Former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow Dies at Age 53; IndyMac Goes Bust
DAN SIMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello from the CNN Center in Atlanta. This is CNN SATURDAY MORNING. I'm Dan Simon, in for T.J. Holmes.</s>RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Randi Kaye, in for Betty Nguyen. We start with the death of former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow. He lost his battle with cancer at the age of 53.</s>SIMON: President Bush released this statement just a short time ago saying, "He brought wit, grace and a great love of country to his work. His colleagues will cherish memories of his energetic personality and relentless good humor. All of us here at the White House will miss Tony as will the millions of Americans he inspired with his brave struggle against cancer."</s>KAYE: Tony Snow had an impact on politics whether he sharing the White House message or offering his take on the political goings on of the day. Political strategist and fellow CNN contributor James Carville joins us now on the phone from Napa Valley, California. James, you knew Tony well. What would you say really stood out about him?</s>VOICE OF JAMES CARVILLE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Really charming guy. I know Reagan was kind of a hero of Tony's and he was really sort of like that. He had a sunny way. We, obviously, had, you know, a huge number of policy disagreements, but he never let that get in the way. He had a real easy going kind of affable way about him. He's a really, really smart guy and he wasn't so much a political guy, as simply he was a real policy guy. He had a real touch about him. A real personal touch. A real way of people. He was truly one of the good guys in Washington when he was there.</s>KAYE: He held the job for just 17 months, but made a real impact, wouldn't you say?</s>CARVILLE: Rarely had I ever seen a -- somebody go into a job and just sort of like that, very, very difficult job, and he was almost like he had trained all of his life for this very job. He was a columnist, he was in a TV show, he had done any number of things prior to that, and he was, you know, came in and just from day one, stepped on that stage and until the day he left, he was really, really good at it. I think he did this administration a lot of good.</s>KAYE: And like yourself, he was certainly never shy to speak his mind, was he, even before when he was a commentator, commenting on the president's style and substance?</s>CARVILLE: Right. But he had a real -- more than I did, he had a real gracious demeanor. He had a very easy way of doing it. He was a very kind of soft guy. He was able to make his point and able to make them human. I remember like he would get a question and he would kind of hit himself on the head as to how to let the questioner know how simple his question was. He used his entire body to communicate. He didn't just communicate what he said. Basically, very seldom changed his tone, changed his pitch or volume or anything like that. He's what I know total body communication. He was able to get across his point. The other thing, he was very, very popular with the press corps and the administration where a lot of people in the didn't like the press, he was popular and he tried to get along with people.</s>KAYE: So many things to say about Tony Snow. James Carville, thank you so much for your thoughts on his passing this morning.</s>CARVILLE: I'm glad that you called me and he was a good friend and he was really a close person to my wife, to our family. Thank you very much.</s>KAYE: Thank you.</s>SIMON: And reaction still continuing to come in. But we're going to turn to the situation with IndyMac. It can turn out to be the most expensive bank failure in U.S. history.</s>KAYE: IndyMac was a major player in the mortgage industry and this morning, it is in the hands of federal regulators. IndyMac has been on the brink of collapse for months. News of the failure yesterday was unsettling for customers and for relative of employees who lost their jobs earlier in the week.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hard times, man, because we're already like surviving off one income. Me and her, I'm trying to help out as much as I can because I just got this new job. Without hers, it's going to be real hard. I don't know what we're going to do.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know enough about the financial sector, but it is disconcerting that you believe that your bank is very strong and then you start reading news reports that they're on the brink of collapse, their shares have dropped precipitously, and so, it makes you wonder, you know, well is my -- is that the best place for my money?</s>KAYE: Even if you're not an IndyMac customer you may be wondering what the collapse says about the economy and the mortgage crisis and how you can make sure your bank is OK. Chris Isidore of cnnmoney.com joins us from New York now to help put this all in perspective. Good morning, Chris.</s>CHRIS ISIDORE, CNNMONEY.COM: Good morning.</s>KAYE: I guess you see some of these consumers, they don't know what to do. Should they keep their money in the bank, should they withdraw it right away? How is a bank customer to know when the time is to pull out?</s>ISIDORE: Well, for most bank customers at IndyMac, let alone customers at banks across the country, there really isn't going to be much of an impact. If you had less than $100,000 in your typical banking account, if you have less than a quarter million dollars in your IRA, your deposits are ensured and you're not going to be affected. There are about a billion dollars of non-insured deposits that were in Indy Bank, about half of that could be lost, that's $500 million, that's real money, but that's actually a small percent of the deposits at IndyMac, about five percent. It's not that -- it's not that many people who are customers of IndyMac being affected. And the overwhelming majority of banks in the country are fine.</s>KAYE: So even though this is the fifth bank failure this year, those who have accounts at other popular banks and well-known banks, shouldn't worry?</s>ISIDORE: Well, what you need to know is that most of the time when a bank closes, it's a very small bank, it's a small community bank. To put it in perspective, the last 127 bank failures in the last 15 years together don't equal the size of IndyMac. That's really why this is so notable. If it's a well-known bank, if it's a large bank, chances of it closing are actually pretty small. That being said, we are likely to see more bank failures to come. We are seeing the banking system really put under tremendous stress and strain by the problems in the housing market and the credit markets and IndyMac is the most visible sign of that yet, it was a major lender of the types of loans where people did not have to provide documentation of their income, documentation of the assets. When the home prices were going up, that was no problem. The bank didn't have to worry if the person couldn't make the payment, they had title to a house that's worth than when it was purchased. Now that's not the case and because of that, we had huge losses at IndyMac, we're seeing those losses spread across the entire banking sector, across Wall Street, and causing some real problems and the economy is going to have problems for some time.</s>KAYE: All right. Chris Isidore from CNN money.com, we'll have to leave it there. Thanks so much.</s>ISIDORE: Thanks.</s>SIMON: The IndyMac bank failure comes on the heels of concerns about mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Their stocks took a pounding this week. Speculation about a government bailout rattled investors nerves. The head of the Senate banking committee tried to calm those concerns.</s>SEN. CHRISTOPHER DODD (D), BANKING COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: These are worthwhile investments, solid investments, these are very strong, viable entities today. The capital they have is good, its in excess of what's required under federal law. This is not a time to be panicking about this. These are reliable solid institutions and absolutely critical to the housing market in our country.</s>SIMON: Together, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac either hold or guarantee $5 trillion in home mortgage debt.</s>KAYE: A long awaited homecoming today for three Americans rescued in Colombia. The former hostages getting final clearance to leave a military hospital today. They've undergone reintegration as it's called and medical tests in San Antonio since returning to the U.S. from Colombia more than a week ago. They spoke exclusively about their time in the jungle with CNN "Headline News" anchor Robin Meade.</s>KEITH STANSELL, FREED AMERICAN HOSTAGE: It's about ten pounds of chain 15 feet long, it's wrapped around your neck. It looks like this. OK and then about three feet behind you got, you have a guy holding your chain with a dog leash and then he's got a rifle pointed at your back.</s>KAYE: The three men rescued from FARC rebels last week after more than five years in captivity. And you can hear the entire exclusive interview with Robin Meade and the freed American hostages tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN. An accidental overdose.</s>SIMON: Is a hospital error to blame in the death of newborn twins? That story coming up here in the CNN NEWSROOM.