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New Supreme Court Nominee; Huge day for John Roberts; Operation Iron Fist

Aired October 03, 2005 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: She's a lawyer, a policymaker, but what kind of Supreme Court justice would she be? Some insight this hour from a constitutional law attorney.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got the bad guys and the good guys lined up against each other. You've got innocent civilians intermixed in the battle.

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PHILLIPS: Blurred battle lines, heartbreaking situations. Inside the fight as U.S. Marines try to take out Iraqi insurgents.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Kyra Philips. This hour's of CNN LIVE FROM starts right now.

"Under new management." "Help wanted." You won't really find either of those signs in the Supreme Court windows, and the second one may not apply much longer.

Here's the new management. John Roberts facing day one on the bench as chief justice of the United States, sharing the spotlight, by accident or otherwise, with the president's nominee to fill the slot for which Roberts was initially tapped, that of retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. The new pick is Harriet Miers, White House counsel, and, therefore, one of the very few aides in charge of picking Supreme Court nominees.

We get the latest on the chief and his potential future colleague from CNN's Joe Johns. He's at the court -- Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, 60 years old, a Bush loyalist. She would be the third woman nominated and to serve, in fact, on the United States Supreme Court.

A big move today, certainly by the president of the United States. The question is, will she be confirmed? We do know that she got what sounds very much like a vote of support from the Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid, who spoke earlier today.

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SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MINORITY LEADER: Harriet Miers has served with distinction as a trial lawyer. That's what I am, I'm a trial lawyer. So anyone with that background makes me feel good. Someone who has been in a courtroom, has tried cases, answered interrogatories, done all those things that lawyers need to do.

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JOHNS: She certainly hit thehe ground running today, Harriet Miers did, meeting with top congressional leaders on the Republican side. Also expected to meet with some Democrats at a later date.

The Senate majority leader said, in his view, he'd very much like to get this nomination through the Senate by the end of November.

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SEN. BILL FRIST (R-TN), MAJORITY LEADER: Extensive consultation has gotten under way. The president has reached out to over 80 United States senators in a bipartisan way. And so we're very excited about this process. And with that, as I mentioned earlier, it will be undignified, it will be civil, it will be disciplined, and I'm sure it will be tough in many ways.

But we look forward to confirmation, and working as hard as we possibly can by Thanksgiving.

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JOHNS: So, she's such an unknown quantity that we will have to watch both Democrats and Republicans. The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee put out a statement today saying in part, "It's too early to reach any firm judgment about such an important nomination. I do not know Ms. Miers well, and I did not meet her until six months after she became White House counsel" -- Kyra.?

PHILLIPS: Talking a lot about Harriet Miers today, of course. But let's not forget John Roberts. This was a big day for him. Do you think we've overshadowed that a bit?

JOHNS: Well, it certainly was a huge day for him, the third -- the first Monday in October. Of course this was his first day on the court as chief justice. A certain amount of ceremony, because he was sworn in a second time in the court earlier today.

He took a walk down the steps. His family was here. He came down the steps with Justice John Paul Stevens. And, you know, we got to look at him, and then it was off to work asking questions from the bench on a number of cases to kick off the fall term.

PHILLIPS: All right. Joe Johns on the court -- or right there outside the Supreme Court.

Thank you so much.

Well, Harriet Miers has strong ties to President Bush. Their working relationship spans many years, and he once described her as "a pit bull in size 6 shoes."

CNN White House Correspondent Dana Bash at her post with more on their history and the connection.

I think Dana wears a size 6 shoe, but I wouldn't call you a pit bull.

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Why, thank you. I do wear a size 6. We'll stop going there at this point.

But what we saw this morning, Kyra, in the Oval Office was actually pretty much vintage George W. Bush. He came out and picked somebody who is a trusted, loyal ally, a longtime adviser, and essentially made it clear that she is the person that he is putting in this job, that he has waited a long time to pick somebody for.

She is a White House counsel, was the deputy chief of staff. Back in Texas, she was a litigator, representing mostly big corporations. And the president actually first appointed her to something back in Texas. It was the Texas State Lottery Commission when he was governor.

Well, as Joe was saying, he does not have -- she does not have any judicial experience at all, never been a judge on any bench, state or federal. Today, Mr. Bush defended that when announcing her and said it was a plus.

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GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've come to agree with the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who wrote about the importance of having judges who are drawn from a wide diversity of professional backgrounds. Justice Rehnquist himself came to the Supreme Court without prior experience on the bench, as did more than 35 other men, including Byron White.

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BASH: Now, because Harriet Miers has virtually -- has no record on the bench, what is going on right now is the White House is trying to sell her, trying to explain, as you just heard from the president, that she is of superior legal mind. But politically, what's very interesting here at the White House this afternoon is that they are trying to aggressively sell her not just to Democrats, but even more so to the president's conservative base.

The Republican rank and file very much wanted to have a try and true conservative, somebody with a deep background and record to fill the seat of Sandra Day O'Connor. That crucial swing seat. One conservative group said of Harriet Miers, that she is an unqualified choice, someone not seen since Abe Fortas.

So, in fact, we're hearing from Republicans perhaps more consternation than Democrats at this point publicly. But the White House says that one of the reasons why they chose her, Kyra, is because they had heard from Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill that she is somebody that they should consider. And when you take a step back and think about that politically, the fact that a Democrat, any Democrat suggested to the president that they that he appoint somebody and that wasn't an immediate death note sort of gives you a sense of where we are right now in the political atmospherics, where the president is, specifically of his approval rating, and perhaps his clout to get somebody through on Capitol Hill.

PHILLIPS: Dana, thanks.

Well, there's been cautious reaction to the president's Supreme Court pick. Our senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, calls Harriet Miers' record a very blank slate. And David Oblon, a constitutional law attorney, says lawmakers must learn more about her before voting her in.

He joins me now live from Washington.

Good to see you, David.

DAVID OBLON, CONSTITUTIONAL ATTORNEY: Good afternoon.

PHILLIPS: All right. You were telling me this morning this is definitely going to be very difficult. Why?

OBLON: Oh, I think it really is going to be difficult because already we've got the Democrats, who there is a base of Democrats who will not vote for any Bush nominee no matter who it is. And then you now have the conservatives who are worried about this blank slate, that they might view as a blank check.

The fact is, is that conservatives have twice, in recent history, been told, hey, trust us with the candidate who you didn't know much about. Ed Meese told conservatives to "trust us" when he nominated Kennedy, and Kennedy turned out to be a vote with the middle of the road. And then you had Sununu, who suggested Souter was a great choice for a conservative nominee, and he's turned out to be one of the most liberal justices.

So you can see that conservatives would be very wary of a blank check.

PHILLIPS: So, you think that since she's never been a judge, that once she takes this seat, if indeed she's sworn in, that how she was as a lawyer, how we think she is, how she makes decisions, that can completely change once she's on the court?

OBLON: Yes. It's a remarkable thing that happens when someone goes from being a lawyer to being a judge.

They put on that hat, they put on the robe, and suddenly it's a completely different person. The -- it happens on a regular basis in the context of criminal law, where you'll see a long-term criminal defense attorney who spends her entire career defending criminals, and they can join the bench and suddenly become very pro-prosecution. And you see prosecutors who are really tough on crime suddenly become very liberal in sentencing.

You see it also in the Supreme Court context. Justice Hugo Black, he was a former Ku Klux Klan member when he was nominated and confirmed on the bench, and then he became a leader for civil rights once he was on the bench.

And then you have Earl Warren, the man who Justice Rehnquist spent his entire career trying to reverse. Earl Warren was appointed by Eisenhower as a moderate conservative, but then he instantly turned his way to the liberal bloc and became the most liberal chief justice we've had in modern history.

PHILLIPS: Let's talk about her personally for just a second. I mean, this is a woman who definitely broke the glass ceiling.

She's aggressive, she's smart, she has never been married, she doesn't have kids. She's a workaholic, from what I hear, getting up at 4:00 in the morning some mornings and working until 10:00 at night.

OBLON: She sounds like Souter, doesn't she?

PHILLIPS: Yes, very much so. I'm curious how that is going to play out, how that's going to affect the court.

I mean, she's 60 years old. Obviously, she is set in her ways. Everybody admires an amazing work ethic.

OBLON: Well, being a workaholic is not a -- is not a fault. I mean, someone who is married to their career and who's going to put their 100 percent into it -- this is a very important position, and that's OK.

The fact that she's not married, I don't think that should be a strike against her. You know, we want people with varied backgrounds on the bench. And, you know, I think everybody else is married, except for Souter, and has had that experience.

But we don't know very much about her, and that's where we run into the problem, because we have to just trust Bush's judgment. Bush knows her very well, knew her before he became very active in politics, of course knows her now as his right-hand legal adviser.

If you can trust Bush to name a good conservative, if that's what you want, then you have to go with that. But you can understand why some people might not want to be so trusting.

PHILLIPS: David, looking at her background, NPR did a really great report. And something that caught my attention -- a number of people, actually, they were talking about this morning -- her involvement was Exodus Ministries. You tend to wonder how she would rule on gay rights.

OBLON: Well, was Exodus Ministries with the ex-gays, or was that...

PHILLIPS: They talk about the...

OBLON: ... having to do with the prisoners? I thought it was prisoners.

PHILLIPS: They talk about the gay to straight ministry, basically saying through the power of Jesus Christ you can cure yourself, you know, from being -- from being gay.

OBLON: See, because I thought that Exodus was about the prisoners who were leaving prison, and -- but, in any event, if it is true that she was supporting the ex-gays, well, that tells you more about her. It also tells you more about her when you find out that in the ABA, the American Bar Association, she was a leading force to trying to get the organization to drop their pro-choice advocacy.

I mean, these are things that someone does in their background that shows where they are.

You can also show -- judge her by the company she keeps, the fact that she was so active in Republican politics for so long. That indicates, you know, where she may be coming from.

So, you know, I mean, conservative Republicans don't have to be terrified by this, but concern is certainly well placed.

PHILLIPS: David Oblon, constitutional law attorney, thanks for your time.

OBLON: You bet. Good afternoon.

PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, a war fought on city streets. Ahead on LIVE FROM, CNN reporter Jennifer Eccleston embedded with U.S. Marines. She's going to take you inside the fight against insurgents.

And later, rebuilding after the hurricanes. An important sign of things getting closer to normal in New Orleans. We'll take you there live. Susan Roesgen is standing by.

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PHILLIPS: Another U.S. soldier has been killed in Iraq. The victim of indirect fire in Ramadi. That town, 75 miles west of Baghdad, is a militant stronghold. A U.S. offensive aimed at wiping out insurgents is now in its third day along the Syrian border.

Our Jennifer Eccleston is embedded with the Marines engaged in Operation Iron Fist.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, we're taking incoming rockets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was close.

JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): India Company was looking for a fight. In eastern Karabala, the insurgents complied, gunfire and rockets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: India Company running around with RPGs. As soon as I get a shot, I'm going to be taking a few.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you even see them?

ECCLESTON: Firing but fleeing before they're identified and engaged.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know these pop shots are frustrating. Keep your eyes open and we're going to snag one of them. And keep your heads down.

ECCLESTON: Frustrations mount.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then if you've got somebody to shoot at, it's a done deal. Do it.

ECCLESTON: Nerves fray.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yankee 4 to Yankee 6, what's going on?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger. Anybody know what that machine gunfire was?

ECCLESTON (on camera): The Marines were taking sporadic gunfire for about an hour, which limited their ability to advance further into town. And they thought the shooters were coming from this area.

(voice-over): So Abrams tanks are called in to take out the alleged safe haven. Marines think they may have struck their target, but then a stream of civilians in shock, in disbelief, in pain. The wall is hit, but so is a building.

A mother, father and child struck by flying pieces of their home. Marines treat them and others. The most serious evacuated.

What's our crime, one man moans, we're innocent.

Innocence and guilt blurred when fighting a counter insurgency, Marines say, especially when their enemy is capable of such deception. Hidden bombs, like this, mined streets. Marines use their tools to isolate the insurgents, but everyone is a potential suspect.

LT. COL. DALE ALFORD, U.S. MARINE CORPS: This isn't an open battlefield where we're -- you've got the bad guys and the good guys lined up against each other. You've got innocent civilians intermixed in the battle, and it's always tough.

ECCLESTON: Especially tough this day. While the mission to secure Karbala is progressing, the mission to win the trust of innocent civilians suffers a setback.

Jennifer Eccleston, CNN, Karabala, Iraq.

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PHILLIPS: In Indonesia, the hunt is on for the masterminds of three deadly suicide bombings on the resort island of Bali. Amateur video of one of the near simultaneous attacks shows a suspected bomber strolling past diners at one of the cafes just before it was blown up.

At least 22 people, including the bombers, were killed Saturday at three crowded restaurants. More than 100 wounded. Police think at least three other people were involved and are still at large.

An Indonesian anti-terror official says that two of the suspected masterminds also have been blamed for the Bali bombings three years ago that killed 202 people.

In the Middle East, dozens of Palestinian police officers broke into the parliament building in Gaza today firing weapons into the air. They were protesting what they say was their lack of ammunition and equipment in a weekend confrontation with Hamas militants. Afterwards, the legislature passed a non-binding resolution calling on Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, to form a new government.

The protest came the day after some of the worst internal fighting in Gaza in nearly a decade. A mosque gunman attacked a police station with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. A deputy police chief and two civilians were killed. Dozens more were wounded.

In New Orleans, it's got to be the best news in a long time. The Army Corps of Engineers says the city will be declared dry by tomorrow or Wednesday. Damaged levees have been repaired, and pumping of the remaining water continues. But that's not all of the encouraging developments.

Susan Roesgen, with our affiliate WGNO, joins me with more on the efforts to get that city back to normal.

And I guess just seeing you with a shopping bag means some meaning of normal life -- Susan.

SUSAN ROESGEN, REPORTER, WGNO: Absolutely, Kyra. I did a little shopping in uptown New Orleans today, and I found what many homeowners are finding. They've come back, but many businesses haven't.

Three hundred eight-five thousand businesses in Louisiana -- that's about 41 percent of all Louisiana companies -- have either closed or moved. So it becomes sort of a little game to try to find the things you need to make life easier.

I went back to the Walgreen's, which many homeowners is now doubling as a grocery store. I got some canned fruit, so keep my strength up with that.

Then I went to the neighborhood pet store because I have a little evacuee dog. How are you going to feed her? The pet store is not open yet, but the manager took pity on me and he gave me some Science Diet treats for the pooch.

I think one of folks' most prized possessions in uptown New Orleans right now is this. This is -- I got it at a discount -- a bottle of Merlot. I got it at a discount because the local wine seller recently reopened, but he says, "Look, those bottles have been in there in terrible heat for four weeks." He couldn't in good conscience give us the wine at the regular price. And I have to tell you in the essence of full disclosure, Kyra, that by comparison, Jefferson Parish looks like the land of plenty. If you've got a car, and if you've got gas, you can drive about 20 minutes away into Jefferson Parish, where lots of things are open.

They've got grocery stores. They've got hospitals. And today, Kyra, they've got schools, too.

PHILLIPS: That's right. How many schools opened up? I mean, were all of them opened up today? Because I know that's such a big difference.

New Orleans, there aren't any up and going yet, right? And a lot of these kids went over to Jefferson Parish.

ROESGEN: Absolutely, Kyra. Jefferson Parish schools are opened, St. Tammany Parish schools are opened. A few have closed because of some wind damage. But a lot of kids from New Orleans are now going to those schools, and it's good news for them and for the kids in those parishes because life is getting back to normal in that way.

In Orleans Parish, out of 116 schools, only eight are usable at this point.

PHILLIPS: Now, let's talk about the spiritual side of New Orleans for a minute. I mean, we know how powerful the churches are there. And there are a lot of people that are involved, whether it's Catholic or Jewish. But people are very active spiritually. It's always a big deal to see some of this video come in Sunday of mass and other services that took place.

ROESGEN: It was a very big deal, Kyra.

St. Louis Cathedral, one of the oldest Catholic cathedrals in the country, this is where our former mayor, Marc Morial, got married a few years ago in a big wedding. This is where many New Orleanians go to midnight mass on Christmas Eve. So it was very important to New Orleanians of all faiths that the cathedral hold its very first mass since Hurricane Katrina. It was great news for the city.

PHILLIPS: Now, how did you respond, how did a lot of people in New Orleans respond when a number of ministers came forward and said, oh, this is what happens in the Big Easy when you live that life of sin. I mean, seriously, I couldn't believe a lot of ministers were coming out and saying that this was sort of retribution.

ROESGEN: Yes, they were. But folks here say, hey, if that's the case, then god's geography is off a little bit, because the French Quarter was not nearly as hard hit as some of the other areas.

In the French Quarter, Kyra, the first Bourbon Street strip club has already opened. They say they've got eight dancers and about 60 guys every night, a lot of government workers in there.

(LAUGHTER) ROESGEN: The daiquiri shops are rolling again. So, you know, life goes on in the French Quarter, which was sort of the core of Sin City, if you will. But, hey, you know, that's the way New Orleans is. She's a little rough around the edges, but that's why we love her.

PHILLIPS: Very true. Very, very true.

Susan Roesgen, thank you so much. We look forward to your reports the rest of the week.

Thanks, Susie.

ROESGEN: You bet.

PHILLIPS: Well, straight ahead on LIVE FROM, rebuilding an important part of New Orleans culture.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He chooses to live in the historic Lower 9th Ward. On Monday, fixes red beans and rice for all the brothers in the hood.

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PHILLIPS: Oh, yes. Rock 'n' roll hall-of-famer Fats Domino calls the hood home. How will other people who live in the 9th Ward be able to rebuild their lives? We're going to talk about it.

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PHILLIPS: And this just into CNN. We want to make a bit of a clarification here.

You know, we were talking about President Bush this morning when he introduced his nominee for the Supreme Court, Harriet Miers, and he was talking about her background and groups that she has been involved with. And he was talking about her involvement with Exodus ministries.

There's a difference. There are two different Exodus ministries. And we want to make a clarification that Harriet Miers has been involved as part of the board of directors for Exodus Ministry in east Dallas, and that's an organization that assists ex-offenders in finding jobs and places to live.

The organization is not related to Exodus International, and that's the one we were talking about, the world's largest educational informational outreach dealing with homosexuality. Two different ministries.

The one that Harriet Miers is involved with is Exodus Ministry in east Dallas. Very different from what the president mentioned earlier this morning. Wanted to make that clarification.

Well, moving on and talking about that firefighters in southern California have made a lot of progress battling three wildfires with the help of cooler temperatures. The biggest fire which consumed 24,000 acres on the border of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, is expected to be fully contained by tonight. Still, there is concern that warmer winds forecast over the next few days could reignite the blazes.

Well, how is the weather holding up in southern California? Our meteorologist, Jacqui Jeras, is monitoring that situation from the CNN weather center.

(WEATHER REPORT)

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