A Look Ahead At The Oscars
LIN: With his profile visit with American European allies out of the way, President Bush heads to New Jersey and Indiana this week. He's waving the carrot of private Social Security accounts in front of millions of Americans. But will they bite? Our White House correspondent Dana Bash is live with the very latest -- Dana.</s>DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Well, the president says he is eager to get back on the road, resume his traveling sales pitch to overhaul Social Security. And though some Republicans insist that it is still very early in the process, others are bracing for some tough compromise to get anything passed.</s>BASH (voice-over): After a week on the world stage, the president returns to his biggest challenge on the home front: selling a Social Security overhaul. While Mr. Bush was on his self described European listening tour, members of Congress were back hom listening to often skeptical constituents about the Bush plan for creating private accounts in Social Security.</s>SEN. RICK SANTORUM, (R) PENNSYLVANIA: What do you get in exchange if we do nothing?</s>BASH: Republican Senator Rick Sanatorium spent all week in town hall meetings pushing the idea, insists it's still early, but admits the president is short support.</s>SANTORUM: Right now, they're not there. But like I said, you're asking me whether I win the game and I'm two minutes into the game.</s>BASH: Several Senate Democrats say they'd back private retirement accounts but only outside Social Security. Some Republicans are starting to signal compromising on personal accounts may be inevitable, but the philosophical divide runs deep.</s>SEN. JON CORZINE, (D) NEW JERSEY: This proposal of privatization is a radical shift in the covenant that we have laid down with regard to Social Security on generation to the next.</s>SEN. JOHN SUNUNU, (R) NEW HAMPSHIRE: I don't think a bill will pass that doesn't include personal accounts for younger workers, at least giving them the option.</s>BASH: Still completely unresolved, how to achieve the president's stated goal: ensuring Social Security's solvency. The White House concedes personal accounts alone won't do it. And Democrats are seizing on that.</s>SEN. JOE BIDEN, (D) DELAWARE: The American people begin to understand there's no correlation between, quote, fixing Social Security and private accounts.</s>BASH: The president is careful not to take anything except raising payroll taxes off the table. Republican sources say compromise options for keeping Social Security out of the red include cutting benefits deepest for the wealthy while letting low income beneficiaries do better and raising the $90,000 payroll tax cap, though most GOP leaders call that a tax hype and a nonstarter.</s>BASH: Republicans do see some prospects, some progress for their cause in that some key Democrats are now saying that Social Security does need to be fixed. That it is a problem and that needs some kind of overhaul. Still, one key Republican senator said that he sees the odds getting anything done in order to do that this year at just better than 50/50 -- Carol.</s>LIN: Hmm. All right. Thanks very much, Dana Bash live at the White House. OK. So the president's diplomatic skills are tested certainly here at home. They certainly were tested on his European tour lately. So let's see how this is going to affect the bigger issues all of us facing in this country. Political analyst Carlos Watson joins me now. He's been tracking the president's move and a lot of other really interesting news. So Carlos, it doesn't sound like the president got much of a bounce from his European tour as far as domestic issues are concerned, at least not yet.</s>CARLOS WATSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Not yet. But Carol, he did show that he was willing to extend the olive branch and that will ultimately helped him here with moderate Democrats in feeling that he doesn't just a war agenda. But significantly what's going to be important is the president had a big policy victory in the war on terror. Although it hasn't been talked about a lot, the U.S. and Russia have tentatively agreed to try to destroy more nuclear weapons. Meaning they may be kept out of the hands of rogue terrorists. And so that means Los Angeles and Cleveland aren't necessarily safe, but they could be a little bit safer. and that's actually a big deal. One other thing to note about the president's trip was that behind that nuclear agreement, and by the way a couple of other things the president did, including meeting with the German chancellor was the handiwork of a guy many people may not know about it, Senator Dick Luger, who in many ways is the most moderate and internationalist key person in the Bush administration foreign policy circle. And it's if you will, kind of the new Colin Powell. So, look to hear more about him as we talk about Iran, North Korea and other places.</s>LIN: All right. Well, clearly, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee might be making the mark. And lots of people are interested in the war on terror, but frankly Carlos, with 36 million people in this country living beneath the poverty line folks are worried about getting food on the table. So is that going to at least get on the president's agenda?</s>WATSON: I think it could, Carol. I think that could surprise a lot of people both in Washington and outside of Washington. An anti- poverty discussion was not expected this year. Not a major one. Instead, Social Security, tax reform, maybe even education were thought to be the big issues, but a couple of different things are leading towards that conversation. John Edwards, as he kicks off his presidential campaign, is focusing the spotlight. Two, there's clearly a lot of worker anxiety still around outsourcing and other issues and three, expect to see literally millions of dollars, if not tens of millions of dollars dollars spent this summer and fall as the Social Security debate starts as some groups like moveon.org and others say should we spend $2 trillion on private accounts or spend that to reconstruct poor societies here in the</s>U.S. CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, a legitimate question. But also, Carlos, you know what I love about your coverage is that you always get like the -- you know, inside scoop. You interviewed Arnold Schwarzenegger. Bodybuilder. Maybe might run for president some day. So I guess the bodybuilder maybe running for president, I guess the actors to be in office. Former football players?</s>WATSON: Former football players. Lynn Swann, four-time super bowl champion, former Pittsburgh Steeler announced he is thinking about running for governor of Pennsylvania. The latest polls still show him behind the sitting Democratic governor, Ed Rendell, but here's why this is a big deal, Carol. One, as you said, with Arnold Schwarzenegger and others, seeing more celebrities, athletes or politicians, think about running for office. In 2006, if Swann runs, he may not be alone. You could see Al Franken run for the Senate up in Minnesota. You could see Jerry Springer throw his hat in the ring in Ohio.</s>LIN: But he's run before. Local politics.</s>WATSON: But out here in California, guess which Democrat polled the highest in a run for governor against Arnold Schwarzenegger?</s>LIN: Oh no.</s>WATSON: Rob Reiner.</s>LIN: Oh no. Are you serious?</s>WATSON: Day two, could be not just ...</s>LIN: Meathead?</s>WATSON: Could become a serious trend. The other interesting thing, though, on the flip side of Lynn Swann running. If Lynn Swann runs and loses, Ed Rendell could see the presidential prospects brighten. There's something for each side of this equation.</s>LIN: You know what? Tell Ed Rendell to forget law school, just get an agent. That is the key. Get an agent. Carlos Watson, great to see you. Thanks so much.</s>WATSON: Great to see you as always.</s>LIN: It's the bottom of the hour, so welcome back and here's a quick look at what's happening right now in the news. The Associated Press reports Syria has captured Saddam Hussein's half brother and handed him over to Iraqi authorities. Sabawi Ibrahim al Hassan was reportedly caught in northeastern Syria. Al Hassan was number 36 on the U.S. military's most wanted list. High school is about to get more challenging for millions of students. Today, 13 states announced they've formed a coalition that will require high schools to make their courses and diploma requirements much tougher. The aim is to better prepare students for college and a competitive workplace. A source close to the BTK serial killer investigation says the suspect's daughter did not provide DNA to investigators and was not involved directly in his capture. But CNN affiliate KAKE reports that the daughter's DNA did somehow play a role in the investigation. Now, to more on the BTK arrest and a look inside if mind of an alleged serial killer. Pat Brown is a criminal profiler and she joins me now from Minneapolis with some fascinating insights into this extraordinary case. Pat, the question that so many people are asking right now about this man is that here he was the most ordinary of men, I mean, a churchgoer, a father, married. With two kids. A dogcatcher.</s>PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Right.</s>LIN: When -- if it is true that he is the BTK serial killer, when does a person like that decide to kill and what triggers that instinct?</s>BROWN: Well, this guy is probably been a psychopathic personality since he was eight or nine years old. He's gotten a frustrated life even at that young an age but then getting into the teenagehood he decides he doesn't like the game played in society because he is not winning at it and starts to manipulate society, finding what he can get away with, finding how to pull the wool over people's eyes and he gets a real charge out of this. When gets more older, a little more power control, he says, now what can I get away with? I want this big, big thrill. This huge amount of power. And he decides maybe killing is his thing. What he is going to do is he is going to look around and he is going to analyze things. What can I get away with? Well, most serial homicides in this country are not solved. The sexual homicide rate is out of this world and most serial killers stay in the community like this guy did for 10, 20, 30 years. Look at the Green River Killer. When did we get him? When he's about to retire. When did we get Ted Bundy? 20 women later. Finally Ted Bundy gets caught. And then what happens to you? You wm an anti-hero, a celebrity, you get books, you get Web sites. Everybody is fascinated by you. So what do you have to lose if you think you can get away with it decade after decade?</s>LIN: But the amazing thing is, if it's true, 59 years old now and if it is in fact him, the suspect in custody, that he murdered his first victims, a family of four when he was only 25 years old. I mean, how do you pull that off and then go on to lead what seems like an ordinary life? You get married, you have kids, you get a job. You work for the city.</s>BROWN: Well, everybody does that in their ordinary life. Even the president has an ordinary life in spite of the fact ...</s>LIN: But he has a double life, I should say. He led a double life perhaps.</s>BROWN: Well, he has a hobby, shall we call it. And he's not doing this hobby every day. We are talking about killing somebody and then he's not doing it again for six months or a year, sometimes five or ten years depending on his mood. So he really does have a lot of other time to spend like any normal person and he needs to keep that up. And he's only going to when he has bad moments in his life, decide now I want to do that and rev up for it and plan for it and if he gets away with it he's going to become very arrogant and realize he can get away with it and he's going to do it again and again. And if we don't recognize how they operate and go after them, we leave them in the community to kill decade after decade as we see with the BTK strangler.</s>LIN: Pat Brown, you know, it's a fascinating face and we're learning more by the hour. Thank you very much.</s>BROWN: My pleasure.</s>LIN: A quick reminder. We're going to hear from the son of one of the victims later tonight. Police say Jeff Davis' mother Delores was the last person killed in the BTK spree. Find out what he has to say about the arrest and the secrecy of police in their investigation. He is joining me tonight. You will see him at 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time. In the meantime, marking a military milestone. The end of the first Gulf War. We are going to show you how those lost in the line of duty were remembered today. Plus, on the front lines in the current Iraq War. We are going to take you on patrol with marines in one of that nation's most violent provinces.