Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

President Bush Decides on His Pick for Supreme Court; Look at New Orleans Nine Weeks After Hurricane Katrina

Aired October 31, 2005 - 07:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Soledad O'Brien. Breaking news out of Washington. President Bush decides on his pick for the Supreme Court. It's Samuel Alito, a federal judge with strong conservative credentials. Already there signs of a fight shaping up, on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Good morning. Welcome, everybody. We're coming to you in a split show this morning. I'm reporting from New York, and Miles O'Brien -- there he is -- he's is on Canal Street in New Orleans. Good morning, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Soledad. And welcome back. We're on Canal Street in New Orleans. You were here not too long ago. Of course the scenes here were different than what we see this morning. There is actually a lot of traffic. There is power restored, some of the businesses coming back to life. Take a look at what it looked like here, right where I'm standing on September 1st. Lots of water on Canal Street, in and around this area. Many of the people in this part of the city making their way toward that convention center in the Superdome. This city now nine weeks after Katrina, quite frankly, is a mixed bag. There's a lot of signs of recovery. But yet, in many pockets of this city, no power, no water, and no people.

We'll have reports for you all throughout the morning. And for that matter, all throughout the week -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Miles, thanks. Looking forward to getting an update on that.

First, though, back to our top story this morning. We're talking about the Supreme Court. Judge Samuel Alito will be nominated for the Supreme Court one hour from now. We've got extensive coverage of this breaking story. Dana Bash is live for us at the White House, senior political correspondent Candy Crowley is live in our Washington bureau this morning, and legal analyst Jeff Toobin is with us in New York.

Dana, let's begin with you. Any word from the White House on this?

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes, we have certainly confirmed that in about one hour, as you mentioned, the president will formally nominate Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. It is his third pick. Of course it is just four days after Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination, after what many call really a debacle in that situation. Samuel Alito is somebody who the White House expects will rally the president's base after they were so torn, in actually pretty much open revolt over the Harriet Miers nomination. He is somebody who the president actually first interviewed in June or July when he was doing his first round of interviews for the first opening and, as a matter of fact, I was told by a senior official that had the president not decided to go the route of Harriet Miers, somebody from outside the judicial monastery as it's called, off the bench, that he probably would have picked Samuel Alito from the beginning.

Now he is somebody who, as I mentioned, is a darling of conservatives. Those who were very upset about Harriet Miers having no record certainly will be happy with Samuel Alito. The big question is what this means for Capitol Hill, when it gets to Congress, how Democrats are going to react. But clearly the calculus here has been -- and certainly this has been the suggestion since Harriet Miers pulled out -- that the first and foremost thing that the president has to do is get somebody up on Capitol Hill who the base is very happy with, and that is what they have done with Samuel Alito.

S. O'BRIEN: Dana Bash at the White House.

Well, as Dana pointed out, after the nomination comes the confirmation battle. Senior political correspondent Candy Crowley in our Washington bureau.

Candy, I'm going to guess I guess a big battle, right?

CANDY CROWLELY, CNN SR. POL. CORRESPONDENT: Well, if you had to place odds today, I guess you would see yes, absolutely. This is -- in fact, there are have already been warnings. When Samuel Alito's name began came out, we heard from Senator Harry Reid, obviously, the top Democrat in the Senate, saying this could be troublesome. So obviously the signals are all there. The DNC has -- when all of these names started floating around, we started to get sort of rap sheets from both sided on what they think. And I think you'll hear from Democrats that this has been a judge that has been hostile to both civil rights and reproductive rights. That's going to be sort of the basis of their attack.

Whether or not we see that this morning will be interesting. The Democrats need to sort of not look like no central right away. On the other hand, they want to get out how they feel about this and begin to sort of build the public perception of Samuel Alito, who I am sure will come to the public mostly as a name they haven't heard before.

So yes, I do expect it will be a battle. I'm not sure that you will see the explosion today, but certainly some sort of match has been lit here.

S. O'BRIEN: Candy Crowley is in our Washington bureau this morning. Candy, thanks.

Legal analysis now with Jeff Toobin. Good morning.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Hello.

S. O'BRIEN: Candy kind of pointed out, no one really knows who this guy is. So who is he?

TOOBIN: Well, in the legal world, he is pretty well known. I think with the Harriet Miers nomination, you had the question of credentials. Was she qualified, just in a sort of objective way. And I don't think that will be an issue with Samuel Alito.

S. O'BRIEN: He's got a well-defined record?

TOOBIN: Right, and graduate of Princeton, of Yale Law School, a former -- formerly worked in the solicitor general's office. He was United States attorney, the chief prosecutor in New Jersey under the first Bush administration, nominated by the first President Bush to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. He has served there for 15 years.

So he is certainly an experienced judge. The qualifications issue, I don't think will cut against him at all. The big issue will be judicial philosophy. He is very conservative, and the issue that he is most publicly identified with is abortion. He wrote a very controversial opinion in 1991, in which he upheld a requirement in Pennsylvania law that a woman had to inform her husband if she wanted to get an abortion. That struck down by Supreme Court. You're going to hear a lot about that decision. That, I expect, will be the centerpiece of the confirmation fight, and abortion has been at the center of every confirmation fight since the '70s.

S. O'BRIEN: Everyone says it's not a litmus test, but to a large degree it is a litmus test in choosing a candidate?

TOOBIN: It is, which is, in part, why judges or future justices nominated to the court have been so reluctant to take an explicit opinion. John Roberts, there was a big dance during his confirmation hearing about how he stood on Roe v. Wade. I think it's going to be even more of a focus with Samuel Alito's nomination. I think it's a much safer bet, judging from his judicial philosophy, that this is a future justice that will vote to overturn Roe v. Wade.

S. O'BRIEN: We've heard the nickname Scalito, which of course is sort of combining Scalia, Justice Scalia, Alito. Let's talk a little bit about their similarities.

TOOBIN: Right. This is, I think, the first nominee to the Supreme Court where a nickname will prove an important factor.

S. O'BRIEN: Before the announcement is even made, they have a nickname for him.

TOOBIN: That's right. Does he have the right nickname for the Supreme Court?

S. O'BRIEN: Italian background, strong conservative, apparent opposition to legalized abortion. But what about the differences?

TOOBIN: The differences are in personality. As many people know, Justice Scalia is combative person. By all accounts, Samuel Alito is not. He's a very easy-going congenial person. And I think in confirmation hearings, that's likely to serve him well. Justice Scalia is very associated with the philosophy of originalism, that the Constitution should be interpreted as the authors of the Constitution intended, their original intent. We don't know if Judge Alito -- I want to call him Judge Scalito -- Judge Alito feels that way. And also, he was a lower court judge. He hasn't had the opportunity to expound his views on all of the big issues that the Supreme Court gets, so we don't know everything about his judicial philosophy.

S. O'BRIEN: So the choice is going to rally the base. It is going to take the focus off a lot of the president's other problems certainly by doing this quickly.

TOOBIN: We haven't mentioned Scooter Libby's name this morning, right.

S. O'BRIEN: We certainly have not, and Harriet Miers is a long- past thought.

TOOBIN: A trivia question already.

S. O'BRIEN: Exactly. But it brings the Democrats out swinging. Do you think that in fact at the end of the day -- and I now it's early, and I know you hate to be put on the spot. Is he going to be confirmed?

TOOBIN: I think he's got a good chance of being confirmed, but I think the Democrats are really going to think hard about a filibuster here. And also, there are still a few moderate Republicans in the Senate who are pro choice, like the two women in Maine, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, like Senator Chafee from Rhode Island. They're going to have a tough time voting for Judge Alito if he is strongly identified with the idea of overturning Roe v. Wade. So I think, you know, it is an open question, unlike, say, John Roberts when the moment he was nominated, it just seemed very likely he would be confirmed. I think it's safe to say it's an open question. So I weaseled out of your question yet again.

S. O'BRIEN: Yet again. All right, Jeff Toobin, as always, thank you very much.

TOOBIN: See you later today.

S. O'BRIEN: And again, we're going to hear the announcement from President Bush. It's expected at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time, right from the White House.

TOOBIN: Let's get back to Miles, though. He's is in New Orleans this morning. Hey, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Hello, Soledad. Nine weeks now since Hurricane Katrina came through here. I'm on Canal Street which was, of course, abandoned shortly thereafter, flooded out, and it's a little after 6:00 in the morning here in New Orleans, and the rush hour has begun, military vehicles, police officers and authorities, contractors, all getting to work on yet another long day as New Orleans tries to come back. Two months now since Katrina hit The Big Easy, the problems are big and nothing seems easy. While the French Quarter is coming alive with tourists, the city remains largely vacant. Only one in four of those who lived here on August 28th have come back home. The unemployment rate here in September close to 15 percent, a record. New Orleans evacuees are now living in 44 different states. About 225,000 Katrina victims living in hotels, waiting for temporary housing. Another 4,000 still in shelters.

And those temporary trailers promised by FEMA, 120,000 are need here, but the manufacturers say they can't come close to meeting that command. They are promising no more than 25,000 trailers by the end of the year.

In the meantime, for many, there is little reason to come home. The power is still out over huge swathes of the city. The utility company, which went bankrupt after the storm, has now restored service to little more than half its customers.

Trash pickup is moving slowly, yet steadily, as well. The city is grappling with 22 million tons of garbage and debris, including 300,000 refrigerators, many filled with rotting food, and 100,000 flooded abandoned vehicles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MYR. RAY NAGIN, NEW ORLEANS: We are going to rebuild this city, and we're going do it together, OK?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin offering words of hope at this town hall meeting last week, but he is dealing with problems on a scale no other mayor has -- 2,400 city workers laid off, his budget is now cut in half. As for the New Orleans police, the focus of a series of criminal allegations from theft to assault, 45 officers and six civilians were fired for abandoning their post in the chaos following the hurricane.

As for the dead, more than a thousand of them here in Louisiana, less than half the bodies have been identified, but many of those names have not yet been released, either because of difficulty locating next of kin, or because autopsies are pending.

It seems nothing here is happening without a fight. That's the owner of the New Orleans Saints, Tom Benson, mixing it up with a cameraman. He says he has not yet made a decision on whether to move his team permanently to San Antonio or Los Angeles. NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue says he's committed to keeping the Saints in New Orleans.

Meanwhile, the team played its first post-Katrina game on Louisiana soil. They lost, again.

(END VIDEOTAPE) M. O'BRIEN: As for the Saints, home, the Superdome, which became somewhat infamous in the wake of Katrina, repairs are under way, but it ill be at least a year before they are finished.

The levees, an important issue as well. The Corps of Engineers says it may get those levees just back to the pre-Katrina levels, that would be category-three levels, by June.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Coming up this morning, 8:00 a.m. Eastern time, a reminder, we're expecting to hear from President Bush as he announces his nominee for the Supreme Court, Samuel Alito. We're going to bring that to you live when it happens, 8:00 a.m. Eastern right on CNN.

Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, one of the reporters at the center of the CIA leak investigation, Matt Cooper, will join us live. He says he still has got some big questions looming in this case. We'll talk to him -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad, what will it take to get big business back in Louisiana, specifically in New Orleans? Well, among other things, they probably would like to have a levee system that is capable of category five. But is that practical? We'll ask somebody who is part of the commission trying to rebuild New Orleans after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: President Bush is announcing his nominee for the Supreme Court, Samuel Alito. That takes place at 8:00 a.m. Eastern today. We're going to carry it live on AMERICAN MORNING when it happens. So stay with us with for that. Also this morning, we're talking with one journalist who was involved in the CIA leak case. That's "Time" magazine's Matt Cooper. His name came up in the five- count indictment against the vice president chief of staff, Scooter Libby. And Matt Cooper is going to be writing an article about his conversations with Scooter Libby.

Matt joins us from Washington this morning. Nice to see you, Matt. Good morning to you.

MATT COOPER, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Nice to see you, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: You know, let's talk a little bit about an article that you were writing back in 2003. And you really were investigating, in fact, if the administration or anybody was basically trying to discredit Joe Wilson via his wife Valerie Plame. Do you think with the indictments now, the clear answer to that question is yes, they were?

COOPER: Well, I think there's no question that there was a lot of anger in the White House about Joseph Wilson. Just to set the scene, he'd come back and had written this op-ed for "The New York Times," saying that the administration's claim saying Saddam was trying to buy uranium in Africa to make nuclear weapons was not true, and he was being very critical of the Bush administration. There was a lot of pushing back against him.

Whether what followed was criminal or not or whether there's been perjury, I don't know. But like a few other journalists, I've been caught up in this case, and now I find myself as a potential witness.

S. O'BRIEN: It must be a little strange for you, and we'll talk about that part of it in just a moment. First, though, let's talk about Scooter Libby's testimony before the grand jury. Apparently, he said this. He learned that his wife -- that Joe Wilson's wife worked for the CIA from reporters, and also said he told you he didn't even know Wilson had a wife. Does that jibe with what you recall about that conversation?

COOPER: No it doesn't.

S. O'BRIEN: In what ways does it not?

COOPER: Well, it doesn't, because I asked him. I had heard the day before from the president's political adviser, Karl Rove, that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA and that she played a role in sending him on this mission to Africa, and so I basically ran that by Libby. I asked, did he know anything about Wilson's wife sending him? And he said yes, I've heard that, too. But there was none of this other elaboration that I guess he went ahead and testified to.

S. O'BRIEN: So this difference in the testimony what he said and what you said seems to have been a red flag for the special prosecutor?

COOPER: Yes, it seems to have been. And again, I don't know if that constitutes perjury or not. I just know what I heard, and, you know, what I'll testify to if I have to get called.

S. O'BRIEN: Were you surprised that you appeared in the indictment?

COOPER: I was surprised, Soledad. I didn't think -- I mean, it was not a lengthy conversation about Wilson's wife and, frankly, I just, you know, I didn't have any inkling I would be in the indictment as a potential witness, but I guess along with other journalists, like Tim Russert and potentially even the vice president, a lot of people may get called if there is a trial.

S. O'BRIEN: There is speculation that one theory behind or one way to defend Scooter Libby would be to say the argument, well, it was a long time ago and it's easy to forget details of conversations that you might have with a reporter. What do you make of that argument if it were to actually happen?

COOPER: Well, you know, I don't want to weigh that myself as a potential witness. The prosecutor is going to argue differently, obviously, that he knew full well what he was doing that he did this repeatedly.

S. O'BRIEN: I mean, it was a long time ago for you, too? COOPER: Yes, it was a long time ago. I mean, I took notes at the time and wrote about it at the time, so it's not like it was an off-handed conversation. So I'm confident in what I heard.

S. O'BRIEN: What are the questions that you still have? I mean, there's a lot of loose ends in this story still. What questions do you have?

COOPER: There are, Soledad.

The prosecutor is not going to write a report. So there are a lot of things likely to be left unanswered, at least for a while. One is, who is the original person who leaked to Robert Novak?

S. O'BRIEN: Official A, who's never been named.

COOPER: Well, I think Official A was probably a confirming source, and Official A is almost certainly Karl Rove, but that's confirming. We don't know who the original person is who leaked to Mr. Novak. That's a big deal. I think a lot of people would like to know. But we may never.

S. O'BRIEN: May never know.

Is it bizarre for you to be involved in this story for the amount of time that you have been? I mean, you were relatively new covering the White House for "Time" magazine?

COOPER: Yes, that's right. I mean, I had covered the Clinton White House and covered politics for a long time, but I had just started covering the bush White House when this original story broke.

No, it is strange. And, look, Time Inc., which CNN is also part of Time Warner, we had fought all the way to the Supreme Court to try to avoid my having to testify in this case. We lost. You know we went ahead and, with the permission of various sources, including Karl Rove and Mr. Libby, went ahead and gave grand jury testimony and, you know, now I find myself potentially being called into a criminal trial as well. It's not where I expected to be, it's not where I wanted to be, but it's where I am.

S. O'BRIEN: Things get stranger and stranger.

COOPER: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Matt Cooper, from "Time" magazine. Nice to talk to you. Thanks very much.

COOPER: Thanks, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Joe Wilson is going to appear tonight on a special edition of CNN's "THE SITUATION ROOM." That begins at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Coming up, a little good news to report. Gas prices tumbling. How low can they go? Andy is "Minding Your Business" just ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: A reminder, President Bush will announce his Supreme Court nominee. That happens at 8:00 a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN. We're going to carry that live for you.

First, though, business news. Before I left for vacation, Andy Serwer was kind of doctor doom. Bad news, bad news, bad news all the time. And now, some good news, gas prices.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: That's right, and the stock market, both.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, hey, I'm glad to be back from vacation. Good morning.

SERWER: Good morning, Soledad. We want to talk about gas prices, breaking through a major threshold here, down two cents to $2.49 a gallon nationwide.

S. O'BRIEN: Woo-hoo!

SERWER: Yes, you-hoo! And you can see here, comparing it to high it was in Katrina, $3.05. A year ago, still way above that at $2.03. But who knows, we could be heading there because all signs are down at this point, particularly as hurricane season winds down, thank goodness.

And well, let's talk about the markets a little bit as well, Soledad, a banner week. Very interesting what is going on on Wall Street. You can see here are the final numbers, up 1.8 percent. That's 187 points on the Dow. We had a Bernanke rally early in the week, the appointment of the new Fed chief. Then the markets tanked with the Miers, Libby news. But then recovered on Friday bigtime when we found out the GDP, the economy grew briskly in the third quarter. So we ended up doing very well. And as far as futures this morning, it looks like a treat and not a trick on Halloween. Up nicely.

S. O'BRIEN: I was wondering if you were going to work something in for Halloween.

SERWER: I had to get a little bit.

S. O'BRIEN: That was kind of lame, but that's all right. That was a good effort.

SERWER: I tried.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Andy. Nice to see you.

SERWER: You're welcome.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's get right back to Miles in New Orleans for a look at what's coming up this morning.

Hey, Miles. M. O'BRIEN: As far as I'm concerned, it wasn't lame. Andy, good job.

SERWER: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: He's got you back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, consider the source.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, consider the source! I wish that I could be there to add to this.

All right, New Orleans. Coming up, we're going to talk to someone leading the effort to bring this city back. We're going to ask him what the biggest stumbling block is right now as this city tries to come back from Katrina now nine weeks ago.

Back with more in a moment.

(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