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Lou Dobbs Tonight
527 Political Ads Anger Both Parties; Hurricane Charley Slam Into Florida; Insurgents Continue Battle In Najaf
Aired August 13, 2004 - 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.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, Hurricane Charley slams into Florida packing winds of nearly 150 miles an hour.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's starting to pour right now and you can feel a little bit more of those wind gusts coming in and those wind gusts can be certainly dangerous.
PILGRIM: We'll have live reports from our reporters in the worst affected areas.
We'll also have the latest from the National Hurricane Center on Charley's path.
New details tonight about Governor Jim McGreevey's extramarital affair with a man. Republicans go on the offensive.
Tonight President Bush and Senator Kerry almost cross paths again as they campaign in the same city in Oregon.
And in "Heroes" the remarkable story of a U.S. marine who continued to fight in Iraq even though he was seriously wounded.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's easy to be strong when you're fighting with your buddies, with your brothers.
PILGRIM: Tonight, a special report.
ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT for Friday, August 13. Here now for an hour of news, debate and opinion, sitting in for Lou Dobbs who is on vacation, Kitty Pilgrim.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: Good evening. Tonight, President Bush has just declared Florida a disaster area. At this hour, Hurricane Charley is charging into the west coast of Florida with devastating force. Charley is the strongest hurricane to hit this country in more than a decade. More than 6 million people are in the hurricane's projected path.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wind gusts here are fierce... PILGRIM (voice-over): Charlotte County, Florida, is taking a direct hit from Hurricane Charley as the category four storm hammers the coast.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maximum winds are as high as about 145 miles per hour. And we think there will be some fluctuations but it is important to note now it is even stronger than what we estimated only an hour or two ago.
PILGRIM: Storm surges as high as 15 to 20 feet are forecast. Florida's governor, Jeb Bush, asked for federal help.
GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: This morning, I have requested from the president of the United States a presidential disaster declaration. We appreciate our partnership with FEMA. They have done extraordinary work. Everything possible that can be done in advance of this storm has been done.
PILGRIM: About 2 million people have been evacuated from the Florida Keys to the Tampa Bay area. The Navy is moving 12 ships and a number of helicopters from its Jacksonville base into the Atlantic and out of Hurricane Charley's path.
Nearly all aircraft and personnel were evacuated from Tampa's McDill Air Force Base, home to U.S. Central Command.
The airports in Tampa, Fort Myers, Sarasota, St. Petersburg, and Key West and now Orlando are closed. Early this morning, police told remaining residents in Clearwater to get out of Charley's path.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are in a designated evacuation (UNINTELLIGIBLE). You should make plans to evacuate immediately.
PILGRIM: By mid-morning, the warnings were dire.
CRAIG FUGATE, DIR., FLORIDA EMERGENCY MGMT.: You cannot delay. Your options are running out. People that have waited and waited and waited as the governor says, there will be no further time, there will be no further messages to evacuate. It is too late.
PILGRIM: People settled into emergency shelters to ride out the storm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The law says you got to evacuate at 6:00, you evacuate at 6:00. It scares the hell out of me. When you're looking at the map, it's -- when you're living on a coast, you dream about some day a hurricane hitting us head on. And, hello, here it is.
PILGRIM: Fort Myers' officials are worried residents ignored the warnings.
LAURI MCMAHON, IONA-MCGREGOR FIRE DEPT.: We really had a small storm coming in that was supposed to go north of us and people weren't really concerned about it. And now, it's taken a direct turn and has intensified and, unfortunately, we're concerned that there are numerous and probably hundreds that are in great danger from the storm.
PILGRIM: At category four storms result in major inland flooding and massive damage. The last category four hurricane was Hugo in 1989. It hit South Carolina. 82 people were killed in Hurricane Hugo and it caused more than $7 billion in damage.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: Charley suddenly changed direction before it hit the Florida coast. The hurricane veered east south of Tampa towards Fort Myers. John Zarrella is near the center of the storm in Venice, Florida, and Anderson Cooper is in Tampa where high winds are threatening to cause serious damage. Now we begin with John Zarrella in Venice -- John.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kitty, it appears that here in Venice, Florida as well, the storm has veered a bit east of us as well. We've been noticing the wind gusts in the trees and direction it's coming indicating that we are on the weaker side of the storm, the left side of the storm, traditionally the weaker part of any hurricane. And we've had some wind gusts and squally weather here but nothing has been damaged.
It's important to emphasize that here in the Venice area they had a tremendous amount of evacuations that took place. The beach area is completely evacuated, the downtown area completely shut down. Many people are here at this Holiday Inn that we are at right now, hunkering down here, a lot of the residents from this particular area at this -- the only damage that we had at all here was just some palm trees and a potted plant that was knocked down. That's about the only damage which is certainly good news.
Power is still all on. The trees are gusting and blowing, but the rain has just about completely subsided. For a period of time, the sky lightened up a bit and you could almost feel as if the sun was trying to break through here. Still a little bit gusty, a little bit of spitting rain on and off. But clearly an indication that we are on that left side of the storm, Kitty, the very weakest side of the hurricane, and that most powerful punch that it is packing it is off to the east of us right now -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: Thanks very much, John Zarrella.
Officials say that high winds and rain could cause serious damage in the Tampa area. Anderson Cooper is in Tampa and he joins me now with the latest -- Anderson.
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER 360": Kitty, as can you tell by this flag here, it is -- the winds are just starting to pick up more. They have in the last ten minutes or so just started to pick up. The rains also intensifying somewhat a little bit. This is a city which has really dodged a bullet today as of this hour. They were anticipating those high winds, those 120-mile-an-hour or plus winds, hitting directly the city of Tampa, heavily populated.
They were expecting a huge surge of water here in the harbor. That has not happened, is not likely to happen. Still, the evacuation is -- order is in effect. It was a mandatory evacuation order. Many people did heed it. The city is virtually empty, the streets deserted, people have sought safety on higher ground or sought safety at government facilities, at schools, at shelters or at friends' houses in other parts, more inland areas.
The city right now is without water, it's without electricity. They voluntarily turned that off in anticipation of the storm hitting. Still, people just kind of waiting to see exactly what happens in the next hour or two as this storm moves further northward, as this storm heads off to our east but comes up closer to our direction. We are anticipating higher winds, more rain and potential damage here in Tampa -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: All right. Thanks very much, Anderson Cooper. Stay safe, Anderson.
And we'll have much more on Hurricane Charley throughout tonight's broadcast. We'll go live to the National Hurricane Center for the very latest on Charley's path. We'll also have a live update from one of the worst affected areas on the Florida coast.
Also, still to come tonight, the other side of the story. Shocking new claims tonight from New Jersey's Governor Jim McGreevey's former employee. Chrissy Gephardt of the National Stonewall Democrats will join us.
President Bush and Senator Kerry go head to head in Oregon tonight, one of the closest battleground states in the upcoming election.
And we are following Hurricane Charley as it batters the Florida coastline with 145-mile-an-hour winds. We'll have all the very latest developments on that. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PILGRIM: In the past few minutes, President Bush declared Florida a disaster area. Hurricane Charley roared ashore today. It slammed into the west coast of Florida near Fort Myers with winds of nearly 150 miles an hour. Joining me now on the phone is Fort Myers' mayor, Jim Humphrey. Mayor Humphrey, thank you for joining us. What are the latest conditions in Fort Myers, right now?
MAYOR JIM HUMPHREY, FORT MYERS, FLORIDA: I'll be leaving in just a few minutes along with the fire chief to do an assessment. We know that there's some extensive property damage to the area. I'll tell you, this is a Friday the 13th we in southwest Florida will remember for a long time because this was a very major hurricane. Frankly, it was not only frightening but devastating to us. The winds were just in excess of 100 miles an hour. So it was really damaging to us.
PILGRIM: Mayor Humphrey, Fort Myers has a gorgeous historic district. Do you know how it's fared?
HUMPHREY: We do. That's one of the areas that I'm most concerned about. Of course, safety first and life first. But yet we are a beautiful city along the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) River. And we have several very important historic homes to include the Edison home and the Ford home. Thomas Edison wintered here for 47 straight years. And it's really been my neighborhood. And so all the oak trees in front of my house are down. We are really very concerned about the Edison home and what all has happened around it.
PILGRIM: Beautiful tree-lined streets, oaks. How are you faring on the trees?
HUMPHREY: In fact, I would say that on our street at least half of them are down.
PILGRIM: What a shame. You initially said you would not leave. Is that a decision that you're happy with? You were struck very suddenly. You were not in the path initially as it was initially thought.
HUMPHREY: Right. It did happen so quickly that what I would encourage anyone that's north of us to be facing the storm to evacuate. Because I will say it was frightening staying here at the home. In fact, we were so fortunate that these oaks did not fall on our house. The winds were just devastating. Yes, if I had it to do over again, while we have survived it, I would have, myself, gone to the emergency operations center.
PILGRIM: Well, we hope that many people heed your call in time. Thank you very much for taking the time to speak to us tonight, Mayor.
HUMPHREY: Thanks so much.
PILGRIM: We'll have more on Hurricane Charley ahead.
But in other news, there is new fallout tonight from New Jersey governor's James McGreevey's resignation and the announcement that he is gay. The former state employee who McGreevey admitted to having an affair with now is accusing the governor of sexual harassment. Alina Cho is live in Trenton, New Jersey with the very latest on that -- Alina.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kitty, first about the governor's movements. We learned just a short time ago that he was indeed here at the State House at work today huddled with his advisers and that he slipped out of a side entrance eluding all television cameras just a short time ago.
Meanwhile, as you mentioned, the lawyer for the man who effectively brought McGreevey down, ending his political career, the former top McGreevey aide, Golan Cipel spoke out through his attorney today. The attorney Allen Lowey (ph) said, "while employed by one of the most powerful politicians, I was the victim of repeated sexual advances by him."
We should also mention that a source at the U.S. attorney's office today told CNN that Cipel was really out for money. This former six-figure security aide demanded, apparently, millions of dollars in exchange for dropping this pending sexual harassment lawsuit. The lawsuit, we should mention, was never filed.
As for whether it will ever be filed, the lawyer Allen Lowey, the lawyer for Cipel said it is -- only time will tell about that.
We should also talk about who else is speaking out today. New Jersey Republicans who have called this scandal bigger than McGreevey and urged him to step down immediately. McGreevey has said that he will resign effective November 15. The fellow Democrat who will replace him has said he will provide a smooth transition in the state -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: Thanks very much, Alina Cho.
Joining me now for more on the cultural impact of McGreevey's announcement is Chrissy Gephardt. She's a spokeswoman for the National Stonewall Democrats which is a gay and lesbian association and she's also the daughter of Congressman Dick Gephardt. And Chrissy Gephardt joins me now from Washington. Thank you very much for joining us.
You know, the range of reaction has been amazing. Some people are applauding it, some people are shocked. What is your reaction, Chrissy?
CHRISSY GEPHARDT, NATIONAL STONEWALL DEMOCRATS: I think that for Governor McGreevey this is a very difficult time. I know that he must be struggling with a lot of different feelings, but, you know, I think that right now we just don't know what's going on. I mean, we have these allegations, but we don't have any evidence, we don't have any proof. But I can just imagine that he must be in a lot of turmoil at this point. We're just going to have to wait to see what happens.
PILGRIM: Chrissy, you were married when you declared your sexuality. I'm sure that you have some idea of how difficult this was for him to do. It also came a bit late in life for him. What are your thoughts on that?
GEPHARDT: I think it's a very common thing. I mean, I, too, was married and stayed married for a number of years before I had the courage to come out. It's a very hard decision. It's very heart wrenching to come out.
Obviously, he had a family and he had a lot at stake. It's unfortunate, though, that he had to come out under these circumstances, and it's a real shame because his coming out story gets clouded with these allegations and, you know, as much courage and as eloquent as he came out, unfortunately, there's a huge dark cloud hanging over his head because of these allegations.
PILGRIM: One of the things that happened is he said, "I'm gay" and, "I'm resigning" as if they were mutually exclusive. How do you think this positions gay and lesbian rights?
GEPHARDT: I just hope people will understand that the reason he's resigning is not because he's an openly gay elected official. We have over 275 elected officials serving who are openly gay. Unfortunately, a lot of people are seeing this as he's openly gay and he's resigning because of that. And I hope people hear the message that that's not what this is about. This is about something else. I think we're going to see the story unfold in the days and weeks to come.
PILGRIM: Thanks very much, Chrissy Gephardt. Thanks for coming.
GEPHARDT: Thank you.
PILGRIM: That brings us to tonight's poll. "Do you think that Governor McGreevey's resignation should be effective immediately? Should you cast your vote? It is at CNN.com/lou. We'll bring you the results a little bit later in this show.
Now many of you wrote about Governor McGreevey's shocking announcement. So let's go to a couple of e-mails.
G.A. Garner of Washington, D.C. wrote, "bravo to the New Jersey governor who has displayed tremendous amount of courage by first admitting the error of his ways by having an affair outside of his marriage bonds and also for coming to grips with the reality of his sexual preference.
Arthur Hoist of Philadelphia writes, "those who say he showed courage in outing himself to the world have missed the point entirely. If he had courage he would have spared his wife and children the humiliation of his announcement by being honest with himself and New Jersey voters from the outset."
And we do love hearing from you. E-mail us at loudobbs@CNN.com.
Coming up, a showdown in Oregon. President Bush and Senator Kerry campaign for votes in one of the most closely contested states.
Then the best government money can buy. Why campaign finance reform hasn't really cleaned up the system.
And tracking the storm. Hurricane Charley hits Florida coastlines. We'll have the very latest on the worst storm to hit the area in decades. Max Mayfield of the National Hurricane Center will join us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PILGRIM: Tonight, Governor Jeb Bush of Florida is warning that Hurricane Charley is likely to cause significant damage. Low lying areas of the Florida coast could be hit by storm surges as high as 20 feet, nearly 2 million people evacuated coastal areas. Some people though decided to stay in their homes. We'll have more on this developing story ahead.
Turning overseas, the war in Iraq. American and Iraqi troops today paused in their offensive against radical Shiite gunmen in Najaf. Iraqi government officials say they need time to negotiate a ceasefire. Military officials said troops continue to face sporadic attacks. Tonight, the radical cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr was defiant. Al-Sadr said he would not leave Najaf and called on his supporters to fight to the death.
In the presidential campaign. For the second time in ten days, President Bush and Senator Kerry campaigned in the same city. And today, it was Portland, Oregon. That's the biggest city in a state hotly contested four years ago. And John King is live in Portland with the report -- John.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Kitty, you might call this the shadow campaign. You mentioned the second time in ten days the two candidates in the same city, just blocks apart. A little more than a week ago in Davenport, Iowa about 11 miles apart at one point and speaking at the same time here in the Portland, Oregon area.
This is a key battleground state, one of about a dozen states that both campaigns think will decide the election. Senator Kerry campaigning at a rally with a huge crowd here on the riverfront in Portland. Much of his focus today on a new congressional budget office report, an analysis of the tax cuts adopted during the Bush administration. Senator Kerry making the case to the crowd here that two-thirds of the tax cuts, the money returned, went to the wealthiest one percent of Americans, those making more than $200,000 a year. Senator Kerry said if he's elected that will change.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This administration, the tax burden of the wealthy has gone down and the tax burden of the working American middle class has gone up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Now President Bush, of course, with a very different view. His campaign looking at the same study and saying it is proof that tax cuts went to everybody. That all Americans have received tax cuts in the Bush administration. The president credited those tax cuts with pulling the economy out of recession and he also says that the major beneficiaries were not the rich but were families and small businesses.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I said when we cut taxes everybody who pays taxes ought to get relief. And we ought not to play favorites with the tax relief plan, and you receive relief. Did it help? I'm not a lawyer but it sounds like I'm leading the witness.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Now the two candidates sparring here in Portland today. The Democratic nominee Senator Kerry getting a bit of help from his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry at the rally here in Portland. She made it quite clear she does not think much of the incumbent president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TERESA HEINZ KERRY, WIFE OF SEN. JOHN KERRY: It is important to have a president who not only understands but actually enjoys complexity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Now, Portland, Oregon today, over recent days the candidates have been within days, if not hours, of each other campaigning in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, California. Look for more of this 81 days left in the campaign. Kitty, all of the campaigns, both campaigns think it will come down to about a dozen states. So look for the candidates to be close to each other quite a bit in those 81 days to come -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: Thanks very much, John King.
Back to our top story. Hurricane Charley, the most powerful storm to hit the west coast of Florida in more than four decades. Today Charley gained speed and intensity as it roared up the Florida coastline beginning early this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 50 miles offshore, more than 50 miles offshore, Charley is passing by us. And even though -- we've been really lucky so far. He's still letting us know that he's passing by.
GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: This is not the time to be getting on the Interstate. It is time to seek a safe place to be with family or friends.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hurricane Charley is approaching the Tampa Bay area. You are in a designated evacuation zone. You should make plans to evacuate immediately.
ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I'm not as concerned as I was earlier about Tampa. I'm more concerned now about Fort Myers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is like a ghost town along Venice Beach.
SIDNEY: This is a category three storm. The winds are up to 125 miles an hour. That makes it a strong category three.
CRAIG FUGATE, DIR., FLORIDA EMERGENCY MGMT.: Primary focus right now is you have to move now. You cannot delay. Your options are running out.
SIDNEY: It looks like indeed, breaking news for us because we are now reporting that this is a category four storm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In less than one hour, 145-mile-per-hour winds will likely be affecting Sanibel, Fort Myers Beach, Punta Rassa, and down toward Esteros, Cape Coral. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is actually getting very treacherous out here. In fact, we are about to take shelter in the Gold Wing Resort at this point. The winds are just howling. I can't even describe how hard the winds are blowing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Within the last hour things have got considerably worse. Let's take a look at some debris over here in actually the parking lot of the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) County newsroom. This is pretty symbolic of what's going on all over Naples as some of these bands just continue to pound us here in Naples.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Captiva Island, the official area of landfall...
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: We'll have more on the hurricane ahead.
But up next, the best government money can buy. Hundreds of millions of dollars still pouring into political campaigns even after campaign finance reform.
Also tonight, big trouble in American trade. The biggest ports in the nation are facing crippling gridlock.
And in "Heroes" a young marine injured in Iraq dedicates his time to helping fellow troops as they return from war.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PILGRIM: All this week we have reported on the extensive amount of money that is funneled into political campaigns in this country. Lobbyists in Washington spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year in an attempt to influence lawmakers and policy decisions. And all this continues despite the recent reforms to campaign finance laws. Lisa Sylvester reports from Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: March 2002, Senators John McCain and Russ Feingold celebrate the passage of their landmark campaign reform legislation. Their law banned national parties from receiving unlimited soft money contributions. The goal was to curb the power of special interest groups but fast forward to 2004.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know John Kerry is lying for his first Purple Heart because I treated him for that injury.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Bush administration gave Dick Cheney's old company no-bid contracts for Iraq on a silver platter.
SYLVESTER: But the new special interests are called 527s. And they're totally legal. Billionaire George Soros has given more than $12 million to the two largest 527s: the Democratic-leaning Media Fund and America Coming Together.
So what happened to the reform of just two years ago?
DAN DANNER, SENIOR V.P., NFIB: One hole in the dam may have been plugged, but now it's leaking out of a lot of other areas. So, certainly, looking at this cycle I don't think you can say McCain/Feingold has significantly slowed down spending.
SYLVESTER: To its critics, the Federal Election Commission says, "Don't blame us."
BRADLEY SMITH, CHAIRMAN, FEC: They chafe at the fact that people are legally able to do things which they would like to be illegal. And they take out that frustration by saying, "Well, the Commission just won't do enough."
But we comply with the law.
SYLVESTER: Chairman Smith argues real reform should look at tightening corporate lobby spending, an area that is largely unregulated. Corporations spend 10 times more money on lobbying than they do on campaign contributions.
It's a far cry from 1974 during the post-Watergate reform, Congress approved taxpayer financing for the conventions and the presidential campaigns. Reformists say the amount of public funding limits for the conventions and the campaigns need to be raised so candidates won't have to turn to private interest money.
FRED WERTHEIMER, PRESIDENT, DEMOCRACY 21: Representatives are supposed to listen to everyone and they're supposed to pay particular attention to their constituents. When that balance is out of whack, when money is playing too big a role and citizens too little, then our democracy isn't functioning as it should.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SYLVESTER: In the meantime, one thing can balance the flood of special interest money, no matter how much money corporations spend on lavish convention parties or on campaign contributions, at the end of the day the politicians still have to answer to the voters -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: All right. Thanks very much. Lisa Sylvester.
More now on our top story, Hurricane Charley.
And joining me from Miami, Florida is Max Mayfield. He's the Director of the National Hurricane Center. And thanks for joining us, Max. A busy day for you.
Tell us what your assessment is.
MAX MAYFIELD, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Well, this made landfall on the Florida west coast near Charlotte Harbor about 3:45 this afternoon as a category four hurricane. It's moving toward the north, northeast fairly rapidly.
The center you can see right here, it's about 75 miles south, southwest of Orlando. So, it's headed right over Orlando and Disneyworld, where it will likely exit the Atlanta coast, somewhere near Daytona Beach shortly after midnight.
PILGRIM: What about the East coast? A lot of people have a weekend coming up, trying to fly places, airports. Tell us what the projection is on this.
MAYFIELD: Yes, well, I think the most likely scenario here is for it to continue moving to the north, northeast. And by this time tomorrow night, be up in North Carolina. But, we're going to have a large swath of very strong winds across the peninsula. The good news is, that it's moving so rapidly that by tomorrow, most of it should be out of the state; at least later tomorrow morning and tomorrow afternoon.
But, we're going to have some damage and I would expect some extreme damage in some areas from Charley.
PILGRIM: Max, will it intensify as it moves up the coast or diminish?
MAYFIELD: It will diminish here tonight as it moves over the peninsula; will likely exit the state on the Atlantic side as probably a category one hurricane. It may strengthen a little bit as it heads up towards the Carolinas, but I doubt if it will ever regain the category four status.
PILGRIM: When will landfall be clear of the whole thing?
MAYFIELD: Well, I think it'll be clear of Florida, you know, by tomorrow morning, at least the core of the hurricane. And then by tomorrow morning be somewhere in this location; by tomorrow night it will be up in North Carolina, up in there. So, we've still got another couple days.
And then the rainfall will spread along the Eastern seaboard, you know, through Sunday.
PILGRIM: All right. Thanks very much, Max Mayfield. Thank you.
MAYFIELD: You bet.
PILGRIM: All right. The Florida Governor's Office is coordinating the emergency operations and joining me from Tallahassee, Florida is the Lieutenant Governor, Toni Jennings.
Lieutenant Governor Jennings, what can you tell us about the extent of the damage so far?
TONI JENNINGS, LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR, FLORIDA: Well we're here in the Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee, which is not impacted by the storm, of course. The storm has come inland, it hit around the Port Charlotte County area, that's where we've had the most damage that we've had reported, so far.
But all of Southwest Florida had mandatory evacuations beginning yesterday. A number of people did move and that was fortunate, because this is a very dangerous storm. The storm is moving across the state, headed towards the Orlando area to leave our state somewhere around the Daytona Beach area.
We are very concerned because, again, property can be replaced, but lives cannot. And this is a dangerous storm.
PILGRIM: It's had, somewhat an unpredictable path so far. This has put people in jeopardy?
JENNINGS: Yes. Although we were forewarned and forearmed that this is in a very organized group here at the Emergency Management Center and that's why we had the mandatory evacuations yesterday, thinking that the storm of course, would come in at the Southwest Florida area. It is moving across the state and that situation, most have to seek shelters within their home counties. Gel out of low- lying areas and move to shelters.
And that's what they're doing. We think we are prepared. We believe we have done everything possible. And tomorrow will be all about cleanup and getting people back in their homes and back to normal.
PILGRIM: Will they have power? What's the power situation like?
JENNINGS: We have heard that there's substantial power outages within the Southwest Florida area. There will be others as we move across the state, of course, because you will have lots of trees; you will lots of exposed power lines coming down. But we have a number of our power partners waiting at the state line to come into the area and be able to help us.
Last total I heard was 2,500 trucks, about 8,000 additional personnel to come into Florida to help us.
PILGRIM: The disaster declaration does help you considerably, doesn't it?
JENNINGS: Absolutely. We used an expedited method. The president has already declared Florida a disaster area. We knew early on that probably our property damage was going to meet the threshold for a national disaster. And we initiated our paperwork early. The Governor talked to the President earlier today. And we now have the declarations.
So that will help us both with resources and with people coming into the state.
PILGRIM: We just talked to Max Mayfield. And he said the course of this will be up the coastline. Any advice to anyone who's bracing for it?
JENNINGS: Absolutely. If they are still somewhere thinking about getting to a shelter, now is the time. We're going to have some very high winds inland. We're going to have a lot of rain. Again, we talked about those trees coming down. There's going to be damage. They need to be in a shelter. If they're not, they need to be in their homes in an internal situation, in an inner side room, no windows. Get their flashlights and their batteries and a water bottle ready. And be ready to work it through the night.
But by morning, this storm should be gone and we should be all about cleanup and restoration.
PILGRIM: All right. Thanks very much, Lieutenant Governor Toni Jennings.
Best of luck to you.
JENNINGS: Thank you.
PILGRIM: And for the very latest on Hurricane Charley's impact on the Florida coast, we now go to John Zarrella in Venice, Florida -- John.
ZARRELLA: Hi, Kitty.
Well, Charley has passed us by here in Venice. It is east and north of us. It has gone through a town, the center very close to Zalfo Springs then up towards Fort Mead, parallel to Bradenton and near the Tampa area as it moves on that north, northeast coastline.
A lot of people standing around now outside, coming out from this hotel we are at here, at the Holiday Inn. Everyone pretty much now realizing that the storm has missed this area and gone by; never lost any power here. Had a little bit of damage but very, very minor: just some incidental damage here. Very fortunate. Light rain, never any real heavy rain here, never any real strong gusts here.
Again, as we talked earlier in the show, because in fact, we are on that left side of the storm, the weaker side of the hurricane; the right side of the storm is really where it packs all the punch in these things. So, very fortunate here and, certainly, up the coast in the Saint Petersburg, Tampa area, Sarasota area, that the storm has gone further inland and missed them here.
Not so fortunate for the folks up in the center part of the state and perhaps, even further north in the Orlando area -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: OK. Thanks a lot. John Zarrella.
We are going to follow Charley all night here on CNN.
And we'll give you the latest as it comes in to us.
Joining me now for more on other major news of the week, our "Newsmakers," Karen Tumulty is our National Political Correspondent for "Time Magazine." And she joins us from Washington. In New York, Ron Brownstein is a National Political Correspondent for the "Los Angeles Times." Jim Ellis, Chief of Correspondents for "Business Week." And thank you for joining us. We'll step away from Charley for just a moment to talk about Iraq. And it's been a very big week in Iraq: the assault on Najaf. How would you assess it, Jim? Let's start with you.
JIM ELLIS, "BUSINESS WEEK": I think it's been sort of, a bad thing for the administration right now because this is when they want to show that Iraq is -- we're getting our hands around the situation. But instead, as long as we have the militants sort of, held up there in Najaf, and particularly when they're held up so closely to a major religious shrine it sort of means that we can't fight back maybe as strong as we want to.
But at the same time, we've started this, we can't walk away. And so, it sort of put the administration in a bad position right now.
PILGRIM: Ron, do you think they're handling it well?
RON BROWNSTEIN, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "LOS ANGELES TIMES": Well, the challenge with any kind of insurgency obviously, is you can militarily overcome the enemy, but you do so in a way that creates more problems down the road.
And that's what we're seeing; we've seen it many times in Iraq, we've seen many times in other foreign situations and we're seeing it again right here, right now.
PILGRIM: Basically, the U.S. military, we're talking about clearing operations. Karen, your thoughts on this.
KAREN TUMULTY, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "TIME MAGAZINE": Well, any time you ask any body in the administration about this this week, of course, the President on down, they have answered, "Well, this is going to be handled by the Iraqis. We've transferred sovereignty. We're just standing there to help." But certainly, however this comes out, the United States is likely to catch the blame or the credit.
And right now, it looks like it's more likely to be blame. Because, it's hard to imagine that this is going to result in anything that resembles a stable situation.
PILGRIM: All right.
Let's move on to oil. And oil really gyrated a lot this week on this news. The great worry is the insurgents will continue to attack the oil pipelines, although oil exports are flowing normally through the south at this point. Jim, your assessment on what this means for business.
ELLIS: Well, there's a lot going on in the oil markets right now. I mean, there's the real uncertainty of what's going on with Iraq and whether we're going to be able to continue the transmission of oils we've been doing so far.
Venezuela, there's an election there that's making a lot of instability to the markets. And also, the continuing drama in Russia because of Yukos, and the government trying to take over one of the largest oil producers there. It means $46 a barrel oil.
What that means is that the recovery, it's still rather fragile, could be sort of, snuffed out and also means that the administration, which wants confidence to be high, has a hard time keeping that up. At the same time the people see the oil bills going up.
BROWNSTEIN: That's really the double wave politically. On the one hand, you have the oil prices themselves, the gas prices that people experience, and then you also have the question of what this is doing to the overall growth numbers: the job creation numbers and how that sort of rebounds on the president.
You know, I have been struck all year how much resonance John Kerry and other Democrats have received from their audiences, at least, on the idea of increasing energy independence. The President, obviously makes a different argument about increasing domestic production, but this whole question of whether our national security is overly compromised by reliance on Mideast oil, is one that I do think really does hit a lot of American voters.
PILGRIM: Well, a very compelling argument. Oil up $10 since the beginning of this year. Karen?
TUMULTY: Then of course, this week we saw the Saudis announce that they were going to open up the spigot and this was what everyone thought could possibly slow this increase down. And all we saw was it jump up even faster.
It does appear increasingly like the entire economic recovery could be completely bound up in these oil prices. And even as the news in the Middle East is looking more dire, when you talk to voters, you do find that their top concern by a long shot remains the economy.
PILGRIM: OK.
Let's talk about another just surprise story this week: and that's the McGreevey resignation. We were all just dumbfounded in the newsrooms. It was not expected. Your assessment?
ELLIS: Well, I guess it would be sort of, flip to say it is New Jersey, which is a state...
PILGRIM: You're going to get letters about that.
ELLIS: OK. But it's a state where there have been a lot of discussions over the years about the ethics of politicians. I think in this case, it's less of a sexual issue and more the case of putting someone on the payroll, who you might have had a personal relationship with. Now, that's done all the time in politics, we know, but still, it does upset voters.
PILGRIM: There's a second ripple effect saying he should resign right away. Is this people making political hay of a bad situation?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, obviously, Republicans would like there to be an election this November, when all of this is fresh in people's minds. And if he did resign, you'd have to have a special election. There were reports in the New Jersey papers, interestingly today, that the Kerry campaign was among those asking McGreevey to stay on. They do not want to have the uncertainty of a special election.
Polls now have them reopening a big lead in New Jersey. But obviously, McGreevey has been an unpopular figure and if this was on the ballot right now, who knows what would happen. Democrats would obviously prefer to be voting 15 months from now on a successor when it has sort of faded away a little bit.
PILGRIM: Karen, how's this playing in Washington?
TUMULTY: Well, I don't think there are many national implications at all. Except, as Ron was suggesting, within the Kerry campaign. But New Jersey is a blue state, it's a very blue state. So, I don't think that at this point, it is likely to be put into play, even if there is a special election.
I spoke to one of Governor McGreevey's advisers a few hours ago; they seem to think that he can go off for the weekend, spend time repairing his family and come back and essentially try to go back to governing as usual on Monday. That seems pretty naive at this point and unlikely.
PILGRIM: Well, thank you for wrapping up a week that was not short on news. Thanks very much.
Jim Ellis, Ron Brownstein and Karen Tumulty, thank you.
A reminder now to vote in tonight's poll: do you think Governor McGreevey's resignation should be effective immediately? Cast your vote at cnn.com/lou.
And we're going to bring you the results a little bit later in the show.
Now, toy giant Mattel is urging people to get out and vote, not for Bush or Kerry, but for Barbie. Now, yesterday, at Toys "R" Us in Manhattan Times Square, Mattel kicked off a campaign, "Barbie for President." The promotion is in partnership with the White House Project, which is a group that endorses women to run for political office.
And a spokeswoman for the company says the move is less a money- making tactic for Mattel and more a labor of love.
Coming up next: trade trouble for the United States. We'll get the cause of major gridlock at our nation's ports.
And "Heroes": the story of a young Marine corporal who must relearn every day activities most people take for granted.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PILGRIM: Hurricane Charley is tonight speeding across Florida after slamming into Florida's west coast. Officials are warning storm surges, high winds, torrential rain, that could cause extensive damage. Nearly two million people evacuated coastal areas. Some people decided to stay in their homes.
Anderson Cooper is in Tampa and will have the very latest at the top of hour on that.
Turning to the economy, this country's trade deficit continues to worsen. The deficit shot up to a staggering new record of $55 billion in June. Huge amounts of goods from Asia pouring into this country. And that flood of goods is threatening to create gridlock on the roads and rails of Southern California.
Peter Viles reports from Los Angeles.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Inbound for Foxtrot Anchorage is the Pugwatch Senator. We're at the Whiskey buoy right now.
PETER VILES, CNN REPORTER: Any economist caught off guard by the surging trade deficit should have a look at this computer screen. The orange dots are container ships caught in a traffic jam that began back in June in the nation's biggest ports: Los Angeles and Long Beach. The cause: a tidal wave of Asian imports.
MANNY ASCHEMEYER, MARINE EXCHANGE OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: We are reaching a gridlock situation here.
VILES: So much cargo coming from Asia, there aren't enough longshoremen to unload it. And when it is unloaded, it's causing near gridlock on freeways and railroads near the ports.
JACK KYSER, L.A. COUNTRY ECONOMIC DEVELOPER: We're nervous. You could have something happen and you could have some gridlock quickly develop. And somebody says, "What does it make a difference if there's gridlock in Los Angeles?" You have to say, "In about a week, your favorite Wal-Mart will be running out of certain products."
VILES: Shipments of imported goods to these ports are running 13 percent ahead of year-ago levels. Ports that usually average 30 to 35 ships in harbor, now have 60 to 65. Any slowdown here will ripple across the nation.
ASCHEMEYER: We're talking about production lines and factories and assembly lines. If the parts aren't there, if the rolled metal is not there in time, that factory line's going to be shut down. You're talking about stores that are investing millions of dollars into advertising for a weekend sale and the product isn't there to go on the shelves.
VILES: One positive development: the longshoremen's union is hiring 3,000 workers at nearby $21 an hour to unload Asian imports.
DAVE ARIAN, PRESIDENT, LONGSHOREMEN'S UNION LOCAL 11: This is a working class job that a working class person can get with a middle- class income. And that doesn't exist in America much anymore. Those jobs are all over in China and elsewhere.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VILES: Now, trade is a two-way street and there is some growth in exports out of these markets, but it's not always high-value exports. Here's an example: the number one bulk export from these ports: waste paper. Goes to Asia where it is recycled and it comes back here, Kitty, as cardboard -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: All right. Thanks very much. Pete Viles.
On Wall Street, stocks rose slightly: the Dow gained about 11 points, the NASDAQ added almost five, the S&P rose one and a half, oil prices, they hit another record.
Christine Romans is here with the market.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN FINANCIAL REPORTER: Well, Kitty, Hurricane Charley is just the latest reason why oil prices are hitting records. Soaring crude prices, this market is so tight any supply disruptions wreak havoc.
Production in the Gulf of Mexico disrupted this week as Charley and Bonnie churned through. Oil companies operating in the Gulf, pulling workers off their rigs and an explosion at a big refinery in Indiana took more oil off the market today. Now, Iraq exports flowed normally again today, but tensions are high as radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr pledges sabotage on Southern Iraq pumping terminals.
And a referendum looms Sunday on Venezuela's president. Venezuela, the fourth largest supplier of oil to this country.
At the same time, new evidence of incredible Chinese demand. China's appetite for crude soared 40 percent in July from the year earlier. Is it any wonder that crude prices are up 10 percent in the past month alone? There 47 percent higher than they were last August. At these levels, it's only a matter of time before gas prices head higher again and heating oil prices for the winter, already forecast to take an even bigger bite out of the family budget -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: All right. Thanks very much, Christine.
Tonight's thought is from the famed chef Julia Childs. She passed away overnight at the age of 91. Now Julia Childs once said, "Life itself is the proper binge." But she had some suggestions on how to live life on a daily basis.
And she said, "It's fun to get together and have something good to eat at least once a day. That's what human life is all about: enjoying things."
When we return: "Heroes." Marine Corporal James Wright is adjusting to life at home as he almost lost his life three times in Iraq. We'll have his remarkable story next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PILGRIM: Tonight, in "Heroes," the story of a young Marine who was badly wounded in Iraq. Corporal James Wright fought not only for his country, but for his life as well. Bill Tucker has his story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL TUCKER, CNN REPORTER: This image, a moment of respect during the mourning for President Reagan. Corporal James Eddi Wright just back from Iraq.
JAMES WRIGHT, MARINE CORPORAL: I'm trying to go up and down the rows.
TUCKER: The elite reconnaissance Marine now relearns everyday tasks, like picking something up off the floor.
WRIGHT: If this is food I'd had it a long time ago.
TUCKER: His hands blown off, his legs severely injured during an ambush and fierce firefight in April near Fallujah. Despite his wounds, he led his Marines, kept his cool, kept giving orders, pointed out Iraqi machine gun nests, even instructed others to tourniquet his bleeding stumps.
WRIGHT: It's not the end of the world. Your life still goes on.
TUCKER: Now, he helps out other troops recovering at Walter Reed Army Hospital. And they help him.
He wants to stay in the Corps and can't wait to get back to work.
WRIGHT: I can help to train some of the new guys coming into the unit. There's a lot of things I can do.
TUCKER: At the Iwo Jima Memorial, he received a Bronze Star for heroism from Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz.
PAUL WOLFOWITZ, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The whole crew survived, I think, because of his coolness and presence of mind.
TUCKER: In the audience, his Air Force father and fiance.
COLONEL JIM WRIGHT, FATHER OF JAMES WRIGHT: I knew he had it in him. He was always one to keep his head when stuff went down; to persevere; to do the right thing.
SERGEANT DONETTE MATHISON, JAMES WRIGHT'S FIANCE: He's my rock. He gives me strength. And we're supposed to be strong for him, but he's strong for us. He's amazing.
TUCKER: Corporal James Eddi Wright: a soft-spoken hero doesn't take credit, he gives it, to his company of Marines.
WRIGHT: It's easy to be strong when you're fighting with your buddies, with your brothers. You do whatever it takes to make it out of there. TUCKER: Bill Tucker, CNN.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PILGRIM: Here are the results of tonight's poll: 24 percent of you think Governor McGreevey's resignation should be effective immediately and 76 percent do not.
Thanks for joining us tonight. For all of us here, have a safe weekend. Good night from New York.
Anderson Cooper 360 is next.
END
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired August 13, 2004 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, Hurricane Charley slams into Florida packing winds of nearly 150 miles an hour.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's starting to pour right now and you can feel a little bit more of those wind gusts coming in and those wind gusts can be certainly dangerous.
PILGRIM: We'll have live reports from our reporters in the worst affected areas.
We'll also have the latest from the National Hurricane Center on Charley's path.
New details tonight about Governor Jim McGreevey's extramarital affair with a man. Republicans go on the offensive.
Tonight President Bush and Senator Kerry almost cross paths again as they campaign in the same city in Oregon.
And in "Heroes" the remarkable story of a U.S. marine who continued to fight in Iraq even though he was seriously wounded.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's easy to be strong when you're fighting with your buddies, with your brothers.
PILGRIM: Tonight, a special report.
ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT for Friday, August 13. Here now for an hour of news, debate and opinion, sitting in for Lou Dobbs who is on vacation, Kitty Pilgrim.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: Good evening. Tonight, President Bush has just declared Florida a disaster area. At this hour, Hurricane Charley is charging into the west coast of Florida with devastating force. Charley is the strongest hurricane to hit this country in more than a decade. More than 6 million people are in the hurricane's projected path.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wind gusts here are fierce... PILGRIM (voice-over): Charlotte County, Florida, is taking a direct hit from Hurricane Charley as the category four storm hammers the coast.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maximum winds are as high as about 145 miles per hour. And we think there will be some fluctuations but it is important to note now it is even stronger than what we estimated only an hour or two ago.
PILGRIM: Storm surges as high as 15 to 20 feet are forecast. Florida's governor, Jeb Bush, asked for federal help.
GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: This morning, I have requested from the president of the United States a presidential disaster declaration. We appreciate our partnership with FEMA. They have done extraordinary work. Everything possible that can be done in advance of this storm has been done.
PILGRIM: About 2 million people have been evacuated from the Florida Keys to the Tampa Bay area. The Navy is moving 12 ships and a number of helicopters from its Jacksonville base into the Atlantic and out of Hurricane Charley's path.
Nearly all aircraft and personnel were evacuated from Tampa's McDill Air Force Base, home to U.S. Central Command.
The airports in Tampa, Fort Myers, Sarasota, St. Petersburg, and Key West and now Orlando are closed. Early this morning, police told remaining residents in Clearwater to get out of Charley's path.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are in a designated evacuation (UNINTELLIGIBLE). You should make plans to evacuate immediately.
PILGRIM: By mid-morning, the warnings were dire.
CRAIG FUGATE, DIR., FLORIDA EMERGENCY MGMT.: You cannot delay. Your options are running out. People that have waited and waited and waited as the governor says, there will be no further time, there will be no further messages to evacuate. It is too late.
PILGRIM: People settled into emergency shelters to ride out the storm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The law says you got to evacuate at 6:00, you evacuate at 6:00. It scares the hell out of me. When you're looking at the map, it's -- when you're living on a coast, you dream about some day a hurricane hitting us head on. And, hello, here it is.
PILGRIM: Fort Myers' officials are worried residents ignored the warnings.
LAURI MCMAHON, IONA-MCGREGOR FIRE DEPT.: We really had a small storm coming in that was supposed to go north of us and people weren't really concerned about it. And now, it's taken a direct turn and has intensified and, unfortunately, we're concerned that there are numerous and probably hundreds that are in great danger from the storm.
PILGRIM: At category four storms result in major inland flooding and massive damage. The last category four hurricane was Hugo in 1989. It hit South Carolina. 82 people were killed in Hurricane Hugo and it caused more than $7 billion in damage.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: Charley suddenly changed direction before it hit the Florida coast. The hurricane veered east south of Tampa towards Fort Myers. John Zarrella is near the center of the storm in Venice, Florida, and Anderson Cooper is in Tampa where high winds are threatening to cause serious damage. Now we begin with John Zarrella in Venice -- John.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kitty, it appears that here in Venice, Florida as well, the storm has veered a bit east of us as well. We've been noticing the wind gusts in the trees and direction it's coming indicating that we are on the weaker side of the storm, the left side of the storm, traditionally the weaker part of any hurricane. And we've had some wind gusts and squally weather here but nothing has been damaged.
It's important to emphasize that here in the Venice area they had a tremendous amount of evacuations that took place. The beach area is completely evacuated, the downtown area completely shut down. Many people are here at this Holiday Inn that we are at right now, hunkering down here, a lot of the residents from this particular area at this -- the only damage that we had at all here was just some palm trees and a potted plant that was knocked down. That's about the only damage which is certainly good news.
Power is still all on. The trees are gusting and blowing, but the rain has just about completely subsided. For a period of time, the sky lightened up a bit and you could almost feel as if the sun was trying to break through here. Still a little bit gusty, a little bit of spitting rain on and off. But clearly an indication that we are on that left side of the storm, Kitty, the very weakest side of the hurricane, and that most powerful punch that it is packing it is off to the east of us right now -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: Thanks very much, John Zarrella.
Officials say that high winds and rain could cause serious damage in the Tampa area. Anderson Cooper is in Tampa and he joins me now with the latest -- Anderson.
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER 360": Kitty, as can you tell by this flag here, it is -- the winds are just starting to pick up more. They have in the last ten minutes or so just started to pick up. The rains also intensifying somewhat a little bit. This is a city which has really dodged a bullet today as of this hour. They were anticipating those high winds, those 120-mile-an-hour or plus winds, hitting directly the city of Tampa, heavily populated.
They were expecting a huge surge of water here in the harbor. That has not happened, is not likely to happen. Still, the evacuation is -- order is in effect. It was a mandatory evacuation order. Many people did heed it. The city is virtually empty, the streets deserted, people have sought safety on higher ground or sought safety at government facilities, at schools, at shelters or at friends' houses in other parts, more inland areas.
The city right now is without water, it's without electricity. They voluntarily turned that off in anticipation of the storm hitting. Still, people just kind of waiting to see exactly what happens in the next hour or two as this storm moves further northward, as this storm heads off to our east but comes up closer to our direction. We are anticipating higher winds, more rain and potential damage here in Tampa -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: All right. Thanks very much, Anderson Cooper. Stay safe, Anderson.
And we'll have much more on Hurricane Charley throughout tonight's broadcast. We'll go live to the National Hurricane Center for the very latest on Charley's path. We'll also have a live update from one of the worst affected areas on the Florida coast.
Also, still to come tonight, the other side of the story. Shocking new claims tonight from New Jersey's Governor Jim McGreevey's former employee. Chrissy Gephardt of the National Stonewall Democrats will join us.
President Bush and Senator Kerry go head to head in Oregon tonight, one of the closest battleground states in the upcoming election.
And we are following Hurricane Charley as it batters the Florida coastline with 145-mile-an-hour winds. We'll have all the very latest developments on that. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PILGRIM: In the past few minutes, President Bush declared Florida a disaster area. Hurricane Charley roared ashore today. It slammed into the west coast of Florida near Fort Myers with winds of nearly 150 miles an hour. Joining me now on the phone is Fort Myers' mayor, Jim Humphrey. Mayor Humphrey, thank you for joining us. What are the latest conditions in Fort Myers, right now?
MAYOR JIM HUMPHREY, FORT MYERS, FLORIDA: I'll be leaving in just a few minutes along with the fire chief to do an assessment. We know that there's some extensive property damage to the area. I'll tell you, this is a Friday the 13th we in southwest Florida will remember for a long time because this was a very major hurricane. Frankly, it was not only frightening but devastating to us. The winds were just in excess of 100 miles an hour. So it was really damaging to us.
PILGRIM: Mayor Humphrey, Fort Myers has a gorgeous historic district. Do you know how it's fared?
HUMPHREY: We do. That's one of the areas that I'm most concerned about. Of course, safety first and life first. But yet we are a beautiful city along the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) River. And we have several very important historic homes to include the Edison home and the Ford home. Thomas Edison wintered here for 47 straight years. And it's really been my neighborhood. And so all the oak trees in front of my house are down. We are really very concerned about the Edison home and what all has happened around it.
PILGRIM: Beautiful tree-lined streets, oaks. How are you faring on the trees?
HUMPHREY: In fact, I would say that on our street at least half of them are down.
PILGRIM: What a shame. You initially said you would not leave. Is that a decision that you're happy with? You were struck very suddenly. You were not in the path initially as it was initially thought.
HUMPHREY: Right. It did happen so quickly that what I would encourage anyone that's north of us to be facing the storm to evacuate. Because I will say it was frightening staying here at the home. In fact, we were so fortunate that these oaks did not fall on our house. The winds were just devastating. Yes, if I had it to do over again, while we have survived it, I would have, myself, gone to the emergency operations center.
PILGRIM: Well, we hope that many people heed your call in time. Thank you very much for taking the time to speak to us tonight, Mayor.
HUMPHREY: Thanks so much.
PILGRIM: We'll have more on Hurricane Charley ahead.
But in other news, there is new fallout tonight from New Jersey governor's James McGreevey's resignation and the announcement that he is gay. The former state employee who McGreevey admitted to having an affair with now is accusing the governor of sexual harassment. Alina Cho is live in Trenton, New Jersey with the very latest on that -- Alina.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kitty, first about the governor's movements. We learned just a short time ago that he was indeed here at the State House at work today huddled with his advisers and that he slipped out of a side entrance eluding all television cameras just a short time ago.
Meanwhile, as you mentioned, the lawyer for the man who effectively brought McGreevey down, ending his political career, the former top McGreevey aide, Golan Cipel spoke out through his attorney today. The attorney Allen Lowey (ph) said, "while employed by one of the most powerful politicians, I was the victim of repeated sexual advances by him."
We should also mention that a source at the U.S. attorney's office today told CNN that Cipel was really out for money. This former six-figure security aide demanded, apparently, millions of dollars in exchange for dropping this pending sexual harassment lawsuit. The lawsuit, we should mention, was never filed.
As for whether it will ever be filed, the lawyer Allen Lowey, the lawyer for Cipel said it is -- only time will tell about that.
We should also talk about who else is speaking out today. New Jersey Republicans who have called this scandal bigger than McGreevey and urged him to step down immediately. McGreevey has said that he will resign effective November 15. The fellow Democrat who will replace him has said he will provide a smooth transition in the state -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: Thanks very much, Alina Cho.
Joining me now for more on the cultural impact of McGreevey's announcement is Chrissy Gephardt. She's a spokeswoman for the National Stonewall Democrats which is a gay and lesbian association and she's also the daughter of Congressman Dick Gephardt. And Chrissy Gephardt joins me now from Washington. Thank you very much for joining us.
You know, the range of reaction has been amazing. Some people are applauding it, some people are shocked. What is your reaction, Chrissy?
CHRISSY GEPHARDT, NATIONAL STONEWALL DEMOCRATS: I think that for Governor McGreevey this is a very difficult time. I know that he must be struggling with a lot of different feelings, but, you know, I think that right now we just don't know what's going on. I mean, we have these allegations, but we don't have any evidence, we don't have any proof. But I can just imagine that he must be in a lot of turmoil at this point. We're just going to have to wait to see what happens.
PILGRIM: Chrissy, you were married when you declared your sexuality. I'm sure that you have some idea of how difficult this was for him to do. It also came a bit late in life for him. What are your thoughts on that?
GEPHARDT: I think it's a very common thing. I mean, I, too, was married and stayed married for a number of years before I had the courage to come out. It's a very hard decision. It's very heart wrenching to come out.
Obviously, he had a family and he had a lot at stake. It's unfortunate, though, that he had to come out under these circumstances, and it's a real shame because his coming out story gets clouded with these allegations and, you know, as much courage and as eloquent as he came out, unfortunately, there's a huge dark cloud hanging over his head because of these allegations.
PILGRIM: One of the things that happened is he said, "I'm gay" and, "I'm resigning" as if they were mutually exclusive. How do you think this positions gay and lesbian rights?
GEPHARDT: I just hope people will understand that the reason he's resigning is not because he's an openly gay elected official. We have over 275 elected officials serving who are openly gay. Unfortunately, a lot of people are seeing this as he's openly gay and he's resigning because of that. And I hope people hear the message that that's not what this is about. This is about something else. I think we're going to see the story unfold in the days and weeks to come.
PILGRIM: Thanks very much, Chrissy Gephardt. Thanks for coming.
GEPHARDT: Thank you.
PILGRIM: That brings us to tonight's poll. "Do you think that Governor McGreevey's resignation should be effective immediately? Should you cast your vote? It is at CNN.com/lou. We'll bring you the results a little bit later in this show.
Now many of you wrote about Governor McGreevey's shocking announcement. So let's go to a couple of e-mails.
G.A. Garner of Washington, D.C. wrote, "bravo to the New Jersey governor who has displayed tremendous amount of courage by first admitting the error of his ways by having an affair outside of his marriage bonds and also for coming to grips with the reality of his sexual preference.
Arthur Hoist of Philadelphia writes, "those who say he showed courage in outing himself to the world have missed the point entirely. If he had courage he would have spared his wife and children the humiliation of his announcement by being honest with himself and New Jersey voters from the outset."
And we do love hearing from you. E-mail us at loudobbs@CNN.com.
Coming up, a showdown in Oregon. President Bush and Senator Kerry campaign for votes in one of the most closely contested states.
Then the best government money can buy. Why campaign finance reform hasn't really cleaned up the system.
And tracking the storm. Hurricane Charley hits Florida coastlines. We'll have the very latest on the worst storm to hit the area in decades. Max Mayfield of the National Hurricane Center will join us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PILGRIM: Tonight, Governor Jeb Bush of Florida is warning that Hurricane Charley is likely to cause significant damage. Low lying areas of the Florida coast could be hit by storm surges as high as 20 feet, nearly 2 million people evacuated coastal areas. Some people though decided to stay in their homes. We'll have more on this developing story ahead.
Turning overseas, the war in Iraq. American and Iraqi troops today paused in their offensive against radical Shiite gunmen in Najaf. Iraqi government officials say they need time to negotiate a ceasefire. Military officials said troops continue to face sporadic attacks. Tonight, the radical cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr was defiant. Al-Sadr said he would not leave Najaf and called on his supporters to fight to the death.
In the presidential campaign. For the second time in ten days, President Bush and Senator Kerry campaigned in the same city. And today, it was Portland, Oregon. That's the biggest city in a state hotly contested four years ago. And John King is live in Portland with the report -- John.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Kitty, you might call this the shadow campaign. You mentioned the second time in ten days the two candidates in the same city, just blocks apart. A little more than a week ago in Davenport, Iowa about 11 miles apart at one point and speaking at the same time here in the Portland, Oregon area.
This is a key battleground state, one of about a dozen states that both campaigns think will decide the election. Senator Kerry campaigning at a rally with a huge crowd here on the riverfront in Portland. Much of his focus today on a new congressional budget office report, an analysis of the tax cuts adopted during the Bush administration. Senator Kerry making the case to the crowd here that two-thirds of the tax cuts, the money returned, went to the wealthiest one percent of Americans, those making more than $200,000 a year. Senator Kerry said if he's elected that will change.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This administration, the tax burden of the wealthy has gone down and the tax burden of the working American middle class has gone up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Now President Bush, of course, with a very different view. His campaign looking at the same study and saying it is proof that tax cuts went to everybody. That all Americans have received tax cuts in the Bush administration. The president credited those tax cuts with pulling the economy out of recession and he also says that the major beneficiaries were not the rich but were families and small businesses.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I said when we cut taxes everybody who pays taxes ought to get relief. And we ought not to play favorites with the tax relief plan, and you receive relief. Did it help? I'm not a lawyer but it sounds like I'm leading the witness.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Now the two candidates sparring here in Portland today. The Democratic nominee Senator Kerry getting a bit of help from his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry at the rally here in Portland. She made it quite clear she does not think much of the incumbent president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TERESA HEINZ KERRY, WIFE OF SEN. JOHN KERRY: It is important to have a president who not only understands but actually enjoys complexity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Now, Portland, Oregon today, over recent days the candidates have been within days, if not hours, of each other campaigning in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, California. Look for more of this 81 days left in the campaign. Kitty, all of the campaigns, both campaigns think it will come down to about a dozen states. So look for the candidates to be close to each other quite a bit in those 81 days to come -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: Thanks very much, John King.
Back to our top story. Hurricane Charley, the most powerful storm to hit the west coast of Florida in more than four decades. Today Charley gained speed and intensity as it roared up the Florida coastline beginning early this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 50 miles offshore, more than 50 miles offshore, Charley is passing by us. And even though -- we've been really lucky so far. He's still letting us know that he's passing by.
GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: This is not the time to be getting on the Interstate. It is time to seek a safe place to be with family or friends.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hurricane Charley is approaching the Tampa Bay area. You are in a designated evacuation zone. You should make plans to evacuate immediately.
ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I'm not as concerned as I was earlier about Tampa. I'm more concerned now about Fort Myers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is like a ghost town along Venice Beach.
SIDNEY: This is a category three storm. The winds are up to 125 miles an hour. That makes it a strong category three.
CRAIG FUGATE, DIR., FLORIDA EMERGENCY MGMT.: Primary focus right now is you have to move now. You cannot delay. Your options are running out.
SIDNEY: It looks like indeed, breaking news for us because we are now reporting that this is a category four storm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In less than one hour, 145-mile-per-hour winds will likely be affecting Sanibel, Fort Myers Beach, Punta Rassa, and down toward Esteros, Cape Coral. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is actually getting very treacherous out here. In fact, we are about to take shelter in the Gold Wing Resort at this point. The winds are just howling. I can't even describe how hard the winds are blowing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Within the last hour things have got considerably worse. Let's take a look at some debris over here in actually the parking lot of the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) County newsroom. This is pretty symbolic of what's going on all over Naples as some of these bands just continue to pound us here in Naples.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Captiva Island, the official area of landfall...
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: We'll have more on the hurricane ahead.
But up next, the best government money can buy. Hundreds of millions of dollars still pouring into political campaigns even after campaign finance reform.
Also tonight, big trouble in American trade. The biggest ports in the nation are facing crippling gridlock.
And in "Heroes" a young marine injured in Iraq dedicates his time to helping fellow troops as they return from war.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PILGRIM: All this week we have reported on the extensive amount of money that is funneled into political campaigns in this country. Lobbyists in Washington spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year in an attempt to influence lawmakers and policy decisions. And all this continues despite the recent reforms to campaign finance laws. Lisa Sylvester reports from Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: March 2002, Senators John McCain and Russ Feingold celebrate the passage of their landmark campaign reform legislation. Their law banned national parties from receiving unlimited soft money contributions. The goal was to curb the power of special interest groups but fast forward to 2004.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know John Kerry is lying for his first Purple Heart because I treated him for that injury.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Bush administration gave Dick Cheney's old company no-bid contracts for Iraq on a silver platter.
SYLVESTER: But the new special interests are called 527s. And they're totally legal. Billionaire George Soros has given more than $12 million to the two largest 527s: the Democratic-leaning Media Fund and America Coming Together.
So what happened to the reform of just two years ago?
DAN DANNER, SENIOR V.P., NFIB: One hole in the dam may have been plugged, but now it's leaking out of a lot of other areas. So, certainly, looking at this cycle I don't think you can say McCain/Feingold has significantly slowed down spending.
SYLVESTER: To its critics, the Federal Election Commission says, "Don't blame us."
BRADLEY SMITH, CHAIRMAN, FEC: They chafe at the fact that people are legally able to do things which they would like to be illegal. And they take out that frustration by saying, "Well, the Commission just won't do enough."
But we comply with the law.
SYLVESTER: Chairman Smith argues real reform should look at tightening corporate lobby spending, an area that is largely unregulated. Corporations spend 10 times more money on lobbying than they do on campaign contributions.
It's a far cry from 1974 during the post-Watergate reform, Congress approved taxpayer financing for the conventions and the presidential campaigns. Reformists say the amount of public funding limits for the conventions and the campaigns need to be raised so candidates won't have to turn to private interest money.
FRED WERTHEIMER, PRESIDENT, DEMOCRACY 21: Representatives are supposed to listen to everyone and they're supposed to pay particular attention to their constituents. When that balance is out of whack, when money is playing too big a role and citizens too little, then our democracy isn't functioning as it should.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SYLVESTER: In the meantime, one thing can balance the flood of special interest money, no matter how much money corporations spend on lavish convention parties or on campaign contributions, at the end of the day the politicians still have to answer to the voters -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: All right. Thanks very much. Lisa Sylvester.
More now on our top story, Hurricane Charley.
And joining me from Miami, Florida is Max Mayfield. He's the Director of the National Hurricane Center. And thanks for joining us, Max. A busy day for you.
Tell us what your assessment is.
MAX MAYFIELD, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Well, this made landfall on the Florida west coast near Charlotte Harbor about 3:45 this afternoon as a category four hurricane. It's moving toward the north, northeast fairly rapidly.
The center you can see right here, it's about 75 miles south, southwest of Orlando. So, it's headed right over Orlando and Disneyworld, where it will likely exit the Atlanta coast, somewhere near Daytona Beach shortly after midnight.
PILGRIM: What about the East coast? A lot of people have a weekend coming up, trying to fly places, airports. Tell us what the projection is on this.
MAYFIELD: Yes, well, I think the most likely scenario here is for it to continue moving to the north, northeast. And by this time tomorrow night, be up in North Carolina. But, we're going to have a large swath of very strong winds across the peninsula. The good news is, that it's moving so rapidly that by tomorrow, most of it should be out of the state; at least later tomorrow morning and tomorrow afternoon.
But, we're going to have some damage and I would expect some extreme damage in some areas from Charley.
PILGRIM: Max, will it intensify as it moves up the coast or diminish?
MAYFIELD: It will diminish here tonight as it moves over the peninsula; will likely exit the state on the Atlantic side as probably a category one hurricane. It may strengthen a little bit as it heads up towards the Carolinas, but I doubt if it will ever regain the category four status.
PILGRIM: When will landfall be clear of the whole thing?
MAYFIELD: Well, I think it'll be clear of Florida, you know, by tomorrow morning, at least the core of the hurricane. And then by tomorrow morning be somewhere in this location; by tomorrow night it will be up in North Carolina, up in there. So, we've still got another couple days.
And then the rainfall will spread along the Eastern seaboard, you know, through Sunday.
PILGRIM: All right. Thanks very much, Max Mayfield. Thank you.
MAYFIELD: You bet.
PILGRIM: All right. The Florida Governor's Office is coordinating the emergency operations and joining me from Tallahassee, Florida is the Lieutenant Governor, Toni Jennings.
Lieutenant Governor Jennings, what can you tell us about the extent of the damage so far?
TONI JENNINGS, LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR, FLORIDA: Well we're here in the Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee, which is not impacted by the storm, of course. The storm has come inland, it hit around the Port Charlotte County area, that's where we've had the most damage that we've had reported, so far.
But all of Southwest Florida had mandatory evacuations beginning yesterday. A number of people did move and that was fortunate, because this is a very dangerous storm. The storm is moving across the state, headed towards the Orlando area to leave our state somewhere around the Daytona Beach area.
We are very concerned because, again, property can be replaced, but lives cannot. And this is a dangerous storm.
PILGRIM: It's had, somewhat an unpredictable path so far. This has put people in jeopardy?
JENNINGS: Yes. Although we were forewarned and forearmed that this is in a very organized group here at the Emergency Management Center and that's why we had the mandatory evacuations yesterday, thinking that the storm of course, would come in at the Southwest Florida area. It is moving across the state and that situation, most have to seek shelters within their home counties. Gel out of low- lying areas and move to shelters.
And that's what they're doing. We think we are prepared. We believe we have done everything possible. And tomorrow will be all about cleanup and getting people back in their homes and back to normal.
PILGRIM: Will they have power? What's the power situation like?
JENNINGS: We have heard that there's substantial power outages within the Southwest Florida area. There will be others as we move across the state, of course, because you will have lots of trees; you will lots of exposed power lines coming down. But we have a number of our power partners waiting at the state line to come into the area and be able to help us.
Last total I heard was 2,500 trucks, about 8,000 additional personnel to come into Florida to help us.
PILGRIM: The disaster declaration does help you considerably, doesn't it?
JENNINGS: Absolutely. We used an expedited method. The president has already declared Florida a disaster area. We knew early on that probably our property damage was going to meet the threshold for a national disaster. And we initiated our paperwork early. The Governor talked to the President earlier today. And we now have the declarations.
So that will help us both with resources and with people coming into the state.
PILGRIM: We just talked to Max Mayfield. And he said the course of this will be up the coastline. Any advice to anyone who's bracing for it?
JENNINGS: Absolutely. If they are still somewhere thinking about getting to a shelter, now is the time. We're going to have some very high winds inland. We're going to have a lot of rain. Again, we talked about those trees coming down. There's going to be damage. They need to be in a shelter. If they're not, they need to be in their homes in an internal situation, in an inner side room, no windows. Get their flashlights and their batteries and a water bottle ready. And be ready to work it through the night.
But by morning, this storm should be gone and we should be all about cleanup and restoration.
PILGRIM: All right. Thanks very much, Lieutenant Governor Toni Jennings.
Best of luck to you.
JENNINGS: Thank you.
PILGRIM: And for the very latest on Hurricane Charley's impact on the Florida coast, we now go to John Zarrella in Venice, Florida -- John.
ZARRELLA: Hi, Kitty.
Well, Charley has passed us by here in Venice. It is east and north of us. It has gone through a town, the center very close to Zalfo Springs then up towards Fort Mead, parallel to Bradenton and near the Tampa area as it moves on that north, northeast coastline.
A lot of people standing around now outside, coming out from this hotel we are at here, at the Holiday Inn. Everyone pretty much now realizing that the storm has missed this area and gone by; never lost any power here. Had a little bit of damage but very, very minor: just some incidental damage here. Very fortunate. Light rain, never any real heavy rain here, never any real strong gusts here.
Again, as we talked earlier in the show, because in fact, we are on that left side of the storm, the weaker side of the hurricane; the right side of the storm is really where it packs all the punch in these things. So, very fortunate here and, certainly, up the coast in the Saint Petersburg, Tampa area, Sarasota area, that the storm has gone further inland and missed them here.
Not so fortunate for the folks up in the center part of the state and perhaps, even further north in the Orlando area -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: OK. Thanks a lot. John Zarrella.
We are going to follow Charley all night here on CNN.
And we'll give you the latest as it comes in to us.
Joining me now for more on other major news of the week, our "Newsmakers," Karen Tumulty is our National Political Correspondent for "Time Magazine." And she joins us from Washington. In New York, Ron Brownstein is a National Political Correspondent for the "Los Angeles Times." Jim Ellis, Chief of Correspondents for "Business Week." And thank you for joining us. We'll step away from Charley for just a moment to talk about Iraq. And it's been a very big week in Iraq: the assault on Najaf. How would you assess it, Jim? Let's start with you.
JIM ELLIS, "BUSINESS WEEK": I think it's been sort of, a bad thing for the administration right now because this is when they want to show that Iraq is -- we're getting our hands around the situation. But instead, as long as we have the militants sort of, held up there in Najaf, and particularly when they're held up so closely to a major religious shrine it sort of means that we can't fight back maybe as strong as we want to.
But at the same time, we've started this, we can't walk away. And so, it sort of put the administration in a bad position right now.
PILGRIM: Ron, do you think they're handling it well?
RON BROWNSTEIN, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "LOS ANGELES TIMES": Well, the challenge with any kind of insurgency obviously, is you can militarily overcome the enemy, but you do so in a way that creates more problems down the road.
And that's what we're seeing; we've seen it many times in Iraq, we've seen many times in other foreign situations and we're seeing it again right here, right now.
PILGRIM: Basically, the U.S. military, we're talking about clearing operations. Karen, your thoughts on this.
KAREN TUMULTY, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "TIME MAGAZINE": Well, any time you ask any body in the administration about this this week, of course, the President on down, they have answered, "Well, this is going to be handled by the Iraqis. We've transferred sovereignty. We're just standing there to help." But certainly, however this comes out, the United States is likely to catch the blame or the credit.
And right now, it looks like it's more likely to be blame. Because, it's hard to imagine that this is going to result in anything that resembles a stable situation.
PILGRIM: All right.
Let's move on to oil. And oil really gyrated a lot this week on this news. The great worry is the insurgents will continue to attack the oil pipelines, although oil exports are flowing normally through the south at this point. Jim, your assessment on what this means for business.
ELLIS: Well, there's a lot going on in the oil markets right now. I mean, there's the real uncertainty of what's going on with Iraq and whether we're going to be able to continue the transmission of oils we've been doing so far.
Venezuela, there's an election there that's making a lot of instability to the markets. And also, the continuing drama in Russia because of Yukos, and the government trying to take over one of the largest oil producers there. It means $46 a barrel oil.
What that means is that the recovery, it's still rather fragile, could be sort of, snuffed out and also means that the administration, which wants confidence to be high, has a hard time keeping that up. At the same time the people see the oil bills going up.
BROWNSTEIN: That's really the double wave politically. On the one hand, you have the oil prices themselves, the gas prices that people experience, and then you also have the question of what this is doing to the overall growth numbers: the job creation numbers and how that sort of rebounds on the president.
You know, I have been struck all year how much resonance John Kerry and other Democrats have received from their audiences, at least, on the idea of increasing energy independence. The President, obviously makes a different argument about increasing domestic production, but this whole question of whether our national security is overly compromised by reliance on Mideast oil, is one that I do think really does hit a lot of American voters.
PILGRIM: Well, a very compelling argument. Oil up $10 since the beginning of this year. Karen?
TUMULTY: Then of course, this week we saw the Saudis announce that they were going to open up the spigot and this was what everyone thought could possibly slow this increase down. And all we saw was it jump up even faster.
It does appear increasingly like the entire economic recovery could be completely bound up in these oil prices. And even as the news in the Middle East is looking more dire, when you talk to voters, you do find that their top concern by a long shot remains the economy.
PILGRIM: OK.
Let's talk about another just surprise story this week: and that's the McGreevey resignation. We were all just dumbfounded in the newsrooms. It was not expected. Your assessment?
ELLIS: Well, I guess it would be sort of, flip to say it is New Jersey, which is a state...
PILGRIM: You're going to get letters about that.
ELLIS: OK. But it's a state where there have been a lot of discussions over the years about the ethics of politicians. I think in this case, it's less of a sexual issue and more the case of putting someone on the payroll, who you might have had a personal relationship with. Now, that's done all the time in politics, we know, but still, it does upset voters.
PILGRIM: There's a second ripple effect saying he should resign right away. Is this people making political hay of a bad situation?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, obviously, Republicans would like there to be an election this November, when all of this is fresh in people's minds. And if he did resign, you'd have to have a special election. There were reports in the New Jersey papers, interestingly today, that the Kerry campaign was among those asking McGreevey to stay on. They do not want to have the uncertainty of a special election.
Polls now have them reopening a big lead in New Jersey. But obviously, McGreevey has been an unpopular figure and if this was on the ballot right now, who knows what would happen. Democrats would obviously prefer to be voting 15 months from now on a successor when it has sort of faded away a little bit.
PILGRIM: Karen, how's this playing in Washington?
TUMULTY: Well, I don't think there are many national implications at all. Except, as Ron was suggesting, within the Kerry campaign. But New Jersey is a blue state, it's a very blue state. So, I don't think that at this point, it is likely to be put into play, even if there is a special election.
I spoke to one of Governor McGreevey's advisers a few hours ago; they seem to think that he can go off for the weekend, spend time repairing his family and come back and essentially try to go back to governing as usual on Monday. That seems pretty naive at this point and unlikely.
PILGRIM: Well, thank you for wrapping up a week that was not short on news. Thanks very much.
Jim Ellis, Ron Brownstein and Karen Tumulty, thank you.
A reminder now to vote in tonight's poll: do you think Governor McGreevey's resignation should be effective immediately? Cast your vote at cnn.com/lou.
And we're going to bring you the results a little bit later in the show.
Now, toy giant Mattel is urging people to get out and vote, not for Bush or Kerry, but for Barbie. Now, yesterday, at Toys "R" Us in Manhattan Times Square, Mattel kicked off a campaign, "Barbie for President." The promotion is in partnership with the White House Project, which is a group that endorses women to run for political office.
And a spokeswoman for the company says the move is less a money- making tactic for Mattel and more a labor of love.
Coming up next: trade trouble for the United States. We'll get the cause of major gridlock at our nation's ports.
And "Heroes": the story of a young Marine corporal who must relearn every day activities most people take for granted.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PILGRIM: Hurricane Charley is tonight speeding across Florida after slamming into Florida's west coast. Officials are warning storm surges, high winds, torrential rain, that could cause extensive damage. Nearly two million people evacuated coastal areas. Some people decided to stay in their homes.
Anderson Cooper is in Tampa and will have the very latest at the top of hour on that.
Turning to the economy, this country's trade deficit continues to worsen. The deficit shot up to a staggering new record of $55 billion in June. Huge amounts of goods from Asia pouring into this country. And that flood of goods is threatening to create gridlock on the roads and rails of Southern California.
Peter Viles reports from Los Angeles.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Inbound for Foxtrot Anchorage is the Pugwatch Senator. We're at the Whiskey buoy right now.
PETER VILES, CNN REPORTER: Any economist caught off guard by the surging trade deficit should have a look at this computer screen. The orange dots are container ships caught in a traffic jam that began back in June in the nation's biggest ports: Los Angeles and Long Beach. The cause: a tidal wave of Asian imports.
MANNY ASCHEMEYER, MARINE EXCHANGE OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: We are reaching a gridlock situation here.
VILES: So much cargo coming from Asia, there aren't enough longshoremen to unload it. And when it is unloaded, it's causing near gridlock on freeways and railroads near the ports.
JACK KYSER, L.A. COUNTRY ECONOMIC DEVELOPER: We're nervous. You could have something happen and you could have some gridlock quickly develop. And somebody says, "What does it make a difference if there's gridlock in Los Angeles?" You have to say, "In about a week, your favorite Wal-Mart will be running out of certain products."
VILES: Shipments of imported goods to these ports are running 13 percent ahead of year-ago levels. Ports that usually average 30 to 35 ships in harbor, now have 60 to 65. Any slowdown here will ripple across the nation.
ASCHEMEYER: We're talking about production lines and factories and assembly lines. If the parts aren't there, if the rolled metal is not there in time, that factory line's going to be shut down. You're talking about stores that are investing millions of dollars into advertising for a weekend sale and the product isn't there to go on the shelves.
VILES: One positive development: the longshoremen's union is hiring 3,000 workers at nearby $21 an hour to unload Asian imports.
DAVE ARIAN, PRESIDENT, LONGSHOREMEN'S UNION LOCAL 11: This is a working class job that a working class person can get with a middle- class income. And that doesn't exist in America much anymore. Those jobs are all over in China and elsewhere.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VILES: Now, trade is a two-way street and there is some growth in exports out of these markets, but it's not always high-value exports. Here's an example: the number one bulk export from these ports: waste paper. Goes to Asia where it is recycled and it comes back here, Kitty, as cardboard -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: All right. Thanks very much. Pete Viles.
On Wall Street, stocks rose slightly: the Dow gained about 11 points, the NASDAQ added almost five, the S&P rose one and a half, oil prices, they hit another record.
Christine Romans is here with the market.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN FINANCIAL REPORTER: Well, Kitty, Hurricane Charley is just the latest reason why oil prices are hitting records. Soaring crude prices, this market is so tight any supply disruptions wreak havoc.
Production in the Gulf of Mexico disrupted this week as Charley and Bonnie churned through. Oil companies operating in the Gulf, pulling workers off their rigs and an explosion at a big refinery in Indiana took more oil off the market today. Now, Iraq exports flowed normally again today, but tensions are high as radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr pledges sabotage on Southern Iraq pumping terminals.
And a referendum looms Sunday on Venezuela's president. Venezuela, the fourth largest supplier of oil to this country.
At the same time, new evidence of incredible Chinese demand. China's appetite for crude soared 40 percent in July from the year earlier. Is it any wonder that crude prices are up 10 percent in the past month alone? There 47 percent higher than they were last August. At these levels, it's only a matter of time before gas prices head higher again and heating oil prices for the winter, already forecast to take an even bigger bite out of the family budget -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: All right. Thanks very much, Christine.
Tonight's thought is from the famed chef Julia Childs. She passed away overnight at the age of 91. Now Julia Childs once said, "Life itself is the proper binge." But she had some suggestions on how to live life on a daily basis.
And she said, "It's fun to get together and have something good to eat at least once a day. That's what human life is all about: enjoying things."
When we return: "Heroes." Marine Corporal James Wright is adjusting to life at home as he almost lost his life three times in Iraq. We'll have his remarkable story next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PILGRIM: Tonight, in "Heroes," the story of a young Marine who was badly wounded in Iraq. Corporal James Wright fought not only for his country, but for his life as well. Bill Tucker has his story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL TUCKER, CNN REPORTER: This image, a moment of respect during the mourning for President Reagan. Corporal James Eddi Wright just back from Iraq.
JAMES WRIGHT, MARINE CORPORAL: I'm trying to go up and down the rows.
TUCKER: The elite reconnaissance Marine now relearns everyday tasks, like picking something up off the floor.
WRIGHT: If this is food I'd had it a long time ago.
TUCKER: His hands blown off, his legs severely injured during an ambush and fierce firefight in April near Fallujah. Despite his wounds, he led his Marines, kept his cool, kept giving orders, pointed out Iraqi machine gun nests, even instructed others to tourniquet his bleeding stumps.
WRIGHT: It's not the end of the world. Your life still goes on.
TUCKER: Now, he helps out other troops recovering at Walter Reed Army Hospital. And they help him.
He wants to stay in the Corps and can't wait to get back to work.
WRIGHT: I can help to train some of the new guys coming into the unit. There's a lot of things I can do.
TUCKER: At the Iwo Jima Memorial, he received a Bronze Star for heroism from Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz.
PAUL WOLFOWITZ, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The whole crew survived, I think, because of his coolness and presence of mind.
TUCKER: In the audience, his Air Force father and fiance.
COLONEL JIM WRIGHT, FATHER OF JAMES WRIGHT: I knew he had it in him. He was always one to keep his head when stuff went down; to persevere; to do the right thing.
SERGEANT DONETTE MATHISON, JAMES WRIGHT'S FIANCE: He's my rock. He gives me strength. And we're supposed to be strong for him, but he's strong for us. He's amazing.
TUCKER: Corporal James Eddi Wright: a soft-spoken hero doesn't take credit, he gives it, to his company of Marines.
WRIGHT: It's easy to be strong when you're fighting with your buddies, with your brothers. You do whatever it takes to make it out of there. TUCKER: Bill Tucker, CNN.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PILGRIM: Here are the results of tonight's poll: 24 percent of you think Governor McGreevey's resignation should be effective immediately and 76 percent do not.
Thanks for joining us tonight. For all of us here, have a safe weekend. Good night from New York.
Anderson Cooper 360 is next.
END
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