Grand Jury Issues 10-Count Indictment Against James Traficant; Florida Lawmakers Pass Election Reform
ANNOUNCER: Live from Washington, this is INSIDE POLITICS with Judy Woodruff.</s>REP. JAMES TRAFICANT (D), OHIO: They better fix the damn jury because there's going to be a rumble wherever it is.</s>ANNOUNCER: As he has been predicting for months, Ohio Congressman James Traficant has been indicted on corruption charges. Florida lawmakers vote to chuck chads and the ballots behind them in hopes of avoiding a repeat of the November election nightmare.</s>GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: Rather than try to relive the past, we've been focusing on making sure that 2002 looks a lot different.</s>ANNOUNCER: We'll get in step with the new rhythm at the White House, the style the substance, and don't forget the sports. Now, Judy Woodruff takes you</s>INSIDE POLITICS. JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you for joining us. Congressman James Traficant is used to being on the giving and receiving end of political attacks, but this is something quite different: a 10-count indictment by a federal grand jury in Cleveland today on corruption charges. The Ohio Democrat stands accused of bribery, tax evasion, obstruction of justice, seeking bribes, conspiracy to defraud the government, and racketeering. The indictment alleges that Traficant accepted, quote, "Things of value for political influence while serving in Congress." The charges against Traficant stem from a lengthy federal investigation into public corruption and organized crime. CNN's Jonathan Karl has more now on the charges against Traficant and the nine-term congressman's controversial tenure on Capitol Hill.</s>JONATHAN KARL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): James Traficant's indictment didn't come as a surprise. For more than a year now, he's been telling anyone who will listen that it was coming.</s>TRAFICANT: Yeah, I am definitely under investigation as we speak. I expect to be indicted any day. There's a tremendous amount of pressure on me. I'm the only American in history to defeat the Justice Department in the Rico case pro se. And I'm going to look at 12 jurors again, and they better get all 12 and they better fix the damn jury, because there's going to be a rumble where it is.</s>KARL: The nine-term Ohio Democrat last tangled with the Justice Department back in 1983 when he was arrested for allegedly taking $163,000 in bribes from organized crime. He defended himself and was acquitted. The highly publicized case propelled him to Congress the next year. In Congress, Traficant has been one of the most colorful and wildly unpredictable members of the House, best known for his outrageous one-minute speeches on the floor like this one back in 1995 on flag burning...</s>TRAFICANT: You can defecate and urinate on Old Glory to make a political statement, but you can't touch a mailbox. Ladies and gentlemen of Congress, when did we start pledging allegiance to the mailboxes of our country?</s>KARL: ... or his speech just last week on a less conventional topic.</s>TRAFICANT: There's now a new bra. It's called the holster bra, the gun bra. That's right, a brassiere to conceal a hidden handgun. Unbelievable. What's next? A maxi girdle to conceal a stinger missile? Beam me up.</s>KARL: Traficant is a lifetime Democrat, a union ally and ardent opponent of free trade. But his politics have been as unpredictable as his rhetoric. He bugged his party to support a Republican tax cut but did it in exchange for an increase in the minimum wage.</s>TRAFICANT: But a tax break for the boss, who raises the wages of my workers, is a decent tradeoff for me.</s>KARL: And earlier this year, Traficant committed the ultimate political heresy: crossing party lines to vote for Republican Dennis Hastert as speaker of the House.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Traficant.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hastert.</s>KARL: That made Traficant persona non grata in the Democratic Party, which promptly stripped him of all of his committee assignments.</s>REP. MARTIN FROST (D), TEXAS: So he's kind of a man without a country. I don't believe the Republicans ever gave him committee assignments either. I don't think anyone wants him at this point.</s>KARL: Traficant has put out two written statements in response to this news of his indictment. The first reads, quote, "I have expected the indictment. I have had a bull's eye on my back ever since I defeated the Department of Justice, being the only American in United States history to have defeated the Justice Department in a Rico case pro se. I will defend myself again in court." That, of course, Traficant referring back to that 1983 indictment where he defended himself in court against bribery charges and was acquitted. He also released a second statement that said that he will have a public statement he will come out before the cameras on Monday. In that statement, he also took a shot at quote, "the overzealous bureaucrats in Cleveland," saying he will defend himself against those bureaucrats, and he was sorry for all of the pressure and intimidation they have put on good people -- Judy.</s>WOODRUFF: John, you reported on the Democrat's reaction when Traficant voted for Dennis Hastert to be the House speaker. What are they saying now? What's their reaction to all of this?</s>KARL: Well, there's virtually nothing on the record from Democrats. They're taking essentially a no-comment approach to this. Martin Frost did the say that he hopes this gets cleared up quickly so that the people of Youngstown, Ohio, which Traficant represents, will have a congressman with a cloud over his head; either he would be convicted or be acquitted. But privately, Democrats are saying it's about time. That's a direct quote from a senior Democratic aide in the House, saying it's about time. They are saying also that regardless of what happens to Traficant in this case, they already have him at the very top of their list of members of the House that they will challenge in the next election, they will work to defeat in the next election. That despite the fact that Traficant still remains a Democrat. He has not switched parties.</s>WOODRUFF: Jon Karl at the Capitol, thanks. We turn now to Florida. Lawmakers there tried today to turn a state that has come to symbolize election problems into a model for reform. As CNN's John Zarrella reports, the newly approved legislation would make the infamous chad a thing of the past.</s>JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Images like this -- a bleary-eyed election official trying to determine voter intent through a pinhole of light in a punch card -- are now and forever images of the past in Florida.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One-hundred-twenty ayes, zero nays, Mr. Speaker.</s>ZARRELLA: On the last day of its session, the Florida legislature overwhelmingly passed and sent on to an anxiously awaiting governor Jeb Bush a package of election reform legislation.</s>BUSH: We have, I think, a world class election law that will be implemented in the year 2002 so that people will have full confidence that their vote will matter and that their political involvement in our great democracy will work.</s>ZARRELLA: The centerpiece of the bill is the elimination of the much-maligned punch cards blamed for the November presidential fiasco. The bill replaces punch cards, mechanical levers and paper ballots with optical scanners, like fill-in-the-bubble devices. But within the next couple of months, it's expected that the more sophisticated touch screen machines will also be certified.</s>JIM KANE, FLORIDA VOTER: On November 7th last year, in many people's minds, we were last. Well, let me tell you, as of today, we're first.</s>ZARRELLA: Some of the money goes to helping the counties buy the new machines. But each county will be responsible for the lion's share of the cost. The rest of the cash goes to poll worker training and voter education. That, election experts say, is hugely important.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because you can provide the average voter with the best equipment in the world, but if they don't know how to vote or how to operate that equipment, then they're going to make errors.</s>ZARRELLA: Jim Kane says the new technology won't make the system foolproof, and he expects there will be plenty of problems in the 2002 election. And the new high-tech voting equipment won't eliminate the possibility of a close election resulting in a hand recount. (on camera): But unlike the November election where a dimpled chad meant one thing to one canvassing board and something entirely different to another, the legislation provides for the establishment of a statewide standard to determine voter intent. And Secretary of State Katherine Harris, the legislature has determined, will decide what that standard should be. John Zarrella, CNN, Miami.</s>WOODRUFF: Florida governor Jeb Bush will join us a little bit later on INSIDE POLITICS to talk about election reform in his state. There's much more ahead on this Friday edition of INSIDE POLITICS, including our weekly political roundtable. Up next, a new way to delay a vote by Congress. The mystery of those missing pages in the 2002 federal budget. Also ahead, Florida passes, as we just said, sweeping election reform legislation. Governor Jeb Bush will join us later in this hour. And later, a candidate for Virginia governor goes country. This is INSIDE POLITICS.