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Approval Increases for Bush Immigration Policies; New England Faces Flooding; Emotional First Day for Tony Snow

Aired May 16, 2006 - 13:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, HOST: Live in B Control, I'm Kyra Phillips at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
We begin this hour with the borders, the battles and the bounce. In the course of just 16 minutes last night, approval of President Bush's immigration policies among those who watched his prime-time address shot up 25 percentage points.

Before the speech, 42 percent viewed those policies positively, 38 percent negatively, a virtual tie, given the polls five percentage point margin of error. Afterward, though, the positive camp grew to 67 percent. Negatives shrank to 27.

Almost eight speech watchers in 10 described their reaction as somewhat but very positive. As always, we point out the audiences for presidential speeches skew more towards the president's party than does the general public.

Low poll numbers, high political stakes. Challenging times for the president. He's appealing to one group but not abandoning another.

CNN's Candy Crowley has a report that aired first on "ANDERSON COOPER 360."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good evening.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The politics were straightforward. The president wanted to give conservatives enough border security to prevent mutiny.

TERRY JEFFREY, "HUMAN EVENTS" MAGAZINE: I think this is a make or break moment for the president with conservatives. If he doesn't demonstrate he's serious about securing the border, I think there's some conservatives he's lost for good.

CROWLEY: This kind of thing was for them.

BUSH: The United States must control its borders. This is a basic responsibility of a sovereign nation. It is also an urgent requirement of our national security.

CROWLEY: But tough can't be harsh, left voters, particularly Latino voters, turn off to the Republican party. This kind of thing was for them.

BUSH: Every human being has dignity and value, no matter what their citizenship papers say.

CROWLEY: This wasn't as much a nationally televised speech, so much as a nationally televised juggling act.

BUSH: America can be a lawful society and a welcoming society at the same time.

CROWLEY: Six years into his presidency, George Bush is swimming upstream, weighed down by low poll ratings and an oncoming election with the makings of a Republican train wreck.

PATRICK TOOMEY, CLUB FOR GROWTH: We are involved in a lot of national races through our political arm, and we're discovering that a lot of Republicans are very disappointed with this Republican Congress. It most likely will manifest itself with low turnout if something doesn't happen to turn this around.

CROWLEY: Not long ago, a group calling themselves the Republican Wing of the Republican Party met in Pennsylvania for a kind of grassroots political therapy, commiserating over shared frustrations.

HENRY JACKSON, REPUBLICAN ACTIVIST: I would say the biggest issue is spending. And border security, or the influx of illegals.

CROWLEY: The biggest threat to Republicans this year is not that angry Democrats will show up at the polls, but that angry Republicans will stay home. The president has little time left before the mutiny.

JEFFREY: Republicans are probably going to be coming back six weeks from now. And if there isn't real action on securing the border, they're going to be going after the president. Because not only do they believe in the policy, they think it's good politics for them.

CROWLEY: Can a president with poll numbers in the basement pull off a miracle on Pennsylvania Avenue?

TONY BLANKLEY, "WASHINGTON TIMES": My hunch is that conservatives have not lost their skepticism.

CROWLEY: It's a Hail Mary, admitted one ally, but he has to be in the game.

CNN, Candy Crowley, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: And Candy Crowley is part of the best political team on television, of course. You can see her stories on "ANDERSON COOPER 360", weeknights at 10 Easter. And later this hour, I'll speak with Texas Governor Rick Perry for reaction to the president's immigration plan. Well, days of rain and worry, and for New Englanders, weeks if not months, of misery. Their homes, their towns flooded. CNN's Dan Lothian is in Methuen, Massachusetts, where all eyes now are on a dam upstream.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All anyone wants here in New England is to see some sunshine. They would like a break in the weather.

Hundreds of homes and businesses have been flooded. And there is still concern about some of these old dams, like the Spicket Dam behind me. There's a concern that it could break.

Right now, officials are cautiously optimistic that it will hold. The big problem obviously is there's so much pressure from all the water that has been dumped into this spillway. Officials telling us that typically, especially like in the summer afternoon, a nice, warm, summer afternoon, there's not a whole lot of water here. You could actually walk right across the dam.

Of course, things are much different now. The river is at four feet above flood stage, and it has not peeked yet. While other rivers have peaked, this one not yet. So there's still a bit of concern here.

The mayor's telling me that he's also concerned about how much all of this will cost his city. He has not yet started adding up all the numbers, but believes he will need some help from the state and the federal government.

Dan Lothian, CNN, Methuen, Massachusetts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, it's that way all across the region: any areas under water and residents overwhelmed. We now get this piece from our affiliate WMUR. It takes us to the water's edge in southern New Hampshire.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANIELLE SCHLESIER, WMUR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Take a look at these homes in Fremont, under several feet of water, some with just their roofs visible. The Exeter River here has overwhelmed this neighborhood of about 24 homes, leaving those who live here stunned.

PAT MARTEL, FREMONT, N.H., RESIDENT: It just happened so fast, came unbelievable.

SCHLESIER: Water quickly surrounded Barbara Hood's two-story home.

BARBARA HOOD, FREMONT, N.H., RESIDENT: But everything is floating away. I mean, you know? We just had the septic pumped, cost me $225 last week. Now it's full again. We just had the gas filled. You know, after awhile, it's just too much.

SCHLESIER: Neighbors here will tell you they're used to some flooding. It's all part of life living on a river. But seeing roads like Route 107 impassable and scenes like this raging water around this house, and even those like Diane Boucher say it's never been this bad.

DIANE BOUCHER, FREMONT, N.H., RESIDENT: It's never been surrounded by water before. This is the first flood that it's been totally surrounded.

HOOD: Just wait and hopefully the sun will come out pretty soon.

SCHLESIER (on camera): Tomorrow maybe.

HOOD: Tomorrow. Yes that would be nice.

SCHLESIER (voice-over): The force of the flood's so great, it pushed these cars, leaving the SUV tipped on its side. Other cars here in Newmarket sit under several feet of water. This is the intersection of Main Street and Route 152.

CHARLIE JOHNSON, NEWMARKET, N.H., RESIDENT: I never saw that before.

SCHLESIER (on camera): And how long have you lived here?

JOHNSON: Oh, about 40 years.

SCHLESIER (voice-over): Shawn Slattery came to try and bail out his brother's house.

SHAWN SLATTERY, NEWMARKET, N.H., RESIDENT: You can't bail it any faster than it's coming in. So you just have to wait it out.

SCHLESIER: Many who live here didn't wait long to evacuate.

MARK PETERSON, NEWMARKET, N.H., RESIDENT: At 11:30, the drain just stopped taking on any more water. And the level went up to the first floor.

SCHLESIER (on camera): And that's when you got out?

PETERSON: Yes.

SCHLESIER: The Red Cross set up shelter at the community center, where about 20 slept last night.

RAY GOMES, NEWMARKET, N.H., RESIDENT: We're all together, so that's all that counts.

SCHLESIER: The Air National Guard reported for duty.

MAJOR CHAS SMITH, 157TH AIR NATIONAL GUARD: We're going to do some sandbagging and shore up around the dam. SCHLESIER: At first even though weren't sure how they would get to the other side of town. But once through, they got right to work, filling 10,000 sandbags and stacking them at the Newmarket dam. Part of it is cracked, and the Lampry River shows no signs of slowing down.

CHIEF RICK MALASKY, NEWMARKET FIRE DEPARTMENT: We've never had water this high, so we don't know what it can handle and what it can't.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: And in just a few minutes, we're going to get an update on the flooding in Lawrence, Massachusetts, straight from the mayor. That and much more in the next three hours.

Organized attacks aimed at killing as many as possible in Iraq. Bullets and bombs rocking Baghdad today. At least 23 Iraqis are dead, dozens more wounded, after gunmen raided a garage and detonated a car bomb near an oil tanker. Seven other Iraqis were killed in two separate gun battles. And a roadside bomb killed an American soldier patrolling just south of the capital.

West of Baghdad, more bullets as the Iraqi army battled insurgents in Ramadi. Iraq's interior ministry said that today they arrested two more members of al Qaeda.

More theater but less drama in the trial of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Defense witnesses, hidden by a curtain, testified on behalf of three of his co-defendants today. They denied the men were involved in the torture and killings of dozens of Shiites 24 years ago.

Hussein was not in court, but his presence was felt. The judge chided one witness for referring to the deposed dictator as "his excellency, the president." Testimony is expected to resume tomorrow.

One of our top stories today, Tony Snow took over just a few minutes ago as White House press secretary. And among the tough questions, Snow showed his human side. Someone asked him about the yellow bracelet that he was wearing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It's going to sound stupid, and I'll be personal here, but -- no, no just -- having again through this last year -- and I said this to Chris Wallace, was the best thing that ever happened to me.

It's my Ed Muskie moment. I lost a mother to cancer when I was 17, same type, colon cancer. And what has happened in the field of cancer since then is a miracle. I actually had a chance to talk today to Lance Anderson (ph) about this because, you know, it's one of those things where miracle -- whatever we may say about our health care system, the technologies that were available to me that have me standing behind this podium today. The doctor said, you don't have to worry about getting cancer, just heartburn, talking to these people. That's a wonderful thing. And I feel every day's a blessing -- April.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, our Ed Henry was in that briefing. He will have much more on this story later in the hour.

We'll also talk more about the president's immigration plan. I'll speak with Texas Governor Rick Perry.

The news keeps coming. We'll keep bringing it to you. More LIVE FROM coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Democratic senator points out Mr. Bush can call out the National Guard, but marshalling his fellow Republicans is another matter. They're as dead set as ever against what they consider amnesty for illegal border crossers. But Mr. Bush says mass deportations are, and I quote, "neither wise nor realistic."

CNN's Ed Henry at the White House. Ed, does it have to be one or the other?

ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, the president, in the estimation of some of the critics, trying to have it both ways and splitting the difference in such a way with this middle ground that he's really not getting anywhere.

The president with this prime-time televised address last night clearly trying to stake out that middle ground, bring both sides together, but there's such a deep divide.

What he was trying to do is basically throw a bone to conservatives, and say, "Look, I'm for border security, as well. I'm so serious about it I'm going to send up to 6,000 National Guard troops." And hoping that sending that signal to conservatives in his own party would then convince them to move to the middle towards the president and embrace his guest worker program.

Instead, what we're seeing from a lot of Republicans on Capitol Hill, the reaction to that speech last night was basically great. Three cheers for the border security stuff, but they didn't care very much for the guest worker program, dealing with a path to citizenship for the nearly 12 million illegal immigrants already in this country.

So the president's still at a stalemate. And at a press availability today with the Australian prime minister, John Howard, the president took another crack at it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: Let's don't get so emotional that we forget who we are. You know, let's -- you know, we're a land of immigrants. And when we welcome somebody to our country who is here legally, willing to work and willing to realize a dream, it helps restore our soul.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Now when the president uses language such as "we need a rational debate" and that -- also that "we can't be discriminating against people" in this debate, there was just a question in Tony Snow's first televised White House briefing as the new press secretary, doesn't that divide people within the president's party even more? Doesn't that make conservatives dig in?

Tony Snow insisted instead that he's going to eventually bring conservatives towards the middle. But a lot of people wondering right now whether or not some of the rhetoric from the president may push conservatives further away, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: And I'll get back to Tony Snow's first day in just a second. But I want to ask you, after listening to the president there, and he's talking on a personal level, do you think having been a border state governor is giving him more credibility within this debate?

HENRY: That's what the White House is banking on, that this is a former border state governor who knows this subject, is speaking passionately about it from the heart, in the White House's estimation. And they also feel that the bottom line is when you look at just a snapshot poll from CNN overnight, 67 percent of the American people who watched the speech felt that they had positive feelings about the president's plan.

What I think the White House is banking on is that maybe people around the country, from the outside, will put pressure on conservatives inside here in Washington and force them to the middle, that it won't just be the president pushing them, but that they'll be forced from outside.

But I think a lot of the president's critics say a lot of the people around the country are actually so angry about border security they're not -- they don't have an appetite for this guest worker program, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Now, Ed, another angle. This was Tony Snow's first day. Of course, all of us, we were all watching the briefing there. It ended up getting emotional for him. He was sort of caught off guard by a personal question.

HENRY: Yes. You know, everyone wanted drama on the first day. And I think maybe we were expecting drama in the sense of a lot of back and forth, give and take between reporters and Tony Snow.

We certainly saw some of that. He mixed it up with people like David Gregory, Helen Thomas, some of the people that had sparred as well with Scott McClellan, the previous press secretary.

But I think it was quite a surprise to see Tony Snow get so choked up talking about this job on a personal level, accepting the call from the president to serve. He obviously was noting the fact that he battled colon cancer last year and is saying that he has a whole new outlook on life. An interesting, interesting first day, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, it's definitely not going to be easy, especially when he's getting questions from you and people like David Gregory. Thanks, Ed.

HENRY: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Well, as we mentioned, President Bush is trying to win support for his immigrant guest worker program, even though some of his fellow Republicans oppose it. So what would it mean to be a guest worker in this country? Here's a CNN fact check.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Some key points of President Bush's controversial guest worker plan include: employers must make a reasonable effort to hire an American before turning to illegal immigrants now employed in the country or workers in foreign countries who have been offered jobs here.

The government would step up efforts to enforce laws against hiring foreigners illegally.

Illegal immigrants would be able to gain legal status for a set amount of time to do a specific job. Once the job is done, the workers would be required to return home.

Workers involved would be required to pay a one-time fee to register for the program. They would have a chance to renew the temporary worker status at an unspecified time in the future.

Only people outside the U.S. would be allowed to join the temporary worker program.

One crucial point Mr. Bush's program does not allow is amnesty. He says those who have entered the country illegally should not be rewarded for breaking U.S. law.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Most New England residents have never seen anything like it: water waist deep in the streets and up to their doorknobs at their homes. Lawrence, Massachusetts, is on the banks of the Merrimack River, about half an hour drive outside Boston. How bad is it there? We've got Mayor Michael Sullivan on the phone with us right now.

Mayor, I understand one of the first things you had to do was evacuate an elderly complex. We sort of had memories from Katrina.

MICHAEL SULLIVAN, MAYOR OF LAWRENCE, MASSACHUSETTS: Well, unfortunately, that is one of the last things. We did that today. We were thinking -- this has been going on for 4 1/2 days. And we thought yesterday was, you know, the end of the worst.

And then this morning we woke up and the Spicket River ended up cresting this morning. And it sent a lot of water into an elderly complex. And kind of took us off guard. So we had to evacuate about 240 elderly and people that have issues with -- medical issues, as well. So the hospitals have all rallied with us. And we ended up being OK.

But we think at this point the worst is definitely over. The good news is, there has been no flood-related deaths or anybody has been hurt due to the flood throughout the state. So that's a credit to everybody from, you know, the fire department, police, DPW and all the people that are working hard to make sure that we're safe.

PHILLIPS: Mayor, you mentioned the Spicket River. Are you concerned about the Spicket Dam? Are you keeping an eye on that? Of course, that's located, I believe, in Methuen, right? And that's -- right.

SULLIVAN: We've been in touch, of course, every hour with them. And we think at this point, now, I think if the dam lasted through the night, which it did, I think we're going to OK. You know, we're tracking that. I think you're going to see the water start to go back now.

It just stopped raining. I mean, we've had more rain today. So I think the worst of the flood is over. Now it's going to be keeping an eye on everything, making sure everybody is safe. Continue to evacuate if we need to. And we pray a lot that that dam does not break and...

PHILLIPS: Mayor, what about the great stone dam? Isn't that right there in your city?

SULLIVAN: Well, the great stone dam is -- I mean, the people that constructed these dams years ago did excellent work. That thing is solid. And we -- we shut down that bridge just because we didn't want traffic. Traffic was pulling over, looking at the scene of the falls. And it was causing more of a crowd issue rather than structure issue. But we think at that point, that dam is at the height right now and we'll start to see things going back.

PHILLIPS: Now you said you didn't have to -- you didn't expect having to evacuate this elderly complex. What about the waste water treatment plant there in your city? Are you worried about that?

SULLIVAN: Well, we were yesterday, the last two days, sewer -- sewers are under so much stress right now, the waste water plant had to release, you know, environmental waste into the water just because they couldn't keep up with the water that was pouring into it. And they have -- we're controlling that back a little bit now.

Drinking water has not been affected, nor will it. Again, we -- that's something that we are keeping a very close eye on. And so there's been a lot of waste that has been dumped in the rivers that will -- because of the speed of the river, you'll see this just being washed into the ocean. But it's going to create some problems as far as, you know, post-flood issues, making sure that the city is clean, people's cellars are clean, et cetera. PHILLIPS: Mayor Michael Sullivan there from Lawrence, Mass., appreciate your time, sir.

SULLIVAN: You're welcome. Thank you very much.

PHILLIPS: Thank you.

The news keeps coming. More LIVE FROM right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: New worries about kids and drugs. A new study on teen drug use shows they're more likely to raid the family's medical cabinet than abuse street drugs like cocaine, crack or meth. That study, conducted by the Partnership for a Drug Free America, finds that nearly one in five teens abuses prescription drugs. One in 10 uses over the counter items like cough medicine to get high. The reason: teens think it's safer than illegal drugs.

New York City goes to court to keep out illegal guns. The city is suing 15 out of state gun stores now, saying an under cover investigation shows dealers supply many of the weapons used in crimes in New York. New York wants damages and court-ordered monitoring of the gun dealers in Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia.

One of the most popular Internet portals is getting a facelift. Susan Lisovicz live from the New York Stock Exchange with all the details.

Hey, Susan.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kyra.

That's right. Yahoo! is unveiling a new look for its much used homepage. The revamped site includes more interactive features. For example, the new page has pull-down menus that can give users personalized snapshots of weather, local traffic, movies, music.

There are also more prominently featured links to Yahoo's various other pages, like sports and money. You can check out Yahoo!'s new homepage -- you're looking at it right now -- at Yahoo.com/preview. It won't show up as the default homepage yet, though, for another few months.

This is Yahoo!'s first facelift since September of 2004. The company says it's the most dramatic change since the site's debut 12 years ago when Jerry Yang and David Filo were hacking around in their spare time at Stanford University and discovered a billion dollar business in the process.

PHILLIPS: Or more. Well, some might say a big change like that could just alienate the people who are used to the old site. So why fix what isn't broken and lucrative?

LISOVICZ: I mean, that's right. It is all of those things, Kyra. But one thing that has changed over the past decade or so is that the competition has increased, and Yahoo! is fighting to keep its spot as the world's most popular online destination and strengthen its advertising appeal, which is of course, where the money comes in.

Last month, Yahoo! had more than 10 million unique visitors, followed by MSN, Google and AOL. The battle for Internet traffic is getting tougher. Yahoo! also has to compete with social networking sites like MySpace.com, which has more than quadrupled over the past year -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. What's happening on Wall Street, Susan?

(STOCK REPORT)

PHILLIPS: All right, Susan. See you again, soon.

Dangerous waters, massive flooding forces thousands of people from their homes. Now raw sewage threatens drinking water. We're going to get the latest from the flood zone.

Plus, more reaction to the president's immigration plan. I'll speak with Texas Governor Rick Perry straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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