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American Morning

First 100 Days Marked at the White House

Aired April 30, 2001 - 11:00   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: The White House says that Congress should share the credit for any success during President Bush's first 100 days. Those days are being formally marked at the White House this hour.

Joining us now, White House correspondent Major Garrett -- Major, good morning.

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Kyra.

The White House wants all of Washington and the rest of the country to hear this message today, that it's not just the president's first 100 hundred days, in the words of White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, "It is our 100 days," meaning both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, the president and Congress.

And toward that end, the president took the unusual step of inviting all 535 members of Congress, a hundred senators and 435 members of the House, to come in here and have lunch. Well, not all are going to be here but a good-sized crowd. I'll leave that to Jonathan Karl, our congressional correspondent, to give you the numbers on that in a second.

Overall, the symbolism is that it's a bipartisan outreach by the president, although White House advisers know all too well that it's going to take a lot more than symbolism to get key parts of the president's agenda across the finish line, and this week is going to be crucial in finding out just how much of that early agenda is going to get done in the way the president wants it to be done.

This week, there's expected to be a final number on that budget resolution that outlines how much exactly the president will receive in tax cuts. He wanted $1.6 trillion. He didn't get it. The House and Senate are currently looking at $1.3 to $1.4 trillion. That could be a minor presidential defeat, but about 85 to 90 percent of what the president proposed. The White House appears to be willing to take what it can get on that front.

And also on the president's number one domestic priority, education, there could be a resolution in the Senate on that bill, but there's also some tough sledding ahead in the House, and the White House is going to have to work on that to get its way there -- Kyra.

KAGAN: Actually, it's Daryn, but that's OK, Major.

GARRETT: I'm sorry.

KAGAN: That's all right. It's a compliment. Thank you very much.

And we will go from Major Garrett. He mentioned that Jonathan Karl is there as well. All 535 members of Congress have been invited to today's White House lunch, but some Democrats have decided to eat lunch elsewhere.

CNN congressional correspondent Jonathan Karl with details on that now -- Jonathan, good morning.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Daryn -- and it's not just Republicans, some -- or not just Democrats, some Republicans have decided to lunch elsewhere.

There are all told going to be only 41 of the 100 U.S. senators going down to the White House for lunch. They're leaving shortly. I don't know if you can see behind me two buses, Senate bus one, Senate bus two. Senators going down to the White House, but, again, only 41 of the 100 members of the Senate. Over in the House, we have 435 members. Only 152 of the members of the House are going down to the White House.

The makeup of this is about one-third Democrats, two-thirds Republicans. So there is a bipartisan no show. As a matter of fact, the two members -- the two senators from the president's home state, Texas, will not be at the White House. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Phil Gramm back in Texas.

Also the number two senator here, Don Nickles, is going to be in Virginia playing golf at a Republican fund-raiser. Quite a variety of no shows. Very high-profile no shows as well, including people like Ted Kennedy who is local. He is here today, but he's having lunch with his niece, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the lieutenant governor of Maryland.

Hillary Clinton's back in New York. Tom Daschle, the Democratic leader, is meeting with "The New York Times." The entire House leadership on the Democratic side will not be at the lunch. And the speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, also not making it to the White House.

Now, Daryn, they are saying they are not snubbing the president. In fact, Washington Capitol Hill is a place where business is generally conducted on Tuesdays to Thursdays, and Mondays members of Congress are generally back in their home states doing constituent work, doing fund-raising, doing things that are not here in the Capitol. And, in fact, they said they had very short notice about this lunch.

KAGAN: So, Jonathan, this really not considered a slap then. Just a scheduling conflict?

KARL: Well, I mean, I...

KAGAN: I mean, I guess that's how you wanted to spin it.

KARL: Yeah. One of the -- "Roll Call," the Capitol Hill newspaper, said that, you know, a scheduling conflict is kind of Washington's version of the head cold. So, clearly, members up here saying they are not intentionally snubbing the president, that they had longstanding engagements, and they only heard about this -- they only got word about this on Wednesday, Wednesday of last week, that the president would be inviting everybody to the White House on Monday. So that's -- that's the status here.

KAGAN: So read into it what you will. Jonathan Karl on Capitol Hill. Thank you.

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