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Lou Dobbs Tonight
Bush Takes Responsibility for Hurricane Response; New Orleans Mayor Optimistic About Reopening Parts of City
Aired September 13, 2005 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Wolf. Good evening, everybody.
Tonight, President Bush declares he will take full responsibility for the federal government's failures in the hurricane disaster. Tonight, we examine whether the federal government is being used as a scapegoat by local and state politicians who are trying to evade responsibility for their slow responses to this disaster.
On Capitol Hill today, Supreme Court Chief Justice nominee Judge John Roberts faced a barrage of tough questions from senators on critically important constitutional issues. A leading senator on the judiciary committee is our guest tonight.
And as President Bush meets with President Hu of China, a special report on communist China's massive lobbying effort in Washington, D.C., to win political favor and to blunt criticism of its rising military, economic and strategic challenge to this country.
President Bush, facing escalating criticism over the hurricane disaster, today declared he takes full responsibility for the federal government's slow response. President Bush acknowledged the disaster exposed serious problems in the government's response to catastrophes. President Bush's declaration comes one day after he insisted it is too early to assign blame in the disaster.
Dana Bash has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a dramatic change in tone, a contrite president uncharacteristically admitting a major failure.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government. And to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility.
BASH: The new admission is striking for a president who prides himself on no regrets leadership, and even more stunning because of his combative tone when asked a similar question just a day earlier.
BUSH: Look, there will be plenty of time to play the blame game. That's what you're trying to do. You're trying to say somebody is at fault. And I want to know. BASH: Shifting from talk of a blame game to taking responsibility is the latest tactic by a Bush team still searching for the right strategy to erase intense criticism the president did not help Katrina victims fast enough
MICHAEL BROWN, FORMER FEMA DIRECTOR: Today we're going to fly from Mobile along the coast.
BASH: They started to accept fault with another highly unusual move for this president, getting rid of a top aide under fire, FEMA's Michael Brown. One Democratic veteran of White House damage control calls this an about-face two weeks too late.
JOE LOCKHART, FORMER CLINTON SPOKESMAN: Taking responsibility gives you an awful lot of running room to get it right in the long run. And not taking responsibility, the way this president did and this administration did, I think really put them in a box.
BASH: What worries Bush aides is the steady decline of an asset they thought was sealed after 9/11, leadership.
In August after a month of high-profile protests against the Iraq war, the president's appeal as a strong leader was 60 percent, already a Bush low. Now it's down 8 points to 52 percent.
So on this fourth trip to the Katrina devastated areas, the president will give a speech to the nation, the kind of rally the country moment the White House hopes will show Mr. Bush, whatever the initial failures, is on top of the crisis.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: And some White House allies have expressed frustration the president waited so long to formally address Americans. Bush aides said they delayed until he could give a road map for rebuilding the Gulf Coast. And Lou, they insist there will be some -- substantive, I should say, initiatives in this address on Thursday night.
DOBBS: And we look forward to that. Dana, this president unaccustomed to taking responsibility for failures of his administration. Is this really a statement of how much trouble they're in?
BASH: Well, certainly, talking to Democrats, and frankly some Republicans, over the past two weeks, they were waiting for this kind of rhetoric from the White House, this kind of direct rhetoric, talking to White House aides today.
They say, well, this is something that we were evolving towards. This is something that the president was trying to say, but it became clear he needed to actually say it. That's, again, in terms of rhetoric.
Obviously, they understand that the big questions in terms of what actually went wrong are going to be asked and they're going to be asked in a number of different ways for a very long time. DOBBS: The president will address the nation from New Orleans. And are we to see the president there more? Is he about to fill what is generally perceived to be a leadership vacuum in the area?
BASH: You know, he is -- has been there three times, as you know. He's going down for a fourth time. I have heard that he is going to go down a number of times in the near future. So it is the kind of presence that perhaps some of his aides wanted him to have initially and some of his allies wanted him to have that now he is really taking to the Nth degree.
DOBBS: Dana Bash, thank you.
BASH: Thank you.
DOBBS: On the Gulf Coast today, new concern that Hurricane Katrina may have caused even more damage than originally believed.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers now says some levees protecting communities outside New Orleans have been totally destroyed. Inside New Orleans, as many as 160,000 homes may be unsalvageable.
And tonight, the owners of a nursing home where 34 bodies were found have been charged with homicide.
Jeff Koinange has the report from New Orleans. Jeff.
JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Lou. And according to the attorney general of the state of Louisiana, the owner and co-owner of St. Rita's Nursing Home -- that's in St. Bernard Parish about 20 minutes from where I'm standing -- well, they've been charged with 34 counts of negligent homicide. You can just imagine the number of lawsuits that are going to be coming out, Lou, in the next weeks and days.
But I can tell you, the other thing is there's a lot of optimism, as well, coming out on this day. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says he's optimistic that some parts of the city will be open for business very soon. This includes Canal Street, the CBD and the French Quarter. He's just waiting for a report from the EPA. Once he gets that he's very optimistic that some parts of the city will be open.
Optimistic, indeed, because we were we're standing right now in the Seventh Ward, you can see what's wrong with this picture? Well, there's a giant speedboat in the middle of this street. This tells you, Lou, that at some point during this crisis, during this disaster, the water level was so high speedboats like that one were able to maneuver their way throughout the streets.
Now that the water's dry, there's a lot of garbage. It looks like a garbage dump. And it looks apocalyptic almost. There's hardly anyone in the streets. One or two people cleaning up. But it's completely deserted.
But optimism, well, that's the order of the day. In fact, Louis Armstrong Airport here in New Orleans opened for the very first time to limited passenger traffic. This as you know, Lou, was a staging ground for rescue operations. It was a triage center where helicopters were taking off and landing with victims of this hurricane.
A lot of optimism 15 days after Hurricane Katrina caused so much damage to this city, Lou.
DOBBS: Jeff, thank you very much. Jeff Koinange from New Orleans.
President Bush's admission of responsibility for federal government failures in this disaster have failed to blunt criticism of FEMA. Governor Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana today accused FEMA of a lack of urgency and lack of respect in the effort to recover victims' bodies.
Governor Blanco said FEMA has not fulfilled a promise to sign a contract with a private firm to recover bodies. Governor Blanco said she has now ordered the state of Louisiana to strike its own deal with that contractor instead.
The official death toll in Louisiana stands at 423. Officials expect to find hundreds more bodies.
Tonight, there is concern that hundreds of thousands of jobs in the Gulf Coast may simply be gone forever. The Congressional Budget Office says Hurricane Katrina could lead to the loss of as many as 400,000 jobs. This country is only now beginning to focus on how hurricane victims will find work ultimately and rebuild their lives.
Lisa Sylvester reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Cranise Smith is looking for a new start. She's left New Orleans behind and now is looking for work in Washington, D.C. She is one of dozens of evacuees who talked to prospective employees at a D.C. job fair held for Katrina victims.
CRANISE SMITH, HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUEE: When I was calling and living in New Orleans, Louisiana, I was going to homes and working with mentally challenged patients. And that's what I'm looking for now.
SYLVESTER: Katrina has left 400,000 people out of work, from those who worked in the casinos to the fishing industry.
The states impacted the most are in Katrina's footprint: Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. But states AND the District of Columbia that have absorbed evacuees may also see their unemployment rates rise.
LEE PRICE, ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE: We've wiped out the opportunity for half a million people to work right away and some of those people have moved to other parts of the country. They will be looking for jobs, but there won't be more jobs being created in those places. SYLVESTER: With an increased supply of workers, wages are expected to fall. Unskilled workers will have the toughest time finding new jobs. The AFL-CIO has set up special work centers for hurricane survivors while pressuring lawmakers to do more.
JOHN SWEENEY, PRESIDENT, AFL-CIO: The Congress has to provide greater assistance to these workers. And we also have to make sure that prevailing wages are paid. I'm talking about the average wage for different skills and different levels of employment. And...
SYLVESTER: Katrina's impact won't only be felt by the individuals looking for work, but experts say GDP will slip 1 percent as the entire economy is dragged down.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SYLVESTER: And one problem we're already seeing is a mismatch of skills. There may be lots of jobs being offered in a particular industry like construction, but that doesn't help someone who is trained as a bookkeeper.
Lou.
DOBBS: Lisa, indeed it does not. In combination with the waiver by the Bush administration of Davis-Bacon, which means that contractors, many of them winning no-bid contracts, will be able to pay less than a prevailing wage in the effort, this is an extraordinarily difficult time for those who have already gone through the pain of this -- this hurricane.
SYLVESTER: It certainly is. And we heard John Sweeney from the AFL-CIO. He made reference to that, where these companies are not even willing to pay what is called the prevailing wage, really, the average wage. And so it is -- it means a lot of hurt in the future.
Lou.
DOBBS: In addition to that, we want to point out that illegal aliens, in point of fact, will be able to compete with American citizens for some of those jobs in the disaster zone, because the federal government has made it easier for companies to hire anyone for cleanup work and not pay a prevailing wage.
The Department of Homeland Security has said firms hiring workers without documents will not face any sanctions for the next 45 days. That decision, they say, is designed to help citizens who have lost their personal documents in the disaster.
Still ahead here, aggressive questioning of Supreme Court Chief Justice nominee John Roberts on Capitol Hill. We'll have a live report for you. Our senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, will tell us his thoughts on the confirmation process.
Communist China buying power and influence in Washington. We'll report on why the communist Chinese lobby in this country is winning what some call the best access money can buy. And the U.S. trade deficit with China hitting another record high. And new concerns that our trade policy is putting more American jobs at risk. We'll be telling you about that in our special report.
And also, I have a new, new partner in concern about jobs and so- called free trade. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Supreme Court Chief Justice nominee Judge John Roberts today faced a barrage of tough questions from senators during the second day of his confirmation hearings. But Judge Roberts sidestepped many of the most controversial issues, insisting he cannot discuss any issues that might come before him if he is confirmed.
Joe Johns reports from Capitol Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): John Roberts argued 39 cases before the Supreme Court, where he was required to answer questions. He won 25 of them.
But today, as he sits before the Senate panel charged with confirming him as chief justice, he deftly ducked some of the most important ones. His first refusal came four minutes into the hearing, under sharp questioning by Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter on abortion rights.
SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (R-PA), CHAIRMAN, SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: There's no doctrinal basis erosion in Roe, is there, Roberts?
JUDGE JOHN ROBERTS, SUPREME COURT CHIEF JUSTICE NOMINEE: I feel the need to stay away from a discussion of particular cases.
SPECTER: Well, do you see any erosion of precedent as to Roe?
ROBERTS: Again, I think I should stay away from discussions of particular issues that are likely to come before the court again.
JOHNS: Specter persisted and got the judge to agree on two points -- that the Supreme Court's repeated upholding of the Roe versus Wade decision, establishing abortion rights, set a powerful precedent that could not easily be overturned.
SPECTER: Roe is the settled law of the land.
ROBERTS: It is settled as a precedent of the court.
JOHNS: And he agreed that the Constitution protects the right to privacy, the basis of the Roe decision.
When Democrats took over the questioning, the hearing became somewhat testy. Senator Edward Kennedy grilled Roberts on his controversial writings on civil rights while he was a White House lawyer in the early 1980s. SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Do you still believe today that it is too onerous for the government not to discriminate in any of your programs or activities?
ROBERTS: No, Senator, and I did not back then. You have not accurately represented my position.
KENNEDY: These are your words.
SPECTER: Let him finish his answer. That was a long question.
ROBERTS: Senator, with respect, you have selected...
SPECTER: Wait a minute. Let him answer the question.
JOHNS: And again, under questioning by former Judiciary Chairman Joseph Biden over women's rights.
ROBERTS: It applies to the office -- admissions office.
SEN. JOE BIDEN (D), DELAWARE: Right. It applies narrowly.
SPECTER: Now wait a minute. Let him finish his answer, Senator Biden.
BIDEN: The answers are misleading, with all due respect.
SPECTER: Well, they may be -- wait a minute. They may be misleading but they're his answer.
BIDEN: OK.
JOHNS: Roberts is walking a fine line. It's generally accepted that Supreme Court nominees should not have to pass judgment in advance on issues that might come before the court, but the senators naturally want answers.
At the mid-day break, the committee chairman pronounced himself satisfied for now.
SPECTER: I think he, as they said in the old song "Kansas City," he went about as far as he could go.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JOHNS: Senator Charles Schumer of New York is now doing the questioning. Outside groups are accusing Judge Roberts of trying to sound reassuring on the issue of abortion, but at the same time essentially tap dancing around Roe versus Wade.
Lou, back to you.
DOBBS: Joe, Charles Schumer, Senator Schumer, is -- is connecting his questioning on these hearings, yesterday in 10 minutes, 49 first person references. Does this sound exploratory to you? JOHNS: Well, it certainly is supposed to be exploratory. But you know, Lou, this is a kabuki dance, and it goes on whenever there is a Supreme Court justice nominee. There are questions that are going to be asked, questions that aren't going to get answered, and there are a lot of senators realizing that the American public is watching.
DOBBS: Joe Johns, thank you very much.
Our senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, has of course, been watching all of these proceedings in minute detail, in point of fact.
Jeffrey, this -- this first issue in terms of privacy, as Chairman Specter addressed it, is that a major reassuring statement on the part of Judge Roberts to those skeptics on the Judiciary Committee, if indeed there are any?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: I would say it is a minor reassurance, but it is a reassurance. Because there are conservatives -- Robert Bork was one in 1987 -- who say simply the Constitution does not contain the words "right to privacy," and it simply does not exist.
What Judge Roberts did today was he said, yes, it does exist. He did not say that it includes the right to abortion, as the Supreme Court has held, and so he didn't commit himself to Roe versus Wade. But he at least left open the possibility that he does consider that settled law that he would approve, but no guarantees, to be sure.
DOBBS: Highly emotional answers were rare, and highly emotional questions were rare today, except in the sense we just reported. Senator Biden saying the judge's answers were misleading. That's rather raw, isn't it, by Judiciary Committee terms?
TOOBIN: In my -- in my experience the rule of these hearing is the witnesses look good and the questioners look bad. And I thought all the questioners who just talked and talked and talked and didn't ask questions -- and Biden was chief among them -- just looked ridiculous because, you know, the purpose here is to learn what this man, who is going to be on the Supreme Court probably for decades, thinks. And these senators were just talking.
DOBBS: And talking and talking. They will likely do so for some time, right, Jeffrey?
TOOBIN: Into the night and into tomorrow.
DOBBS: The fact is that Judge Roberts showed emotion, some considerable passion, in point of fact, in responding to Senator Kennedy. What was your judgment on his response there?
TOOBIN: Well, I think, you know, he was being accused, essentially, of supporting discrimination. The questions involved the Voting Rights Act and the extension of it.
And what he was saying was we had a different view of how to extend the Voting Rights Act, but we agreed on the principles of nondiscrimination. And don't accuse me of retreating from those in any way.
I thought that exchange was pretty much a standoff, and it was really hard to tell who won that one.
DOBBS: Let me ask you this. Are we going to see any minds changed by these proceedings?
TOOBIN: You know, actually I think there -- I don't think there's any doubt that Roberts is going to be confirmed, but whether it's 90- 10 or 65-35, I think that's very much up in the air.
How the Democrats view Roberts' testimony and how they view it as a marker for the next nomination, I think that is very much up in the air. And Democrats are going to have to sort out how they -- they view this testimony. But there doesn't seem to be any doubt that John Roberts is going to be the next chief justice of the United States.
DOBBS: Jeffrey Toobin, thank you.
We want to know what you think about these confirmation hearings. Do you believe that a single member of the Judiciary Committee or the entire Senate, for that matter, will change his or her mind based on these confirmation hearings on Judge Roberts? Yes or no. Please cast your vote at LOUDOBBS.com. We'll have the results coming up later in the broadcast.
Still ahead here, Senator Jeff Sessions questioned Judge Roberts today. He is our guest.
Also ahead, communist China buying new influence and power in Washington -- and unprecedented power for a foreign government, despite the backlash over Unocal. Our special report is next.
And as the Gulf Coast fights back from disaster, I'm joined by a leading commentator who supports the federal government's emergency response.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: President Bush holding private talks here in New York City with President Hu Jintao of China. After that meeting, which has just concluded, President Hu said China is willing to work with the United States on the massive trade deficit. And Hu acknowledged there are frictions in our economic relationship, about $200 billion worth, in point of fact.
Earlier today the U.S. government reported the U.S. trade deficit with China widened to a record almost $18 billion in July.
Today's meeting between the two leaders comes as the communist Chinese government intensifies its already strong lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill. China has launched one of the most formidable lobbying efforts in the history of our country. Some fear, in point of fact, that Washington is selling out U.S. interests to appease Beijing. Christine Romans reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is for the cameras. But China has been working behind the scenes in Washington for months escalating a lobbying campaign unlike any other. A special report for from the Center for Public Integrity released to LOU DOBBS TONIGHT outlined China's Washington ambitions.
BOB WILLIAMS, CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY: They have the best access money can buy. They are hiring the top lobbying firms. Patton Boggs is well-known, has been in Washington for years, where basically you have former congressmen lobbying current congressmen. Most of these firms are in that same sort of category. They are really hiring the gold-plated firms.
ROMANS: Firms like Akin Gump, whose strike team of top lobbyists in just nine days in June contacted federal officials 250 times, right up to the Oval Office, all on behalf of China's oil company, CNOOC.
The Center for Public Integrity says China has spent almost $20 million since 1997 directly lobbying Washington, wining and dining members of Congress, giving them tours of Hong Kong and trying to influence reporters.
But that is just a small percentage of China lobbying. Untold millions more are spent by American companies who lobby on China's behalf.
MICHAEL WESSEL, U.S. CHINA COMMISSION: They're able to get others to spend money on their own behalf, which is about as good as it gets in the political system.
ROMANS: Wessel says America's companies lobby for China as an investment in the status quo, low wages, unfair labor conditions and a lack of democracy. And has China's money in Washington been well spent?
WESSEL: Apparently so. They were able to get by without any real action on currency. They continue to flood our market with their products. Our trade deficit is up once again and jobs keep flowing over to China.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: That great return on investment means China will probably further deepen its roots in Washington, using American companies to do its dirty work to in exchange for access to cheap manufacturing facilities and low cost labor.
And Lou, the Center for Public Integrity says in terms of how much influence China is buying through American companies, no way to tell. Even the direct foreign lobbying numbers are kind of hard to get your hands on. When you start looking at indirect lobbying, it's impossible to measure. DOBBS: And all of that money being spent by the corporate supremacists who make up corporate America, the so-called free trade advocacy groups, the free trade lobby, all that money spent so that we can run up another $200 billion plus deficit. It is remarkable.
Christine, thank you very much.
Coming up next here, Hurricane Ophelia. It is charging toward the Carolinas. We'll have the latest for you on where and when that storm will hit.
And defending the government's response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster. One leading commentator says that response was even more impressive than the response to Hurricane Andrew. He's our guest her next.
And our nation's exploding trade deficit expected to hit a record $700 billion this year. It could put more Americans out of work. Our special report is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Deborah Feyerick is monitoring the very latest developments all along the Gulf Coast disaster area, joining us now to bring us up to date. Deborah?
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Lou, status alert on nursing home casualties. The owners of St. Rita's in St. Bernard's Parish have turned themselves in -- prosecutors charging them with 34 counts of negligent homicide.
Prosecutors say the staff failed to listen to mandatory evacuation orders. By the time the staff called for help it was too late. The water came up to the beds in a matter of minutes, and the nurses in charge could only evacuate half the residents in their care.
A lawyer for the couple tells CNN the full story will come out later.
Status alert on St. Bernard's Parish. The uninhabitable, that's how it is being described. The houses still stand, but the water damage is so great, city officials believe that all 26,000 homes will have to be torn down.
Air, water and soil samples were taken today and are being analyzed for contamination. Officials hope to allow people back in to save whatever belongings they can before demolition begins. Education officials don't expect schools to reopen until next September. And as for the local government, they're holed up inside Exxon Mobile headquarters as they try to clean up their parish.
Final status alert, Louisiana death toll. The official number of victims now stands at 423. That's up 144 from yesterday. And of course if anyone has any information on a parish or town, you can e-mail us here at StatusAlert@CNN.com.
Lou?
DOBBS: And New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin today said his city is absolutely bankrupt. Deborah, thank you very much. Deborah Feyerick.
Tropical Storm Ophelia has strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane again as it drifts closer to the North Carolina coast. Strong winds and heavy rains from that hurricane are already hitting North and South Carolina. The hurricane now packing winds of 75 miles- an-hour is expected to make landfall in North Carolina late tomorrow. A hurricane warning is in effect tonight from South Santee River, South Carolina, to North Carolina's Cape Hatteras. Forecasters expect the storm now to head out to sea after hitting North Carolina.
My next guest says the strident criticism of the federal response to Hurricane Katrina is unfounded. Jack Kelly wrote a column in the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" saying - quote -- "it took five days for National Guard troops to arrive in strength on the scene in Florida after Hurricane Andrew hit. But after Katrina, there was a significant National Guard presence in the afflicted region in three".
Jack Kelly joins us tonight from Pittsburgh. Jack, it's good to have you here. Your defense of the federal response centers basically on the National Guard and the Coast Guard. Do you agree with the criticism of FEMA's response?
JACK KELLY, PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE: Well, I'm not sure that I do yet. FEMA's role has largely been misrepresented in the media. FEMA is a coordinator of agencies. Now, the Coast Guard, the military, the National Guard, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and the Army Corps of Engineers, which has done a superb job in repairing those levees, and the various people from the electric utility companies that have come down to help have all done a marvelous job. Now, to the extent to which that job was facilitated by FEMA, or done in spite of them, we don't yet know.
DOBBS: Well do you disagree that Michael Brown should have been fired or that his resignation should have been accepted?
KELLY: Well, I don't think Michael Brown should have had the job in the first place. You know, there's an unfortunate tendency in Washington to put political hacks in jobs that require adults. And that was the case here. Michael Brown did not have the background for this job. I think the head of FEMA should always be either a National Guard general or a Coast Guard admiral.
DOBBS: That would make some sense, given the scale of operations that is always required in a disaster, particularly one of this all but unprecedented magnitude. But the idea that the response here has been as President Bush has described, inadequate, I'm not quite certain your point here in terms of FEMA? FEMA has more than a responsibility to coordinate it. It has a responsibility to engage. And certainly did not do that for two days, at least, when it should have been.
KELLY: Well, that's not clear either. FEMA's job is coordination. FEMA has very few -- except for a few specialized people in disaster response teams and some other very specialized areas, FEMA has no first responders. Its job is to coordinate with local, state officials and with the federal agencies and the private agencies that are coming in. And FEMA is being blasted mostly for the sins of local and state government in Louisiana.
DOBBS: Well let's get to that point. Governor Blanco is continuing to blast FEMA, even tonight as we've reported, Governor Nagin (sic) as well. Basically these two officials without, now, Michael Brown at FEMA having resigned, do you think that they're going to face greater scrutiny?
KELLY: Well I think that that's their fear, which is why we see such vigorous finger-pointing. Governor Blanco was complaining today that the bodies weren't being recovered fast enough. Well, there'd have been fewer bodies to recover if the evacuation plan for the city of New Orleans had been followed.
DOBBS: Well, let's hope that there are very few bodies to be discovered yet, and that those estimates are wild exaggerations that originated from New Orleans. Jack Kelly, we thank you for being here.
KELLY: Thank you.
DOBBS: Coming up next Chief Justice nominee Judge John Roberts facing tough questions from senators today on critical issues. Senate Judiciary Committee member Senator Jeff Sessions among those questioning the judge today. He's our guest next.
And, suing Wal-Mart? A massive new lawsuit actually originating in four continents accusing Wal-Mart of looking the other way while factory workers around the world face widespread exploitation. Our special report next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: My next guest says Judge John Roberts is so suited to be chief justice of the Supreme Court that he is - quote -- "straight from central casting".
Senator Jeff Sessions is a member of the Judiciary Committee. He questioned Judge Roberts today, joining us tonight from Capitol Hill. Senator, Democrats today questioning Judge Roberts on his positions on abortion, women's rights, privacy, torture, other critical issues. Do you think they were satisfied by his responses?
SEN. JEFF SESSIONS, (R-AL) JUDICIARY CMTE.: I don't think they laid a glove on him in terms of hurting him in any way. Many times they either had a misimpression or asked questions in a way that was sort of misleading. He was able to explain what those memorandums or positions he had taken, sometimes as a 26-year-old little young staffer in the White House, serving President Reagan, explained them in a very, very good way. I don't think there was anything in that material that was in any way embarrassing to him.
DOBBS: And the fact is, and we are looking now on the screen at your colleague Senator Charles Schumer. Senator Schumer questioning Judge Roberts. Yesterday, as the judge used exactly six-and-a-half minutes to express himself to a committee that had him in there for just about four hours, are we going to, in your judgment, learn anything here that was not known before this hearing began?
SESSIONS: I don't know that we will, except I think the American people are going to feel a lot better. They've heard some of these allegations that he had memorandums that show extremism, or lack of professionalism, or insensitivity, and every one of them have been explained, his positions have been explained. They're well within the mainstream. And as a matter of fact, most cases, are very popular with the American people, if they knew exactly what he had said or done. So I think he did well there.
I just -- and his six-and-a-half minutes was a beautiful thing, Lou. There was not a note on the table. He looked right at us and he talked from his heart, and he encapsulated the rule of law, the rule of -- the role of a judge, the meaning of the Supreme Court, why law is so beautiful and important in America. I just was extremely impressed and I think everyone was.
DOBBS: I think he's extraordinarily eloquent, obviously well qualified, Senator. My question to you is, based on what you have heard what you know of the man, do you believe that when he answers that he sees a right to privacy in the Constitution, that that extends to a basis for a woman's right to abortion, and that that is a right that he would support? Based on your judgment?
SESSIONS: Well he certainly indicated that within the constitutional provisions there is a legitimate privacy right. He explained it. But he in no way suggested he believes that that could be expanded to cover abortion. In fact, he explicitly made clear that he was not prejudging that question. And he stated to Senator Specter who went right at him at the first of the hearing about that, and he said these are the tests that a good judge should use as it reevaluates a contest of prior Supreme Court decisions, and I will do so professionally and objectively if I'm confirmed.
DOBBS: Senator, turning to another subject, and a critically important one, and that is obviously the recovery, the rebuilding effort, the relief operation along the Gulf Coast. You've said you'd like to see a strong businessman in charge to oversee the spending of the federal hurricane funds. Have you had any sense if that's the way the president is thinking?
SESSIONS: Well, I'm not sure. I know -- I think it's being discussed in the White House. It's being discussed in the floor of the Senate. I signed on a letter with Pete Domenici that supports basically that concept. Others are talking about that. And we're spending $60 billion, Lou. It's just being moved out without any real hearing. We need to know there's somebody watching it very, very closely, because if this money is not spent well, it will be a double tragedy.
DOBBS: Well we're looking at already just about 15 no-bid contracts, Senator. One of the things that concerns me is this administration's decision to wave the Davis-Bacon Act and not pay prevailing wages. That seems to be politically tone deaf and, frankly, an insensitive and unconscionable decision for the very people who need that money in a prevailing wage in the recovery and rebuilding efforts.
SESSIONS: Well, you know, Davis-Bacon prevailing wage, I'm not sure what that is. We'll be able to get --
DOBBS: Well what it means is, that waiver, Senator, means that people are not going to have to pay that. The contractors, many of them with no-bid contracts, aren't going to have to pay the prevailing wage.
SESSIONS: They'll pay competitive wages in the region. That's what they'll have to pay. And it's going to be a good time for workers, because any worker that's in the construction trade or rebuilding trade are going to have a premium on their salaries. They may make above that rate, really. But, you know, some felt that this federal Davis-Bacon Act didn't need to apply and the president agreed and went along with that.
I would just say that we need to watch that money. We are in a way throwing money at this problem. We want to help. My state was hit badly. I saw people that lost everything they had, working class people, poor people, and we need to help them, but it's not helping them if we don't spend the money wisely. If we end up with 100, $200 billion spent and we haven't done it wisely, it would be a tragedy.
DOBBS: Wouldn't you say it also would be a tragedy, Senator, not to be paying the prevailing wage? That's the only reason -- the way Davis-Bacon, is if somebody is not thinking of not doing that. I couldn't agree with you more about your sense of prudence in terms of this money. But at the same time with no-bid contracts in the billions and to worry about dollars or cents per hour for people who really need the money, that doesn't seem quite the American way to me, does it you?
SESSIONS: Well we'll pay -- they'll have to pay a competitive wage. And there's no doubt about that, and meet all the other federal laws and regulation. But what I would say to you is we have a mentality right now in the Congress, Lou, in which this thing is hot politically. And the safest thing for us to do is just put so much money out there that nobody can blame us. The storm won't hit us, you see, politically. And that is a dangerous thing. If we had a good businessman who's managing all these contracts, who's watching this money, who's able to meet with people who have complaints and concerns, I think that's the right way to do it.
DOBBS: Senator, I think that prudence is well placed. I'm wondering if we shouldn't have a serious business man running the federal budget altogether, because we're now looking at $350 billion right now in deficits and have been for now several years. Senator Sessions, it's always good to have you here. We thank you for being with us.
SESSIONS: Thank you, Lou. DOBBS: Coming up next, a serious new legal challenge for Wal- Mart. The nation's largest retailer is being accused of ignoring workplace abuse in California, and in fact across the globe.
And a provocative new book saying time is running out in our battle against radical Islamic terrorist. Tony Blankley, author of "The West's Last Chance" coming up. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: The U.S. trade deficit with the rest of the world is on track to hit nearly $700 billion this year. That news you may have thought caused the earth to move, but it wasn't the earth moving. It was the chamber of commerce, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has been very critical of me for being concerned about that deficit, shifting into at least a close agreement on a few issues and what this program has been reporting here for more than two years. Bill Tucker has the report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): For years, so-called free trade advocates trumpeted the advantages of cheap labor. Technology was the future of the American economy, they proclaimed. But now high-tech is going the way of American manufacturing, which is down the drain. Just like manufactured products, we buy more technology products from foreign countries than we sell to them. And that's taking the jobs associated with those products away.
ALAN TONELSON, U.S. BUSINESS & INDUSTRY COUNCIL: The advanced technology products are the source of many of the very best paying jobs in the American economy.
TUCKER: According to the trade report, businesses are outsourcing more work in the areas of information technology and professional services. It has been two-and-a-half years since America had a surplus in advanced technology products.
The most troublesome part of the overall trade deficit is China, which accounts for more than a quarter of our deficit. The problem has grown so bad it finally caught the attention of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a long-time advocate of free trade with China.
MYRON BRILLANT, U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: They have fallen short in very critical areas to American business -- intellectual property, we still see an increase in pirating and counterfeiting in that market.
TUCKER: The Chamber calls intellectual property theft a matter of - quote -- "grave concern" and it is sounding an alarm about China's industrial policies.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCKER: The business group says China must demonstrate its efforts in yielding concrete results. And if they don't, well, Lou, we don't know what the Chamber is going to do. And I should add that also the Chamber has problems with the policies of the Chinese government, the industrial policies, saying they've learned that it puts foreign companies at a disadvantage when operating in China.
DOBBS: Oh my gosh, I thought the Chamber was so certain this was free trade.
TUCKER: Well they were until this morning, Lou. They were until this morning.
DOBBS: Yes. I thought it was interesting that the representative of the Chamber of Commerce couldn't bring himself to say they're stealing the U.S. assets and intellectual property, because that's what they're doing. Bill Tucker, thank you very much.
A massive class action lawsuit filed today in California against retail giant Wal-Mart. That lawsuit, filed on behalf of as many as 500,000 workers, accuses Wal-Mart of ignoring shocking workplace violations in this country and five others.
Casey Wian reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Wal-Mart is no stranger to charges that its suppliers exploit workers overseas. Now, an unprecedented lawsuit filed Monday in Los Angeles accuses Wal-Mart of violating its own code of conduct and denying basic rights to workers in four continents.
DAN STORMER, ATTORNEY FOR PLAINTIFFS: We're representing workers from all over the world -- in Swaziland, Bangladesh, China and other places -- who are being abused in the workplace in their countries. And in those countries they don't have a judiciary or a legal system that will allow them any legitimate redress. So this lawsuit attempts to get them redress in the courts in this country to prevent Wal-Mart from making unlawful profit on them.
WIAN: The lawsuit alleges behavior by Wal-Mart contractors ranging from unfair to abusive to inhumane. It claims Indonesian and Chinese employees were forced to work overtime without pay. Workers in Nicaragua and Swaziland were allegedly locked in factories. In Bangladesh, the suit claims supervisors slapped employees who didn't meet production quotas. And in one case, involving an employee who was seven months pregnant, a supervisor allegedly kicked her in the stomach, injuring he unborn baby.
A Wal-Mart spokeswoman says the company is just beginning to research the allegations in the complaint. A statement on its Web site reads, "We require suppliers to ensure that every factory conforms to local workplace laws and that there is no illegal child or forced labor."
Wal-Mart also says it inspects thousands of worldwide factories each year to ensure compliance. In the United States, employees of California supermarket chains who took cuts in pay and benefits because of competition from Wal-Mart were also named as victims in the lawsuit.
CHRIS KOFINS, WAKEUPWALMART.COM: This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. When you have a company that is following this race to the bottom internationally, and now is feeding this race to the bottom domestically, of course it's going to lead to this type of recourse.
WIAN: Wal-Mart critics say it's another example of how the company's practices abroad hurt workers at home. Wal-Mart declined to address that aspect of the lawsuit as well.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIAN: We should point out Wal-Mart has enjoyed a significant amount of good publicity in recent days for its Hurricane Katrina relief efforts which include donations of $20 million in cash and merchandise.
Lou.
DOBBS: Thank you very much, Casey Wian.
Still ahead here, a new book claims the west has one last chance to win the clash of civilization against radical Islamic terrorists. Its author is Tony Blankley. He's our guest here next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: My next guest has written an important new book on the direction this country must take if we are to win the global war against terror. The author says Hurricane Katrina has demonstrated our lack of preparedness. The book is "The West's Last Chance." Tony Blankley is the author.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TONY BLANKLEY, AUTHOR, "THE WEST'S LAST CHANCE": Of all the things that happened in New Orleans, the police not reporting in didn't happen when they ran the practice runs four-and-a-half years ago.
So just on the issue of first responders -- and that's just a small piece of the problem -- I think the fundamental problem is that we haven't thought through the dimension of the threat, whether it's a dimension of a flood and hurricane in New Orleans overwhelming it as opposed to the regular hurricanes that only have smaller effects, or whether in the case of the Islamist threat, the breadth of that danger.
And if you don't understand the threat, then you don't prepare for it. And then there's a tendency to do business as usual because we -- most of the time business as usual works. It's only when the big things happen that it completely breaks down.
DOBBS: In "The West's Last Chance," you focus clearly on the fact that Europe is now a launching platform for radical Islamist terrorism, that the United States has made a number of mistakes in terms of its foreign policy in pursuing radical Islamist terrorists, including the most obvious, a refusal on the part of this administration to name the enemy -- namely radical Islamist terrorists, or as you put it, Islamist jihadists. Why is there a resistance, in your judgment, to naming our enemy?
BLANKLEY: Well, I think what happened right after September 11, was a reasonable effort on the part of the president and our government not to inflame more people than we have to. Obviously it's not all Muslims in the world, it's some fraction -- hopefully a small fraction -- who are inflamed with these sentiments.
Now four years later, we fought two wars in Muslim countries. However many people we can possibly upset we've already upset. And it's important to name -- two things. One, we have to actually declare war to create the legal powers ...
DOBBS: Are you calling for Congress to declare war against Islamic jihadist?
BLANKLEY: And our people will say how can you do that? There's no country to declare war on, and it's true. There is no legal precedent for declaring war on a group of people -- non-state actors, as the professionals call it. But the problem is that need the powers that a declaration of war constitutionally provides our government.
And because we never had this experience before in our history, there's no provision in law to do it. But we have to get those powers so we can defend ourselves effectively.
DOBBS: You and I know the facts. Immigration and Naturalization do not know who is in this country. We do not know who is crossing our borders. We do not understand the affiliations of anyone, irrespective of ethnicity or race or religion. It's an impossibility that no one wants to recognize right now that we don't know who resides in this country.
BLANKLEY: That's right. And the starting point is to secure our borders. Now, I quote Asa Hutchinson who, when I talked to him last fall, was at the head at Homeland Security for borders. He said we have -- it's not -- we don't have any plans, it's not practical to secure the borders or track down illegals.
Two months later Admiral Loy, also the department high official, said we have -- based on our intelligence, we believe that al Qaeda is going to penetrate our southern border.
You cannot have those two statements from deputies at Homeland Security which are fundamentally inconsistent, one saying we have a lethal threat, the other saying we have no plan or intention to deal with it.
DOBBS: Or ability.
BLANKLEY: Well, we do have an ability.
DOBBS: Oh we do, but I'm saying they're saying we don't have the abilities.
BLANKLEY: Well, yes. They haven't made the decision to have the ability. I understand, by the way -- and you might find this interesting, this came out since I've written the book -- that there is a study within Homeland Security that it would take 20 -- not official policy yet -- It would take 20 to 50,000 Border Patrol plus sensor technologies to secure the border. That's a big number compared with how many Border Patrol we have, but it's a very small number compared to our nation. I mean this is ...
DOBBS: Or compared to the number of American troops we have in Iraq.
BLANKLEY: Well, yes. I mean, I think Border Patrol is the best way because you can train people up to the specific standards, but whether it's National Guard, whether it's Border Patrol, whether it's some other force, we can hire 50,000 people. We hire millions of people in this country for jobs all the time and train them for that skill. That's not an undoable job. And then we can secure the border and start the process of securing the country.
DOBBS: Well, "The West's Last Chance" lays out very clearly a prescription to deal with the threat, as you've described it, and as we all have grown to understand it. You've enlarged the body of public understanding. We would expect nothing less of you, Tony, and we thank you for being here.
BLANKLEY: Thank you so much.
DOBBS: Tony Blankley, the book is "The West's Last Chance."
The results of our poll tonight -- 78 percent of you say you do not believe any member of the Senate Judiciary Committee or the Senate itself will change his or her mind based on these confirmation hearings for Judge Roberts.
Next up tonight, Judy Miller, the Pulitzer Prize-winning "New York Times" reporter has been in prison for 69 days for protecting her confidential sources.
Thanks for being with us tonight. Please join us here tomorrow.
ANDERSON COOPER 360 is coming up next. Good night.
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