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American Morning

White House Trouble; 'Oreckville'; Lizzie's Gulf Diary; Minding Your Business

Aired November 04, 2005 - 07:30   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome, everybody. As Jacqui promised, a beautiful day in New York as you saw that from that live shot from Columbus Circle this morning.
Miles, good morning to you.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Soledad, from Pass Christian, Mississippi. This is a place terribly hard-hit by Hurricane Katrina. In just a little bit, we're going to check in with our own Lizzie. Not Lizzie McGuire, Lizzie Maloy who is a high school senior here and is there she is getting ready talking with her mother and some of our folks here. And she's been doing a video diary for us of her experiences. Very difficult senior year. It's hard to overstate that. It is homecoming weekend.

They don't have a high school and so they are sharing facilities with Long Beach High School, which is the neighboring school, and having a joint homecoming. We've had her on periodically since Katrina. We're going to check in with her and see how things are going. What's the mood like and how are kids handling senior year in the wake of such a catastrophe. Soledad, it's just hard, you know, it's tough for everybody but senior year is, you know, it's a special year in our lives.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: But the prom's going to go off, right, which will be nice. And they've got some help from some sort of unexpected places as well. So, good, I look forward to hearing what Lizzie has to say. She was pretty moving when she spoke to you the first time, so we'll look forward to an update.

Thanks, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: Very well poised young lady.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, isn't she. Yes, sure is.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Let's get a look at some of the stories making news here.

Good morning.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Soledad.

And good morning, everyone. These stories "Now in the News." The summit of the Americas in Argentina getting underway today. And these are some new pictures just in to CNN this morning of President Bush. He is starting the day off there meeting with Central American leaders. You can also see in some of those pictures Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. This two-day summit is focusing on the issues of trade and also fighting poverty. The summit drawing out thousands of anti-American protesters. They're rallying against President Bush's plan for a free trade zone and also rallying against the Iraq War.

It could be a long road to a trial for Vice President Cheney's former top aid. As expected, Lewis Scooter Libby entered a plea of not guilty to charges in the CIA leak case on Thursday. He was released without bail. And the next hearing won't take place until February.

A deadly accident in Pakistan to tell you about. A passenger ferry capsized today in the Indus River outside of the port city of Karachi. Pakistani officials say at least 17 people were killed but dozens more are feared dead. It's believed the ferry was overloaded when it sank.

A more somber note to the royal visit this morning. Britain's Prince Charles and his wife Camilla wrapping up a two-day stay in Washington. Today, they'll lay a wreath at the National World War II memorials. They'll then head to New Orleans to meet with recovery workers and get a firsthand look at the damage left by Katrina there. A final stop is planned in San Francisco before the pair returns to England.

And the Miami Heat may be playing without its superstar center for a while. In the fourth quarter of last night's game against the Pacers, Shaquille O'Neal injured his ankle. The Heat still managed to even out the score to 93 all, but the Pacers regrouped and won the game 105-102. X-ray's came back negative for Shaq but the Heat's coach says he'll probably be sitting out for the next few days.

Jacqui, I'm not going to ask you if you were watching the game last night.

(WEATHER REPORT)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Let's get back to President Bush now this morning. His approval ratings at an all-time low, as we told you about earlier, and his top political advisor still under investigation in the CIA leak case. Lots of people saying maybe the president should clean house. Well, our next guest sort of cleaned house for President Ronald Reagan. Joining us this morning from Huntsville, Tennessee, is Howard Baker. He was Reagan's chief of staff toward the end of his presidency, and also, of course, a Tennessee senator and vice chairman of the Senate Watergate Committee.

Nice to see you, sir. Thank you so much for talking with us.

HOWARD BAKER, FORMER REAGAN WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Thank you very much. I'm glad to be here. SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Do you think that President Bush is looking at a rough patch right now in his presidency or is it more serious than that? Is it sort of a chronic problem that needs to be addressed?

BAKER: Well, both those things. It's certainly a rough patch. It may be more serious than that as time goes on. But, so far, it is not. And, you know, I hear analogies made to Watergate and the Iran Contra and the like and they're very different. And it's not that. Not yet anyway. And unless there's another serious development, I don't think it will become that. The president has a lot of problems, but his biggest problem, in my view, based on my experience with President Reagan during Iran contra, is to make sure that the White House continues to function. That it's not immobilized by these problems and these allegations and that he can go forward with the country's business.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Are you seeing any indications, in fact, that the White House is immobilized or on its way to being immobilized by these problems?

BAKER: No, I see no indications of it. But it's almost inevitable. You know when they're sort of under siege, as the case may be, it has a paralyzing effect. So far I don't see evidence of that, but it's a danger. And when there's a great deal of speculation about whether other White House staff is going to leave or be fired, it's bound to have a negative effect on their attitude and on their ability to function. So, once again, that's my fear. That's not something that I yet observe and I hope it doesn't occur. But it is a danger that the president will be immobilized and can't function because of the siege mentality.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: If it's inevitable that you sort of get this siege mentality, then what needs to be done, do you think, in the Bush White House. Do they do as happen? And I understand the analogy is not a perfect one with Iran Contra, obviously. But they do as what did happen, which is bring in a new team, sort of make a fresh start.

BAKER: Well, perhaps. That's always an option and it's one that is available to the president and only the president can decide. I'm not prepared to say he should do that. I'm prepared to say he certainly has that option.

But what he should do, well, I can only draw on my own experience with President Reagan when I first went to the White House, and they were immobilized then. Nothing was happening for 48 hours or so. But what they ought to do is, in my view, is to have a clear-cut game plan on what you're going to do, what you're going to propose, when you're going to do it and how you're going to do it. You know, forward motion has a wonderful tonic effect on people's attitudes toward government, toward the presidency and, in general.

So the only advice I'd give, and I'm in no position to give advice, I'm a bystander, but the only advice I would give would be, keep on. Keep on doing what you do, keep on with your game plan, make clear to the country that you're in charge, that you are president, that you're not immobilized and that you have an agenda in mind and you're going to go forward with it.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: But for some people who keep on in their roles, for example, Scott McClellan, the spokesman who goes out every day and addresses not only the press but the public too, you sort of have this problem where he has said, and he's quoted as saying several times that he spoke to both Libby and Rove and they told him very clearly they were not involved. And it comes back to, well, then someone's lying. Either Scott McClellan is lying or Karl Rove is lying and he continues keeping on. And isn't that sort of becoming a problem about his credibility to the press and the American people?

BAKER: They always had that problem with the Reagan experience, but we had Marlin Fitzwater, who was White House press secretary, and Tommy Griscom, who's communications director. And they stood by their guns and they did a wonderful job for the president. And I'm not prepared to say that Scott McClellan is used up. I think he can recover.

But let me make another point. You know, it has not yet proven that Rove or Libby, for that matter Scooter Libby, for that matter, were involved. There are indictments, there are allegations and charges but, you know, an indictment is just that. It's a statement of allegations. It's only the trial that can make that determination. So I really think that all of us need to keep in mind that this is in its earliest stages and we don't know yet what the circumstances are.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: We'll see, certainly.

Howard Baker is a former White House chief of staff under President Reagan. Nice to see you, sir. Thanks for talking with us.

BAKER: Thanks a lot.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Let's get right back to Miles. He's in Pass Christian this morning.

Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: Hey, Soledad.

Big truck. Look at this truck going by here right now. Just loaded up with stuff. Two trailer loads worth of mostly trees that were taken off from a property there. You know, you're never going to it's surprising the things you see randomly in the wake of a hurricane. Look at this, a vacuum cleaner right in the middle of the road here. Interesting given the story I'm about to tell you. Not the right brand but, nevertheless, the vacuum cleaner is key here. It might belong to this house here or that house there. Those houses all pretty much raked clean by Katrina.

In the wake of Katrina, the Oreck factory, which is in this part of the world, suffered some terrible losses, as did all of the employees, really, that were a part of that. The company really went out of its way to take care of the employees, keep the operation going.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ORECK: Hi, I'm David Oreck.

MILES O'BRIEN, (voice over): You've seen the commercials. David Oreck with his spiel, touting his light, powerful vacuums, inviting Americans to . . .

DAVID ORECK: Take the Oreck challenge.

MILES O'BRIEN: Hurricane Katrina presented a much different kind of challenge. With its headquarters in New Orleans and plant at Long Beach, Mississippi, Katrina dealt it a double whammy. But the company stepped up, big-time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We, you know, told our people after the storm that if you had a job before with Oreck before the storm, you still have a job.

MILES O'BRIEN: Some 250 Oreck employees lost their homes and all of their possessions. Twenty-five families are now living rent-free in an expanded trailer park they call Oreckville.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just helping them get back to normal and, as a result of that, I think they help the company stay healthy. And we have not missed a beat.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're thrilled to be under the same roof. We feel extremely privileged to be able to be in this space.

MILES O'BRIEN: Diane and John Bohlen are starting over in Oreckville after seeing their family home destroyed. John Bohlen, an Oreck engineer, is getting used to having his coworkers as neighbors.

JOHN BOHLEN, LIVING IN "ORECKVILLE": We've got such an interesting mix of people, from customer service, to people out from the factory lines, to engineers. Our vice president of the company is here as well.

MILES O'BRIEN: It just seems natural to Tom Oreck, helping people with no place to live and people the company can't live without.

TOM ORECK: I think as a family business, perhaps, we really do understand that it is a family. That it's a family of people who work together. But it is about the people, and it is not about the facility, and that's what really makes the difference and so that's really where our focus is.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN: In just a little bit, we'll talk with an Oreck vice president who lost his house right around the corner from where I stand right now. They tell us, by the way, that 100 Oreck employees still unaccounted for. In just a little bit, we're going to check in with our well, it's Lizzie Maloy but we're kind of calling her Lizzie McGuire. Lizzie Maloy is part of the class of 2005 here in Pass Christian. It's a year that no one around here will ever forget. And this is a senior year with all kinds of emotional ups and downs. Awful lot of downs. And we'll check in with her in just a little bit.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MILES O'BRIEN: Sunrise. Pass Christian, Mississippi. A beautiful sight amid ruins, quite frankly, in the wake of Katrina. Now been two months since the storm blew through here killing 90 in this county alone. More than 220 in all of Mississippi. Total for Katrina death toll is 1,289 and it still grows. They're still finding bodies in New Orleans in the lower ninth ward.

About a month ago we met an amazing young woman, a senior in high school here, who was telling us what it is like to go through that important pivotal year of your life amid all of this. Meet Lizzie.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIZZIE MALOY, LONG BEACH H.S. SENIOR: Well, you know, it really is the most important year of a high schooler's life and, you know, you're so excited about all of the different organizations you're in and all the different activities and we literally feel like we've been kicked in the stomach, you know? We worked so hard on so many different things like the annual staff and student council and we're worried about being able to print this $100,000 yearbook. We don't know if we're going to be able to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MILES O'BRIEN: We enjoyed our meeting so much, we gave her a camera and we told her to go out and do a diary. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MALOY: 6:15. I'm going to go take a shower and get ready for school because I have to be up there in 45 minutes. So, I'm off.

I wanted to show you this intersection right here. And there's a road to my left, as well as a road behind me. These roads still don't have working traffic lights and I'm going to pull into this parking lot right here because you can see there's still a lot of debris lying around and I think this would be an excellent place to show that. Still lots of piles all around the city.

There's definitely barbed wire strung from one side of our town to the other end all along the tracks. It definitely makes it look like a war zone.

This is my high school. Long Beach High School. It's 7:06 right now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go to school in a trailer and then go home to the trailer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We couldn't find anywhere like to live, so we rented an apartment in Gulfport.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The table in our trailer folds down to a bed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, you like push . . .

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You push the . . .

MALOY: So how are things going?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With the yearbook?

MALOY: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're working hard, but we don't know if our hard work is going to pay off or not.

MALOY: What do you mean?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't have any funding for our yearbook.

MALOY: How much does it cost to print the annual?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Roughly $100,000.

MALOY: Do you know how much we have?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think we have $21,000.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you very much for your donations to our annual. Huge corporation have turned us down and have claim that they cannot afford to give us anything. Others in Florida have understood and have give us what they could. It seems the only ones willing to give are those who do not possess a fortune. Thank you again for your generosity.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've lost so much that we've lost a bit of our identity, a bit of our culture. And I'm just not willing for them to lose any more. And so we're working really hard at trying to put this yearbook back to put this yearbook together, despite the gargantuan odds against us. But I really believe that we can do it.

MALOY: I do, too. I do.

I guess I just wanted to say that things have been crazy, but it's getting better. I'm not going to fail calculus. I'm exaggerating. I'm going to get an A. But, yes, I guess that's all for now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN: It's getting crazy or getting better, still crazy, not going to fail calculus.

Listen, life is good for Lizzie Maloy relatively speaking.

Lizzie, good to have you with us.

MALOY: Thank you. It's good to be here.

MILES O'BRIEN: First of all, the yearbook, how close are you to getting that $100,000?

MALOY: We have about $23,000.

MILES O'BRIEN: OK.

MALOY: And most of that is actually from the district. So we haven't had a lot of outside funds come in at all.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right. Well, maybe we can we got the Oreck people coming on here, who knows what we can do for them with them.

Let's talk about homecoming weekend, first of all. You know, you're at Long Beach High School. I miss spoke a few moments ago and said you're at Pass Christian. But the two schools are combining together for homecoming.

MALOY: On planning homecoming. Yes, it's so exciting. And kids from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 45 of them, arrived last night or actually yesterday afternoon around 1:00. And we had dinner with them last night. And it was they are so great. It's absolutely amazing.

MILES O'BRIEN: Wait a minute. So they came down to help you out with the homecoming?

MALOY: They raised $80,000 for our homecoming that we normally spend $7,000 on max. So it's going to be a phenomenal experience and I'm so excited.

MILES O'BRIEN: Maybe some leftover for the yearbook.

MALOY: Let's hope so.

MILES O'BRIEN: And they brought down some clothing and all the things you need to do a homecoming, right?

MALOY: They had a dress drive and got around 500 dresses and we put them at central office so people from the district who couldn't afford one were able to go and try on a dress and pick one out, as well as shirts and ties for the boys. And everything that we need for homecoming they supplied and it's absolutely amazing.

MILES O'BRIEN: That's extraordinary. What's the name of the school? We should put that out there.

MALOY: Lancaster oh, it's not Lancaster. We've been miss speaking this whole time. It's Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

MILES O'BRIEN: OK. And final thought. Just how is the mood in general? Are kids doing OK?

MALOY: Well, right now, the fact that these 45 people have driven a thousand miles really takes away from all the destruction and all the devastation and it reminds us that there are people out there who truly care about us.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right. Lizzie Maloy, keep up the diary, will you, and let us know how homecoming goes. Mom's over there with the video camera. Just getting it's a two camera shootout here. That's Johnny (ph) and we're glad you both came. We wish you both well.

MALOY: Thank you very much.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right. Back to you, Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: That is great to see. Great job, Lizzie. Really a tremendous job.

Thanks, Miles.

Still to come this morning, can Amazon do for books what Apple's iTunes did for music? A look at the company's plan to let you download books by the page. "Minding Your Business" just ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Amazon.com is considering doing for books what Apple's iTunes did for music. Here to explain is Andy Serwer. He's "Minding Your Business" this morning.

It was wildly successful, of course, for Apple.

ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And this is a business that's heating up because you remember yesterday we told you how Google's offering a new service that allows consumers to search in books. Now Amazon is going to be rolling out another service that's similar starting next year.

Here's how it works. You buy a hard copy book from Amazon, which, of course, is the largest online book seller in the world, for say $20. Then you add on another $1.99 and you would get an online version of the book on your computer that you could use at any point. And also, Soledad, you can also buy individual pages for a few cents.

Now, is the world ready for this?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: But do you have to buy the book and the individual pages, too?

SERWER: That's unclear. As far as buying a whole book online, you do have to buy the hard copy. So they're still working all this out.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Why would you want the book and the online version? SERWER: Well, I think you know, I'm wondering that myself. Is the world ready for this? Does the world need it? But I guess it's possible that say you have the book at home and you're at work and you're trying to remember something and you can look at it on the computer.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Or you're bored, you want to read it in your office.

SERWER: And you're not really doing any work.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Pretend you're working.

SERWER: Right.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: It's always an option.

SERWER: You know, I think this is one of these new businesses that's sorting itself out. Microsoft's getting in this game as well. You know, there's something tactile about a book, though. Books are never going to go away.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: No. They predicted they would and they will not.

SERWER: Right. You're going to want to sit on the couch and read a book. That's always going to be there.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: On your Blackberry.

SERWER: Yes, right, that's a little different.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: It's just not the same thing is it?

SERWER: No, it's not. It's not.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Andy, thanks.

SERWER: You're welcome.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Let's get right back out to Miles. He's in Pass Christian this morning in Mississippi.

Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: Thanks very much, Soledad. Coming up, we're going to check in with three mayors we've been talking to all along. We're at the two-month mark post-Katrina. Last time we spoke to the mayor of Baton Rouge, we asked him how much FEMA money he had received. The answer, zero. We hope that's changed. We'll find out the answer when we check in with him in just a little bit as AMERICAN MORNING continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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