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Surgery Successful For Attorney General Ashcroft; Women in the New Iraq
Aired March 09, 2004 - 15:00 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back to LIVE FROM. I'm Kyra Phillips. Here is what's happening this hour.
A death sentence for John Allen Muhammad. A judge in Virginia rubber-stamped a jury's recommendation last fall that Muhammad be executed for his role in the Washington, D.C. area sniper killings. Muhammad insisted he's innocent, but the judge called his crimes so vile, they are almost beyond comprehension.
Within the rules of engagement, that's what U.S. military officials are saying about another shooting involving U.S. Marines in Haiti's capital. Two Marines fired on a vehicle in Port-au-Prince after they say it failed to stop at a checkpoint. The driver was killed. One passenger was injured. On Sunday, Marines killed a gunman who fired at them at a demonstration.
Sitting down with the 9/11 Commission. The White House is now suggesting that President Bush may be willing to give the 9/11 Commission a little more time. The president is now scheduled to meet with the committee's chair and vice chair for an hour. Senator John Kerry hammered the president on that issue yesterday.
Of course, this hour, Ashcroft in recovery. As we've been reporting, the U.S. attorney general lost his gallbladder today in a nonemergency procedure in Washington, but he gained, doctors say, protection against recurrence of painful and often serious pancreatitis.
Joining me now with the details, Dr. Marcia Cohen, medical correspondent for our sister network, Headline News.
So I guess this is good news that it ended so quickly.
MARCIA COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think that, if there was something really wrong with the pancreas, that would have been a much longer procedure.
So the fact that he's been in and out in about two hours would tend to make us think that, probably, they just took the gallbladder out. And I'm making the assumption, but I think probably an appropriate one, that his pancreas was pretty much OK.
PHILLIPS: So that's good news, because a diseased pancreas, it's possible you could take out part of it, the entire pancreas, right, and that would have been a little bit more of a difficult surgery.
COHEN: Well, not only would it have been more difficult.
The problem with that is that it's associated with more complications. Patients don't do as well. They have other problems. Then, even in taking out part of that pancreas, they have to heal. So I think it's very good if that doesn't happen and that he will get better and he'll get better much faster with just the gallbladder out. And we are standing by live at Washington University Hospital, waiting for his doctors to come forward, kind of give us an update on how it all went.
PHILLIPS: Meanwhile, recovery time?
COHEN: Well, you know, he was sick from the pancreatitis. So we have to give him a little bit time to get over the pancreatitis.
But then I think also, just because the gallbladder was taken out and probably done, you know, with the mechanism, that laparoscope, I think his recovery should be improved and probably much shorter than, you know, we would have expected.
PHILLIPS: And you're standing by and we'll talk about this some more after the press conference?
COHEN: Yes, we will.
PHILLIPS: Great. Thanks, Doc.
COHEN: OK. Thank you.
PHILLIPS: Well, it's Tuesday, that spells primary day on this March 9; 465 Democratic delegations are at stake as Southern voters cast ballots in Texas, Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana. Early voter turnout is reported low in some states as John Kerry's nomination is all but assured.
Well, Kerry's all but assured nomination means the November race is already under way.
And CNN senator senior political correspondent Candy Crowley reports, it's going to be a long bare-knuckle brawl.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The president went to a rodeo in Texas Monday, which was enough for John Kerry to ride.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And if the president of the United States can find the time to go to a rodeo, he can find the time to do more than one hour in front of a commission that is investigating what happened to America's intelligence and why we are not stronger today.
CROWLEY: Count on this to be the election year of the endless cycle, where no statement goes unanswered and no response goes unresponded to. GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Two years after the attack on the World Trade Center, my opponent introduced a bill to cut the overall intelligence budget by $1. 5 billion. His bill was so deeply irresponsible that he didn't have a single co-sponsor in the United States Senate.
CROWLEY: Anyone looking for a mild springtime on the campaign trail can look again. John Kerry told a group of donors that foreign leaders he met with told him they want Bush defeated. A Bush official called that remark outside the boundaries.
The story lines of the campaign are already set, and character development is the first chapter. The president thinks the senator is a waffling political opportunist with no core values.
BUSH: Senator Kerry voted for the Patriot Act, for NAFTA, for the No Child Left Behind Act, and for the use of force in Iraq. Now he opposes the Patriot Act, NAFTA, the No Child Left Behind Act, and the liberation of Iraq.
CROWLEY: The senator thinks the president is a radical ideologue who doesn't know what he's doing.
KERRY: He has run the most arrogant, inept, reckless, ideological foreign policy in the modern history of our country.
CROWLEY: Sometimes you wonder what they will be saying about each other by October.
Candy Crowley, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, be sure to stick around for "INSIDE POLITICS" coming up at 3:30 Eastern. Former Democrat presidential candidate Wesley Clark is Judy Woodruff's special guest today.
Other news across America now.
Cut off. Millions of Dish satellite subscribers nationwide are going without their MTV, Nickelodeon and other Viacom channels today. The owner of Dish is locked in a contract dispute with Viacom. Customers in 16 markets also lost their local CBS affiliate programs.
The death toll rises. A second person has died after the capsizing of a water taxi in Baltimore Harbor Saturday; 20 people were safely rescued. The search continues for the bodies of the three other passengers.
Robert Pastorelli was a boxer turned actor and became best known as the house painter who never finished the job on the television series "Murphy Brown." Pastorelli was found dead in the bathroom of his Hollywood Hills home yesterday. An autopsy is now under way. He was 49 years old.
You may recall the story of three Southern California girls who accused a homeless man of attacking them in a park. Well, that was false. The girls have now been punished.
But, as CNN's Gary Tuchman explains, the homeless man who felt sympathy for his accusers is now objecting to their sentences.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This homeless man served eight months in jail for a crime he did not commit.
ERIC NORDMARK, HOMELESS: I was nowhere near there.
TUCHMAN: Three 11-year-old girls accused Eric Nordmark of attacking them in a park in Garden Grove, California. But...
LT. MIKE HANDFIELD, GARDEN GROVE POLICE DEPARTMENT: These little girls lied. They're sophisticated in how they lied. They showed no remorse about lying that he was in custody, and they need to be dealt with.
TUCHMAN: And now they have. The three girls conspired to pick the number five photo in a six photo police line-up, falsely pinning blame on Nordmark to cover up the fact they were late coming home from school. The prosecutors wanted them to serve a sentence at least as long as Nordmark's time in jail. But instead, two of them received 45 days in a juvenile facility. The other, 30 days. With time already spent in custody, that girl will be free this week.
PAULA DRAKE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Believe me, they are awake now to what they did. They're very remorseful. And I think that
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: We take you now to George Washington University Hospital. We're sorry to interrupt that story, but Attorney General John Ashcroft's doctors speaking to reporters. Let's listen in.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... confidentiality of all information and records regarding the patient's care.
As a health care institution, we always respect the wishes of the patient and his or her family. Therefore, we will not be able to take specific questions about the attorney general at this press conference. However, we will answer general questions about pancreatitis and the surgical procedure.
Dr. Abell will give a statement on his condition at this time.
Dr. Abell.
DR. BRUCE ABELL, SURGICAL DIRECTOR, GEORGE WASHINGTON HOSPITAL: Good afternoon.
As you know, Attorney General John Ashcroft was admitted to the G.W. Hospital with gallstone pancreatitis on Thursday. Today, he underwent a laparoscopic cholecystectomy, which is the removal of his gallbladder. This procedure was performed as a preventative measure to reduce the risk of recurrent pancreatitis. The procedure was done using very small incisions and a camera with work done outside the body.
This basically allowed the gallbladder to be removed without making a large incision. Everything went as planned. He did very well. Presently, he is in what we would consider guarded condition, which is normal after such a procedure. He is now in the ICU and he is recovering very nicely from general anesthesia.
We're monitoring the attorney general carefully and we'll be sure that his breathing, heart rate and blood pressure remain normal. We will be able to give another update on his condition on Thursday. Usually, in these cases, the patient remains in the hospital for about four to five days afterwards for observation.
I can't answer any specific questions, but if you do have any general questions, I would be happy to take them now.
QUESTION: Can you tell us just generally (OFF-MIKE) pancreatitis is? How severe a case did he have?
ABELL: His case was pretty severe. And that's why we had to wait until the pancreas settled down before we went ahead and operated on him.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
ABELL: There was no necrosis.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
ABELL: It was pretty severe, yes, yes. There was no necrosis, but it was considered severe.
QUESTION: So what's his long-term prognosis?
ABELL: Excellent.
QUESTION: If somebody has got something wrong in their pancreas, why do you take out the gallbladder?
ABELL: That's a great question.
There's a lot of different reasons that your pancreas gets inflamed. In Attorney General Ashcroft's situation, he had a gallstone that came down out of his gallbladder and blocked his pancreatic duct. When that happens, the enzymes from the pancreas can't get out and they actually exude through the pancreas and burn the pancreas, creating the pancreatitis.
QUESTION: Is this a particularly painful procedure?
ABELL: The procedure itself is not painful, but actually the pancreatitis itself is much more painful.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) pancreas blocking something there. I still don't understand how you have to take out the gallbladder.
ABELL: Sure.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
ABELL: Sure.
Yes, his gallbladder was full of several other stones. The exact same process could happen again with the stones coming down the ducts. We did some tests to make sure that the stone that was in his pancreas had actually moved along, and it had. So there was no more stones left in his pancreatic duct and there's no more stones in his biliary tree that could potentially block him again and cause this process to recur.
QUESTION: Once he gets out of here (OFF-MIKE) how long (OFF- MIKE) recovery?
ABELL: We're going to have to play that by ear. It's going to be four to five days before I think he will be able to leave the hospital and then I'll follow him and make sure that he does well. When he's ready to get back to work, we'll let him get back.
Sir?
QUESTION: The reading materials that was handed out to us says that this procedure is done by -- laparoscopically. The patient can go home (OFF-MIKE) the next day and resume a normal (OFF-MIKE) as needed. Why in this case (OFF-MIKE) four to five days in the hospital?
ABELL: Yes.
When you typically do a laparoscopic cholecystectomy, it's done in an elective manner on a person who doesn't have pancreatitis. The actual amount of people who have pancreatitis and have gallbladder disease is a small number. And Attorney General Ashcroft fits into that. So this is a different situation than a typical laparoscopic cholecystectomy that most Americans end up with.
QUESTION: What is your advice going to be to him for diet following his recovery?
ABELL: He's going to have to limit his fatty food intake, as we suggest to all people who have a cholecystectomy.
QUESTION: Any idea what might have caused the gallstone (OFF- MIKE)
ABELL: It's a good question. They were pigment stones. They were bile stones. And just basically the bile in his gallbladder precipitated and formed to stone.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
ABELL: No.
PHILLIPS: All right, if you have just tuned in, that's Dr. Bruce Abell, director of surgical critical care at George Washington University Hospital. He is the surgeon that performed the procedure on Attorney General John Ashcroft, removing his gallbladder.
Dr. Marcia Cohen also monitoring what took place today with the surgery.
And it looks like a good outcome. I guess the good news is, they removed the gallbladder, didn't have to do anything to the pancreas.
COHEN: Well, Kyra, that's really good news.
And the reason that that's good news is because, as I said before, even with the severe pancreatitis, as long as there was no death necrosis, as the doctor described, or death of the tissue, that gives him a much better chance. Again, that complicate as bit his recovering from the gallbladder surgery, but he should do well. I think they are going to watch him to make sure that everything goes well and that his enzymes and all the other studies that they look at are normal.
And he will be up and walking and he will recover well.
PHILLIPS: Good news. And we'll follow that recovery. Thanks, Doctor.
COHEN: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: All right, straight ahead, next, a window of opportunity for Iraqi women, fighting for their rights in the new government. I'll talk live with a woman on the forefront of that fight.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Women may have made few inroads in the postwar government in Iraq. Only three of them sit on the interim Governing Council. But new leaders are emerging.
Ala Talabani co-founded the Iraqi Women's High Council. She has a politically prominent connection in Iraq, also. Her uncle is Jalal Talabani. He's on Iraq's Governing Council and with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. She's at the United Nations today and joins us to talk about women and their new role in Iraq.
Ala, great to see you.
ALA TALABANI, IRAQI WOMEN'S HIGH COUNCIL: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: Well, let's start off talking about freedom of lack of for women and women's rights under Saddam Hussein vs. what you want now. Tell me what it is that you want to see that you did not have under Saddam Hussein's regime.
TALABANI: Well, absolutely.
We all know that all Iraqi people have suffered from the former regime. But, in my point of view, women faced prosecution more than men. First of all, they were subject to all Iraqi regime's crime. And, second, we are the other gender who have to live the aftermath of this crime, women who have to live the aftermath of war. They have difficulties in bringing up of their children.
So let's not forget it's -- our society is a patriotic society, which women still lack basic rights, so, so many things. As I said, we've been faced lots of prosecution. We have thousands of women who are widowed because of Saddam regime's brutal treatment, because they lost their husband either in the war, in executing, in the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) campaign.
And we have so many other women who have been attacked by the chemical attack that on Halabja in 1988. So this is a window of opportunity for Iraqi women now, after the liberation of Iraq, to play their role, especially in the political aspect, in the political -- we've been neglected totally within the previous regime. But now women in Iraq can play a vital role in reconstructing their country, especially in the political process.
PHILLIPS: Yes, you said you were completely neglected under Saddam Hussein. We have talked a lot about that since the fall of that regime. We see the video now of all the women marching, the women protesting, speaking up for their rights. Looking at the two parts of the new constitution here, all Iraqis are equal in their rights without regard to gender. Point No. 2, electoral law will aim to have women constitute at least 25 percent of the 275-member national assembly.
Is 25 percent enough?
TALABANI: Well, actually, we are more than 65 percent of the Iraq population. It is not enough, but it's quite good number to start with.
When we campaigned, we asked for no less than 40 percent. But we knew that they are getting too calculated. So, as you said, we got 25 percent. But I want to say that this didn't came as an offer from the men, from the member of the Governing Council. This came after a very good word from women leader, women NGO leaders, women centers, women activists all across the country. We campaigned. We lobbied the Governing Council member and we asked for our rights.
PHILLIPS: And, Ala, I have to ask you, Islam being declared the official religion here, are you concerned at all about the Islamic forces?
TALABANI: Well, actually, as a woman, I think having Islam one of the forces -- one of the sources for the law in Iraq is good, but not the main one, because, as you know -- you may know that few months ago, the Governing Council wanted to pass a resolution 137, which we -- there was a very big discrimination against women in it.
And, again, after we campaigned, this resolution being abolished. So, yes, I will be worried if the Islamic force or the Islamic groups and parties will control the whole issue, especially the political issue. I, myself, I always ask for the separation of state from the religious.
PHILLIPS: Well, you have an interesting twist, you being a woman, also a Kurd, looking at what happened back under Saddam's rule and the gassing of the Kurds. I'm sure you see some type of justice here. And we hope to follow up with you as the final constitution is made.
Will you come back and talk with us?
TALABANI: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: Thank you very much.
TALABANI: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: Ala Talabani co-founded the Iraqi Women's High Council. We appreciate it.
TALABANI: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, a high-tech problem for American voters. Will electronic voting be reliable in this year's presidential election? You'll recall hanging chad. That's ahead on "INSIDE POLITICS."
Up next for us, get your motor running. Some of the best cars on the market, as LIVE FROM enters the home stretch, going quite fast, I might add.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, can you believe it? For the first time, American autos are judged more reliable than European models. That's according to the new "Consumer Reports" survey that came out today. And it may come as no surprise, Asian manufactured cars are judged the most reliable of all. Our friend, Csaba Csere, editor in chief of "Car & Driver," joins us from Ann Arbor, Michigan.
CSABA CSERE, EDITOR IN CHIEF, "CAR & DRIVER": Csaba, good to see you.
Glad to be here.
PHILLIPS: All right, here we go. The top rated cars, No. 1, small sedan, Ford Focus. What happened? North American manufacturers say that they make more reliable cars than European competitors now.
CSERE: Well, the American manufacturers have been kicked around on quality for the last 25 years.
And they realize they've got the get their act together. And it looks like they have finally made some serious progress. They are still a little bit behind the Asians, but pulling ahead of the Europeans is huge progress. And keep in mind, this is done in the context where all cars are getting substantially more reliable. So they're marking progress in addition to the industry's generous progress.
PHILLIPS: Can you give me specifics? What has contributed to that progress? What has been done differently? Because this is the first time this has come out in 25 years.
CSERE: Well, it takes a long time to fix this, because it's a combination of cooperation with the unions in order to get work rules that make a lot of sense in the factories.
It means designing cars so that they're easier to assemble, in some cases design them in such a way that you can't put them together incorrectly. It's having more discipline in the supply process, just- in-time inventories. It's all kinds of stuff that happens, but a lot of it is exactly the type of techniques that the Japanese have been using all along.
PHILLIPS: Well, I want to talk about the most reliable over the past five years, Acura, Honda, Infinity, Lexus, Mazda, Toyota. What are these folks continuing to do right?
CSERE: Well, they've had the luxury of kind of being at the top of their game for a long time. The Hondas and Toyotas of the world and their luxury divisions have been making money. They don't have to restructure their operations.
They've got a good business method. And every year, they continue to hone their operations. They do things a little bit better. They don't have to totally throw it away and redesign everything. And they make continuous improvement, and continuous improvement, after 20 years, you end up in a pretty good spot.
PHILLIPS: I'm curious, Csaba. Who has got the best crash protection right now?
CSERE: Crash protection?
PHILLIPS: Yes.
CSERE: It really depends on what kind of crash you want to be in. And I know that's an unsatisfactory answer.
(LAUGHTER)
CSERE: But are you going to run into another car? Are you going to run into a brick wall? Do you want to roll over? You tell me what kind of crash you're going to be in and I'll tell you what you ought to drive.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIPS: Well, the ones that I see a lot are crashing into another car and rolling over.
CSERE: Well, if you want to avoid -- in a rollover, what you want is a side curtain air bag and you want to make sure that your seat belt is on, because the key problem in rollover is actually being ejected from the car and having the vehicle then roll over you.
So the first step, whatever you're in, is to put your seat belt on. But you want a side curtain air bag. And all the high-end European cars have those. And more and more, the mid-range vehicles are getting into them. Crashing into another car, you want to be in a big machine. And that can be a big car. It can be in an SUV. And you want to have good frontal air bags for sure.
PHILLIPS: Editor in chief of "Car & Driver" magazine, Csaba Csere, thanks so much. We have your magazine all over the house. I can't get my husband away from it. Thanks for your time.
CSERE: Thanks very much.
PHILLIPS: All right, see you later.
Well, that wraps up LIVE FROM.
Now to take us through the next hour, political headlines, "JUDY WOODRUFF'S INSIDE POLITICS" -- hi, Judy.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, Kyra.
Thanks very much. Well, after the hanging chads debacle of 2000, electronic voting machines were thought to be the answer. Now, nearly four years later, there are still questions about the machines. What does it mean for today's primaries and for the general election in November?
Plus, like father, like son or not so fast? What is President Bush's political situation today compared to where his father was in '88 and '92? We'll take a look.
"INSIDE POLITICS" starts in three minutes.
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the New Iraq>
Aired March 9, 2004 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back to LIVE FROM. I'm Kyra Phillips. Here is what's happening this hour.
A death sentence for John Allen Muhammad. A judge in Virginia rubber-stamped a jury's recommendation last fall that Muhammad be executed for his role in the Washington, D.C. area sniper killings. Muhammad insisted he's innocent, but the judge called his crimes so vile, they are almost beyond comprehension.
Within the rules of engagement, that's what U.S. military officials are saying about another shooting involving U.S. Marines in Haiti's capital. Two Marines fired on a vehicle in Port-au-Prince after they say it failed to stop at a checkpoint. The driver was killed. One passenger was injured. On Sunday, Marines killed a gunman who fired at them at a demonstration.
Sitting down with the 9/11 Commission. The White House is now suggesting that President Bush may be willing to give the 9/11 Commission a little more time. The president is now scheduled to meet with the committee's chair and vice chair for an hour. Senator John Kerry hammered the president on that issue yesterday.
Of course, this hour, Ashcroft in recovery. As we've been reporting, the U.S. attorney general lost his gallbladder today in a nonemergency procedure in Washington, but he gained, doctors say, protection against recurrence of painful and often serious pancreatitis.
Joining me now with the details, Dr. Marcia Cohen, medical correspondent for our sister network, Headline News.
So I guess this is good news that it ended so quickly.
MARCIA COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think that, if there was something really wrong with the pancreas, that would have been a much longer procedure.
So the fact that he's been in and out in about two hours would tend to make us think that, probably, they just took the gallbladder out. And I'm making the assumption, but I think probably an appropriate one, that his pancreas was pretty much OK.
PHILLIPS: So that's good news, because a diseased pancreas, it's possible you could take out part of it, the entire pancreas, right, and that would have been a little bit more of a difficult surgery.
COHEN: Well, not only would it have been more difficult.
The problem with that is that it's associated with more complications. Patients don't do as well. They have other problems. Then, even in taking out part of that pancreas, they have to heal. So I think it's very good if that doesn't happen and that he will get better and he'll get better much faster with just the gallbladder out. And we are standing by live at Washington University Hospital, waiting for his doctors to come forward, kind of give us an update on how it all went.
PHILLIPS: Meanwhile, recovery time?
COHEN: Well, you know, he was sick from the pancreatitis. So we have to give him a little bit time to get over the pancreatitis.
But then I think also, just because the gallbladder was taken out and probably done, you know, with the mechanism, that laparoscope, I think his recovery should be improved and probably much shorter than, you know, we would have expected.
PHILLIPS: And you're standing by and we'll talk about this some more after the press conference?
COHEN: Yes, we will.
PHILLIPS: Great. Thanks, Doc.
COHEN: OK. Thank you.
PHILLIPS: Well, it's Tuesday, that spells primary day on this March 9; 465 Democratic delegations are at stake as Southern voters cast ballots in Texas, Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana. Early voter turnout is reported low in some states as John Kerry's nomination is all but assured.
Well, Kerry's all but assured nomination means the November race is already under way.
And CNN senator senior political correspondent Candy Crowley reports, it's going to be a long bare-knuckle brawl.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The president went to a rodeo in Texas Monday, which was enough for John Kerry to ride.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And if the president of the United States can find the time to go to a rodeo, he can find the time to do more than one hour in front of a commission that is investigating what happened to America's intelligence and why we are not stronger today.
CROWLEY: Count on this to be the election year of the endless cycle, where no statement goes unanswered and no response goes unresponded to. GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Two years after the attack on the World Trade Center, my opponent introduced a bill to cut the overall intelligence budget by $1. 5 billion. His bill was so deeply irresponsible that he didn't have a single co-sponsor in the United States Senate.
CROWLEY: Anyone looking for a mild springtime on the campaign trail can look again. John Kerry told a group of donors that foreign leaders he met with told him they want Bush defeated. A Bush official called that remark outside the boundaries.
The story lines of the campaign are already set, and character development is the first chapter. The president thinks the senator is a waffling political opportunist with no core values.
BUSH: Senator Kerry voted for the Patriot Act, for NAFTA, for the No Child Left Behind Act, and for the use of force in Iraq. Now he opposes the Patriot Act, NAFTA, the No Child Left Behind Act, and the liberation of Iraq.
CROWLEY: The senator thinks the president is a radical ideologue who doesn't know what he's doing.
KERRY: He has run the most arrogant, inept, reckless, ideological foreign policy in the modern history of our country.
CROWLEY: Sometimes you wonder what they will be saying about each other by October.
Candy Crowley, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, be sure to stick around for "INSIDE POLITICS" coming up at 3:30 Eastern. Former Democrat presidential candidate Wesley Clark is Judy Woodruff's special guest today.
Other news across America now.
Cut off. Millions of Dish satellite subscribers nationwide are going without their MTV, Nickelodeon and other Viacom channels today. The owner of Dish is locked in a contract dispute with Viacom. Customers in 16 markets also lost their local CBS affiliate programs.
The death toll rises. A second person has died after the capsizing of a water taxi in Baltimore Harbor Saturday; 20 people were safely rescued. The search continues for the bodies of the three other passengers.
Robert Pastorelli was a boxer turned actor and became best known as the house painter who never finished the job on the television series "Murphy Brown." Pastorelli was found dead in the bathroom of his Hollywood Hills home yesterday. An autopsy is now under way. He was 49 years old.
You may recall the story of three Southern California girls who accused a homeless man of attacking them in a park. Well, that was false. The girls have now been punished.
But, as CNN's Gary Tuchman explains, the homeless man who felt sympathy for his accusers is now objecting to their sentences.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This homeless man served eight months in jail for a crime he did not commit.
ERIC NORDMARK, HOMELESS: I was nowhere near there.
TUCHMAN: Three 11-year-old girls accused Eric Nordmark of attacking them in a park in Garden Grove, California. But...
LT. MIKE HANDFIELD, GARDEN GROVE POLICE DEPARTMENT: These little girls lied. They're sophisticated in how they lied. They showed no remorse about lying that he was in custody, and they need to be dealt with.
TUCHMAN: And now they have. The three girls conspired to pick the number five photo in a six photo police line-up, falsely pinning blame on Nordmark to cover up the fact they were late coming home from school. The prosecutors wanted them to serve a sentence at least as long as Nordmark's time in jail. But instead, two of them received 45 days in a juvenile facility. The other, 30 days. With time already spent in custody, that girl will be free this week.
PAULA DRAKE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Believe me, they are awake now to what they did. They're very remorseful. And I think that
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: We take you now to George Washington University Hospital. We're sorry to interrupt that story, but Attorney General John Ashcroft's doctors speaking to reporters. Let's listen in.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... confidentiality of all information and records regarding the patient's care.
As a health care institution, we always respect the wishes of the patient and his or her family. Therefore, we will not be able to take specific questions about the attorney general at this press conference. However, we will answer general questions about pancreatitis and the surgical procedure.
Dr. Abell will give a statement on his condition at this time.
Dr. Abell.
DR. BRUCE ABELL, SURGICAL DIRECTOR, GEORGE WASHINGTON HOSPITAL: Good afternoon.
As you know, Attorney General John Ashcroft was admitted to the G.W. Hospital with gallstone pancreatitis on Thursday. Today, he underwent a laparoscopic cholecystectomy, which is the removal of his gallbladder. This procedure was performed as a preventative measure to reduce the risk of recurrent pancreatitis. The procedure was done using very small incisions and a camera with work done outside the body.
This basically allowed the gallbladder to be removed without making a large incision. Everything went as planned. He did very well. Presently, he is in what we would consider guarded condition, which is normal after such a procedure. He is now in the ICU and he is recovering very nicely from general anesthesia.
We're monitoring the attorney general carefully and we'll be sure that his breathing, heart rate and blood pressure remain normal. We will be able to give another update on his condition on Thursday. Usually, in these cases, the patient remains in the hospital for about four to five days afterwards for observation.
I can't answer any specific questions, but if you do have any general questions, I would be happy to take them now.
QUESTION: Can you tell us just generally (OFF-MIKE) pancreatitis is? How severe a case did he have?
ABELL: His case was pretty severe. And that's why we had to wait until the pancreas settled down before we went ahead and operated on him.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
ABELL: There was no necrosis.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
ABELL: It was pretty severe, yes, yes. There was no necrosis, but it was considered severe.
QUESTION: So what's his long-term prognosis?
ABELL: Excellent.
QUESTION: If somebody has got something wrong in their pancreas, why do you take out the gallbladder?
ABELL: That's a great question.
There's a lot of different reasons that your pancreas gets inflamed. In Attorney General Ashcroft's situation, he had a gallstone that came down out of his gallbladder and blocked his pancreatic duct. When that happens, the enzymes from the pancreas can't get out and they actually exude through the pancreas and burn the pancreas, creating the pancreatitis.
QUESTION: Is this a particularly painful procedure?
ABELL: The procedure itself is not painful, but actually the pancreatitis itself is much more painful.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) pancreas blocking something there. I still don't understand how you have to take out the gallbladder.
ABELL: Sure.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
ABELL: Sure.
Yes, his gallbladder was full of several other stones. The exact same process could happen again with the stones coming down the ducts. We did some tests to make sure that the stone that was in his pancreas had actually moved along, and it had. So there was no more stones left in his pancreatic duct and there's no more stones in his biliary tree that could potentially block him again and cause this process to recur.
QUESTION: Once he gets out of here (OFF-MIKE) how long (OFF- MIKE) recovery?
ABELL: We're going to have to play that by ear. It's going to be four to five days before I think he will be able to leave the hospital and then I'll follow him and make sure that he does well. When he's ready to get back to work, we'll let him get back.
Sir?
QUESTION: The reading materials that was handed out to us says that this procedure is done by -- laparoscopically. The patient can go home (OFF-MIKE) the next day and resume a normal (OFF-MIKE) as needed. Why in this case (OFF-MIKE) four to five days in the hospital?
ABELL: Yes.
When you typically do a laparoscopic cholecystectomy, it's done in an elective manner on a person who doesn't have pancreatitis. The actual amount of people who have pancreatitis and have gallbladder disease is a small number. And Attorney General Ashcroft fits into that. So this is a different situation than a typical laparoscopic cholecystectomy that most Americans end up with.
QUESTION: What is your advice going to be to him for diet following his recovery?
ABELL: He's going to have to limit his fatty food intake, as we suggest to all people who have a cholecystectomy.
QUESTION: Any idea what might have caused the gallstone (OFF- MIKE)
ABELL: It's a good question. They were pigment stones. They were bile stones. And just basically the bile in his gallbladder precipitated and formed to stone.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
ABELL: No.
PHILLIPS: All right, if you have just tuned in, that's Dr. Bruce Abell, director of surgical critical care at George Washington University Hospital. He is the surgeon that performed the procedure on Attorney General John Ashcroft, removing his gallbladder.
Dr. Marcia Cohen also monitoring what took place today with the surgery.
And it looks like a good outcome. I guess the good news is, they removed the gallbladder, didn't have to do anything to the pancreas.
COHEN: Well, Kyra, that's really good news.
And the reason that that's good news is because, as I said before, even with the severe pancreatitis, as long as there was no death necrosis, as the doctor described, or death of the tissue, that gives him a much better chance. Again, that complicate as bit his recovering from the gallbladder surgery, but he should do well. I think they are going to watch him to make sure that everything goes well and that his enzymes and all the other studies that they look at are normal.
And he will be up and walking and he will recover well.
PHILLIPS: Good news. And we'll follow that recovery. Thanks, Doctor.
COHEN: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: All right, straight ahead, next, a window of opportunity for Iraqi women, fighting for their rights in the new government. I'll talk live with a woman on the forefront of that fight.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Women may have made few inroads in the postwar government in Iraq. Only three of them sit on the interim Governing Council. But new leaders are emerging.
Ala Talabani co-founded the Iraqi Women's High Council. She has a politically prominent connection in Iraq, also. Her uncle is Jalal Talabani. He's on Iraq's Governing Council and with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. She's at the United Nations today and joins us to talk about women and their new role in Iraq.
Ala, great to see you.
ALA TALABANI, IRAQI WOMEN'S HIGH COUNCIL: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: Well, let's start off talking about freedom of lack of for women and women's rights under Saddam Hussein vs. what you want now. Tell me what it is that you want to see that you did not have under Saddam Hussein's regime.
TALABANI: Well, absolutely.
We all know that all Iraqi people have suffered from the former regime. But, in my point of view, women faced prosecution more than men. First of all, they were subject to all Iraqi regime's crime. And, second, we are the other gender who have to live the aftermath of this crime, women who have to live the aftermath of war. They have difficulties in bringing up of their children.
So let's not forget it's -- our society is a patriotic society, which women still lack basic rights, so, so many things. As I said, we've been faced lots of prosecution. We have thousands of women who are widowed because of Saddam regime's brutal treatment, because they lost their husband either in the war, in executing, in the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) campaign.
And we have so many other women who have been attacked by the chemical attack that on Halabja in 1988. So this is a window of opportunity for Iraqi women now, after the liberation of Iraq, to play their role, especially in the political aspect, in the political -- we've been neglected totally within the previous regime. But now women in Iraq can play a vital role in reconstructing their country, especially in the political process.
PHILLIPS: Yes, you said you were completely neglected under Saddam Hussein. We have talked a lot about that since the fall of that regime. We see the video now of all the women marching, the women protesting, speaking up for their rights. Looking at the two parts of the new constitution here, all Iraqis are equal in their rights without regard to gender. Point No. 2, electoral law will aim to have women constitute at least 25 percent of the 275-member national assembly.
Is 25 percent enough?
TALABANI: Well, actually, we are more than 65 percent of the Iraq population. It is not enough, but it's quite good number to start with.
When we campaigned, we asked for no less than 40 percent. But we knew that they are getting too calculated. So, as you said, we got 25 percent. But I want to say that this didn't came as an offer from the men, from the member of the Governing Council. This came after a very good word from women leader, women NGO leaders, women centers, women activists all across the country. We campaigned. We lobbied the Governing Council member and we asked for our rights.
PHILLIPS: And, Ala, I have to ask you, Islam being declared the official religion here, are you concerned at all about the Islamic forces?
TALABANI: Well, actually, as a woman, I think having Islam one of the forces -- one of the sources for the law in Iraq is good, but not the main one, because, as you know -- you may know that few months ago, the Governing Council wanted to pass a resolution 137, which we -- there was a very big discrimination against women in it.
And, again, after we campaigned, this resolution being abolished. So, yes, I will be worried if the Islamic force or the Islamic groups and parties will control the whole issue, especially the political issue. I, myself, I always ask for the separation of state from the religious.
PHILLIPS: Well, you have an interesting twist, you being a woman, also a Kurd, looking at what happened back under Saddam's rule and the gassing of the Kurds. I'm sure you see some type of justice here. And we hope to follow up with you as the final constitution is made.
Will you come back and talk with us?
TALABANI: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: Thank you very much.
TALABANI: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: Ala Talabani co-founded the Iraqi Women's High Council. We appreciate it.
TALABANI: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, a high-tech problem for American voters. Will electronic voting be reliable in this year's presidential election? You'll recall hanging chad. That's ahead on "INSIDE POLITICS."
Up next for us, get your motor running. Some of the best cars on the market, as LIVE FROM enters the home stretch, going quite fast, I might add.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, can you believe it? For the first time, American autos are judged more reliable than European models. That's according to the new "Consumer Reports" survey that came out today. And it may come as no surprise, Asian manufactured cars are judged the most reliable of all. Our friend, Csaba Csere, editor in chief of "Car & Driver," joins us from Ann Arbor, Michigan.
CSABA CSERE, EDITOR IN CHIEF, "CAR & DRIVER": Csaba, good to see you.
Glad to be here.
PHILLIPS: All right, here we go. The top rated cars, No. 1, small sedan, Ford Focus. What happened? North American manufacturers say that they make more reliable cars than European competitors now.
CSERE: Well, the American manufacturers have been kicked around on quality for the last 25 years.
And they realize they've got the get their act together. And it looks like they have finally made some serious progress. They are still a little bit behind the Asians, but pulling ahead of the Europeans is huge progress. And keep in mind, this is done in the context where all cars are getting substantially more reliable. So they're marking progress in addition to the industry's generous progress.
PHILLIPS: Can you give me specifics? What has contributed to that progress? What has been done differently? Because this is the first time this has come out in 25 years.
CSERE: Well, it takes a long time to fix this, because it's a combination of cooperation with the unions in order to get work rules that make a lot of sense in the factories.
It means designing cars so that they're easier to assemble, in some cases design them in such a way that you can't put them together incorrectly. It's having more discipline in the supply process, just- in-time inventories. It's all kinds of stuff that happens, but a lot of it is exactly the type of techniques that the Japanese have been using all along.
PHILLIPS: Well, I want to talk about the most reliable over the past five years, Acura, Honda, Infinity, Lexus, Mazda, Toyota. What are these folks continuing to do right?
CSERE: Well, they've had the luxury of kind of being at the top of their game for a long time. The Hondas and Toyotas of the world and their luxury divisions have been making money. They don't have to restructure their operations.
They've got a good business method. And every year, they continue to hone their operations. They do things a little bit better. They don't have to totally throw it away and redesign everything. And they make continuous improvement, and continuous improvement, after 20 years, you end up in a pretty good spot.
PHILLIPS: I'm curious, Csaba. Who has got the best crash protection right now?
CSERE: Crash protection?
PHILLIPS: Yes.
CSERE: It really depends on what kind of crash you want to be in. And I know that's an unsatisfactory answer.
(LAUGHTER)
CSERE: But are you going to run into another car? Are you going to run into a brick wall? Do you want to roll over? You tell me what kind of crash you're going to be in and I'll tell you what you ought to drive.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIPS: Well, the ones that I see a lot are crashing into another car and rolling over.
CSERE: Well, if you want to avoid -- in a rollover, what you want is a side curtain air bag and you want to make sure that your seat belt is on, because the key problem in rollover is actually being ejected from the car and having the vehicle then roll over you.
So the first step, whatever you're in, is to put your seat belt on. But you want a side curtain air bag. And all the high-end European cars have those. And more and more, the mid-range vehicles are getting into them. Crashing into another car, you want to be in a big machine. And that can be a big car. It can be in an SUV. And you want to have good frontal air bags for sure.
PHILLIPS: Editor in chief of "Car & Driver" magazine, Csaba Csere, thanks so much. We have your magazine all over the house. I can't get my husband away from it. Thanks for your time.
CSERE: Thanks very much.
PHILLIPS: All right, see you later.
Well, that wraps up LIVE FROM.
Now to take us through the next hour, political headlines, "JUDY WOODRUFF'S INSIDE POLITICS" -- hi, Judy.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, Kyra.
Thanks very much. Well, after the hanging chads debacle of 2000, electronic voting machines were thought to be the answer. Now, nearly four years later, there are still questions about the machines. What does it mean for today's primaries and for the general election in November?
Plus, like father, like son or not so fast? What is President Bush's political situation today compared to where his father was in '88 and '92? We'll take a look.
"INSIDE POLITICS" starts in three minutes.
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