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The Situation Room
White House Reworks Harriet Miers Nomination Spin; President's Approval Ratings Continue Slump
Aired October 17, 2005 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: It's 4:00 p.m. in Washington. And you're in THE SITUATION ROOM, where new pictures and information from around the world are arriving all the time.
Happening now: a repackaged sales pitch for Harriet Miers. Can the president and his Supreme Court pick turn her troubled nomination around with a little help from some friends in Texas?
Also this hour, is Vice President Cheney a target in the CIA leak probe? New twists to talk about in the investigation that has officials in Washington holding their breath.
And tough times over at the White House. This hour, we take the wraps off new poll numbers that say a lot about the state of the Bush presidency, at least right now.
I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.
The Bush administration is essentially acknowledging it has a Harriet Miers problem, not with the Supreme Court nominee herself but with the selling of her nomination. So today, the president and his allies are trying to regroup and shift the focus away from Miers' critics.
To the White House now, and our White House correspondent there, Dana Bash. Dana, what's the latest?
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Wolf. Well, one Bush official called today -- quote -- "pivot day" in their campaign to sell Miers. Another called it a -- quote -- "tactical shift in focus".
But the bottom line is that the White House understands they made several missteps, miscalculations and what it would take to get support for Miers, especially in their own party. So, they're trying something new.
If this were a movie, right about now, the director would yell, Harriet Miers, take two.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: She has been a leader in the legal profession. She's impressed these folks. They know her well. They know that she'll bring excellence to the bench. BASH (voice over): Those folks are six former Texas Supreme Court justices, summoned to the White House to offer personal testimonials, part of a rebooted Bush effort to fight criticism Miers is not qualified for the high court.
JAMES BAKER, FMR. TEXAS SUPREME CT. JUSTICE: I can vouch for her ability to analyze and to strategize.
EUGENE COOK, FMR. TEXAS SUPREME CT. JUSTICE: Harriet Miers is an excellent lawyer. I've seen her go toe to toe with the opponents.
BASH (voice over): With this, Bush aides are trying to bounce back after several failed attempts to sell Miers to a furious rank and file, like playing up her religion.
BUSH: They want to know as much as they possibly can before they form opinions. Part of Harriet Miers's life is her religion.
BASH (voice over): That backfired with many conservatives. So did the president's "trust me" line.
BUSH: And I know her. I know her heart. I know what she believes.
BASH (voice over): The group Progress for America is helping the White House with their "Miers is Plenty Qualified" campaign with paid ads touting past justices with no experience. In fact, a spokesman for the group says they're footing most of the bill for the former Texas justices making the rounds in D.C., from press conferences to TV interviews.
JOHN HILL, JR., FMR. TEXAS SUPREME CT. CHIEF JUSTICE: I know that she is a good work-the-floor lawyer.
BASH (voice over): They're talking up Miers' legal abilities.
HILL: When we were on the Lottery Commission together, a lot of the problems that we had there were legal in nature. And she was just very, very insistent that we always get all the facts together.
BASH (voice over): But conservatives and Democrats alike say third parties can't answer what they still know nothing about, her judicial philosophy.
TERRY JEFFREY, EDITOR, HUMAN EVENTS: If she's going to satisfy Republicans in the Senate, if she's going to satisfy the country, it's going to come down to what she herself says.
BASH: Now, as we speak, Wolf, the White House is preparing to send up to Capitol Hill a questionnaire for the Senate Judiciary Committee that they hope will start to fill in some of the blanks on Miers, her resume and her beliefs.
Also, I should tell you, as we speak, several of our colleagues are combing through about 6,000 documents from the Dallas City Council. So far, our Rob Yoon (ph) reports that a lot of it is -- he calls it "mundane, no smoking gun so far. Most of it is just discussion from city council meetings, actions taken there several years ago.
BLITZER: All right, Dana, we'll continue to wait for a complete report on those documents. Dana Bash is over at the White House.
Like some conservatives, there are Democrats who remain unconvinced that Harriet Miers should have a seat on the high court. The nominee reached out today to two key members of the Senate Judiciary committee.
Our congressional correspondent Ed Henry is watching all of these developments. He's joining us live from Capitol Hill. Ed?
ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, in fact, Harriet Miers is heading behind closed doors this very hour with the Senate Judiciary chairman, Arlen Specter, for their second meeting.
But as you mentioned, earlier today, two important meetings with Democrats on Judiciary, Chuck Schumer of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California.
It sounds like the real intrigue came from that first meeting with Check Schumer, where he pressed Harriet Miers about this column in today's "Wall Street Journal" by conservative columnist John Fund, talking about a conference call with conservative activists that occurred on the same day that Harriet Miers was formally nominated earlier this month, in which two Texas judges allegedly claim that, in fact, Harriet Miers would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, the right to have an abortion.
Chuck Schumer pressed her on that matter behind closed doors. Here's her response, according to Schumer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: I did ask Counsel Miers whether she had discussed her views on Roe v. Wade with either Judge Kincaid or Judge Hecht. She said no, she had not. She said nobody knows my views on Roe v. Wade. She said no one can speak for me on Roe v. Wade.
HENRY: And that was Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer of New York. He also said that he pressed Harriet Miers on whether she discussed the subject with White House aide Karl Rove, who was allegedly in the middle of those calls with conservative activist James Dobson and others. She would not discuss whether or not she talked with Karl Rove.
Then Chuck Schumer pressed her on whether she talked to Rove about the CIA leak case. There again, she said she basically would not talk about her work at the White House.
Schumer left this meeting very frustrated, saying, in fact, that he feels he learned virtually nothing about Harriet Miers, that his first meeting with Chief Justice John Roberts went much, much better.
One final note. Another big question looming here is when will the hearings finally start? We're hearing from sources on both sides of the aisle that there should be a deal in place late tomorrow. They're expecting a deadline, the hearings probably starting November 7.
If that does not work out, it would slide back to about November 14. But we're expecting November 7. The key is that they want to get these hearings done in time to make sure there's a floor vote by Thanksgiving. But that clock is ticking quickly.
Wolf?
BLITZER: All right. Ed, let's shift gears to Tom DeLay. I understand there's a developing story that you're monitoring right now. What are you picking up?
HENRY: That's right. We're just getting information, in fact, from Tom DeLay's camp. CNN has learned that, in fact, his lawyers have filed two more motions down in Texas. The first one is a motion to dismiss that second charge, the second indictment on money laundering.
They're also filing a motion demanding a speedy trial. They're alleging in these motions, once again, as they've said before, that the prosecutor in the case, Ronnie Earle, has engaged in prosecutorial misconduct.
The key, though, the bottom line is, the reason why DeLay is pushing for the speedy trial -- what is new -- is that he is acknowledging here that, in fact, he has to get this moving as quickly as possible. Time is not on his side. If this drags into next year, it's likely he will not be able to get his leadership post back.
Wolf?
BLITZER: All right, Ed Henry, on Capitol Hill, watching all those stories for us. Thank you, Ed, very much.
Moving onto the CIA leak investigation right now and waiting for the next shoe to drop. President Bush was asked once again today if he'd expect a member of his administration to resign if indicted.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: My position hasn't changed since the last time I've been asked this question. There's a serious investigation. We're not going to prejudge the outcome of the investigation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Karl Rove's attorney today is denying a report that the deputy White House chief of staff has made contingency plans in case he is indicted. "TIME" magazine reports Rove would immediately resign or possibly take unpaid leave if charged in the leak investigation.
Rove isn't the only target of indictment speculation. The vice president, Dick Cheney, is the subject of what-if scenarios today, after "New York Times" reporter Judith Miller's firsthand account of her grand jury testimony.
Our national correspondent, Bob Franken is covering the leak case for us. He's joining us now live from here in Washington. What are you picking up, Bob?
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, you certainly used the proper word when you talk about speculation -- speculation on a story that has so many possibilities.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FRANKEN (voice-over): While much of the focus -- the public focus -- is centered on the CIA leaks investigation into top presidential aide Karl Rove and top vice presidential aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby, there are indications the special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, is not neglecting their bosses, particularly Libby's boss.
Judith Miller, who testified after spending 85 days in jail, wrote in her long-awaited "New York Times" article Sunday, "Mr. Fitzgerald asked whether Mr. Cheney had known what his chief aide was doing and saying. The answer was no."
But she continued, "My interview notes show that Mr. Libby sought from the beginning... to insulate his boss."
Legal experts believe the pattern of investigation suggests that, among the charges the grand jury is considering, are alleged violations of the conspiracy statute, only that a person's action, legal or otherwise caused a crime to be committed. It reads in part, "If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States ...and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each... can be in violation..."
In other words, a violator would not necessarily have to commit a crime. Put another way, insulating someone would not necessarily be enough in this investigation into the public disclosure of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame. Plame is the wife of administration critic Joseph Wilson.
As for the vice president's chief of staff, Miller's attorney believes Libby is in a delicate legal condition.
ROBERT BENNETT, JUDITH MILLER'S ATTORNEY: Obviously, he discussed with Judy Mr. Wilson and Mr. Wilson's wife. If he told the grand jury that he didn't do that, then I think there's an issue there.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FRANKEN: Libby's lawyer refuses comment. The special prosecutor and grand jury are sorting through the issue right now with stakes that politically, Wolf, as well as legally, are very high.
BLITZER: All right. Amazing stuff. Bob, thank you very much. Very interesting indeed.
The CIA leak and the Miers nomination sure haven't helped the president improve his standing with the American public. We have new poll numbers coming this hour. In fact, they're coming out right now.
Let's bring in our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider. First of all Bill, what's the president's approval rating at in this new poll?
BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Thirty-nine percent. That's the new Gallup --CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll. It's the third poll in a week showing the president's rating below 40 percent.
What's driving it down? Here's a clue, the president's entire decline came among suburban voters where his support went down 10 points in the past three weeks. It's unchanged among urban and rural voters.
Suburbanites are swing voters. Why are they swinging against President Bush? Probably gas prices. It's become very expensive to drive your kids around to soccer practice these days.
BLITZER: Bill, how's the president doing though with his base?
SCHNEIDER: His base is actually holding up pretty well, Wolf. Despite the controversy over Harriet Miers, his standing with Republicans is 84 percent, virtually unchanged. But they're about the only ones who are still with the president. Among independents, 32 percent. Among Democrats, 8 percent -- 8 percent. It looks like the last Bush Democrat might have been former Georgia Senator Zell Miller.
BLITZER: In this new poll, we also asked the public about Karl Rove. What did we come up with?
SCHNEIDER: Well, opinion of Karl Rove is nearly two to one unfavorable -- 39 unfavorable, 22 favorable. And it's turned a little bit more negative since July, the last time we asked. But it's important to note that 39 percent of Americans say they have no opinion of Mr. Rove at all.
BLITZER: What about attitudes towards Harriet Miers?
SCHNEIDER: Harriet Miers. By narrow plurality, 44-36, the public would like to see the Senate confirm Harriet Miers. That is substantially below the 59 percent who favored John Roberts' confirmation just a few weeks after he was nominated this summer. And by just about the same margin, the public say they do not want President Bush to withdraw the Harriet Miers nomination.
What about conservatives who have been the most vocal critics? Only 26 percent of conservatives want the president to withdraw the Miers' nomination, which suggests that conservative activists who have been urging the president to pull the Miers nomination may be a little out of touch with the conservative base.
BLITZER: All right. Bill Schneider, very interesting numbers. Thanks very much for bringing the latest CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll numbers to our viewers here.
Let's check back with Jack Cafferty. He's watching all of this together with us in New York. You're looking at these numbers. And what are you thinking, Jack?
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm saying I haven't heard Harriet Miers say anything about this nomination. Have you?
BLITZER: Only when the president introduced her.
CAFFERTY: Right.
BLITZER: As she thanked him profusely for the great honor.
CAFFERTY: Oh yes, like she's getting an award from the Kiwanis Club, thank you very much for the trophy for the cookie sale or whatever. But in terms of her nomination to be a Supreme Court justice, I haven't heard her say a word about it, and neither has anybody else. And so these poll numbers are a little fishy to me because I'm thinking we need to get these hearings under way and then do a poll when the hearings are over. And then people will have some basis on which to make a decision on whether her nomination ought to be withdrawn or not.
And with that in mind, we'll go to this hour's question. The White House, has tried to say -- pardon me -- is attempting an extreme makeover of the Harriet Miers nomination. They want the debate to focus on her resume and her accomplishments -- which we don't know a whole lot about -- instead of her religious beliefs and personality which we do know a lot about. And that ain't working for the White House.
Some Republicans are calling for a vote on her nomination by Thanksgiving. But with earlier criticism coming from the right, even a refocused nomination has some serious hurdles in front of it. And as we said, we haven't had the hearings yet.
So, the question is this. Is it too late for a makeover of the Harriet Miers nomination? CaffertyFile - one word -- @CNN.com.
I can't wait for the hearings. I mean, we talked about this a week or so ago. I just can't wait for the hearings. This is going to be the best show we've seen I think in a while down there in Washington.
BLITZER: Well, we'll have extensive live coverage here on CNN from THE SITUATION ROOM.
CAFFERTY: From THE SITUATION ROOM. We'll be all over it.
BLITZER: We'll be all over this story. Thanks very much, Jack. We'll get back to you soon.
Coming up, unanswered questions about that CIA leak. Did "New York Times" reporter Judith Miller hold anything back from the grand jury or from her readers? The news media right now once again under the microscope.
Plus, an administration official at the center of the CIA leak probe. Who exactly is Lewis "Scooter" Libby? And how important is he to the White House?
And later, Senator Edward Kennedy to the rescue, and on our "Political Radar".
You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Top administration officials may be in the crosshairs in the CIA leak investigation, but the news media are under intense scrutiny, as well. Reporter Judith Miller gave her firsthand account of her grand jury testimony in the "New York Times" yesterday. But her article raised many new questions about her motives, her initial refusal to testify that landed her in jail, and about her dealings with her source -- the vice president's chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
The "New York Times" offered its own account of the Libby-Miller connection and the leak saga. And it was not necessarily a flattering portrait of its own reporter.
Let's bring in Jeff Greenfield. He's joining us from New York. Jeff, it seems nobody comes out of this situation from the news media looking very well. Give us your thoughts, first of all, on what you read about Judy Miller's account.
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the whole -- this struck me as a neutron bomb. Maybe the buildings are left standing, but everybody involved seems to have been leveled, including Scooter Libby and the "Times" and Judith Miller.
But you take the two pieces together and start with the "New York Times" coverage. Among other things, the executive editor of the "Times", Bill Keller, says as soon as he became editor -- executive editor, he told Judith Miller, who had been writing a lot of stories about the alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, don't do those stories anymore because the reporting turned out to be wrong, as she conceded. And he says, and somehow she kept covering it.
You know, other people at the "New York Times" raising a whole lot of complaints about Ms. Miller about everything from her personality to her reporting. And so this -- here's the paper that -- you know, on whose behalf she went to jail for 85 days, writing a story that paints her in extremely, as you say, unflattering terms -- moreover says that she never told her editors or the reporters doing the story about some of her basic facts like who are these potential other sources? What did she say to them? How did she do this reporting?
And so in effect, you have the "New York Times" the publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the editor Bill Keller, going to bat for her, putting the paper on the line in some ways and not really knowing what the fundamental story was. Well, I mean, that alone is just a remarkable and strange occurrence.
BLITZER: You know, what was pretty surprising to me and to a lot of journalists I've spoken to over the past 24 hours, Jeff, she writes in her notebook Valerie Flame, obviously Valerie Plame. But, writes it "Flame."
She says that Scooter Libby was not her source for that but she can't remember who gave her the name. I've been a reporter for a long time, so have you. A story like that, it's hard to believe you don't remember who told you information like that.
GREENFIELD: Well, you have among many other strange things in this whole story. You have her one-time lawyer, Floyd Abrams, a prominent First Amendment attorney, basically challenging her on that point or at least not backing her up, saying well, that's her story. You know, which gets us to a whole other point. She says I took Lewis Libby, Scooter Libby's letter to me saying, you know, by the way, all the other reporters say I had nothing to do with the leaking of her name, as a kind of hint that that's what she should say.
And she says in her story, but I couldn't say that because I had discussed this situation with him. And then you have Mr. Abrams saying, I believe, well, that's not entirely clear.
There's so many mysteries about this fundamental fact. Where did she get that name? If it wasn't from Scooter Libby, didn't she tell and didn't she have her lawyer tell special prosecutor Fitzgerald, don't ask me about any other sources but Libby because he's the only relevant person, which is something Floyd Abrams says.
You seem to have Judith Miller saying one thing about where she got her name, and her one-time attorney saying another.
If I may add one other thing, at one point she agrees with Scooter Libby to describe him -- quote -- "as a former Hill" --that is Capitol Hill-- "staffer." Which in terms of the readers, it's one thing to say a highly placed source if you don't want to tell who it is, but that's almost a deliberate act of misdirection, which is why so many people at the "Times," Wolf, are saying we went to bat for a reporter, not who protected a whistle blower but who protected a high government official who was trying to keep stuff, in terms of the leak secret. It is one of the most bizarre journalistic stories I've ever run across.
BLITZER: And just -- we're out of time, but very quickly -- the fact that she says she did get government security clearance when she went to Iraq looking for weapons of mass destruction -- I don't remember journalists getting government security clearances when they're on these kinds of stories. Do you?
GREENFIELD: No, that was back in Iraq when she was embedded with the WMD search group. And that's a whole other element of this story that perhaps makes it even more puzzling. The more I read about this, the less I understand it, Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, Jeff Greenfield, thanks very much. We'll continue to discuss this story down the road.
Here in THE SITUATION ROOM, we're plugged into as much as we possibly can be involving the situation online.
Our Internet reporter Jacki Schechner is here. She'll take us "Inside the Blogs", what they're saying about the CIA leak investigation. Jacki, what are they saying?
JACKI SCHECHNER, CNN INTERNET CORRESPONDENT: Well, voices online very much in tune with what Jeff was just talking about, multi faceted. They don't believe Judith Miller either, that was her article over the weekend, show you what that's like online here.
Seeing before us, this is Dave Johnson, who is a liberal blogger, who blogged the 2004 Democratic National Convention. And he says that can't recall why they are there and can't recall why they aren't there.
We need to go back to Wolf right now. We'll have more of this after the break.
BLITZER: All right. We're going to get right back to you, but let's take a quick break. Much more on this story coming up right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: The U.S. Supreme Court weighed in once again today in the "Culture Wars". The high court cleared the way for a prison inmate in Missouri to get an abortion by refusing to hear an appeal by the state. The court under new Chief Justice John Roberts effectively upheld a lower court ruling requiring the state to provide transportation for the woman to an abortion clinic.
Abortion has been an especially divisive issue for the court and for President Bush's Supreme Court nominees.
Our Zain Verjee is joining us once again from the CNN Center in Atlanta with a closer look at some other stories making news. Hi, Zain.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Wolf. Final results from Iraq's constitutional referendum are expected in just a few days, but initial unofficial results indicate Iraqis have approved the charter. And they suggest a larger than expected turnout by Iraq's Sunni Arab minority was still not enough to defeat the constitution's passage. Iraq's Electoral Commission said it will audit what it says are unusually high numbers of votes in some provinces.
Rescue workers are stepping up efforts to reach earthquake victims in remote areas of Pakistan and Kashmir. Workers are using donkeys and mules even, Wolf, to get to some of the villages that are in the really remote areas that have been cut off also by mud slides. Relief flights have resumed after heavy rains grounded them yesterday. Officials estimate 54,000 people may have died. They warned that the toll could rise if thousands don't receive food or shelter soon.
California police call the investigation into the death of the wife of a prominent defense attorney and legal commentator, wide open. Attorney Daniel Horowitz's wife, Pamela Vitale, was found dead on Saturday at the couple's San Francisco area home. Police are classifying the case as a homicide but they say they have no suspect and no motive. An autopsy is planned today to determine the cause of death.
And on a really different note, actor Sylvester Stallone will reprise his role as boxer Rocky Balboa. Stallone has signed on to direct as well as the write the sixth installment of the long-running film series. In the film, called appropriately, "Rocky Balboa," the aging boxer will come out of retirement and shooting begins in December.
Wolf.
BLITZER: A quick question, Zain, before I let you go. Aid workers in Pakistan are worried about a second wave of deaths right now. More than 40,000 people have died, more than 60,000 people are injured.
VERJEE: Right.
BLITZER: But, what is the specific concern?
VERJEE: Aid workers are saying specifically that they are incredibly worried about exposure to the winter cold, that's the first thing.
The second thing is of infection. Many of them are saying there are some very, very serious injuries, some 80,000 injuries they think for people. And they have no way of getting to them, no way to help treat their injuries.
Another main problem, Wolf, Pakistani officials are saying, is shelter, that's the real issue here. One Pakistani official said that they still need something like 250,000 tents and two million blankets and they just don't have them.
BLITZER: All right, Zain, thanks very much. Back to one of our top stories this hour, the CIA leak. Scooter Libby appears to be a key player in the investigation, but he's unknown basically to most Americans.
Our national correspondent Bruce Morton is here with a closer look on the vice president's chief of staff. What are you picking up, Bruce?
BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Who is the Scooter? We know the short answer.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THOMAS MANN, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: Scooter Libby in my view is the second most powerful staff member in the White House, second only to Karl Rove.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the spring. MORTON (voice-over): How did he get there? New England prep school, Yale, like his president. Neoconservative Paul Wolfowitz brought him into government in the State department under Ronald Reagan, again at the Pentagon in 1991 under this president's father. And then, of course, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff.
He's I. Lewis Libby. the I. stands for Irv. And the nickname Scooter? That's from when his father saw him crawling as a baby and said he's a scooter. In the administration, is he powerful and -- they say -- discreet.
MANN: Scooter Libby is a formidable figure in this administration who's been involved in virtually every critical national security decision, including the war in Iraq.
MORTON: So how did he get involved with "New York Times" reporter Judith Miller? Perhaps trying to damage Ambassador Joseph Wilson who had been a critic of the administration on Iraq. But Miller has told the "Times" she doesn't think she got Mrs. Wilson's maiden name, Valerie Plame -- she misspelled it Flame in her notebook -- from him. She thinks the source for that was someone else, but she's not sure who.
Libby's reputation for discretion has taken a hit or two lately -- how big a hit may depend on what the special prosecutor does.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MORTON: And Libby can always turn to other things. In 1996, Wolf, he published a novel, "The Apprentice", a murder mystery set in Japan in 1903. And he confided to the "New York Times" once, I sometimes dream of just being a novelist sitting on Corfu drinking oddly named wines -- a fantasy that's probably fairly rare in this White House.
BLITZER: Interesting. All right, Bruce, thank you very much.
Up next, we'll have much more on the CIA leak investigation. What does the White House do if one of its major players is indicted? We'll get some expert opinion in our "Strategy Session."
Plus, it appears to be take two on the Harriet Miers nomination. Will the so-called Miers' makeover win the day for the administration in this bruising Supreme Court battle?
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Closer look now at President Bush's new push for Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, as well as the CIA leak investigation looming over the White House.
Joining us in today's "Strategy Session," the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee Terry McAuliffe, and Republican strategist Rich Galen.
Let's listen to what the president said earlier today in sort of re-launching this whole initiative. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: Harriet Miers is a uniquely qualified person to serve on the bench. She is a smart. She is capable. She is a pioneer. She's been consistently ranked as one of the top 50 women lawyers in the United States. She has been a leader in the legal profession. She's impressed these folks. They know her well. They know that she'll bring excellence to the bench.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: What do you think of this new strategy, Terry?
TERRY MCAULIFFE, FORMER DNC CHAIRMAN: Well, I think the White House has been all over the map with Miers. We've got to wait and see. We need to her documents. We need to see her writings. We don't know much about her. And it's really the Republicans, the conservatives that every single day are knifing her in the back. So, they've had a problem with their base, with the Republican Party.
The Democrats we want to do our job. But we want to see her writings. We want to see what her legal thinking is going to be all about. This is a lifetime appointment, the United States Supreme Court. We take our job very seriously. And the Democrats are going to wait until all the evidence is in and make a decision.
BLITZER: Is this a smart new strategy on the White House part to sort of repackage the whole selling game?
RICH GALEN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I think you do what you have to do. Last week I think that the president was very smart when he -- although he was chided here in Washington for bringing up the religion thing, but that appears from what you and Bill Schneider were talking about earlier seems to have calmed down at least the mean-street conservatives about Harriet Miers' background about what her beliefs are.
BLITZER: Well, why is it smart to bring in her religion and her religious background and it was dumb to bring in John Roberts' religious background?
GALEN: Because John Roberts wasn't being opposed by rank and file conservatives. Rank and file conservatives were taking their lead from the intellectual elites here in Washington. And the president, I think, rightfully decided he needed to circle around them and make that case.
Now, he's going back to her credentials as a lawyer, as a leader, as somebody who was a ground breaker in Texas. And I think over the course of time, all this stuff will make some sense.
BLITZER: Are you comfortable with the bringing in the religion aspect to what arguably shouldn't have anything to do with whether she's qualified for the court. GALEN: I couldn't agree more. Except that only apparently Chuck Schumer and the president agree on the fact that you've got to bring religion into this thing.
BLITZER: What do you think?
MCAULIFFE: Let's deal in the facts. She's going to be a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. We want to know how she'll interpret the Constitution, look at the laws of this country. That's what's most important, not religion. It wasn't right to bring it in for Justice Roberts and we shouldn't do it for Harriet Miers.
Let's know what she's going to do on the court. Let's get an idea of her legal background. How will she be as a Supreme Court justice? And that's the issue.
BLITZER: We heard from Rush Limbaugh in the form of an op-ed piece that he wrote on the editorial page of the "Wall Street Journal" today. Among other things he said this, "the purpose of the Miers debate is to ensure that we are doing the very best we can to move the nation in the right direction. And when all is said and done, we will be even stronger and more focused on our agenda and defeating those who obstruct it just in time for 2006 and 2008." Do you agree with him?
GALEN: I think it's interesting that both my friend Terry and my other friend Rush speak in terms of we in terms of this nomination. Ain't none of us got no votes in this whole thing. There's 100 people that will vote on it. And none of us are standing at this table.
BLITZER: What do you think?
GALEN: Well listen. Rush Limbaugh -- if you look at what Rush Limbaugh says, it's the conservatives that are attacking this woman. They have been out from day one attacking her. Every major conservative journalist has attacked this woman. They got problems on the Republican side. This is their problem.
The Democrats -- I will speak for the Democratic Party -- we all want to know her background, how she will be, how she will adjudicate cases on the United States Supreme Court. We're doing the responsible thing. Let's wait until the evidence is in. We can make our decisions.
GALEN: This will be won and lost, I think Terry, in the one-on- ones that she does with the individual senators as we know.
BLITZER: You don't think it will be won or lost on how she performs during the Q and A during her hearings?
GALEN: She's pretty smart. Everybody's briefed up when they get to that. And we remember the Roberts' hearings, they were filibusters by the senators. He got to say yes or no to 12-minute questions.
BLITZER: A former U.S attorney in Washington, Joseph diGenova, was on ABC yesterday. Listen to what he said when he emerged from that interview about the CIA leak investigation and where it might go. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH DIGENOVA, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: You know, the president has a big job to do and that's what he needs to do. He needs to not worry about this. He needs to do his job. He's got a lot on his platter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: So, what is the strategy right now in anticipation of what the independent -- the special prosecutor, let's call him -- the special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald -- what he might do? What's the strategy the White House should be pursuing?
GALLEN: Well, the two guys that know -- that have the best idea of what may happen are Scooter Libby and Karl Rove. I don't know Scooter at all, but I know Karl very well. And I know him well enough to believe that, if he thought he was doing damage to the president by hanging around, he'd just pack up and go and make about $1 billion.
I mean, he would do that in a heartbeat. I assume Scooter Libby feels the same way about the vice president. There's nothing to suggest, other than guys like us talking about it, that either one is in legal jeopardy. And what Judith Miller wrote yesterday doesn't solve this one bit.
So, there's nothing other than lead and headline writers in the AP and Reuters that would suggest to anybody that either one of these guys is in legal jeopardy.
But I really do think that when you get to this level -- and we saw it in the Clinton White House as well -- that people wanted to serve the president, and by extension, the country, well. If they think they're doing harm, they leave.
BLITZER: Terry?
MCAULIFFE: Let's go back to the core facts. This is about manipulating intelligence data to try and justify their cause to go into the Iraq war. George Bush wanted to go into Iraq from day one. They manipulated; they lied to the American public about the issues of intelligence. And you know, that's what this is all about.
No matter what you say -- and none of us know what the special prosecutor is going to do -- however, both of these people have admitted that they talked to journalists and outed this woman. This woman was a CIA covert operative. They should have had hands-off on that. And that's what's wrong with this administration.
And the White House is now in disarray. We've got high gas prices, heating oil prices, deficits.
BLITZER: Let Rich respond, quickly, because we're out of time.
GALLEN: Karl Rove has never said that he used that woman's name. I think all he's ever said was that, when another reporter said, have you heard about this, he said sure, I think so. And in Washington, you never admit you don't know something. So, I just think you're wrong about that.
MCAULIFFE: If it's covert operations, you ought to stay away from it. He was wrong. Scooter Libby was wrong. And now we hear it may even go up to the vice president of the United States of America.
GALLEN: It could go to the pope. I mean, it could go anywhere. It could go...
BLITZER: We'll know in the next few days. Thanks, guys, very much.
Coming up, Ted Kennedy to the rescue? The Bay State's senior senator braved some rough waters to help save some stranded fishermen. That story -- that's coming up next in our "Political Radar."
Plus, we're keeping a close eye on a growing storm in the tropics. Should Gulf coast residents be worried again, but this time about Wilma? Stick around. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: On our "Political Radar" this Monday, the secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice says count her out of the 2008 presidential campaign. Rice has repeatedly said she's not interested in running for the White House. But asked again on "Meet the Press" yesterday, Rice said -- let me quote now, "It's not what I want to do with my life. It's not what I'm going to do with my life."
Another apparent case of no means no. Dick Cheney's wife Lynne tells "TIME" magazine the vice president still stands by what he said before. He has no intention of seeking the top White House job in 2008.
And Senator Edward Kennedy has been known to navigate rough political waters. But yesterday, he faced the real thing.
The Massachusetts Democrat was walking his dogs when he spotted six men who were trapped by a high tide off Hyannisport. He and a friend got on a boat to try to help them, but rough waters forced them to turn back, leaving the final rescue to firefighters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Blustery day down here. And there were people out on the breakwater with a very, very high sea and increasing tide. They had fishing poles, but this wasn't a good day for fishing. A lot of good fishing out here, but today, I don't think was a day for it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: The fishermen were brought to Cape Cod Hospital, treated for mild hypothermia. Up next: Is it an extreme makeover or more of the same? Jack Cafferty will be back with your e-mail on the selling of Harriet Miers.
And in our next hour: With Saddam Hussein about to go on trial in Iraq, we'll talk about the spectacle and what it might be.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Let's go to the CNN Center. Zain Verjee standing by with a closer look at some other stories making news.
VERJEE: Wolf, Tropical Storm Wilma is getting stronger in the Caribbean. Its top sustained winds are now about 50 miles an hour, but the 21st named storm of this Atlantic hurricane season could strengthen to a hurricane by tomorrow. Wilma most immediately threatens Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, but forecasters say it could head into the Gulf of Mexico this weekend.
Dallas investigators are recommending the driver of a bus that caught fire and exploded on a Texas freeway last month be charged with criminally negligent homicide. Twenty-three nursing home patients were fleeing Hurricane Rita, were killed in the explosion. The driver is in federal custody on immigration charges.
Pope Benedict is paying public tribute to his predecessor. In a wide-ranging interview broadcast on Polish Television, the pontiff said Pope John Paul II still guides him as the head of the Roman Catholic Church. He said that he hopes to visit Pope John Paul's homeland of Poland next June and he also added that his main goal is to make sure that the Pope John Paul's teachings are understood.
And finally, Wolf, could dolphins help unborn babies develop in the womb? Well, that's what some scientists in Peru are suggesting. They say that the ultrasonic sounds given off by the marine creatures could stimulate fetus brain activity. And they also add that the high range of sounds could nurture the development of an unborn baby's senses. Some instructors have trained dolphins to swim quite close to pregnant women and make noises. And in case you or Jack were wondering, Wolf, this practice is known in Spanish-speaking countries as delfinoterapia (ph) or in English as dolphin therapy.
BLITZER: Dolphin therapy, Jack, what do you think, dolphin therapy? I've heard a lot of therapy. This is the first time I've heard of that.
CAFFERTY: I don't want to talk about that at all. What I do want to mention though is I saw Zain Verjee earlier today on CNN in the middle of the day when we simulcast CNN International, which is this tedious program we do for overseas countries that go through life relatively uninformed.
VERJEE: Jack, careful, Jack. We work very hard on that program. CAFFERTY: No, no, well the thing I noticed was, you know, they've got this Ken and Barbie arrangement, Wolf, where Zain reads the story and then they got some stiff sitting next to her, he reads the story.
VERJEE: He's not a stiff. He's a marvelous Australian called Michael Holmes, that you're just jealous of.
CAFFERTY: No, no, here's the deal. You don't need him, Zain. You should talk to the producers and say look, I want to do this show alone. Get this guy off the set. I don't need his help. I'm perfectly capable of handling this thing on my own.
VERJEE: All right, I'll do that, I'll send a memo, and maybe it will be just me tomorrow.
CAFFERTY: You could send him down to Mexico and he could do an extended report on dolphin therapy.
VERJEE: Or delfinoterapia.
BLITZER: I believe it was Peru.
CAFFERTY: Or Peru.
VERJEE: It was.
CAFFERTY: Well, that would be even better, it's farther away. Seriously, you don't need this guy.
VERJEE: I do, I need him.
CAFFERTY: You're the star of that show, Zain, just like you're the star of this show.
VERJEE: No, no, you are.
CAFFERTY: The White House wants to refocus the debate on the Harriet Miers nomination from her religious beliefs and personality to her resume and accomplishments.
Here's the question: is it too late for a makeover of the Harriet Miers nomination?
Steve in Palmerton, Pennsylvania: "Make over? What could Harriet Miers possibly do at this point...enroll in a correspondence course called 'Supreme Court Justicing for Born-Again Evangelicals'?"
Leon writes: "It was too late before it even started for Ms. Miers. She may be a fine person, but so is my neighbor. I'm very suspicious of a nomination that requires so much salesmanship."
Dave in Indiana writes: "Why would it be too late? The president has already made over the statements about firing administrative CIA leakers, the reasons to go to war in Iraq, the lame FEMA response, the cronyism in the White House. What's one more makeover?"
Adrian in New York writes: "Too late for a Miers Mulligan; first impressions are everything."
And J.R. In Olympia, Washington: "I look forward to the White House's upcoming third attempt to sell Harriet Miers based, of course, on her choice on greeting cards".
Wolf.
BLITZER: All right. Thanks. We're going to get back to you very, very soon. Still to come, the White House's new strategy on Harriet Miers. We're getting some more information on that. Will it lead, though, to new responses to her nomination? We'll see if the blogs are buying any of this.
And it's the first case of bird flu in Greece. And it's igniting new fears of a global pandemic. Is it the same strain of bird flu as the one ravaging Asia? We'll have a report.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: It's been our top story this hour -- the so-called Harriet Miers make-over. So, how is it playing on the blogs?
Let's check in with our Internet reporter Jacki Schechner for the situation online. Jacki?
SCHECHNER: Hey, Wolf. You know what Harriet Miers and I have in common? We both get a do-over. We're going to revisit the Judy Miller in the following hour. But, now we do want to talk about what they are calling Harriet Miers 2.0 online today from Michelle Malkin, big conservative blogger. They call it now with less religious flavor and more judicial filling.
They're actually making the comparison between old Coke and new Coke saying new Coke didn't go over very well. Why try again with Harriet Miers?
So, K.J. Lopez (ph) over at the Corner on National Review Online, also not terribly optimistic. She is actually offended by the parade of Texas judges who came to visit President Bush at the White House today, saying they're trying to convince us the girl can do it and frankly it just feels insulting, if this is the way the week's going to go, it ain't looking good already.
So, John Hawkins at rightwingnews.com is going one step further. He's put together an activist campaign. He says, get in touch with your senator. Let them know that you can say no to cronyism by voting against the confirmation, doesn't even want a hearing.
We're hearing this from a lot of the conservative bloggers, who are against this nomination, saying there is absolutely nothing that she can do in her hearings to prove that she is fit.
Another petition online, this one from David Frum also at the National Review, a petition for her withdrawal, going on to say President Bush can just do better. They've got close to 4,000 people signed on by now.
And finally, if they could have who they wanted, who would conservative bloggers want? Well, another woman would be nice and they are looking very hard at Janice Rogers Brown, saying that she would actually unite the conservatives in a way that Miers can't.
Wolf, we come back to you.
BLITZER: Who's more vocal, Jacki, the conservatives who support Harriet Miers or the conservatives who don't support her?
SCHECHNER: The ones who don't support her. There actually are not very many who do, so they do have to be vocal, but there just aren't that many of them, so we're not hearing a lot of that out there.
BLITZER: All right, Jacki, thank you very much.
It's coming up on 5:00 p.m. here in Washington. And you're in THE SITUATION ROOM where news and information from around the world arrive in one place at the same time.
Happening now, it's almost 5:00 p.m., it is 5:00 p.m., over at the White House the focus of the CIA leak probe, the president and his staff deflecting questions, but contingency plans reportedly in place.
It's 4:00 p.m. along much of the Gulf Coast.
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