Return to Transcripts main page
Live From...
Forecasters Keeping Track of Frances; Bryant Case Dropped; Inside Look at Dems' Media Response Team; Girl Named Kerry Edwards Enjoying Campaign
Aired September 02, 2004 - 14:30 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to the CNN Center in Atlanta. This is LIVE FROM. And I'm Miles O'Brien.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kyra Phillips. Here's what's all new this half hour.
Where will a hurricane come ashore? Just ahead -- why it's so hard to pinpoint where a big storm will hit. Live pictures now as you see folks heading out of Florida.
O'BRIEN: And firing back -- inside the war room: How the other party put its spin on Republican speeches.
First, here's what is happening now in the news.
Twenty-six women and children freed from a school in southern Russia today. Hundreds, many of them children, still being held hostage. They have now gone more than 37 hours without food or water. As many as 15 armed attackers seized the school yesterday morning, reportedly demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from nearby Chechnya. Negotiations are continuing.
Right now a key oil pipeline is burning in Iraq. Officials say a bomb went off underneath it. The pipeline runs from the northern oil fields into Turkey. The blast described as enormous, the fire visible in Kirkuk 40 miles away.
A not guilty plea in the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping. Brian Mitchell arraigned this morning in Salt Lake City. His trial on half a dozen charges is scheduled for February. His wife, who faces the same charges, has not been declared mentally fit for a trial.
Morning commuters at New York's Grand Central terminal get more than they bargained for when anti-Bush protest erupts there. The demonstration broken up quickly, 20 protesters arrested. They were calling on President Bush to do more to fight AIDS.
PHILLIPS: People are nervously tracking the progress of Hurricane Frances as the massive Category Four storm bears down on Florida. More than a million people have been told to evacuate 10 Florida counties.
That storm is twice the size of Hurricane Charley, which caused billions of dollars of damage. And it's expected to make landfall within the next 36 hours. But predicting exactly where and when the storm will come ashore is still an imprecise science. CNN's meteorologist, Jacqui Jeras, though, tries to make sense of it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST (voice-over): Exactly where and when will the hurricane hit? That's the multimillion-dollar question.
Even with all of the technology and the best computer models, meteorologists still can't pinpoint landfall until the storm is just a few miles offshore.
And although they do have a very good idea of the area a storm will affect as early as five days out, the long-range prediction of where it makes landfall spans several hundred miles.
The farther away from shore the storm is the less confidence there is in the precise path. Over the past decade forecasters have been accurate within 87 miles a day before a storm.
But the error for a storm five days out jumps to 300 miles on either side of the actual point of landfall. That's why it's important to focus on the forecast cone or highlighted area of concern on a map rather than on the line you see here in the middle. The middle line is just a compromise between all of the computer model forecasts.
Hurricane Charley which made landfall as a Category Four storm near Fort Meyers, Florida, this year is a perfect example. The extended forecast had Tampa right in the middle of the cone of uncertainty. This left some residents in Punta Gorda, 80 miles for the south, with a false sense of security, even though they were under a hurricane warning 24 hours before the storm hit.
Jacqui Jeras, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Now in a surprise move, Kobe Bryant's criminal sexual assault case has been tossed out, but the NBA star isn't off the hook yet. CNN's Chris Lawrence explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The criminal case against Kobe Bryant collapsed less than a week before opening statements when his accuser told prosecutors she would no longer cooperate.
MARK HURLBERT, EAGLE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: For this reason and this reason only I am dismissing this case.
LAWRENCE: The woman's attorney said she's disturbed by courthouse mistakes, including the repeated release of her name and medical history. HURLBERT: Today justice is sadly interrupted, and the casualty in this interruption has been a brave young woman who's grievously hurt.
LAWRENCE: The decision came down after Bryant had already flown out. But in a written statement, he apologized to the young woman and her family and said, "I now understand how she sincerely feels that she did not consent to this encounter."
The woman has also filed a civil suit against the basketball star, seeking damages.
But back in Los Angeles, Bryant's teammates were supportive.
LUKE WALTON, BRYANT'S L.A. LAKERS TEAMMATE: Just, you know, for something like this, you know, to finally be over with, I'm happy for him and his family.
LAWRENCE: Bryant is married and the father of a little girl. His accuser, a college student and single. Their two worlds might never have collided if not for a knee injury.
Bryant developed tendonitis last year and came to Colorado for surgery putting him at this lodge on a night his accuser was working there. Both agreed they had sex. She said it was rape; Bryant insisted it was consensual.
(on camera): So, after 14 months and some 700 motions the entire case ended in just 15 minutes. Now, prosecutors cannot refile these criminal charges down the road, but the civil case has not been settled.
Chris Lawrence, CNN, Eagle, Colorado.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Other news across America now. The Scott Peterson murder trial and the focus shifts to Peterson's repeated trips to San Francisco Bay after his wife disappeared.
Prosecutors say he was worried Laci Peterson's body might surface in the bay. But the defense says Peterson was just checking on the prognosis of police searches for his wife.
The father of a Marine killed in Iraq says he was not trying to commit suicide when he set fire to a military van. The incident happened shortly after Carlos Arredondo was told of his son's death. The funeral for the Marine will be held Sunday.
And dropping in from space. NASA is working on bringing the Genesis space capsule back to earth. It's been hovering just outside Earth's magnetic shield, collecting solar wind particles for about 27 months. NASA must guide the capsule through the atmosphere, and it needs to be scooped up by helicopters just before touching down in the Utah desert. All that will happen on September 8. You'll see it live here on CNN, of course. Scientists this week announced the discovery of the two smallest planets ever discovered outside our solar system. I hope you're listening, June Lockhart.
The planets are the size of Neptune, and unlike other extra solar planets -- that means outside our Solar System, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Oh, thank you, Miles.
O'BRIEN: They might have a rocky surface instead of being big gas giants. It makes planet hunters think they're hot on the trail of finding another planet like our own. And that could unravel a riddle as old as our ability to pose it.
Not long ago I spent some time with a leading planet hunter.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN (voice-over): Next time you're savoring the sunset on the water somewhere, consider this. The star that warms all our days here on Earth is wobbling. And that's not the tequila talking. It's Sir Isaac Newton.
JEFF MARCY, ASTRONOMER: There's a major tug of war going on. Planets tugging on stars, stars tugging on the planets. And frankly the planets tug on each other, which leads to some very interesting dances among the planets.
The mass comes from the amount of wobble.
O'BRIEN: Astronomer Jeff Marcy was among the first to use the dance of the planets to waltz his way into a cosmological blockbuster.
MARCY: You're watching a star. And if the star is stationary, no planets. But if the star moves and wobbles, there's probably a planet.
And here's the key: the star will wobble toward you and then away from you and then towards you and away from you over and over again. Only something going around and around would cause the star to wobble over and over again along the same racetrack.
O'BRIEN: So far, Marcy's planetary trophies have been giants made of gas, like Jupiter or Saturn, unlikely abodes for life. But Marcy is undaunted.
MARCY: I have no doubt that there are many, many millions and certainly billions, in fact, Earth-like planets that have just the right conditions for life.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Just a small sampling of my special: "IS ANYBODY OUT THERE?" Weather permitting, it airs again this Sunday night on "CNN PRESENTS" at 8:00 Eastern.
Danger, danger, it's coming!
Still to come, it's a war of words and the Democrats are studying those fighting words. A close look at how they prepare for the counter punch.
Plus she's everywhere: on TV, bumper stickers. She's in the papers. Why she's become a media magnet for just being herself.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, you probably watched that renegade Georgia Democrat Zell Miller rip into John Kerry last night at the GOP convention. Well, Democrats nearby were also watching the senator's address.
CNN's Ed Henry shows us what it was like in the Democratic war room.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Republican delegates loved Democrat Zell Miller's attacks on John Kerry. But Democratic officials jeered as they watched from a makeshift war room, a few blocks from Madison Square Gardens.
TERRY MCAULIFFE, DNC CHAIRMAN: That mans needs a rest. I've never seen such a nasty speech in 25 years. Have you? Angry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).
MCAULIFFE: He smiled a couple times.
HENRY: There have been plenty of late nights for Democrats this week, offering rapid response to the convention speeches. They relished taking on Miller, who gave a fiery endorsement of President Bush.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm telling you, the enemies are locking their children up right now, turning the TV off.
HENRY (on camera): Why do you feel the need to set up a war room like this? Why do you need to do this during the Republican convention?
MCAULIFFE: Well, because they say so many things at these conventions that just aren't true.
HENRY (voice-over): Democratic staffers pounced when Miller accused Kerry of voting to cut weapons programs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cheney cut two Apache programs. But the others are the same?
HENRY: Even before Miller's speech was over, Democrats e-mailed reporters a press release, charging, quote, "Zell Miller used his keynote to attack like an angry, rabid elephant. Zigzag Zell irrationally attacked John Kerry for voting against the very same programs Dick Cheney voted to cut."
That helped put Miller on the offensive when he appeared on television later in the night and was hit with Mr. Cheney's own record.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST, "WOLF BLITZER REPORTS": He opposed some of them when he was the defense secretary, and sometimes he was overruled by the Congress.
SEN. ZELL MILLER (D), GEORGIA: I'm talking about John Kerry's record.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They can't admit their own (ph).
HENRY: Ed Henry, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Which leads us to the diner and our "CROSSFIRE" guys. Paula Begala and Tucker Carlson are there.
Gentlemen, good to see you. I saw you, Paul, as you were watching that: "I know him; I know him; I know him." Did it bring back good or bad memories of campaigns gone by?
PAUL BEGALA, CO-HOST, "CROSSFIRE": Well, mixed memories. Those -- those young people in that war room are young people that many of them I've worked with.
And of course, the speaker at the Republican convention last night was one of my mentors and heroes and former clients, Zell Miller. And so, I've been in a lot of fights with those guys. It's never been in a fight against Zell. And I'm hoping to avoid one now.
O'BRIEN: What was it like hearing Zell say those things? You know, from spitballs all the way on down the line?
BEGALA: Well, you know, it was heartbreaking, I have to tell you. Because the thing that always hurt the most for me, as somebody that loves Zell Miller, is when his opponents, his enemies, would say, "He's Zigzag Zell. He doesn't stand for anything. He just blows with the wind. Oh, he used to work for Lester Maddox. Then he worked for Jimmy Carter. Used to support Clinton; now he supports Bush."
And this gives a lot of fuel to those arguments, and it's really heartbreaking. I don't know which is more disappointing: the fact that he flip-flopped or the fact that he did such a poor job doing it."
I did not expect Zell to give a bad speech, and he did. And I'm sorry to say that. I'm somebody who loves Zell. And before I saw the speech I predicted it would be a real treat. He's such a talent.
O'BRIEN: Are you...
BEGALA: But it seems the Republicans have just messed him up. O'BRIEN: Do you still love him?
BEGALA: Yes, absolutely. You know, I love him unconditionally. He -- We have a personal bond that transcends politics. I mean, if James Carville can go home every night to Mary Matalin, I can certainly remain friends with Zell Miller. He's one of the best people I have ever known.
TUCKER CARLSON, CO-HOST, "CROSSFIRE": But the question is, are you going home to him?
BEGALA: Well, it's time I come out of the woodwork.
O'BRIEN: Would you like to make the announcement? I don't know. Let's leave that for another show.
BEGALA: No, he's a wonderful, wonderful man. He's a great guy.
O'BRIEN: Yes. You know, Tucker, if you -- if you were a cynic you could say Zell Miller is a bit of an opportunistic person. In other words, he knows he's from a red state for good. And this is a good way to keep your job, right?
CARLSON: Yes, you could say that except he's retiring from politics. He's not running for anything anymore.
O'BRIEN: Well, his is now, but don't you think he'll be back? You don't think he'll come back? Or is he really retiring?
CARLSON: No, no. No, he's retiring. He's absolutely retiring. He's -- he's an older man.
And so, that's sort of what's missing from this attack on his character. If you don't like what Zell Miller said, that's -- that's, of course, totally legitimate. If you think his attacks are wrong, that's fair, too.
But to attack him on motive, as the Democrats have done, is pretty low. Not surprising but still low.
You saw Terry McAuliffe the other day saying he's doing this to sell his book. Please. Zell Miller is going to be a rich man the minute he leaves. He could do anything. He doesn't need to sell a stupid book. I mean, get real.
Second, he's not getting elected to anything else.
Third, you know, George W. Bush has been down in the polls. So, how is it opportunistic to all of a sudden jump on a bandwagon that's not doing so well? It's doing a little better now, but it's not like Bush is the wide frontrunner. Zell Miller gets nothing out of this.
His old friends hate him for it. He obviously has changed his mind, and he explained why last night. So, to attack him as a flip- flopper is just dumb. You may not like it, but to say he's fickle is just ridiculous. BEGALA: He is -- I love him...
O'BRIEN: But it is what it is. I mean...
BEGALA: He did flip-flop. Good Lord, he wrote the Democratic platform in 1996. He gave the Democratic keynote in 1992. And now he's switched.
He has a perfect right to do that. But for the Republican to make the heart of their critique against John Kerry that he flip-flops is just not credible, then, to have Zell Miller.
O'BRIEN: Flip-flopper.
CARLSON: I hate to always be...
O'BRIEN: Tucker, let me ask you one other thing.
CARLSON: ... the logic in this. Yes.
O'BRIEN: The tone of the speech. Do you wish it was a little, you know, he went to 11. Do you wish he'd dialed down to a nine?
CARLSON: He went to 11. There's no question about it. I'm an 11 kind of guy. I work on "CROSSFIRE."
BEGALA: It's all about 11s.
CARLSON: Look, after -- after -- after -- I think he made some -- he made some arguments.
I mean, the reason that it's totally ludicrous to call him the flip-flopper. OK, fine, he's a flip-flopper. He explained -- he said, "I have spent my lifetime in the Democratic Party. Here's what I don't like about it. I know a lot about the Democratic Party. I'm an authority on the Democratic Party," he said. "And here's what's wrong with it."
OK, fine, he flip-flopped, but he is explaining why. It's not just because he's hoping to get short-term gain.
Second, about his speech, after a whole day listening to how Republicans are people of compassion, a message that personally turns my stomach. I'm not interested in compassion from my political leaders. I want the right ideas. I want things that work.
It was sort of nice to hear someone just say, you know, "Here's what I believe." Amen.
I mean, look, I'm not for shouting, but it was refreshing after all the kind of gooey, syrupy compassion talk.
BEGALA: But here's what happened...
O'BRIEN: Yes, enough of that, you wanted some red meat. Right? Don't you? Go ahead, Paul.
CARLSON: No, I just wanted someone to say wheat he thinks. And clearly, he did.
BEGALA: And I love that about Zell. And I love when he's unvarnished. But he was across the line last night in several ways. And here's what -- I believe that some right wing hit squad wrote that speech for Zell, because he's a professor of history, and he's a smart man. And I used to write for him. I wrote the speech he gave in 1992.
But there were false, factually false charges in there that Wolf Blitzer, Judy Woodruff, Jeff Greenfield called him on after the speech. He attacked Kerry for votes to cut weapons programs when they were the same weapons programs that Dick Cheney was asking...
O'BRIEN: Tucker -- Tucker, and when he was asked about that, he didn't have...
BEGALA: The Republicans used him like that.
O'BRIEN: And he did not have a very good answer.
CARLSON: His response -- His response when asked is, look, it's what the politicians always say: "I'm not here to talk about that." OK, whatever. He gave a political answer. Dick Cheney voted for a couple of the programs that he was attacking Kerry for cutting. You know, he shouldn't have put that in his speech. Fine.
O'BRIEN: All right.
CARLSON: But that's not the heart of his speech.
BEGALA: The heart of the speech was that...
CARLSON: Let me finish my sentence.
The heart of his critique was Democrats aren't tough enough on terror. That's a real point. You may not agree with it, but don't dismiss it. He knows a lot about the Democratic Party. Listen when he speaks.
O'BRIEN: All right. Quickly, quickly...
BEGALA: The heart of his speech...
O'BRIEN: How was the lunch today; what did you have?
BEGALA: A big old greasy burger.
O'BRIEN: Not a salad?
BEGALA: Zell inspired me. I need some red meat.
CARLSON: I haven't eaten a thing yet. I'm actually wasting away. I feel -- I mean, not so I can stoke my self-pity on the air.
BEGALA: You do look a little peaked.
CARLSON: That's right. I'm about to get a milk shake and a cheeseburger. I literally can't wait.
O'BRIEN: All right. See you, guys. Thanks very much.
BEGALA: Thank you, Miles.
O'BRIEN: Four-star food, four-star commentary. Back with more in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Check the markets. Fred Katayama at the exchange. Hello, Fred.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
PHILLIPS: All right, Fred, thank so much.
It will be up to the voters to decide if the Kerry/Edwards ticket is a hit or miss in November. But these famous political names are already a hit with one California miss whose name is Kerry Edwards.
Reporter Dana Howard with affiliated KXTV has her story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KERRY EDWARDS, SHARES NAME WITH DEMOCRATIC TICKET: You want to see me jump off of here?
DANA HOWARD, KXTV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kerry Edwards is on top of the world.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Who will never mislead us into war.
HOWARD: No, not that Kerry/Edwards. This Kerry Edwards, an eight-year-old third grader from Davis, California.
K. EDWARDS: I never really thought of myself to be that important or anything. It's just like, yes, so what, my name is Kerry Edwards.
HOWARD: But these days it's a very big deal. She's in the local paper. She's on TV.
K. EDWARDS: I was like, wow, that's cool.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just stunned by the amount of interest in this coincidence.
HOWARD: Her dad, an ardent Democrat, spotted the possibilities two years ago when he saw an interview with John Kerry followed by an interview with John Edwards.
K. EDWARDS: And so, I was, like, I wonder if that will really happen. That will be cool. And then when I saw that it did happen. I was like -- my name is Kerry Edwards.
HOWARD: If that weren't enough, her six-year-old brother, his name is, of course, John.
JOHN EDWARDS, SHARES NAME WITH CANDIDATE: I'm going to be on TV. Kind of like I'm the real John Edwards. I'm, like, famous.
HOWARD: What's even better is this 15 minutes of fame could last four years. Kerry and John say not bad, considering presidential politics really aren't their thing.
K. EDWARDS: I just thought they were two guys. And I couldn't tell anyone apart. I just -- just peeking in on TV when I wasn't supposed to.
HOWARD: As for mom, if the kids are happy, she's happy.
Oh, and one more thing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, how much are they going to pay us?
HOWARD: I don't think so.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: I think a royalty deal is in order.
PHILLIPS: You think?
O'BRIEN: I've been very upset since that "Deep Space Nine" show stole my name. I get zero for that.
PHILLIPS: It came up in a crossword on the airplane one time. Maybe that's where it was. I thought it was you.
O'BRIEN: Wasn't me.
PHILLIPS: Oh.
O'BRIEN: Dana Howard of KXTV produced that piece for us. And of course we appreciate it.
PHILLIPS: Well, that wraps up this Thursday. Today is Thursday.
O'BRIEN: Yes it is. Thursday it is.
PHILLIPS: One more day to the weekend.
O'BRIEN: All right, it's been LIVE FROM. I'm Miles O'Brien. And joining us now, CNN's Judy Woodruff.
PHILLIPS: Hi, Judy. O'BRIEN: With an expanded special convention-based edition of "INSIDE POLITICS."
Hello, Judy.
JUDY WOODRUFF, HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": That's right, day four of this convention. Thank you, Kyra. Thank you, Miles.
And on this final day, the new stage is ready, and so are we. The main attraction, the president himself. He'll accept his party's nomination tonight. I'll be previewing his speech with White House chief of staff Andy Card.
Plus, an inside glimpse of the president from the woman who knows him best. Our John King sits down, one-on-one, with first lady Laura Bush.
"INSIDE POLITICS" begins in just a moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY: Thanks, everybody. Thank you all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired September 2, 2004 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to the CNN Center in Atlanta. This is LIVE FROM. And I'm Miles O'Brien.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kyra Phillips. Here's what's all new this half hour.
Where will a hurricane come ashore? Just ahead -- why it's so hard to pinpoint where a big storm will hit. Live pictures now as you see folks heading out of Florida.
O'BRIEN: And firing back -- inside the war room: How the other party put its spin on Republican speeches.
First, here's what is happening now in the news.
Twenty-six women and children freed from a school in southern Russia today. Hundreds, many of them children, still being held hostage. They have now gone more than 37 hours without food or water. As many as 15 armed attackers seized the school yesterday morning, reportedly demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from nearby Chechnya. Negotiations are continuing.
Right now a key oil pipeline is burning in Iraq. Officials say a bomb went off underneath it. The pipeline runs from the northern oil fields into Turkey. The blast described as enormous, the fire visible in Kirkuk 40 miles away.
A not guilty plea in the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping. Brian Mitchell arraigned this morning in Salt Lake City. His trial on half a dozen charges is scheduled for February. His wife, who faces the same charges, has not been declared mentally fit for a trial.
Morning commuters at New York's Grand Central terminal get more than they bargained for when anti-Bush protest erupts there. The demonstration broken up quickly, 20 protesters arrested. They were calling on President Bush to do more to fight AIDS.
PHILLIPS: People are nervously tracking the progress of Hurricane Frances as the massive Category Four storm bears down on Florida. More than a million people have been told to evacuate 10 Florida counties.
That storm is twice the size of Hurricane Charley, which caused billions of dollars of damage. And it's expected to make landfall within the next 36 hours. But predicting exactly where and when the storm will come ashore is still an imprecise science. CNN's meteorologist, Jacqui Jeras, though, tries to make sense of it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST (voice-over): Exactly where and when will the hurricane hit? That's the multimillion-dollar question.
Even with all of the technology and the best computer models, meteorologists still can't pinpoint landfall until the storm is just a few miles offshore.
And although they do have a very good idea of the area a storm will affect as early as five days out, the long-range prediction of where it makes landfall spans several hundred miles.
The farther away from shore the storm is the less confidence there is in the precise path. Over the past decade forecasters have been accurate within 87 miles a day before a storm.
But the error for a storm five days out jumps to 300 miles on either side of the actual point of landfall. That's why it's important to focus on the forecast cone or highlighted area of concern on a map rather than on the line you see here in the middle. The middle line is just a compromise between all of the computer model forecasts.
Hurricane Charley which made landfall as a Category Four storm near Fort Meyers, Florida, this year is a perfect example. The extended forecast had Tampa right in the middle of the cone of uncertainty. This left some residents in Punta Gorda, 80 miles for the south, with a false sense of security, even though they were under a hurricane warning 24 hours before the storm hit.
Jacqui Jeras, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Now in a surprise move, Kobe Bryant's criminal sexual assault case has been tossed out, but the NBA star isn't off the hook yet. CNN's Chris Lawrence explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The criminal case against Kobe Bryant collapsed less than a week before opening statements when his accuser told prosecutors she would no longer cooperate.
MARK HURLBERT, EAGLE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: For this reason and this reason only I am dismissing this case.
LAWRENCE: The woman's attorney said she's disturbed by courthouse mistakes, including the repeated release of her name and medical history. HURLBERT: Today justice is sadly interrupted, and the casualty in this interruption has been a brave young woman who's grievously hurt.
LAWRENCE: The decision came down after Bryant had already flown out. But in a written statement, he apologized to the young woman and her family and said, "I now understand how she sincerely feels that she did not consent to this encounter."
The woman has also filed a civil suit against the basketball star, seeking damages.
But back in Los Angeles, Bryant's teammates were supportive.
LUKE WALTON, BRYANT'S L.A. LAKERS TEAMMATE: Just, you know, for something like this, you know, to finally be over with, I'm happy for him and his family.
LAWRENCE: Bryant is married and the father of a little girl. His accuser, a college student and single. Their two worlds might never have collided if not for a knee injury.
Bryant developed tendonitis last year and came to Colorado for surgery putting him at this lodge on a night his accuser was working there. Both agreed they had sex. She said it was rape; Bryant insisted it was consensual.
(on camera): So, after 14 months and some 700 motions the entire case ended in just 15 minutes. Now, prosecutors cannot refile these criminal charges down the road, but the civil case has not been settled.
Chris Lawrence, CNN, Eagle, Colorado.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Other news across America now. The Scott Peterson murder trial and the focus shifts to Peterson's repeated trips to San Francisco Bay after his wife disappeared.
Prosecutors say he was worried Laci Peterson's body might surface in the bay. But the defense says Peterson was just checking on the prognosis of police searches for his wife.
The father of a Marine killed in Iraq says he was not trying to commit suicide when he set fire to a military van. The incident happened shortly after Carlos Arredondo was told of his son's death. The funeral for the Marine will be held Sunday.
And dropping in from space. NASA is working on bringing the Genesis space capsule back to earth. It's been hovering just outside Earth's magnetic shield, collecting solar wind particles for about 27 months. NASA must guide the capsule through the atmosphere, and it needs to be scooped up by helicopters just before touching down in the Utah desert. All that will happen on September 8. You'll see it live here on CNN, of course. Scientists this week announced the discovery of the two smallest planets ever discovered outside our solar system. I hope you're listening, June Lockhart.
The planets are the size of Neptune, and unlike other extra solar planets -- that means outside our Solar System, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Oh, thank you, Miles.
O'BRIEN: They might have a rocky surface instead of being big gas giants. It makes planet hunters think they're hot on the trail of finding another planet like our own. And that could unravel a riddle as old as our ability to pose it.
Not long ago I spent some time with a leading planet hunter.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN (voice-over): Next time you're savoring the sunset on the water somewhere, consider this. The star that warms all our days here on Earth is wobbling. And that's not the tequila talking. It's Sir Isaac Newton.
JEFF MARCY, ASTRONOMER: There's a major tug of war going on. Planets tugging on stars, stars tugging on the planets. And frankly the planets tug on each other, which leads to some very interesting dances among the planets.
The mass comes from the amount of wobble.
O'BRIEN: Astronomer Jeff Marcy was among the first to use the dance of the planets to waltz his way into a cosmological blockbuster.
MARCY: You're watching a star. And if the star is stationary, no planets. But if the star moves and wobbles, there's probably a planet.
And here's the key: the star will wobble toward you and then away from you and then towards you and away from you over and over again. Only something going around and around would cause the star to wobble over and over again along the same racetrack.
O'BRIEN: So far, Marcy's planetary trophies have been giants made of gas, like Jupiter or Saturn, unlikely abodes for life. But Marcy is undaunted.
MARCY: I have no doubt that there are many, many millions and certainly billions, in fact, Earth-like planets that have just the right conditions for life.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Just a small sampling of my special: "IS ANYBODY OUT THERE?" Weather permitting, it airs again this Sunday night on "CNN PRESENTS" at 8:00 Eastern.
Danger, danger, it's coming!
Still to come, it's a war of words and the Democrats are studying those fighting words. A close look at how they prepare for the counter punch.
Plus she's everywhere: on TV, bumper stickers. She's in the papers. Why she's become a media magnet for just being herself.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, you probably watched that renegade Georgia Democrat Zell Miller rip into John Kerry last night at the GOP convention. Well, Democrats nearby were also watching the senator's address.
CNN's Ed Henry shows us what it was like in the Democratic war room.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Republican delegates loved Democrat Zell Miller's attacks on John Kerry. But Democratic officials jeered as they watched from a makeshift war room, a few blocks from Madison Square Gardens.
TERRY MCAULIFFE, DNC CHAIRMAN: That mans needs a rest. I've never seen such a nasty speech in 25 years. Have you? Angry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).
MCAULIFFE: He smiled a couple times.
HENRY: There have been plenty of late nights for Democrats this week, offering rapid response to the convention speeches. They relished taking on Miller, who gave a fiery endorsement of President Bush.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm telling you, the enemies are locking their children up right now, turning the TV off.
HENRY (on camera): Why do you feel the need to set up a war room like this? Why do you need to do this during the Republican convention?
MCAULIFFE: Well, because they say so many things at these conventions that just aren't true.
HENRY (voice-over): Democratic staffers pounced when Miller accused Kerry of voting to cut weapons programs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cheney cut two Apache programs. But the others are the same?
HENRY: Even before Miller's speech was over, Democrats e-mailed reporters a press release, charging, quote, "Zell Miller used his keynote to attack like an angry, rabid elephant. Zigzag Zell irrationally attacked John Kerry for voting against the very same programs Dick Cheney voted to cut."
That helped put Miller on the offensive when he appeared on television later in the night and was hit with Mr. Cheney's own record.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST, "WOLF BLITZER REPORTS": He opposed some of them when he was the defense secretary, and sometimes he was overruled by the Congress.
SEN. ZELL MILLER (D), GEORGIA: I'm talking about John Kerry's record.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They can't admit their own (ph).
HENRY: Ed Henry, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Which leads us to the diner and our "CROSSFIRE" guys. Paula Begala and Tucker Carlson are there.
Gentlemen, good to see you. I saw you, Paul, as you were watching that: "I know him; I know him; I know him." Did it bring back good or bad memories of campaigns gone by?
PAUL BEGALA, CO-HOST, "CROSSFIRE": Well, mixed memories. Those -- those young people in that war room are young people that many of them I've worked with.
And of course, the speaker at the Republican convention last night was one of my mentors and heroes and former clients, Zell Miller. And so, I've been in a lot of fights with those guys. It's never been in a fight against Zell. And I'm hoping to avoid one now.
O'BRIEN: What was it like hearing Zell say those things? You know, from spitballs all the way on down the line?
BEGALA: Well, you know, it was heartbreaking, I have to tell you. Because the thing that always hurt the most for me, as somebody that loves Zell Miller, is when his opponents, his enemies, would say, "He's Zigzag Zell. He doesn't stand for anything. He just blows with the wind. Oh, he used to work for Lester Maddox. Then he worked for Jimmy Carter. Used to support Clinton; now he supports Bush."
And this gives a lot of fuel to those arguments, and it's really heartbreaking. I don't know which is more disappointing: the fact that he flip-flopped or the fact that he did such a poor job doing it."
I did not expect Zell to give a bad speech, and he did. And I'm sorry to say that. I'm somebody who loves Zell. And before I saw the speech I predicted it would be a real treat. He's such a talent.
O'BRIEN: Are you...
BEGALA: But it seems the Republicans have just messed him up. O'BRIEN: Do you still love him?
BEGALA: Yes, absolutely. You know, I love him unconditionally. He -- We have a personal bond that transcends politics. I mean, if James Carville can go home every night to Mary Matalin, I can certainly remain friends with Zell Miller. He's one of the best people I have ever known.
TUCKER CARLSON, CO-HOST, "CROSSFIRE": But the question is, are you going home to him?
BEGALA: Well, it's time I come out of the woodwork.
O'BRIEN: Would you like to make the announcement? I don't know. Let's leave that for another show.
BEGALA: No, he's a wonderful, wonderful man. He's a great guy.
O'BRIEN: Yes. You know, Tucker, if you -- if you were a cynic you could say Zell Miller is a bit of an opportunistic person. In other words, he knows he's from a red state for good. And this is a good way to keep your job, right?
CARLSON: Yes, you could say that except he's retiring from politics. He's not running for anything anymore.
O'BRIEN: Well, his is now, but don't you think he'll be back? You don't think he'll come back? Or is he really retiring?
CARLSON: No, no. No, he's retiring. He's absolutely retiring. He's -- he's an older man.
And so, that's sort of what's missing from this attack on his character. If you don't like what Zell Miller said, that's -- that's, of course, totally legitimate. If you think his attacks are wrong, that's fair, too.
But to attack him on motive, as the Democrats have done, is pretty low. Not surprising but still low.
You saw Terry McAuliffe the other day saying he's doing this to sell his book. Please. Zell Miller is going to be a rich man the minute he leaves. He could do anything. He doesn't need to sell a stupid book. I mean, get real.
Second, he's not getting elected to anything else.
Third, you know, George W. Bush has been down in the polls. So, how is it opportunistic to all of a sudden jump on a bandwagon that's not doing so well? It's doing a little better now, but it's not like Bush is the wide frontrunner. Zell Miller gets nothing out of this.
His old friends hate him for it. He obviously has changed his mind, and he explained why last night. So, to attack him as a flip- flopper is just dumb. You may not like it, but to say he's fickle is just ridiculous. BEGALA: He is -- I love him...
O'BRIEN: But it is what it is. I mean...
BEGALA: He did flip-flop. Good Lord, he wrote the Democratic platform in 1996. He gave the Democratic keynote in 1992. And now he's switched.
He has a perfect right to do that. But for the Republican to make the heart of their critique against John Kerry that he flip-flops is just not credible, then, to have Zell Miller.
O'BRIEN: Flip-flopper.
CARLSON: I hate to always be...
O'BRIEN: Tucker, let me ask you one other thing.
CARLSON: ... the logic in this. Yes.
O'BRIEN: The tone of the speech. Do you wish it was a little, you know, he went to 11. Do you wish he'd dialed down to a nine?
CARLSON: He went to 11. There's no question about it. I'm an 11 kind of guy. I work on "CROSSFIRE."
BEGALA: It's all about 11s.
CARLSON: Look, after -- after -- after -- I think he made some -- he made some arguments.
I mean, the reason that it's totally ludicrous to call him the flip-flopper. OK, fine, he's a flip-flopper. He explained -- he said, "I have spent my lifetime in the Democratic Party. Here's what I don't like about it. I know a lot about the Democratic Party. I'm an authority on the Democratic Party," he said. "And here's what's wrong with it."
OK, fine, he flip-flopped, but he is explaining why. It's not just because he's hoping to get short-term gain.
Second, about his speech, after a whole day listening to how Republicans are people of compassion, a message that personally turns my stomach. I'm not interested in compassion from my political leaders. I want the right ideas. I want things that work.
It was sort of nice to hear someone just say, you know, "Here's what I believe." Amen.
I mean, look, I'm not for shouting, but it was refreshing after all the kind of gooey, syrupy compassion talk.
BEGALA: But here's what happened...
O'BRIEN: Yes, enough of that, you wanted some red meat. Right? Don't you? Go ahead, Paul.
CARLSON: No, I just wanted someone to say wheat he thinks. And clearly, he did.
BEGALA: And I love that about Zell. And I love when he's unvarnished. But he was across the line last night in several ways. And here's what -- I believe that some right wing hit squad wrote that speech for Zell, because he's a professor of history, and he's a smart man. And I used to write for him. I wrote the speech he gave in 1992.
But there were false, factually false charges in there that Wolf Blitzer, Judy Woodruff, Jeff Greenfield called him on after the speech. He attacked Kerry for votes to cut weapons programs when they were the same weapons programs that Dick Cheney was asking...
O'BRIEN: Tucker -- Tucker, and when he was asked about that, he didn't have...
BEGALA: The Republicans used him like that.
O'BRIEN: And he did not have a very good answer.
CARLSON: His response -- His response when asked is, look, it's what the politicians always say: "I'm not here to talk about that." OK, whatever. He gave a political answer. Dick Cheney voted for a couple of the programs that he was attacking Kerry for cutting. You know, he shouldn't have put that in his speech. Fine.
O'BRIEN: All right.
CARLSON: But that's not the heart of his speech.
BEGALA: The heart of the speech was that...
CARLSON: Let me finish my sentence.
The heart of his critique was Democrats aren't tough enough on terror. That's a real point. You may not agree with it, but don't dismiss it. He knows a lot about the Democratic Party. Listen when he speaks.
O'BRIEN: All right. Quickly, quickly...
BEGALA: The heart of his speech...
O'BRIEN: How was the lunch today; what did you have?
BEGALA: A big old greasy burger.
O'BRIEN: Not a salad?
BEGALA: Zell inspired me. I need some red meat.
CARLSON: I haven't eaten a thing yet. I'm actually wasting away. I feel -- I mean, not so I can stoke my self-pity on the air.
BEGALA: You do look a little peaked.
CARLSON: That's right. I'm about to get a milk shake and a cheeseburger. I literally can't wait.
O'BRIEN: All right. See you, guys. Thanks very much.
BEGALA: Thank you, Miles.
O'BRIEN: Four-star food, four-star commentary. Back with more in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Check the markets. Fred Katayama at the exchange. Hello, Fred.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
PHILLIPS: All right, Fred, thank so much.
It will be up to the voters to decide if the Kerry/Edwards ticket is a hit or miss in November. But these famous political names are already a hit with one California miss whose name is Kerry Edwards.
Reporter Dana Howard with affiliated KXTV has her story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KERRY EDWARDS, SHARES NAME WITH DEMOCRATIC TICKET: You want to see me jump off of here?
DANA HOWARD, KXTV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kerry Edwards is on top of the world.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Who will never mislead us into war.
HOWARD: No, not that Kerry/Edwards. This Kerry Edwards, an eight-year-old third grader from Davis, California.
K. EDWARDS: I never really thought of myself to be that important or anything. It's just like, yes, so what, my name is Kerry Edwards.
HOWARD: But these days it's a very big deal. She's in the local paper. She's on TV.
K. EDWARDS: I was like, wow, that's cool.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just stunned by the amount of interest in this coincidence.
HOWARD: Her dad, an ardent Democrat, spotted the possibilities two years ago when he saw an interview with John Kerry followed by an interview with John Edwards.
K. EDWARDS: And so, I was, like, I wonder if that will really happen. That will be cool. And then when I saw that it did happen. I was like -- my name is Kerry Edwards.
HOWARD: If that weren't enough, her six-year-old brother, his name is, of course, John.
JOHN EDWARDS, SHARES NAME WITH CANDIDATE: I'm going to be on TV. Kind of like I'm the real John Edwards. I'm, like, famous.
HOWARD: What's even better is this 15 minutes of fame could last four years. Kerry and John say not bad, considering presidential politics really aren't their thing.
K. EDWARDS: I just thought they were two guys. And I couldn't tell anyone apart. I just -- just peeking in on TV when I wasn't supposed to.
HOWARD: As for mom, if the kids are happy, she's happy.
Oh, and one more thing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, how much are they going to pay us?
HOWARD: I don't think so.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: I think a royalty deal is in order.
PHILLIPS: You think?
O'BRIEN: I've been very upset since that "Deep Space Nine" show stole my name. I get zero for that.
PHILLIPS: It came up in a crossword on the airplane one time. Maybe that's where it was. I thought it was you.
O'BRIEN: Wasn't me.
PHILLIPS: Oh.
O'BRIEN: Dana Howard of KXTV produced that piece for us. And of course we appreciate it.
PHILLIPS: Well, that wraps up this Thursday. Today is Thursday.
O'BRIEN: Yes it is. Thursday it is.
PHILLIPS: One more day to the weekend.
O'BRIEN: All right, it's been LIVE FROM. I'm Miles O'Brien. And joining us now, CNN's Judy Woodruff.
PHILLIPS: Hi, Judy. O'BRIEN: With an expanded special convention-based edition of "INSIDE POLITICS."
Hello, Judy.
JUDY WOODRUFF, HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": That's right, day four of this convention. Thank you, Kyra. Thank you, Miles.
And on this final day, the new stage is ready, and so are we. The main attraction, the president himself. He'll accept his party's nomination tonight. I'll be previewing his speech with White House chief of staff Andy Card.
Plus, an inside glimpse of the president from the woman who knows him best. Our John King sits down, one-on-one, with first lady Laura Bush.
"INSIDE POLITICS" begins in just a moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY: Thanks, everybody. Thank you all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
