap labor. And meanwhile again, the American people, not Democrats or Republicans, but they want the borders enforced.
DOBBS: And just talk about Commerce Secretary Don Evans before sat down here, Laura, making a decision now to try to do something, level the playing field. But for so many years in this country the quote, unquote, elites have been saying that you're basically some sort of bloodite (ph) -- idiot if you talk about managing trade. That view seems to be changing.
INGRAHAM: I think so because the 2.7 million jobs that are lost in that factory -- the Malden Mills factory all of the jobs going overseas, that's tragic for this country. Do we want to just become a service economy? If we do than...
DOBBS: I've got bad news for you...
INGRAHAM: Breaking news.
DOBBS: We already are.
INGRAHAM: I've done that. I've done that.
DOBBS: Laura Ingraham, the book is "Shut Up and Sing" by the way, the title is not related to the Dixie Chicks which many people might think. It's about Streisand?
INGRAHAM: It's Barbara. It's Sean Penn. It's Susan Sarandon. It's a metaphor of the average American's frustration about this.
DOBBS: Metaphor upon metaphor heaped in "Shut Up and Sing."
INGRAHAM: Exactly.
DOBBS; Very entertaining, very informative, thanks for being with us. INGRAHAM: Good to be here.
DOBBS: Laura Ingraham.
Coming up next, what do you think about opinion polls? An accurate scientific procedure, pure entertainment, an accurate reading of the pulse of the American populous. Matthew Felling, the media director for the Center For Media and Public Affairs joins us next. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: We have just received word that New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard Grasso has resigned. Grasso tendered his resignation to the board of directors amid the outrage over his $140 million pay package.
Christine Romans joins me now. This, as we reported at the outset of the broadcast, looked to be the only possible outcome.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNNfn CORRESPONDENT: It did, and it looked that way even more the last couple of days. It was a few weeks ago, Lou, that it was really hard to get somebody on the record to say they thought Mr. Grasso should go and then the chorus of voices over the past couple of days has been pretty -- pretty daunting, right down to a couple of Democratic presidential candidates, more, you know, important people in the market.
DOBBS: John Edwards -- Senator John Edwards, Senator Joe Lieberman.
ROMANS: And then the head of LaBranche, which is the largest special firms. That's a big blow, although, LaBranche, of course, is having its own dispute with the New York Stock Exchange.
DOBBS: To explain, LaBranche controls about 25 percent of all of the specialist trades on the New York Stock Exchange.
ROMANS: They own about 436 seats -- or control 436 of those 1366 seats.
A lot of changes in store here and a lot of people have, you know, their own interests to talk about as we go forward. Some want to see the chairman and the CEO position separated. Some want to see the regulatory role of the exchange lessened.
DOBBS: Right. And what I think probably a lot of people right now, on the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange want the questions to end about how Dick Grasso was paid such a monumental amount of money working for a not-for-profit organization and a quasi- regulatory agency. The outrage is not going to dissipate. It may dissipate, but it certainly will the not disappear with his resignation.
ROMANS: There are a lot of people on that board who were architects of that pay package, approved that pay package. There are others who said they didn't know the extent of it. They thought there might have been, you know, some decimal issues.
DOBBS: There has to be a concern as well on that floor of that exchange, and certainly amongst the specialists, the traders, the members, that this could be a pivotal moment for the New York Stock Exchange because the entire system is threatened.
For example, there are members of that board of directors who wanted to end the specialist system itself years ago.
ROMANS: It's an interesting place where they are right now. And who will succeed Dick Grasso is really important. Larry Suncini (ph), who is on the board of directors. But that's just temporary. So we don't know if it'll be Bob Bricht (ph) or Kate Kennison (ph), someone who's already at the NYSE, what it's going like next.
There is this corporate governance overhaul that the stock exchange has been undergoing, and has a report to the SEC that is due October 2. There's a board meeting scheduled for next week, a member's meeting tomorrow. So we're going to be hearing more about this.
DOBBS: Absolutely. Dick Grasso, 57 years old, a lifetime staffer at the New York Exchange, chairman, has resigned as of today. So we appreciate it. Christine Romans.
Turning now to an issue that is often debated, the validity of public polling. And in the name of full disclosure, we conduct our own here every night. Their accuracy, or lack thereof, is at the center of our next segment. Their accuracy being the accuracy of rather different polls than our own. We make no pretense that ours are scientific.
Matthew Felling says polls are a crutch for journalists and are often misconstrued. He is the media director for The Center For Media and Public Affairs and joins us now from the Washington studios. Thank you for being here.
MATTHEW FELLING, DIR. CTR. MEDIA PUBLIC AFFAIRS: Good evening, Lou.
DOBBS: We should explain, and I neglected to do so, that we were to be joined by Frank Gallup -- Newport -- of the Gallup Organization here to debate this issue. But since only the con side of our pro-con look is here, we thought it would be appropriate, at least, to hear your views. Why do you think polling is so popular if it so invalid?
FELLING: Well, polling is popular because we watch the results and we listen to the numbers in the same way that we listen to sports scores. There's something tangible that we can actually see and that we can track over time. And they also have the credibility of accuracy, because we like to think that numbers capture something fully. It reminds us of physics class.
But on all three layers, polls are tremendously flawed. The pollsters can be mischievous. The respondents can be clueless. And the reporters who cover these polls can often misconstrue the findings, or read too much in to them. Which happens on a day to day basis during an election year.
DOBBS: And we're going to be inundated with polls. This organization will be -- CNN -- be conducting a number of polls and an increasing number of them over the course of the campaign. This broadcast will continue to conduct its polls, but our are basically just our polls, so they are what our viewers make them.
FELLING: And Lou -- and Lou.
(CROSSTALK)
DOBBS: I'm sorry. Go ahead.
FELLING: And Lou, you're doing the valuable thing of filling a lot more airtime with actual data and actual politics and actual views on CNN than some of the other news casts where they are focusing strictly on the numbers and they're allowing that to be the only story.
So let's say that you guys have a better -- have more latitude in covering polls because you give so much air time to the context that the polls play in.
DOBBS: Let's take one example, and that is the polling that suggests that 70 percent, approximately 70 percent of Americans still believe that there is a linkage between the terrorist attacks of September 11 and Saddam Hussein. Another suggesting 60 percent say the war against Iraq was worth it. The results of those polls suggest what at the end of the day?
FELLING: Well, they suggest that we are polling a -- there is a vast disconnect between reality -- I mean we even had Condoleezza Rice yesterday, and Donald Rumsfeld yesterday as well saying there was no link and that they had never reported there was a link between 9/11 and Iraq -- and the poll results just show that the populous is, at large, uninformed on this issue. And at the same time...
DOBBS: Give the polls a break.
FELLING: on and election year.
DOBBS: If the poll is correct.
FELLING: If the poll is correct. You're absolutely right. But we're also seeing that in an election year where, if we have 50 percent of people looking at social security as the No. 1 issue, how do we know that that number is right, if 60 percent are sure that something -- that we have proven wrong is so.
There was an excellent story in 1995, a study was done by "The Washington Post" a national poll. And they asked -- they tossed a fake question into the poll where they said, do you believe in the repeal in the Public Affairs Act. There was no such thing as the Public Affairs Act, but yet 43 percent of Americans weighed in with an opinion as to whether it should be repealed or not. A lot of times, the people who are participating in these polls want to pretend like they know more than they know. And that can effect policy and that can effect democracy.
DOBBS: Matthew Felling, thank you very much for being with us. We appreciate it. We're going to have you back, along with Frank Newport of the Gallup Organization. We're going to have that debate. Thank a lot.
We want to hear what you think. We're going to do some polling. Tonight's poll question, "do you believe polls accurately represent public opinion. The choices always, most of the time, occasionally, never. And as always, we represent that this poll on this broadcast is 100 percent scientific, valid and accurate to the 100th of the decimal point anyway. We'll bring you the results later in the show.
Coming up next, extraordinary careers tonight. One man turned the ultimate challenge into and extraordinary career. We'll share his story, Jim Citrin, author of "5 Patterns of Extraordinary Careers" will be with us. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Tonight we bring you the remarkable story of Brad Margus. A family man, a successful business man, driven to find a cure for a rare disease threatening his children. His extraordinary career and that search have taken him from small business owner to the cutting edge of genetic research.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DOBBS (voice-over): Brad Margus' career started a shrimping company in Boca Raton, Florida.
BRAD MARGUS, FOUNDER, AT CHILDREN'S PROJECT: It's a pretty tough business. Low margins and about 1200 people worldwide. A very labor intensive business. Not high tech, not glamorous. Not typical for a Harvard MBA to go into the shrimp business, but shrimp was pretty good to me.
DOBBS (voice-over): So was life: success, a beautiful wife, 3 sons in 3 years. But then a devastating turn, something was wrong with their second son Jaret (ph).
MARGUS: Around the age of 2 Jaret (ph) started being wobbly and not really stable in his walk and had a little bit slurred speech.
DOBBS: (voice-over): After countless doctors treated Jaret (ph), he still wasn't getting better.
MARGUS: It was kind of assumed that it was probably a one-time birth defect or something, random thing, don't worry about it. Shortly after that, our third son, started to show the same symptoms, exactly the same symptoms and we know it wasn't a random birth defect.
DOBBS: The Margus' learned, both their sons have a rare genetic disease. Ataxia Telangiectasia, or AT. AT is a progressively degenerative disease of which there is no known cure.
A.T. forced Jarret and Quinn (ph) into wheelchairs in the prime of their youth. And with only 580 cases in the entire country, there was little research taking place.
MARGUS: To me, to seemed obscene that just because the disease was really rare, first-rate science and research couldn't be done on it.
DOBBS: With no background in science, Margus founded the A.T. Children's Project, starting a cell and tissue bank, raising money, booking medical conferences and testifying before Congress about the disease. Margus pursued the top geneticist at Stanford, David Cox, to oversee the research board. Cox tried to say no.
MARGUS: I said, "Let's talk about why you can't. All I need you for is, you know, your brilliant mind and your honest, candid advice. And by the end of the hour, he said, OK, he'll do it.
DOBBS: Through research funded by the A.T. Children's Project, the mutated DNA that causes the disease was mapped, a huge scientific breakthrough. Clinical trials were held for new drugs but failed. Undeterred, the Children's Project work continued. Margus was recruited to run several biotech start-ups in the high tech boom at the turn of the century. This time it was Cox who convinced Margus to come with Him.
Leaving shrimping behind, Margus would commute 3,000 miles a week to California to run Perlegen, a company on the cutting edge of DNA research.
Perlegen makes chips that examine DNA strands faster and cheaper than its competition, and focuses on why drugs work in some patients and not in others. It is also the leader in research of the genetic causes of more common illnesses like diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
MARGUS: What I know is that this at last may help genetics come through and all of the stuff that's been promised over the years.
DOBBS: Margus needs no reminder of those promises. Even while at Perlegen, he has not backed off from his work with A.T. Children's Project, hoping to find a cure for Jarrett and Quinn.
MARGUS: They haven't asked too much about the future. That's really tough to answer if they do. But I think -- I think they still believe that dad can do it. I just hope I can help (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOBBS: Brad Margus an extraordinary man and a fellow facing extraordinary challenges with great grace.
Jim Citrin is here.
And Jim, this is a remarkable story. JAMES CITRIN, DIRECTOR, SPENCER STUART: If any of us think we have it hard, we just have to look at what Brad has gone through and what he's done. It's really extraordinary.
DOBBS: The idea that he can contend and challenge with all of these issues -- his career, his children threatened by the diseases that -- the disease that's a amongst those that his company is researching -- is there any good news to report in terms of progress in that search?
CITRIN: Well, my understanding is that the A.T. Children's Project has made unbelievable advances. They found the gene. They have developed laboratory animals that have developed the disease and are working on tests for it, and they have done it faster than other traditional foundations. And it's just an amazing story of what A.T. has done.
DOBBS: And Margus, as he meets these challenges -- it's fascinating to me that a man would move from Harvard Business School to shrimping to biotech. That speaks volumes about his independent character and nature and also remarkable skill set.
CITRIN: It is. Brad -- no one would have voted brad in the class of 1986 at Harvard most likely to succeed. But what he did -- he took -- he followed one of the patterns that we talk about in the book. He -- something we call the permission paradox. How do you get access when you have no experience? He recruited David Cox and that gave him the credibility and with that and with the passion of a father he went out and built credibility for A.T. and got research collaborating all over the world.
DOBBS: And again, one of the remarkable stories, one of the men and women who have pursued extraordinary careers and built extraordinary lives.
Jim Citrin, we thank you, and we'll see you here tomorrow night.
CITRIN: Thanks, Lou.
DOBBS: And tomorrow night we'll be taking a look at the man who took the idea of music television -- thought about it being a channel, turned it into an international media powerhouse, a pop culture and music icon. We're going to be looking at Tom Freston of MTV Networks. Please join us.
And a reminder to vote in tonight's poll on the subject of polling. "Do you believe polls accurately represent public opinion? Always? Most of the time? Occasionally? Or never?" Cast your vote at cnn.com/lou. We'll have the results for you coming up in just a few minutes.
Also, the growing outrage over the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange's pay package results in the resignation of Dick Grasso. We'll be sharing some of your thoughts next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) DOBBS: The results of tonight's poll. The question, "Do you believe polls accurately represent public opinion?" Five percent of you said always, 34 percent said most of the time, 47 percent occasionally, 14 percent never. The results of our poll question, of course, always represent accurately and with great validity public opinion -- at least, the public watching this broadcast.
And now for a look at some of your thoughts tonight. Many of you wrote in about the outrageous pay package of New York Stock Exchange Chairman Dick Grasso ahead of his resignation this evening.
John Bodnar of Yardley, Pennsylvania said, "The pay out to Dick Grasso tells us that Wall Street is not really interested in the American investor. All it wants to do is line its pockets with millions and millions of dollars. Wall Street has clearly become Greed Street."
Robert Pearson of Medford, Oregon, "Firing Grasso is not enough. As a not-for-profit organization, they enjoy tax advantages. If they paid their fair share of taxes, maybe they wouldn't be able to be quite so generous to people who take the profits in the form of salary and bonus."
Skillman Hunter of Mission Viejo, California, defended Grasso, "Grasso is worth more than whatever he's being paid. Wouldn't it be nice to have had at Grasso at the helm of the Northeast power grid?"
And Chris Kerzel of Atlanta, Georgia, "Why should Grasso resign? He didn't give himself that compensation package. The investors should be angry at the people who gave him so much money. They should be the ones to resign."
That is the next stage. We, of course, will keep you apprised of this story throughout the evening here on CNN.
We love hearing from you. E-mail us at loudobbs@cnn.com.
That's our show for tonight. Thanks for being with us. For all of us here, good night from New York.
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Secretary Don Evans>
Aired September 17, 2003 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Bracing for Isabel: High winds will hit the coast of North Carolina and Virginia by midnight tonight. We'll have live reports from both states.
Exporting America: Leading congressmen want action against China to protect American jobs. Commerce Secretary Don Evans is our guest.
Shut up and sing: Radio host Laura Ingraham takes a look at elites and the ways in which they're subverting America.
And tonight: success and satisfaction in life, the inspirational story of Brad Margus and his search for a cure for the illness that threatens his children.
ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT for Wednesday, September 17. Here now, Lou Dobbs.
DOBBS: Good evening.
Tonight, it appears that Richard Grasso's reign as the chairman and CEO of the New York Stock Exchange is all but over. At this hour, an emergency conference call of the board of directors is under way. That meeting was called late this afternoon in response to the storm of controversy surrounding Grasso's $140 million pay package, a package that was first revealed publicly three weeks ago. Several members of the board of directors are calling for his resignation.
Mary Snow is outside the New York Stock Exchange and has the very latest for us -- Mary.
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lou, certainly a sense of anticipation here outside the New York Stock Exchange.
There are a line of cameras waiting outside the building, as we await what appears to be Richard Grasso's, the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, imminent departure from the building. His car has been pulled up. So we are expecting perhaps for him to come out pretty soon.
As you mentioned, this meeting got under way shortly after the close of today's session. And it was hastily called, the latest in the furor over his $140 million benefit payment that was announced in late August. And it also comes just one day after California's pension fund called on the resignation of Richard Grasso. And that spurred a number of calls for his resignation from other pension funds to politicians.
And, also, Lou, it comes just a day ahead of a scheduled meeting that was called last week by three directors of the New York Stock Exchange, calling on active members to meet tomorrow. In terms of traders, certainly, momentum has been picking up in recent days. Just a few days ago, it might seem unimaginable for some traders to speculate on Grasso stepping down. At the close of today's session, a number of them saying that they felt it was time for him to go -- Lou.
DOBBS: Mary, thank you very much -- Mary Snow at the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street in downtown Manhattan. We'll have much more on this story later in the show, Christine Romans to report on what's at stake for the people who do business at that exchange, as well, the way in which it could change the way people in this country trade stocks, and the New York Stock Exchange, of course, the largest exchange in the world.
Tonight, there is a hostage drama unfolding in Tennessee. An armed man has taken 12 to 16 students -- police still do not know how many -- hostage at Dyersburg State Community College. Dyersburg Police SWAT teams are on the scene. The hostage-taker has, to this point, made no demands. He has released three of the students that he is holding. The campus has been evacuated as negotiators talk to the man through a wall. We will have a live report from the scene shortly.
Tonight, states on the East Coast are bracing for the arrival of Hurricane Isabel. States of emergency have been declared in North Carolina, Virginia, Delaware and Maryland. Isabel is now expected to hit the East Coast within the next 24 hours. Officials have ordered 200,000 people to evacuate the barrier islands in North Carolina and low-lying coastal areas of Virginia.
Forecasters expect Isabel to make landfall near Cape Lookout -- that's on the Outer Banks in North Carolina -- around midday tomorrow. Tropical-storm force wins are expected to begin, however, lashing the coast as early as midnight tonight.
We have two reports. Ed Lavandera is at North Topsail Beach, North Carolina; Jeanne Meserve at Virginia Beach, Virginia.
We go first to Ed Lavandera -- Ed.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Lou.
Well, you mentioned that the eye of the storm is expected to hit around Cape Lookout. We're further south from that point. And, as you look out there, the conditions rather calm here at this point, cloudy conditions, slight gusts from time to time. But here, of course, on this particular island, it's an island that has about 3,000 people that live here year-round. Another 35,000 come here during the summertime months.
But if you look there, this line across the beach here, that dune, and a lot of the homes here are built on stilts, if you will. So, of course, here the issue is going to be flooding. And that's what authorities and officials here in the state of North Carolina have been warning about all day, the governor of North Carolina urging people who live in areas like this, although there haven't been mandatory evacuations from this island -- it's voluntary at this point.
But they are urging people to be very careful in these types of low-lying areas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. MICHAEL EASLEY (D), NORTH CAROLINA: Low-lying areas to please evacuate and get to safer areas until the rain has passed. We're asking people especially on the Outer Banks and on the coastline to evacuate until we know the extent and the intensity of this hurricane.
LAVANDERA: We spent most of the day driving around Topsail Island here. And we've seen a lot of homes that have already been boarded up.
Many families who have summer vacation homes here have been coming in from wherever they live, as far away as Tennessee, we understand, coming here to board up their homes as well to protect what they need to protect. And many people here have already left the island altogether. As you drive around here, it's very quiet. And officials continue to urge, if you don't need to stick around here, it's best to move inland -- Lou.
DOBBS: Ed, thank you very much -- Ed Lavandera.
Jeanne Meserve is further north in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where officials tonight are urging residents to evacuate as well -- Jeanne.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lou, most visitors are welcome in Virginia Beach. Not this one.
We felt the winds intensify in just the last couple of minutes. If you look behind me, the surf has gotten very rough-and-tumble. But the real concern in this community is these hotels. Approximately 21,000 people are employed in the tourist industry here. If these buildings are badly damaged, it could devastate the local economy.
But, of course, people are what officials are really concerned about. Willoughby Spit is a community in the city of Norfolk. It's surrounded by water on two sides. Its power comes in on poles. Residents are afraid, if those go down, they could be without power possibly for weeks. Some people are going, but some people are staying, everybody mindful of the history of this particular piece of land.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The peninsula you're standing on was formed by a hurricane back in the Colonial days. And what Mother Nature deposits, she can certainly take away and probably will one day. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think we're going to leave. But my dad might stay because of the looting that went on the last time we had a hurricane.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MESERVE: Federal, state and local officials feel they're about as well prepared for this hurricane as they could possibly be.
The Department of Homeland Security has prepositioned personnel and supplies all up and down the Eastern Seaboard, including 5,500 cots, 18,000 blankets, 148,000 of gallons of water, all of this to deal with what you're seeing here and what's to come -- Lou, back to you.
DOBBS: Jeanne, thank you very much -- Jeanne Meserve. We appreciate it.
Later here in the show, we'll be joined by the director of the National Hurricane Center. Max Mayfield will have the very latest assessment for us on the center of Hurricane Isabel's path and the projected time at which it will make landfall, now projected for the barrier islands of North Carolina.
Isabel is already disrupting normal routines of all sorts along the East Coast. Tomorrow night's baseball games, for example, in Baltimore and Philadelphia have been moved up. They'll be played now at 1:00 in the afternoon. NASCAR canceled on-track activities tomorrow and Friday. And the San Antonio Spurs won't visit the White House tomorrow.
Amtrak canceled much of its train service in the Carolinas today. Tomorrow, it will cancel all service south of Washington, D.C. Train schedules all along the East Coast will be affected. U.S. Airways is the first airline to cancel flights in the Virginia and Carolinas. Other airlines are certain to follow with their own cancellations that will lead to delays, of course, across much of the country.
Hurricane Isabel will also have an economic impact and damage estimates have already been developed. Those estimates range from $1 billion to $4 billion. That depends, of course, on where and how strong the storm is when it makes landfall. Those costs do not include flood damage, most of which is covered and paid for by the federal government.
The federal budget is already heavily burdened. And today, the deficit hit a new record high. The Treasury Department reports, the deficit passed $400 billion and we still have another month left in this budget year. The budget deficit is now twice as high as a year ago.
The United States also has a huge trade deficit. And it is also at a record high. The trade deficit has many causes. But its impact is devastating American workers, who are losing their jobs. Congress has slowly awakened to what many say is already a crisis. Leading congressmen now plan to introduce a resolution urging retaliation against China.
Peter Viles has the report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): During the summer of war with Iraq, members of Congress heard something surprising back home: Do something about China.
REP. BARON HILL (D), INDIANA: When I went home for the August break, I thought that the discussion among town hall meetings would be mostly about Iraq. But it was about jobs, in particular the jobs that are being lost to the Chinese. I met with furniture manufacturers, tool and die operations and a lot of businesses, who know what's going on with the Chinese currency and want the United States Congress do something about it.
VILES: So four congressmen today pushed a bipartisan resolution that accuses China of manipulating its currency and urges the Bush administration to fight back by threatening retaliation under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.
JERRY JASINOWSKI, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MANUFACTURERS: I think the No. 1 problem with respect to unfair trade practices by the Chinese is their manipulation of their currency. It probably accounts for over half the trade problems we have with China.
VILES: Trade with China is turning into a one-way street. China sells. The United States buys. The trade deficit in goods nearly doubled over the past five years to $103 billion a year, nearly $400 billion in deficits over five years. Americans are partly to blame. They continue to invest in Chinese factories to the tune of $2.9 billion last year.
And Americans invite the Chinese to come to America on job- hunting missions like this one, where recruiters offer China's cheap labor to American companies.
CHANG YU, CHINA CHAMBER OF INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE: I talked with some local software companies. Based on the things they told me, they think here, you just hire one person. Maybe you can hire 10 in China.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VILES: Now, just to be clear, that Chinese recruiter was not talking about low-wage factory jobs. She was talking about jobs as software engineers. And tonight, no comment from the U.S. trade representative on whether that office will begin a Section 301 case against China, which is how the U.S. would begin the process of retaliating, if it chooses to -- Lou.
DOBBS: This is reaching, Peter, remarkable proportions in a hurry in terms of congressional reaction. The administration is now beginning to react. But, also, jobs continue to evaporate.
VILES: And members of Congress heard about it this summer. That congressman from Indiana said 100,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost in his state alone.
DOBBS: OK. Pete, thank you very much -- Peter Viles.
We'll be taking this up with the commerce secretary, Don Evans. He joins us to talk about the exporting of America and what the administration is now doing prepare to end it. And one American company that is fighting to survive and keep its workers in this country, no matter the cost. Jan Hopkins will have that story. And how this country's supposed elite are subverting American values -- author Laura Ingraham joins us to talk about her new book, "Shut Up and Sing."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Coming up next here, we'll be talking with Commerce Secretary Don Evans about trade, exporting America and American jobs.
And tracking Isabel: National Hurricane Center director Max Mayfield joins us to tell us where Isabel is mostly to strike and when.
That's coming right up. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: My guest announced this week that the White House will create a special team to track down and fight unfair trade practices in China, and around the world, for that matter.
Commerce Secretary Don Evans also plans to travel to China to address the concerns that he's heard from many U.S. manufacturers. Secretary Evans joins us tonight from Washington, D.C.
Mr. Secretary, good to have you with us.
DON EVANS, COMMERCE SECRETARY: Thank you, Lou. Great to be with you.
DOBBS: The administration take steps now, as we have just reported moments ago. The five-year deficit with China is staggering. This problem, why is it come to the forefront now for both Congress and this administration?
EVANS: Well, Lou, maybe there's a little more focus on it at this moment.
But let me tell you, we've been focused on it since January of 2001. I took a trip to China well over a year ago, talked to them about some of the unfair trade practices that we were very concerned about, intellectual property protection being one of them. And so this has been a dialogue discussion that's been going on certainly for the full 2 1/2 years of this administration.
We have been very clear with China that we are going to encourage them to adopt the kind of fiscal policies, monetary policies, that will create long-term growth in their country. But we expect for them to enforce the trade agreements that they sign. And we expect that there's going to be a level playing feel for the American workers.
DOBBS: A level playing field. As Peter Viles just reported, the Chinese, other nations as well, here in the United States recruiting with American corporations, suggesting that they move their enterprises to China, because you can hire 10 times as many, in the case of the Peter Viles report today, 10 software engineers for each one that you can hire in the United States.
EVANS: Yes.
Lou, listen, we're the most competitive nation in the world. And one of the things my travel across America really rang clearly to me was that we can compete against anybody on a level playing field. And that's true today. And so, when I think about the competition around the world and maybe lower wage rates in other countries, I assure you that this work force of ours in America can compete with anybody in the world, white collar or blue collar, as long as it's a level playing feel, we're all playing by the same rules.
Right now, our workers have got a choke collar around them, not only because of some of the unfair trade practices around the world, but also, quite frankly, Lou, a choke collar just because of some -- health care costs are rising dramatically in this country. The lawsuit burden that these companies face here in America is causing an excess burden on our manufacturers. So I'm not concerned about us competing with the rest of the world, as long as we're on a level playing field.
DOBBS: Well, I love what you said earlier this week. We can compete, blue-collar workers, white-collar works. It's the choke collar we have a problem with.
The choke collar, though, goes beyond health care costs and to litigation costs. It goes to the issue of environmental laws that American business employers have to deal with, as well as their workers. It goes to a host of other issues. The playing field is not level. The American worker is getting simply killed in this environment. Is this something that the administration, that you, Mr. Secretary, are going to deal with right away?
EVANS: Well, we are.
The president is going to deal with it. He has been dealing with it for the first 2 1/2 years of this administration, to begin with., We needed to cut the tax burden on the backs of the American people and American businesses all across this nation. And because of his leadership and three successive tax cuts, we're seeing our economy to begin to pick up steam now. GDP, as you know, in the second quarter was 3.1 percent.
We expect -- most economists expect it to be in the 4 to 5 percent range in the third and fourth quarter. But the president recently came out with an economic growth agenda that focused on the topics that you just talked about, rising health care costs. We need medical liability reform that's come out of the House to his desk. We need an energy bill to get to his desk. We need legal reform in this country to remove the lawsuit burden on the backs of the American people and American workers. And we also need to make tax cuts permanent, because families, as well as businesses, like to plan their future. And it's awful tough to plan your future if you don't know what the rules are going to be in the years head.
So the president was very strong about the permanency and certainty of tax cuts. This is what will create the conditions for more jobs in America. And, as I have said many, many times, the top three economic priorities of this administration and the president, the first one is jobs. The second one is jobs. And the third one is jobs. And we're going to continue to fight very hard for creating the conditions for creating more jobs in our economy.
DOBBS: Mr. Secretary, I think that most of us would, certainly at the very least, hypothetically, sign up for everything that you just said, endorse it, agree with you. I'll stipulate it.
At the same time, we can't grow our way out of the situation we have now. We cannot grow our way economically into a level playing field. That's going to require a number of structural adjustments. What do you and what does the president then plan to do about that?
EVANS: Well, in terms of structural adjustments, Lou, what I would say, we need to enter more free trade agreements with people around the world.
One of the disadvantages that American workers have today is, when we showed up in office, there were 100 free trade agreements around the world, markets open to other countries that were closed off to us or higher barriers to the American worker. When we showed up, there were 100 free trade agreements in the world and we were a party to three of them. Now, through the president's efforts, we got trade promotion authority passed.
DOBBS: Right.
EVANS: And now he has the authority to negotiate free trade agreements. And we're going to work very, very hard to open up markets for our small- and medium-sized companies, as well as large companies and our workers all around the world. So that's one of the structural adjustments that we will make.
DOBBS: Will the administration consider tariffs retaliation as well, should the Chinese, in particular, not live up to the standards of a level playing field?
EVANS: Lou, what we will do is, we will enforce our trade laws. I assure you of that. And we will be much more proactive than I think maybe people have been in the past.
We're not going to sit around and wait for industry to come to us with a petition for a dumping case or a countervailing duty case. We're going to be very proactive and try and find areas of the world where we see unfair trade practices taking place. And we're going to go after them. And so, instead of just waiting in a passive kind of way for petitions to come to us, we're going to go after them.
DOBBS: Mr. Secretary, I think this is where I say, go get 'em. And thank you for being with us.
EVANS: You bet, Lou. Good to be with you.
DOBBS: Commerce Secretary Don Evans.
Coming up next, we're going to that hostage situation at a community college in Tennessee. We'll have a live report for you. A gunman there is holding a number of people hostage.
Also tonight: an American company that's fighting to keep its workers and their jobs here in the United States. Jan Hopkins will have that story.
And then, "Shut Up and Sing." That's author Laura Ingraham's advice for celebrities and other so-called elites in this country, the advice she renders in her new book, "Shut Up and Sing." She's next.
And Richard Grasso's reign as the head of the New York Stock Exchange tonight appears to be all about over. Christine Romans will have the very latest for us.
Please stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: As we reported earlier, there is a hostage situation in Tennessee tonight.
An armed man has taken more then a dozen students hostage at Dyersburg State Community College. Dyersburg Police SWAT teams are on the scene. So far, the hostage-taker has still made no demands. Negotiators are talking with people inside with cell phones. And they are getting information through to the gunman through them.
Tommy Stafford of CNN affiliate WPTY joins us now from the scene in Dyersburg, Tennessee -- Tommy.
(CROSSTALK)
TOMMY STAFFORD, WPTY REPORTER: Good evening to you, Lou. Yes, I can hear you now. I had someone there covering you.
We're in Dyersburg, Tennessee, as you just mentioned a moment ago. You pretty much gave a good summary as to what is happening. This building behind me here, directly behind, that's the administration building here on the campus in northwestern Tennessee. This is a community college of 1,000 or 1,500 people. The gunman went in between 1:00 and 1:30 this afternoon, went on the second floor into a basic math class, took some folks hostage.
There may have been as many as 19 or 20 at time. We understand a minimum of three, maybe four, have been released. We were told he went in with a gun and went inside. We may be looking at some video of the scene earlier as well as to what was taking place (AUDIO GAP) other than he wanted some ice water. He told police he wanted something to drink. They gave him that. He agreed to release some of the hostages.
And now they're just in a standoff here, trying to negotiate with him, trying to figure out what their next move will be. They're keeping us briefed as to what's taking place here at the college. And, of course, we're out back live here. We're just waiting to see what happens. But the standoff here continues in northwestern Tennessee -- Lou.
DOBBS: Tommy, do we know how this man is armed? Do we know if all of the hostages to this point are safe and unharmed?
STAFFORD: As far as we know, from what the police chief, who is in charge here in Dyersburg, is telling us, no one has been harmed. The hostages are all safe and in good condition at this point.
And like you mentioned just a moment ago, they are talking by cell phone back and forth, though he's not directly speaking with them on cell phone. They're passing messages through the students.
DOBBS: Tommy Stafford in Dyersburg, Tennessee, of our affiliate WPTY, we thank you for that update.
The exporting of America tonight threatens jobs at a company that became famous for its dedication to its employees. Polartec manufacturer Malden Mills suffered a devastating fire at its Massachusetts plants six years ago. The company's operations were all but ended. But Malden Mills didn't miss a paycheck for those workers. That generosity helped land Malden Mills in bankruptcy. And now there are fears that its creditors will be exporting those jobs to China.
Jan Hopkins has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAN HOPKINS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The new Malden Mills factory has the latest in technology. It ships its fleece around the world, including to U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Now the company's creditors are set to take over operations and jobs may disappear.
NELSON ORTIZ, MALDEN MILLS EMPLOYEE: Well, my main concern is our jobs going overseas. That's really a main concern. And our concern is also, right now, we really don't know who our boss is.
HOPKINS: The boss now is Aaron Feuerstein. But he'll lose his job when the creditors take over. He kept his workers on the payroll after the 1995 fire destroyed the 100-year-old factory and for the two years that the replacement factory was being built. Feuerstein is fighting to get the company away from the creditors. He doesn't want jobs going overseas.
AARON FEUERSTEIN, CEO, MALDEN MILLS: It would be a horrible defeat, in my eyes, if the corporation succeeds and the workers get screwed. That would be the worst.
HOPKINS: A plan presented by the creditors proposes that only 300 of the current 1,200 U.S. jobs remain in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Most of the rest of the production would be moved to China.
(on camera): The creditors refused to do an interview on camera. But a spokesman for GE Capital, the lead creditor, says the decision about moving production to China will be made by the new management team.
(voice-over): The creditors have given the Feuersteins a year to come up with $125 million to buy back the company. But potential lenders want some loan guarantees from the federal Export-Import Bank. Many in Congress agree, this is a good use of taxpayer dollars.
REP. DON MANZULLO (R), ILLINOIS: The attitude of the U.S. government has to be that manufacturing jobs are worth helping out, not as a protectionist argument over the trade laws but simply as a matter of existence to maintain our strategic base.
HOPKINS: Malden Mills is one of the last textile factories left in Massachusetts. While workers continue to make fleece, they worry about what will happen to their jobs.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOPKINS: Mr. Feirstein (ph) told me that after 1 creditor's meeting a creditor took him aside and said, why are you fighting so hard to keep the jobs here? Our company has exported over 70 percent of our back office jobs overseas -- Lou.
DOBBS: And what company was that?
HOPKINS: Can't say. One of the major creditors.
DOBBS: One of the major creditors. And you can't say?
HOPKINS: No.
DOBBS: All right. We're going to start guessing.
HOPKINS: You can.
DOBBS: Jan, thank you very much. That's a horrible story. And it is emblematic of what's happening right now. The administration and Congress awakening to the issue. Now, let's see what they all do. Jan, thank you. Jan Hopkins.
Coming up next, "Subverting America" a new book looks how elites in this country are undermining America values subverting this country. Laura Ingraham, author of "Shut Up And Sing," noted radio personality and host joins us.
And polls, what are polls really worth? We will be talking with one expert, not two as we had planned. And we'll explain that later. Our expert who remains, says, those polls aren't worth much. And extraordinary careers tonight. A man struggle to save his family becomes a career on the cutting edge of science. That story. And we're joined by James Citrin, author of the "5 Patterns of Extraordinary Careers" joins us. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Well, radio talk show host Laura Ingraham has had it with Barbra Streisand and others who say they love the American way of life but don't do anything but criticize it. Her book is called "Shut Up And Sing." It's a fascinating look at those she calls American elite and elites and they, some of them, seem to be ashamed of their country. Laura Ingraham joins us now. Good to have you with us.
LAURA INGRAHAM, AUTHOR: Great to be here, Lou.
DOBBS: The elites of the country, you suggest, are subverting America. Are they doing so you think intentionally?
INGRAHAM: Well I think -- we used to think of elites as kind of the monied class. All went to fancy northeast schools and the old elite term from Europe. But the elites today are really -- it's not about money or where you went to school, it's about how you view sort of the average American.
DOBBS: How do the elites view?
INGRAHAM: Well I think, rather disdainfully. I got this impression over the last two years hosting a radio show where I talked to thousands of people every month and from e-mails to calls that they bring into the show. I am an KRLA in Los Angeles every morning from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. And the phone calls from people who are just tired of being talked down to by Hollywood celebrities who lead pampered lives and play make-believe or go up on a stage and sing who suddenly think they're foreign policy experts and have this urge to continually trash the Bush administration. Or call the president stupid as everyone from Cher to Barbra Streisand has done.
And I think when these celebrities call President Bush stupid or ignorant they're call the American people who support him ignorant and stupid as well. That's what they feel.
DOBBS: Well, the idea, one of the fascinating things that you brought up in the book, talking about Michael Moore, and the book is how stupid white guys...
INGRAHAM: Stupid white men.
DOBBS: You point out that he's one of the elites posing as populist extraordinaire.
INGRAHAM: Yes, well there's populous rhetoric and then there's the elite reality. The elite reality is that Michael Moore's daughter goes to an elite private school in New York as Michael Moore's out there, you know, talking for the everyman and talking about the need of the everyman to be supported. But of course most Americans support gun rights and Michael Moore says he's a member of the NRA but does a movie, "Bowling for Columbine" which includes monumental distortions of videotape and the way he cuts and splices tape. And so it's an elite reality versus Michael Moore's populist rhetoric.
DOBBS: And to be fair, you say there are even Republican elites too?
INGRAHAM: Oh, sure. I mean, President Bush, on the issue of border enforcement, Lou, total elite. He's with the elites on that. The American people want the borders enforced. The Democrats don't want them enforced because they want new Democrat voters and they think Hispanics will be Democrat boarders. President Bush has that same sensibility, plus his friends in the business elite community, all of those people...
DOBBS: Don't forget "The Wall Street Journal"
INGRAHAM: "The Wall Street Journal" editorial page I go after hard on this, because they think, well don't worry about illegals, the illegals bring in a lot of money into the United States, it's cheap labor. And meanwhile again, the American people, not Democrats or Republicans, but they want the borders enforced.
DOBBS: And just talk about Commerce Secretary Don Evans before sat down here, Laura, making a decision now to try to do something, level the playing field. But for so many years in this country the quote, unquote, elites have been saying that you're basically some sort of bloodite (ph) -- idiot if you talk about managing trade. That view seems to be changing.
INGRAHAM: I think so because the 2.7 million jobs that are lost in that factory -- the Malden Mills factory all of the jobs going overseas, that's tragic for this country. Do we want to just become a service economy? If we do than...
DOBBS: I've got bad news for you...
INGRAHAM: Breaking news.
DOBBS: We already are.
INGRAHAM: I've done that. I've done that.
DOBBS: Laura Ingraham, the book is "Shut Up and Sing" by the way, the title is not related to the Dixie Chicks which many people might think. It's about Streisand?
INGRAHAM: It's Barbara. It's Sean Penn. It's Susan Sarandon. It's a metaphor of the average American's frustration about this.
DOBBS: Metaphor upon metaphor heaped in "Shut Up and Sing."
INGRAHAM: Exactly.
DOBBS; Very entertaining, very informative, thanks for being with us. INGRAHAM: Good to be here.
DOBBS: Laura Ingraham.
Coming up next, what do you think about opinion polls? An accurate scientific procedure, pure entertainment, an accurate reading of the pulse of the American populous. Matthew Felling, the media director for the Center For Media and Public Affairs joins us next. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: We have just received word that New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard Grasso has resigned. Grasso tendered his resignation to the board of directors amid the outrage over his $140 million pay package.
Christine Romans joins me now. This, as we reported at the outset of the broadcast, looked to be the only possible outcome.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNNfn CORRESPONDENT: It did, and it looked that way even more the last couple of days. It was a few weeks ago, Lou, that it was really hard to get somebody on the record to say they thought Mr. Grasso should go and then the chorus of voices over the past couple of days has been pretty -- pretty daunting, right down to a couple of Democratic presidential candidates, more, you know, important people in the market.
DOBBS: John Edwards -- Senator John Edwards, Senator Joe Lieberman.
ROMANS: And then the head of LaBranche, which is the largest special firms. That's a big blow, although, LaBranche, of course, is having its own dispute with the New York Stock Exchange.
DOBBS: To explain, LaBranche controls about 25 percent of all of the specialist trades on the New York Stock Exchange.
ROMANS: They own about 436 seats -- or control 436 of those 1366 seats.
A lot of changes in store here and a lot of people have, you know, their own interests to talk about as we go forward. Some want to see the chairman and the CEO position separated. Some want to see the regulatory role of the exchange lessened.
DOBBS: Right. And what I think probably a lot of people right now, on the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange want the questions to end about how Dick Grasso was paid such a monumental amount of money working for a not-for-profit organization and a quasi- regulatory agency. The outrage is not going to dissipate. It may dissipate, but it certainly will the not disappear with his resignation.
ROMANS: There are a lot of people on that board who were architects of that pay package, approved that pay package. There are others who said they didn't know the extent of it. They thought there might have been, you know, some decimal issues.
DOBBS: There has to be a concern as well on that floor of that exchange, and certainly amongst the specialists, the traders, the members, that this could be a pivotal moment for the New York Stock Exchange because the entire system is threatened.
For example, there are members of that board of directors who wanted to end the specialist system itself years ago.
ROMANS: It's an interesting place where they are right now. And who will succeed Dick Grasso is really important. Larry Suncini (ph), who is on the board of directors. But that's just temporary. So we don't know if it'll be Bob Bricht (ph) or Kate Kennison (ph), someone who's already at the NYSE, what it's going like next.
There is this corporate governance overhaul that the stock exchange has been undergoing, and has a report to the SEC that is due October 2. There's a board meeting scheduled for next week, a member's meeting tomorrow. So we're going to be hearing more about this.
DOBBS: Absolutely. Dick Grasso, 57 years old, a lifetime staffer at the New York Exchange, chairman, has resigned as of today. So we appreciate it. Christine Romans.
Turning now to an issue that is often debated, the validity of public polling. And in the name of full disclosure, we conduct our own here every night. Their accuracy, or lack thereof, is at the center of our next segment. Their accuracy being the accuracy of rather different polls than our own. We make no pretense that ours are scientific.
Matthew Felling says polls are a crutch for journalists and are often misconstrued. He is the media director for The Center For Media and Public Affairs and joins us now from the Washington studios. Thank you for being here.
MATTHEW FELLING, DIR. CTR. MEDIA PUBLIC AFFAIRS: Good evening, Lou.
DOBBS: We should explain, and I neglected to do so, that we were to be joined by Frank Gallup -- Newport -- of the Gallup Organization here to debate this issue. But since only the con side of our pro-con look is here, we thought it would be appropriate, at least, to hear your views. Why do you think polling is so popular if it so invalid?
FELLING: Well, polling is popular because we watch the results and we listen to the numbers in the same way that we listen to sports scores. There's something tangible that we can actually see and that we can track over time. And they also have the credibility of accuracy, because we like to think that numbers capture something fully. It reminds us of physics class.
But on all three layers, polls are tremendously flawed. The pollsters can be mischievous. The respondents can be clueless. And the reporters who cover these polls can often misconstrue the findings, or read too much in to them. Which happens on a day to day basis during an election year.
DOBBS: And we're going to be inundated with polls. This organization will be -- CNN -- be conducting a number of polls and an increasing number of them over the course of the campaign. This broadcast will continue to conduct its polls, but our are basically just our polls, so they are what our viewers make them.
FELLING: And Lou -- and Lou.
(CROSSTALK)
DOBBS: I'm sorry. Go ahead.
FELLING: And Lou, you're doing the valuable thing of filling a lot more airtime with actual data and actual politics and actual views on CNN than some of the other news casts where they are focusing strictly on the numbers and they're allowing that to be the only story.
So let's say that you guys have a better -- have more latitude in covering polls because you give so much air time to the context that the polls play in.
DOBBS: Let's take one example, and that is the polling that suggests that 70 percent, approximately 70 percent of Americans still believe that there is a linkage between the terrorist attacks of September 11 and Saddam Hussein. Another suggesting 60 percent say the war against Iraq was worth it. The results of those polls suggest what at the end of the day?
FELLING: Well, they suggest that we are polling a -- there is a vast disconnect between reality -- I mean we even had Condoleezza Rice yesterday, and Donald Rumsfeld yesterday as well saying there was no link and that they had never reported there was a link between 9/11 and Iraq -- and the poll results just show that the populous is, at large, uninformed on this issue. And at the same time...
DOBBS: Give the polls a break.
FELLING: on and election year.
DOBBS: If the poll is correct.
FELLING: If the poll is correct. You're absolutely right. But we're also seeing that in an election year where, if we have 50 percent of people looking at social security as the No. 1 issue, how do we know that that number is right, if 60 percent are sure that something -- that we have proven wrong is so.
There was an excellent story in 1995, a study was done by "The Washington Post" a national poll. And they asked -- they tossed a fake question into the poll where they said, do you believe in the repeal in the Public Affairs Act. There was no such thing as the Public Affairs Act, but yet 43 percent of Americans weighed in with an opinion as to whether it should be repealed or not. A lot of times, the people who are participating in these polls want to pretend like they know more than they know. And that can effect policy and that can effect democracy.
DOBBS: Matthew Felling, thank you very much for being with us. We appreciate it. We're going to have you back, along with Frank Newport of the Gallup Organization. We're going to have that debate. Thank a lot.
We want to hear what you think. We're going to do some polling. Tonight's poll question, "do you believe polls accurately represent public opinion. The choices always, most of the time, occasionally, never. And as always, we represent that this poll on this broadcast is 100 percent scientific, valid and accurate to the 100th of the decimal point anyway. We'll bring you the results later in the show.
Coming up next, extraordinary careers tonight. One man turned the ultimate challenge into and extraordinary career. We'll share his story, Jim Citrin, author of "5 Patterns of Extraordinary Careers" will be with us. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Tonight we bring you the remarkable story of Brad Margus. A family man, a successful business man, driven to find a cure for a rare disease threatening his children. His extraordinary career and that search have taken him from small business owner to the cutting edge of genetic research.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DOBBS (voice-over): Brad Margus' career started a shrimping company in Boca Raton, Florida.
BRAD MARGUS, FOUNDER, AT CHILDREN'S PROJECT: It's a pretty tough business. Low margins and about 1200 people worldwide. A very labor intensive business. Not high tech, not glamorous. Not typical for a Harvard MBA to go into the shrimp business, but shrimp was pretty good to me.
DOBBS (voice-over): So was life: success, a beautiful wife, 3 sons in 3 years. But then a devastating turn, something was wrong with their second son Jaret (ph).
MARGUS: Around the age of 2 Jaret (ph) started being wobbly and not really stable in his walk and had a little bit slurred speech.
DOBBS: (voice-over): After countless doctors treated Jaret (ph), he still wasn't getting better.
MARGUS: It was kind of assumed that it was probably a one-time birth defect or something, random thing, don't worry about it. Shortly after that, our third son, started to show the same symptoms, exactly the same symptoms and we know it wasn't a random birth defect.
DOBBS: The Margus' learned, both their sons have a rare genetic disease. Ataxia Telangiectasia, or AT. AT is a progressively degenerative disease of which there is no known cure.
A.T. forced Jarret and Quinn (ph) into wheelchairs in the prime of their youth. And with only 580 cases in the entire country, there was little research taking place.
MARGUS: To me, to seemed obscene that just because the disease was really rare, first-rate science and research couldn't be done on it.
DOBBS: With no background in science, Margus founded the A.T. Children's Project, starting a cell and tissue bank, raising money, booking medical conferences and testifying before Congress about the disease. Margus pursued the top geneticist at Stanford, David Cox, to oversee the research board. Cox tried to say no.
MARGUS: I said, "Let's talk about why you can't. All I need you for is, you know, your brilliant mind and your honest, candid advice. And by the end of the hour, he said, OK, he'll do it.
DOBBS: Through research funded by the A.T. Children's Project, the mutated DNA that causes the disease was mapped, a huge scientific breakthrough. Clinical trials were held for new drugs but failed. Undeterred, the Children's Project work continued. Margus was recruited to run several biotech start-ups in the high tech boom at the turn of the century. This time it was Cox who convinced Margus to come with Him.
Leaving shrimping behind, Margus would commute 3,000 miles a week to California to run Perlegen, a company on the cutting edge of DNA research.
Perlegen makes chips that examine DNA strands faster and cheaper than its competition, and focuses on why drugs work in some patients and not in others. It is also the leader in research of the genetic causes of more common illnesses like diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
MARGUS: What I know is that this at last may help genetics come through and all of the stuff that's been promised over the years.
DOBBS: Margus needs no reminder of those promises. Even while at Perlegen, he has not backed off from his work with A.T. Children's Project, hoping to find a cure for Jarrett and Quinn.
MARGUS: They haven't asked too much about the future. That's really tough to answer if they do. But I think -- I think they still believe that dad can do it. I just hope I can help (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOBBS: Brad Margus an extraordinary man and a fellow facing extraordinary challenges with great grace.
Jim Citrin is here.
And Jim, this is a remarkable story. JAMES CITRIN, DIRECTOR, SPENCER STUART: If any of us think we have it hard, we just have to look at what Brad has gone through and what he's done. It's really extraordinary.
DOBBS: The idea that he can contend and challenge with all of these issues -- his career, his children threatened by the diseases that -- the disease that's a amongst those that his company is researching -- is there any good news to report in terms of progress in that search?
CITRIN: Well, my understanding is that the A.T. Children's Project has made unbelievable advances. They found the gene. They have developed laboratory animals that have developed the disease and are working on tests for it, and they have done it faster than other traditional foundations. And it's just an amazing story of what A.T. has done.
DOBBS: And Margus, as he meets these challenges -- it's fascinating to me that a man would move from Harvard Business School to shrimping to biotech. That speaks volumes about his independent character and nature and also remarkable skill set.
CITRIN: It is. Brad -- no one would have voted brad in the class of 1986 at Harvard most likely to succeed. But what he did -- he took -- he followed one of the patterns that we talk about in the book. He -- something we call the permission paradox. How do you get access when you have no experience? He recruited David Cox and that gave him the credibility and with that and with the passion of a father he went out and built credibility for A.T. and got research collaborating all over the world.
DOBBS: And again, one of the remarkable stories, one of the men and women who have pursued extraordinary careers and built extraordinary lives.
Jim Citrin, we thank you, and we'll see you here tomorrow night.
CITRIN: Thanks, Lou.
DOBBS: And tomorrow night we'll be taking a look at the man who took the idea of music television -- thought about it being a channel, turned it into an international media powerhouse, a pop culture and music icon. We're going to be looking at Tom Freston of MTV Networks. Please join us.
And a reminder to vote in tonight's poll on the subject of polling. "Do you believe polls accurately represent public opinion? Always? Most of the time? Occasionally? Or never?" Cast your vote at cnn.com/lou. We'll have the results for you coming up in just a few minutes.
Also, the growing outrage over the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange's pay package results in the resignation of Dick Grasso. We'll be sharing some of your thoughts next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) DOBBS: The results of tonight's poll. The question, "Do you believe polls accurately represent public opinion?" Five percent of you said always, 34 percent said most of the time, 47 percent occasionally, 14 percent never. The results of our poll question, of course, always represent accurately and with great validity public opinion -- at least, the public watching this broadcast.
And now for a look at some of your thoughts tonight. Many of you wrote in about the outrageous pay package of New York Stock Exchange Chairman Dick Grasso ahead of his resignation this evening.
John Bodnar of Yardley, Pennsylvania said, "The pay out to Dick Grasso tells us that Wall Street is not really interested in the American investor. All it wants to do is line its pockets with millions and millions of dollars. Wall Street has clearly become Greed Street."
Robert Pearson of Medford, Oregon, "Firing Grasso is not enough. As a not-for-profit organization, they enjoy tax advantages. If they paid their fair share of taxes, maybe they wouldn't be able to be quite so generous to people who take the profits in the form of salary and bonus."
Skillman Hunter of Mission Viejo, California, defended Grasso, "Grasso is worth more than whatever he's being paid. Wouldn't it be nice to have had at Grasso at the helm of the Northeast power grid?"
And Chris Kerzel of Atlanta, Georgia, "Why should Grasso resign? He didn't give himself that compensation package. The investors should be angry at the people who gave him so much money. They should be the ones to resign."
That is the next stage. We, of course, will keep you apprised of this story throughout the evening here on CNN.
We love hearing from you. E-mail us at loudobbs@cnn.com.
That's our show for tonight. Thanks for being with us. For all of us here, good night from New York.
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Secretary Don Evans>
