Catholic Group Files Suit Over Contraception Rule
BLITZER: A Catholic cable TV network is now suing the U.S. government in a lawsuit over a controversial health care reform provision. It requires religiously affiliated employers to provide full contraception coverage to women. The issue is certainly dogging President Obama and sparking fierce partisan debate. Our White House correspondent Dan Lothian is joining us right now. He's got the latest. Dan, what are you picking up there?</s>DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, you know, again, this is one of those issues that is not going away. At the White House, discussions continue behind the scenes, and according to a source familiar with the Catholic community, the administration has spoken with at least one progressive Catholic group. And in another development, a short time ago, we heard from Senator John Kerry, a Democrat who's now calling for a compromise. He believes that there can be a balance between providing the health care that people need but also respecting religious beliefs. What's clear here is that opposition to the ruling does not break along party lines.</s>LOTHIAN (voice-over): It's a controversial decision that keeps dogging the president.</s>REPORTER: Are there any thoughts you can share, Mr. President, on the contraception policy before you leave?</s>LOTHIAN: After days of heavy pressure from Catholic groups and Republicans on the trail and on Capitol Hill --</s>SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: Government shouldn't be telling these institutions what to do, and they certainly shouldn't be oppressing them.</s>LOTHIAN: Some Democrats are joining the political fray and criticizing the president's decision, including former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, who said he expressed grave concerns to the White House over its policy that requires religious affiliated organization to provide contraception coverage.</s>TIM KAINE (D-VA), SENATE CANDIDATE: I think they made a bad decision in not allowing a broad enough religious employer exception.</s>LOTHIAN: Kaine, who's campaigning for a Senate seat and was the president's choice to lead the DNC, made the comments in a taped interview on "Hearsay with Cathy Lewis", a public affairs radio show in Norfolk, Virginia. More pressure on the administration came in this letter from House Democratic leader John Larson to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. While he supports the requirement for contraceptive services, Representative Larson wrote, quote, "I believe that further flexibility needs to be granted to religiously affiliated organization in this instance." White House sources admit aides were split on this decision, but dismissed accounts that it was along gender lines. And then this was the question of who in the president's inner circle, perhaps former Chief of Staff Bill Daley or Vice President Biden, tried to change his mind.</s>JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I'm not going to get into internal deliberations and who was on which side of discussions and debates internally.</s>LOTHIAN: To be sure, the White House does have supporters on this issue, among Catholic and other religious group, and from Democrats who are pressuring the president not to back down.</s>REP. BARBARA LEE (D), CALIFORNIA: This latest ruling on women's access to reproductive health care and family planning has been absolutely politicized in this what I call an ongoing war against women.</s>REP. NITA LOWEY (D), NEW YORK: My colleagues and I stand in solidarity with American women, who have waited decades for equity in contraceptive coverage.</s>LOTHIAN: But now, there's bipartisan legislation from Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat, and Marco Rubio, a Republican, looking to repeal this portion of the health care law. They believe that the federal government has overreached. They are hopeful that the president will reconsider, but they say if he doesn't, then Congress will act. And one other note, Wolf, just a short time ago, after wrapping up a meeting with the Italian prime minister here at the White House, the president was again asked to comment on this controversy. He said, "Oh, come on, guys," certainly appearing frustrated or irritated by the question. But again, there's a lot of pressure on this White House and it doesn't seem to be going away.</s>BLITZER: Is it fair to say -- it was suggested in "New York Times" yesterday that the women, a lot of the women who work for the president supported this decision, but some of the Catholic men, like and you pointed out like perhaps Joe Biden, the former --</s>LOTHIAN: That's right. We've seen a lot reported about that, but the White House really has been pushing back. That it really hasn't been along gender lines here at the White House. Yes, clearly there was opposition. There are some aides who thought this was the right decision, others who thought it was not, but here at the White House they're saying that both men and women were on both sides of this issue. It wasn't according to gender -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Dan Lothian at the White House, thanks very much. Syrian opposition group is reporting as many as 137 deaths at the hands of government forces today. And now we're getting a shocking inside look at how the Syrian government is allegedly stemming the crackdown to the outside world. The source, secret e-mails posted by the notorious hacking group "Anonymous." Brian Todd is here. He's working this story for us. Brian, what exactly are you finding out?</s>BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, one person we know who is connected to that hacker group, "Anonymous," says these e-mails appeared to be authentic. If so, it does not look like Bashar Al- Assad's aides have a very high opinion of Americans.</s>TODD (voice-over): It's days before a big interview with an American network and Bashar Al-Assad is being coached, to spin this crackdown, one aide writes, don't talk reform. Americans won't care or understand that. The aide advises the Syrian president to talk about, quote, "mistakes," blame his own police. American psyche can be easily manipulated when they hear that there are, quote, "mistakes done" and now we are, quote, "fixing it." Here's what Assad then said about the crackdown in that early December interview with ABC's Barbara Walters.</s>PRESIDENT BASHAR AL-ASSAD, SYRIA: These are individuals and individual mistakes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Done by the military or done by whom?</s>ASSAD: We don't know everything, but some cases done by the police, summer cases done by Syrians.</s>TODD: That e-mail on what to say was apparently from</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They think that the American public is really stupid.</s>TODD: Ahed Al Hendi is a Syrian dissident who says he was one imprisoned and tortured by the regime.</s>AHED AL HENDI, SYRIAN ACTIVIST AND DISSIDENT: This is what they told us at the school that the Americans know nothing about the world. They really in slave their people. The worker has no rights in the U.S., and they really think so. They think that the American is easy to fool.</s>TODD: David Kenner of "Foreign Policy" magazine says the e-mail reflects an amateurish effort to present Syria's case to the world. (on camera): What is their current media strategy?</s>DAVID KENNER, "FOREIGN POLICY" MAGAZINE: Honestly, I think at this point they think they have lost the western media. They have lost the United States.</s>TODD: Kenner says at this point, the Syrian government is more interested in winning public opinion and government support in Russia and in Iran. We called and e-mailed Syria's mission to the U.N. to get response to the hacking and to the criticism from that one official,</s>BLITZER: It's very surprising, even funny, the passwords that the Syrians use for these e-mails.</s>TODD: It's unbelievable. You look down that list to the passwords of these top Syrian officials. Many of them have the password, 12345. Analysts say for a regime so guarded, so attuned to security, they're not very savvy about cyber security.</s>BLITZER: That's not necessarily a great password.</s>TODD: No.</s>BLITZER: OK, Brian, thanks very much. So are the conservative activists who are gathering here in Washington worried that President Obama will be tough to beat? Eric Erickson is here, he's been an insight. He's been over at the conference. Donna Brazile is also standing by. Our "Strategy Session" is coming up next.