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The Situation Room
Cheney Shooting Victim Has Minor Heart Attack; Press Still Seeks Answers About Cheney Hunting Accident; Fraudulent Claims for FEMA Relief Dollars; Star Wars Politics; Dick Cheney Surrounded By Mystery; Paul Hackett Dropping Ohio Senate Campaign; Mark Warner Possible Presidential Candidate
Aired February 14, 2006 - 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: Thanks very much, Ali. And to our viewers you are now in THE SITUATION ROOM, where new pictures and information from around the world are arriving all the time.
Happening now, a turn for the worst, the man shot by Vice President Dick Cheney suffers a minor heart attack. It's 3:00 p.m. in Texas, where Harry Whittington's condition is being watched closely by doctors and by the White House. When did the administration first learn of this setback?
Also this hour, the Democrats strike back, with help from "Star Wars" creator George Lucas. It's 4:00 p.m. here in Washington, where Lucas weighed in on Darth Vader and on Dick Cheney's misfire.
And a question of judgment. The Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia takes a stand on the U.S. Constitution and says anyone who disagrees with him must be, quote, an idiot. I'm Wolf Blitzer, and you're in The Situation Room.
Right now, the man shot and wounded by Vice President Dick Cheney is back in intensive care with birdshot lodged in or near his heart. Harry Whittington suffered a minor heart attack this morning.
Our White House correspondent, Dana Bash, is standing by. Our congressional correspondent, Ed Henry, is watching the story as well. First, let's go to the hospital in Corpus Christi, Ed Lavandera on the scene with the latest, Ed?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Early this morning, doctors here in Corpus Christi noticed that Mr. Whittington's heartbeat was irregular, and because of that, they started doing a series of tests to make sure that blood flow through his heart was OK.
But what happened is one of the BBs from the birdshot has migrated toward the heart. It is actually either lodged inside or basically touching the outside of the heart according to doctors here, and because of that, it has caused inflammation and some irritation of the heart. But doctors say that blood flow is OK.
He's been put back in the intensive care unit and any plans of Mr. Whittington leaving the hospital anytime soon have been put on hold. Doctors now say he'll have to stay here under supervision for another seven days or so based on what has happened here this morning. At first the doctors had said the wounds were superficial, but they do say it is common in these types of accidents for the birdshot and the BBs inside the body to move. It takes about 48 to 72 hours they say for that birdshot to kind of settle down, and scar tissue to form around it, and that many people that have gone through the accidents continue to live with the BBs lodged inside, they say that's not a big deal, and because of that, there are no plans to remove it at this point.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER BANKO, HOSPITAL SPOKESMAN: The good news is Mr. Whittington has a very healthy heart. As I said yesterday, probably healthier than mine. However, some of the birdshot appears to have moved and lodged into a part of his heart causing the atrial fib, and what we would say is a minor heart attack.
At this point in time, there's no plans to do surgery to remove that birdshot. It's fixed in the heart at this point in time. However, it will require that we monitor Mr. Whittington for up to another seven days in the hospital, to make sure no more birdshot moves into vital organs, as well as that piece of birdshot doesn't move anywhere else in the heart.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAVANDERA: Doctors here also say that they have been in constant communication with the White House and the medical team that first attended to Mr. Whittington Saturday afternoon at the end of that hunting expedition on Saturday afternoon. They will continue to do that as well. Wolf?
BLITZER: Ed, you have this little pellet now, near or in his heart. How worried are doctors there about possible infection?
LAVANDERA: They are worried about, that's one of the reasons he was put back in the intensive care unit. They are worried about that, although they do say that is one of the things they will address if and when it comes up. But right now there are no signs of infection in Mr. Whittington right now.
BLITZER: All right, Ed Lavandera, we're going to check back with you in a little while. Thank you very much. Ed is on the scene for us.
And this note to our viewers, we're going to speak about Whittington's condition. That's coming up with our own medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, that will come up right at the top of the next hour, here in THE SITUATION ROOM.
Over at the White House, the press secretary, Scott McClellan, once again, was pummeled with questions about the Cheney hunting accident. This for a second day in a row. Listen to this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DAVID GREGORY, NBC NEWS: I'm not getting answers here, Scott. And I'm trying to be forthright with you, but don't tell me that you're giving us complete answers when you're not actually answering the question, because everybody knows what is an answer and what is not the answer.
SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: David, now you want to make it about you, and it's not about you, it's about what happened, and I'm trying to -- I'm trying to provide answers to the questions.
GREGORY: I have one final question, since that one wasn't answered. Is it appropriate for the vice president to have waited 14 hours after the incident before he spoke with local law enforcement officials and do you think an average citizen would have been accorded that same amount of time before having to answer questions about a shooting incident?
MCCLELLAN: That was what was arranged with the local law enforcement authorities. You have to ask them that question.
MARTHA RADDATZ, ABC NEWS: Were you asking questions? What were you concerns about a hunting accident if the vice president was there?
MCCLELLAN: We went through this yesterday.
RADDATZ: I know we went through it yesterday, but we didn't get that answer. Why didn't you know, and --
MCCLELLAN: Martha, I think that if you have additional questions relating to this matter, that you should direct them to the vice president's office. I've responded to you pretty fully in terms of my view. I've responded to those questions, I did so yesterday.
RADDATZ: But you didn't answer that particular question. You never answered why it took so long to inform you who has a responsibility to inform the public.
MCCLELLAN: We went through that yesterday. I laid out the facts and what the facts were, and that's all I can do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Let's bring in our White House correspondent, Dana Bash, she's been covering this story thoroughly from the moment we learned about it. Dana, at this briefing, do we know if Scott McClellan knew, in fact, that Mr. Whittington had suffered a heart attack earlier in the day? Had he been briefed on this turn for the worse?
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: We do know. And he did know, and I will definitely get to that in a moment, Wolf. First it's important to say the vice president of the United States actually issued, just about an hour ago, the first statement acknowledging that he accidentally shot Harry Whittington and that was about and because of the change in Mr. Whittington's condition, because he had a minor heart attack.
And it was the -- the statement was striking in the fact that it gave such detail -- striking departure from the way the vice president's office generally operates, talking in detail. And even giving specific times every step of the way and when he found out that Mr. Whittington's condition changed, that he was here at the White House when he heard he was going to get a test.
Up on Capitol Hill, got a note passed to him from his chief of staff, saying there would be a press conference at the hospital, and saying he came back here to the White House to watch the press conference. I'll read part of the statement, it was a written statement from the vice president.
It said, quote, "At about 1:30 p.m. eastern, the vice president called Mr. Whittington and spoke to him. The vice president wished Mr. Whittington well and asked if there was anything he needed. The vice president said that he stood ready to assist. Mr. Whittington's spirits were good, but obviously his situation deserves the careful monitoring that his doctors are providing."
Back to your question. That all happened after the White House briefing, which we just saw a part of, and the answer is Scott McClellan did know. He told us he found out just before he went into the briefing that Mr. Whittington had a minor heart attack, but he said that he decided not to mention it because he knew that the hospital was having a press conference, and he said that they could have more of the answers than he would.
But at that press conference, in addition to what you herd, what Scott McClellan was trying to do is move on to other issues.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCCLELLAN: There were some very legitimate questions that were asked. As I indicated, I always believe that you can look back and work to do better. I indicated that yesterday. I think today, what we're focusing our efforts ON are what are the most pressing priorities for the American people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: The reality, Wolf, is that this is still very much a focus at this White House, still a lot of unanswered questions to a lot of developments, a change that was quite unexpected everywhere including at this White House and obviously even in the vice president's office and a lot of question that we're hoping to get answers to, still.
One other thing I should add, Ed Lavandera mention this, that the White House says a White House medical team is in touch still with the medical team in Texas. Why? That's because they say -- it's standard operating procedure when somebody from the White House is on the scene at the initial time of trauma that they should keep in touch, and that's what's going on now.
BLITZER: Dana, a lot of political experts in damage control insist the vice president has to come out and answer all these questions personally, directly, as quickly as possible. I know he has a speech later in the week in his home state of Wyoming, but based on what you're hearing, is there any inclination on his part to have a news conference or to grant an interview to someone and answer these questions head on?
BASH: That is a very good question, Wolf. It's one I have been asking over and over the past 48 hours. It sounds like they're trying to figure that out, perhaps at this point, trying to get a better sense of Mr. Whittington's condition. But, Vice President Cheney, I don't need to tell you, is not your typical politician. He is somebody who has made very clear, he is not running for president again, and that has determined and dictated the way he has acted, not just in this situation, but across the board over the past five years, that has defied a lot of the ways other politicians act, Wolf.
BLITZER: Dana, thank you very much.
Let's go up to Capitol Hill, Ed Henry is standing by. I take it, Ed, the vice president made an appearance on Capitol Hill, but didn't bother to inform the news media.
ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. The vice president was on the hill, as Dana noted, this afternoon when he got word from his chief of staff that in fact Mr. Whittington's condition had faced some complications. It's typical for the vice- president to be here on Tuesday.
He's normally behind closed doors in the noon to 1:00 hour with Republican senators at a closed strategy session. But we're told instead, the vice president was in the Capitol, on the fourth floor of the Capitol, in a secure room, getting some sort of intelligence briefing.
That's when he got word about the condition of Mr. Whittington. I and other reporters were waiting outside the Senate Republican luncheon thinking that after the intelligence briefing, the vice president would come by and at least stop in and talk to some of these Republican senators, but he never came.
And, in fact, the vice president right around 1:00 Eastern time, left basically through a side door, not the typical way. He normally goes past reporters on his way out of the building. He did not today, he avoided reporters. Democrats pounced on this with Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid saying he believes this illustrates that the administration does not level with the American people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MINORITY LEADER: I think the reason it took the vice president a day to talk about this is part of the secretive nature of this administration. The American people's not entitled to know what's going on in their mindset. They keep things pretty close to the chest.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HENRY: Not at a Katrina event this afternoon, Senator Hillary Clinton also weighed in. She charged that this is a pattern for the administration, of not leveling with the American people. I can tell you Republican senators that I spoke to publicly are saying, "Look, this was an accident, and that's all it is. And enough with this." But privately, Republicans are admitting that the public relations aspect of this certainly could have been handled better, Wolf.
BLITZER: And we also had another person weighing in on all of this, the "Star Wars" creator George Lucas was on Capitol Hill today. What is that all about?
HENRY: Well George Lucas was with the Democratic leader in the House, Nancy Pelosi. He took a poke at the vice president. What he was doing was responding to what I reported on yesterday about this Republican spoof video that basically took a shot at the Democrats.
It showed what they called Darth Nancy for Pelosi, charging she was part of an evil Democratic empire trying to take control of Congress from Republicans. Lucas responded to all of that. Even though Democrats took that in fun yesterday. Lucas responded, in a half-serious way, I guess, and did take a poke at the vice president, and this hunting incident. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE LUCAS, DIRECTOR, STAR WARS: Because the emperor works behind Darth Vader, he doesn't actually stand in front. I say that in fear of getting hit with a lot of buckshot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: Now outside this event there were various Republican staffers dressed up in different "Star Wars" garb. They are trying to continue this theme about the alleged evil empire trying to take control of Congress. Obviously both sides having a little bit of fun, not only with the fight for control of Congress, but also with the vice president incident, Wolf.
BLITZER: All right Ed, thank you very much -- Ed Henry up on Capitol Hill for us.
And we're going to have much more on the fallout from the Cheney hunting accident in our "Strategy Session." That's coming up this hour. Avid hunter and Democratic strategist Paul Begala and Terry Jeffrey. He'll join us as well. Is the vice president's penchant for secrecy a political liability? All that coming up here in THE SITUATION ROOM. Let's check in with Jack Cafferty, first though. He's standing by with "The Cafferty File." Hi, Jack.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: How are you doing? He cashes our checks, right?
BLITZER: Who's that?
CAFFERTY: The vice president. Don't we pay him? BLITZER: We are the taxpayers, yes, and we do pay him.
CAFFERTY: So if we pay him, and in effect he works for us, does he owe us anything in the way of explanations about anything that he does?
BLITZER: The answer is, yes.
CAFFERTY: Thank you. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has pretty strong views about the Constitution, and apparently he's not afraid to share them. In a speech sponsored by the Federalist Society, Scalia says he believes in sticking to the original text of the Constitution. He says there's no room for personal, political, or religious beliefs according to his judicial philosophy.
Scalia criticized those who think otherwise, saying, quote, "you would have to be an idiot to believe the Constitution is a living organism," unquote. Interesting comments from arguably the most conservative voice on the bench at a time when two new justices have recently joined the court, John Roberts and Samuel Alito.
So here's the question, Justice Scalia says you have to be an idiot to believe the Constitution is flexible. Do you agree? You can e-mail us at caffertyfile@CNN.com or go to CNN.com/CaffertyFile. But don't expect any answers later, we've decided to keep them all a secret.
BLITZER: Thank you very much, Jack. We'll get those answers. Does he mean, Jack, that his colleagues on the bench who may disagree with him are idiots?
CAFFERTY: I don't know what he meant. All I know is what he said. It was in a speech to the Federalist Society, and apparently he has some very strongly-held views about the rigid nature of the original document.
Despite the fact that there are things that, Wolf, as you know, in that original document, that didn't allow women to be landowners, that advocated slavery. I mean there were some things in there that, just, you know, changed with the times, which I guess is why there are amendments, I don't know.
BLITZER: I think you're right. Jack, thank you very much.
Coming up here in THE SITUATION ROOM, Democrats and the Katrina disaster. Top senators keep trying to hold the president's feet to the fire, amid new allegations of FEMA fraud.
Plus, from rising Democratic star and Bush critic to campaign dropout. We'll tell you about an Iraqi war veteran's political retreat.
And later, the race to 2008, Democrat Mark Warner tests the waters in New Hampshire. But can he escape Hillary Clinton's shadow? You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: The 78-year-old lawyer accidentally shot by the vice president takes a turn for the worse, suffers a heart attack this morning. We'll continue to watch this story. More on it coming up, but first, some other stories we're following here in Washington.
Democratic senators seizing again today on a House Republican report that's tough on the president and his response to Hurricane Katrina. On the eve of the report's official release, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York says Gulf Coast residents still are being left without help, and without hope. She was joined by Senators Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Ken Salazar of Colorado.
A milestone today in the effort to try to rebuild New Orleans. Tulane University Hospital partially reopened. Mayor Ray Nagin and more than 100 doctors and nurses were on hand to celebrate. The hospital suffered more than $90 million in damage from Hurricane Katrina. With parts of it back in business, there are now two emergency rooms open within New Orleans city limits.
Did $1,100 of FEMA relief funds go to the purchase of a diamond engagement ring? Yes, they did, according to a new detailed report issued by the General Accounting Office here in Washington. Our Internet reporter Abbi Tatton has the latest details on this online -- Abbi.
ABBI TATTON, CNN INTERNET REPORTER: Wolf, here's a check online for $2,000 of federal government money that was issued to investigators who used bogus names and Social Security numbers to demonstrate just how vulnerable FEMA was to fraud after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. This is a new GAO report available online showing that FEMA payments were made to thousands of people using bogus information.
They also looked into the use of these FEMA debit cards that were issued after the hurricanes, showing that mostly they were used to get out cash, but in some cases used for things not directly related to the emergency -- a Houston gentlemen's club, for example, to the tune of $1,200, and also a tattoo to the tune of $450. This whole report, Wolf, available at gao.gov.
BLITZER: I suspect there's a lot more of that in that report as well. Abbi, thank you very much.
Betty Nguyen is joining us now from the CNN Global Headquarters in Atlanta with a closer look at other stories making the news. Hi, Betty.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, Wolf. Denying international pressure, Iran has resumed nuclear activities. Iran's atomic chief say it's on what he calls a small laboratory scale. Now, the U.S. and European Union nations fear Tehran intends to use its nuclear program to make atomic weapons.
Russia and France are urging Iran to reverse course. Earlier this month, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog referred Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions. Iran though insists its nuclear program is to generate electricity.
Check this out, protests in Pakistan against European cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed turned deadly yet again today. A security guard shot and killed two protesters when rioters attacked western business in Lahore and Islamabad.
Demonstrators burned several buildings in Lahore, including two banks and a Kentucky Fried Chicken eatery. In Islamabad, protesters attacked the foreign ministry building. Eleven people were injured in the clashes.
Well, hundreds of thousands gathered at Martyr Square in Beirut today. They paid tribute to former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. He and 20 others were killed by a bomb a year ago today.
Massive demonstrations after the attack forced Syria to end its 29-year military presence in Lebanon. A U.N. investigation has found evidence possibly implicating Syrian and Lebanese officials in Hariri's death. Damascus denies any involvement -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Betty Nguyen, thank you very much. We'll get back to you very soon.
Coming up, we'll get back to our top story, the vice president's involvement in an accidental shooting. Our Bill Schneider takes a closer look at why Dick Cheney is very different from so many previous vice presidents.
Plus, conservatives attack Al Gore over comments he made in Saudi Arabia. That story, plus the Cheney controversy, when Paul Begala and Terry Jeffrey join me, today in our "Strategy Session." We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Beyond a statement from his office, we haven't heard much from the Vice President Dick Cheney, since he accidentally shot his hunting companion this weekend. We've only gotten a fleeting glance of him as well.
Our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider, has been thinking about Dick Cheney's absence, conspicuous absences over these years, and he's joining us now live -- Bill.
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Wolf, why is this vice president different from all other vice presidents? No, it's not because he shot somebody. Vice President Aaron Burr did that first.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SCHNEIDER (voice-over): Dick Cheney, man of mystery. He seems to prefer to exercise power privately, rather than publicly. He was president Ford's chief of staff, the ultimate behind-the-scenes position. He was the first President Bush's secretary of defense and chief executive of Halliburton, an energy services company. To his critics, Cheney is the military industrial complex. He even jokes about his reputation.
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If I had to describe myself, I'd say I'm serious, secretive, uncommunicative, you know, just a real people person.
SCHNEIDER: Americans distrust private power. It feeds conspiracy theories. The left has long nurtured the view that Cheney is the unelected president, the all-powerful emperor in "Star Wars."
LUCAS: The emperor works behind Darth Vader, he doesn't actually stand in front. I say that in fear of getting hit with a lot of buckshot.
SCHNEIDER: The White House Press Corps suspects a cover-up.
QUESTION: Why is it that it took so long for the president, for you, for anybody else to know that the vice president accidentally shot somebody?
SCHNEIDER: Conservatives see a conspiracy by the liberal media to tarnish the vice president's reputation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We applaud this administration for taking time to get this right rather than panicking and putting the news out.
SCHNEIDER: There's a reason why Cheney has spent little effort cultivating a positive public image. He doesn't have to. He has made it clear, he's not running for president.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHNEIDER: That is unusual. It makes Cheney the first vice president in 75 years not to run for president. So now, instead of asking, how much damage has this incident done to Cheney's political prospects, the issue is, how much damage could it do to the president and the GOP -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Bill Schneider reporting for us. Bill, thank you very much.
In today's "Strategy Session," the political fallout continues over vice president's Dick Cheney's accidental shooting of a hunting partner. Did the White House mismanage the news? What should be the strategy to try to fix the damage? Should the vice president directly address the issue?
Joining us now, Democratic strategist and avid hunter Paul Begala; and Terry Jeffrey, the editor of "Human Events." I don't know if you're an avid hunter or not -- you're not, but we do have one. And you are dressed ...
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I am? BLITZER: Only a few weeks ago, I wanted you on "LATE EDITION" one Sunday. You went quail hunting, so you obviously know a lot about this.
BEGALA: I've been quail hunting for, I don't know, 30 years.
BLITZER: And you brought a little -- you brought a little ...
(CROSSTALK)
BEGALA: I brought for you the shot. This is birdshot. It's number eight ...
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: Maybe we can get a close-up of that, but they are very tiny.
BEGALA: They are very tiny. There's probably 300 of them. Now, the vice president was shooting a .28 gauge, which is actually a slightly smaller gun than this .20 gauge shell that I brought in.
BLITZER: So the pellets that lodged in or near the heart of Mr. Whittington would be slightly smaller or bigger than that?
BEGALA: Slight smaller, I guess. This is number eight birdshot. My guess -- I don't know. My guess is the vice president was probably shooting seven-and-a-half, slightly smaller and from a smaller round. This is .20 gauge round, he is shooting .28 gauge, slightly smaller and slightly less powerful, thank goodness.
It does take a really great shot to use a .28 gauge, and Mr. Cheney is reputed to be a terrific shot, but he was not behaving safely in this, and this is kind of what has frustrated me about this story.
BLITZER: I'm going to get into that in a second, but I just want Terry to weight in on and react to this criticism in the "New York Times" editorial page today from the editors of the "New York Times."
"The vice president appears to have behaved like a teenager, who thinks that if he keeps quiet about the wreck, nobody will notice that the family car is missing its right door."
BLITZER: The administration's communications department has proved that its skills at actually communicating are so rusty, it can't get a minor police blotter story straight. Did the White House mishandle this incident?
TERRY JEFFREY, EDITOR, HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE: Well, it's not actually that, Wolf. I think it's the most curious vice presidential story since Al Gore went fundraising area at a Buddhist temple. You know, that we all got pictures of Gore sitting there, and he couldn't come clean about it.
And there's no question that the vice president's office was unprofessional in this. I mean, after all, if the vice president's going to shoot someone, he might as well do it on a Saturday evening in the nadir of the news cycle. They could have got as much news out Saturday night. The vice president was going to take a hit, but the way they handled, they really...
BLITZER: Should he come out now and answer everybody's questions directly, personally, either with a news conference or an interview with a serious journalist?
JEFFREY: Well, he should, but I doubt he's going to do it.
BLITZER: Why?
JEFFREY: I don't think he wants to answer questions about the Lewis Libby situation. I don't think he wants to perpetuate the story. I think he's going to keep his head down and try to hang low.
I think the net consequence of it, though, is that the vice president is really no longer a net asset for Republicans running in the midterm elections. He's not a net asset for the president of the United States. Right now, at best, he's a political neutral factor.
For the next week, he's going to be the subject of stories like this. And as long as the guy's in office and after that, they're going to be making jokes about this.
BLITZER: Do you think that the vice president did not behave appropriately during the actual incident? You weren't there. I wasn't there, obviously. We're only hearing what eyewitnesses have said, including Mrs. Armstrong.
BEGALA: The only eyewitness to come forward is a Mrs. Armstrong, who, by the way is a lobbyist, who lobbies for contractors in Iraq. But what she tells us, even just -- let's pretend that her very whitewashed version is the absolute truth.
The first rule of gun safety -- it comes straight from the NRA -- is the shooter is ultimately responsible when he pulls the trigger. It is your job to know where every man and woman is in the field, to know where the dogs are.
BLITZER: Even if Mr. Whittington, 78-years-old, sort of approached surprisingly, didn't announce himself as they are supposed to do in advance?
BEGALA: Well, this announce yourself rule is a smart one. It's good common sense. But it's not nearly as universally taught as gun safety. The shooter is responsible.
Vice President Cheney, according to Mrs. Armstrong, knew that Whittington was in the field with him. He knew that Whittington was not in his line of sight. Therefore, he shouldn't have ever shot. There's no bird in the world worth shooting your friend. I'm sure the vice president would tell you that.
He behaved, I think very negligently here. I don't want to lock him up. It's not, you know -- I'm not saying it's a crime. But as a dad that takes his kids hunting, I really don't like them telling my kids that Vice President Cheney did nothing wrong. He fired in a direction where there was a man, and he didn't know that the guy was. When you don't know where the rest of your colleagues are in the field, you put your gun up and you don't pull the trigger.
BLITZER: What do you think about that? You're not a hunter, neither am I.
JEFFREY: I'm just glad my friend Paul Begala is such a gun aficionado.
(CROSSTALK)
JEFFREY: ... sticking up for the Second Amendment and the God- given right of every American to own a gun, provided they use it properly.
BLITZER: We'll talk about this with Paul, 7:00 p.m. Eastern here in THE SITUATION ROOM. Former Senator Alan Simpson's going to come in. He's gone with hunting with the vice president. We'll continue this conversation.
I want to move on, though. We spoke about the current vice president. Let's talk about a former vice president, Al Gore. He was just in Saudi Arabia. Among other things, he told a forum, the Jedda Economic Forum, he said this, "Unfortunately, there have been terrible abuses, and it's wrong. I do want you to know that it does not represent the desires or wishes or feelings of the majority of the citizens of my country."
He was criticizing some of the U.S. decisions to go ahead and round up suspected terrorists, the detainees. And this has become a fiercely debated subject now on talk radio, and others. Yesterday, Bill Bennett was here. He was criticizing the former vice president of going to Saudi Arabia, of all places, and speaking ill of the United States. What do you make of it?
JEFFREY: Wolf, what Al Gore did was unforgivable. What he did is in time of war, he went to a foreign country where the situation is already agitated. We have the problems with the Danish cartoons, real discontent in the Arab and Muslim world against the U.S. policy.
And this guy says the United States indiscriminately rounded up Arabs. That's false. Then he attacks the visa policy of United States in strictly enforcing visas coming out of that part of the world post-9/11.
If Al Gore had read the 9/11 Commission report, he'd know that 15 of the 19 hijackers came from the country he was saying this in. All of them put false information or did not complete their visas. Six of them committed immigration crimes to stay here in the United States.
And he's blaming our government for strictly enforcing visas against people from that country? He's doing it in that country in time of war? If Al Gore had an outside shot of a political comeback before this, this should terminate it for good.
BEGALA: I think he had the politics wrong. I think it is wrong to criticize our government when you're overseas, particularly in Saudi Arabia. And Terry makes a good point about that. And I think he got the policy wrong. I think it's good that we're cracking down on visas. I think Terry's right about that.
The other part of the speech -- I think that it's right to say that Gore should not have made those comments. The other part of that speech in Saudi Arabia, he pushed the Saudis to help the West crack down on the Iranians to keep them from building a nuclear weapon.
That part of it was a terrific sort of finger-wagging lecture to the rest of the Arab Muslim world that they need to help us to crack down on the Iranians. That was mostly lost in the American press because of his attacks on our policy. But I think Terry's right. You should not be attacking our country when you're overseas.
BLITZER: All right. We're going to have you back, 7:00 p.m. Eastern.
BEGALA: Yes, sir.
BLITZER: You know the president was celebrating one of your football teams today?
BLITZER: How wonderful is that? God bless him for that. I wore my Texas state flag today. Yes, the Texas Longhorns, national champions, at the White House today.
BEGALA: There he is. Those are they guys.
(CROSSTALK)
BEGALA: Where's that gesture? My favorite gesture from at Yaley. Come on, Mr. President. They didn't brief him. Do the hook- em horns.
BLITZER: We'll leave it there. Thank you very much.
Up next, he was the darling of the Democrats last fall when he almost pulled off the upset of the year. But now the Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett is on the outs. We're going to tell you why.
Plus, the next presidential campaign. Can a former governor from a southern state make it to the White House? It's happened before. Can it happen again? Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back. An Iraq war veteran who had been a hero of many Democrats says his short political career is over, at least for now. Paul Hackett announced today he's dropping his campaign for U.S. Senate in Ohio. The very vocal Bush administration critic had been recruited to run by top Democrats and later pressured by his own party to drop out. Here's our national correspondent, Bruce Morton. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAUL HACKETT (D), OHIO CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: I think that the question that the American people want answered is, can we win this, and is our government being honest with us and being realistic on what it's going to take to win this?
BRUCE MORTON, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Remember Paul Hackett, the anti-war democratic Iraq war vet who ran for Congress in a very Republican Ohio district and got 48 percent of the vote? He lost to Republican Jean Schmidt last year, but was encouraged to run for the Senate against incumbent Republican Mike DeWine.
But then, Democratic Congressman Sherrod Brown decided to run, and Hackett withdrew, saying party leaders had urged him to get out and were telling his fundraisers not to send him money. An Iraq and Afghanistan vets group today called his forced withdrawal an outrage, but Hackett has been a controversial candidate.
THOMAS MANN, BROOKINGS INSTITUTE: It's a very cold-blooded political calculation by state and national Democratic Party officials. They believe Paul Hackett is too hot for Ohio.
MORTON: He had attacked the president and compared religious conservatives to Osama bin Laden. The war is still unpopular. In the most recent CNN-"USA Today"-Gallup poll taken this past weekend, 55 percent think sending troops there was a mistake, 56 percent oppose the war. But Hackett is out, and the more moderate Congressman Brown will not face him a primary opponent.
MANN: Sherrod Brown is a strong candidate. They want to avoid a primary, and they're flexing their muscle. Painful, but probably the right decision.
MORTON: What about another run against Jean Schmidt, who barely beat him last year? "No," says Hackett. He gave his word to other Democrats running against her that he wouldn't, and his word is his bond. He'd have been different, that's for sure.
Bruce Morton, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Liberal Web sites helped launch Paul Hackett's political career. Now that he's not running for U.S. Senate, they're angry. Our Internet reporter Jacki Schechner has the story -- Jacki.
JACKI SCHECHNER, INTERNET REPORTER: Wolf, you can read Paul Hackett's official statement on his Web site, Hackettforohio.com. He does say he doesn't plan to run for political office at all again soon, but this has bloggers angry. They liked him a lot.
These are Ohio blogs, local blogs, Buckeye Senate, Hackett for sure, the whole thing nauseating over at Blunderbund (ph). They're calling it the Valentine's Day massacre. A lot of them threatening to now register independent, or vote for Mike DeWine, the Republican. We've also got Hackett going back to the blogs that supported him in that special election. Ohio 2nd has an interview with Paul Hackett on his phone from his Ford truck outside of his Senate headquarters. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HACKETT: The balance between the friction from within the party to keep me out of this and the impact on me and my family, I just succumbed to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHECHNER: So, Wolf, he's got the support online. And he's going back to them to explain his position now.
BLITZER: Jacki, thank you very much.
Coming up here in THE SITUATION ROOM, Democrat Mark Warner knows the road to the White House often runs through New Hampshire. It usually does. We'll take a closer look at the former Virginia governor's early maneuvering and how Senator Hillary Clinton figures in. Our John King is on the scene for us.
And do you worry that the federal government is eavesdropping on you? Americans weigh on the controversy in our brand new CNN poll. The numbers are ahead. All that coming up right here in THE SITUATION ROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back. Most every list of would-be Democratic presidential candidates has Mark Warner's name on it. The former Virginia governor has been laying some groundwork for a possible White House bid, including a must-go visit to New Hampshire. Our chief national correspondent John King is joining us now from Boston with more on what's going on.
John, give us a little fill on Mark Warner and his presidential ambitions.
JOHN KING, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the Democratic campaign and some of the Republican campaigns well under way. Back in Washington, they're talking about the president's budget, about Dick Cheney's hunting accident.
For the Democrats, they're out very early. Evan Bayh in Iowa over the weekend, Mark Warner up in New Hampshire. These Democrats knowing as they try to replace George Bush in the White House, their biggest opposition may be a woman who lived there before.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KING: For Mark Warner, the visit to Stonyfield Farms is a twofer. A taste for the yogurt before it's shipped off to stores, and an early taste of presidential politics while Washington is consumed with other dramas. New Hampshire, of course, has a unique flavor, even this early.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a job interview. I see you interviewing for the next position for the leader of this country. How do you inform the people out there what you stand for and why they should vote for you?
MARK WARNER (D), FORMER GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA: First of all, I have to decide if I'm going to be a job applicant.
KING: Nice try.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So if you're lucky enough to inherit the mess in Iraq, what will you do?
WARNER: We fight and how we got in there is not where I want to put my energy.
KING: The former Virginia governor hopes he's more than just the flavor of the month. And his profile has hungry Democratic activists like George Bruno more than a little intrigued.
GEORGE BRUNO, NEW HAMPSHIRE DEMOCRATIC ACTIVIST: He knows how to talk to Republicans, independents, and Democrats.
KING: A successful Democrat from a red state, like that governor Bruno gambled on early back in the 1992 cycle. So why not back Warner early? Some pictures really do speak 1,000 words.
BRUNO: The Clintons have a base of support in New Hampshire. She would have a tremendous base of support if she decided to run.
KING: The junior senator from New York is just one obstacle to Warner and other Democratic hopefuls. This speech was Warner's coming out, of sorts, and many on hand, while impressed, suggested the foreign policy section sounded a bit tentative.
WARNER: We've simply got to find a way forward. A way that unites our friends and divides our enemies, not the reverse.
KING: Warner needs to be out early to introduce himself. But this early poses a dilemma.
WARNER: We need to move away from the Washington approach.
KING: A key strength is he is not from partisan-polarized Washington. But it's risky to be too critical of his own party in a big congressional election year, especially when some in the liberal base worry about his business background and support of gun rights.
WARNER: My background doesn't check every box in traditional Democratic orthodoxy. I know that.
KING: Yet it's clear in any Warner campaign, electability will be a major theme, and if necessary, a deliberate contrast with a potential rival who is wildly popular among Democrats, but the Warner camp thinks, a much tougher sell among Republicans and independents. WARNER: See, I believe that a Democrat Party that's actually competitive in all states rather than simply 16 or 17, that serves to benefit not only the Democrats, but it serves to the benefit of the whole country.
KING: Yes, it's February 2006. But up here, never too early to focus on a choice still two winters away.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING: And Governor Warner, again, insists he hasn't definitively made up his mind yet. But, Wolf, off to North Carolina and California this month, Iowa next month. He's already promised to come back to New Hampshire. Looks like a candidate to me.
BLITZER: All right, John. Thanks very much. John King in his hometown of Boston. Good to see you. I'm sure you're enjoying the sun and fun of Boston right now.
Up next, controversy and chaos shadow Haiti's presidential election. What the leading contender is saying about the vote counts showing him without an outright majority, and what he wants his supporters to do now.
And are millions of your tax dollars simply sinking into the mud? What's happening to the thousands of trailers intended for Hurricane Katrina evacuees? And why are they still sitting empty, months after the storm? We're investigating. All that coming up right here in THE SITUATION ROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Betty Nguyen is joining us now from the CNN global headquarters in Atlanta with a closer look at some other stories making news.
Hi, Betty.
NGUYEN: Hi there, Wolf. The leading presidential candidate in Haiti's election says he suspects gigantic fraud. Protesters in support of candidate Rene Preval intensified after a vote count gave him less than an outright majority.
Preval supporters stormed a hotel yesterday, forcing Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu to be evacuated. Demonstrators accuse election officials of manipulating last week's vote. Final results are expected later today, and we will be watching, no doubt.
Conan O'Brien is mending fences this Valentine's Day. The late- night talk show host exchanged gifts with the Finnish president in Helsinki. O'Brien caused a stir last year, if you remember, when he joked that Finland's first female leader looked like him and endorsed her for a second term. His Valentine's gift to her, a box of chocolates in the shape of a heart. And she gave him, interestingly enough, troll dolls. Well, dolls and chocolates are all very nice for Valentine's. But a wedding, that is something else. Fourteen couples from the U.S. and around the world tied the knot or renewed their vows at the annual Valentine's Day weddings at New York's Empire State Building today. The ceremonies took place every 30 minutes at the 80th floor's Sky Lobby. So, Wolf, I have to ask you, are you doing anything special this Valentine's Day besides working?
BLITZER: Working very hard. But looking forward to something special tonight.
NGUYEN: Oh, good. Happy Valentine's Day.
BLITZER: Thank you very much, Betty. To you as well.
Still to come, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has never been known for mincing words. As he put it, "You're an idiot if you think the constitution has room to bend." So is he right? What you're telling our Jack Cafferty, that's coming up.
And it sounds like a spy movie. Allegations of a secret U.S.- Israeli plot to bring down Hamas. But is this fact or fiction? We're looking for the truth. All that ahead, right here in THE SITUATION ROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Let's go right to Jack in New York with "The Cafferty File" -- Jack.
CAFFERTY: There's a good idea. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says he believes in sticking to the original text of the Constitution. Scalia criticized those who believe otherwise, saying, quote, "You'd have to be an idiot," unquote, to believe the Constitution is a living organism. So that's the question. Would you have to be an idiot to believe that the Constitution is flexible?
Mike in Hot Springs Arkansas writes, "I'm an old retired prosecutor. I really don't appreciate being called an idiot because I believe life is dynamic. People and ideas evolve with the times. The Constitution, to be a viable instrument of government, must be flexible enough to address the current situations."
Preston in La Place, Louisiana: "I agree with Justice Scalia. The Constitution is not flexible. Plato recognized that a democracy without strong checks would descend into tyranny."
Mike in Dayton, Ohio, writes, "I guess then I am an idiot. The Constitution was designed to be very flexible. If Justice Scalia does not see the benefit in that, then he, in no way, should be a justice. Our democracy survived for these 230 years because of the genius that went into this document. It's a sin that a member of the highest court in this great country doesn't see that."
Lauren in Jacksonville, North Carolina: "He's right. I'm an idiot. I've somehow allowed people like him into power." And Jeff in Petrosky, Michigan: "I don't know about the flexibility of the Constitution, but Justice Scalia might just want to shut up and consider himself lucky to be alive after his duck hunting trip with the trigger-happy vice president" -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Very funny. Thanks very much for that, Jack. We'll see you in a few minutes.
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