Governor Taft's Troubles; Cindy Sheehan to Move Her Protest
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: It's 4:00 p.m. here in Washington and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM where news and information from around the world arrive at one place simultaneously. Happening now, several stories we're following. Anti-war protesters ready to move. It's 3:00 p.m. in Crawford, Texas, where Cindy Sheehan is set to put less distance between herself and the president. Animated politics. It's 4:00 p.m. in Raleigh, North Carolina, where a top Democrat is using the cartoon "King of the Hill" as a secret weapon. And in search of a break. President Bush gets heat for spending August at the ranch, but Britons have much bigger questions about Tony Blair's vacation plans. I'm Wolf Blitzer, and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM. First up this hour, it's day 11 over at the protest site that has been called Camp Casey. Anti-war demonstrators are standing firm in their vigil near the president's Texas ranch even as they get ready to relocate. Our White House correspondent Dana Bash is in Crawford, Texas. So is Anderson Cooper. He is getting the lay of the land there. Let's go to Dana first. What's the latest from your vantage point, Dana?</s>DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Well, where I am, essentially trying to focus on what the White House is saying about this is the focus is really nonexistent. The White House isn't saying very much about this at all and hasn't been in the past 11 days. We have heard the president say he is sympathetic to her cause but not much beyond that. One thing that Bush aides do recognize, and there's not much they can do about, is the fact that the president is down this week, that he doesn't have any travel, no events. So there is a bit of a news vacuum, if you will, one that Cindy Sheehan and the people supporting her are pretty sophisticated about filling. Wolf?</s>BLITZER: You told us yesterday they were going to move the site of their protest. What is going on? When is this move going to take place?</s>BASH: Well, they think they're going to move tomorrow. And essentially where they're going to move is to the land of a man by the name of Fred Mattladge. He actually held a conference call with reporters this morning to explain why he's giving the land to Cindy Sheehan. He said he sympathizes with her, sympathizes with the fact that she is a grieving mother. He, of course, is a cousin of the man we all remember from over the weekend who shot a few gun fires in the air to sort of make his protest to the protestors known. But Fred Mattladge, the cousin with the land says it has nothing to do with that. Interesting that this land, Wolf, is much, much closer to the president's ranch than where the site is right now. In fact, it is right up against the security checkpoint. It's so close that our camera crews who were there trying to find the land late yesterday actually got a glimpse of the president bike riding. Wolf, that is almost something we never see. It is quite rare, so it is very close to the president's ranch. Cindy Sheehan is much happier about that.</s>BLITZER: Thanks very much and we're going to check in with Anderson Cooper. He is right on the scene there at what is called Camp Casey. We'll check in with him shortly. The Sheehan-Bush standoff is playing out on several fronts. Bush supporters are planning another anti-Sheehan event. A group called Move America Forward will conduct a "You don't speak for me, Cindy" caravan next week. On Sheehan's side, the wife of the former Democratic vice presidential candidate, John Edwards, Elizabeth Edwards, wrote a personal letter to Democratic supporters criticizing the president for -- quote -- "cavalier dismissal of Sheehan." And FBI whistleblower turned congressional candidate Colleen Rowley plans to stand with Sheehan. The Minnesota Democrat is due in Crawford tomorrow. We'll watch that story for viewers. And watching another story. Only minutes ago in Ohio, the prosecutor made it official. He's filing criminal charges against the state's Republican governor, Bob Taft. Let's check back with CNN's Mary Snow. She is watching the story for us. Mary?</s>MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this is the first time criminal charges have been filed against a governor in Ohio. As you mentioned, this just happened moments ago. What's at stake here is an ethics lapse. The prosecutors saying that four misdemeanor charges will be filed against Governor Bob Taft, this for failing to disclose golf outings on ethics disclosure forms. State employees are required to disclose anything over $75. Now, the governor said that it was not intentional. Prosecutors have been saying that he has been fully cooperating. The penalty for this, maximum fine of $1,000 on each count, and potentially six months in prison, although it is considered highly unlikely that any jail term will be associated with this. Now this is pretty much unfolding from a coin scandal that started developing earlier this year. And this has involved other state officials, although Taft has said that he has denied any wrongdoing and was unaware of it. And that is what's been happening in Ohio. Wolf?</s>BLITZER: All right. Mary Snow, we'll get back to you. Thanks very much. Here in THE SITUATION ROOM, we can bring you lots of information simultaneously. Here's what is incoming right now. Several stories we're following. Check this out. In Ft. Worth, Texas, a gasoline tanker has tipped over, spilling some of its 3,000 gallon load of fuel and caused an evacuation in the area. What a truck accident that is. Look at this. Pictures from Gaza. The deadline has come and gone for Jewish settlers to evacuate. These are pictures of Palestinians clearly celebrating off the coast of Gaza in the Mediterranean. Look at this, the sentencing phase of the so caused BTK killer in Wichita, Kansas, under way. Dennis Rader admitted to 10 killings. Prosecutors pushing for the maximum sentence of 175 years without the chance of parole. We'll watch all those stories for our viewers. Time now for you to weigh in on some of the stories we're covering in THE SITUATION ROOM. Once again, Jack Cafferty joining us from New York with the "Cafferty File." You've got a question for this hour, Jack.</s>JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: I do. I was listening to some of the testimony in the sentencing phase of the BTK killer on I think it was Court TV earlier this morning and an investigator described how this thing, whatever he is, pulled a chair up next to a bed in a room where he was in the process of murdering a little boy after placing T-shirts and plastic bags over his head and then sitting in the chair while he watched the kid die. Maybe that's what they ought to do with this guy instead of putting him in prison and feeding him for the next 30 or 40 years. Cindy Sheehan not the only parent speaking out on the government's policy in Iraq. Yesterday, the Ohio parents of a Marine who died in Iraq two weeks ago in a roadside bombing went public with their thoughts on the war.</s>ROSEMARY PALMER, MOTHER OF EDWARD SCHROEDER, KILLED IN ACTION IN IRAQ: We applaud the efforts of Cindy Sheehan in Texas. We consider her the Rosa Parks of the new movement opposing the Iraq war. We feel you either have to fight this war right or get out. Now, her view of course is get out without the other. But it doesn't matter if we agree exactly on how we bring this to the American attention. We feel she's doing a lot to bring this to our attention.</s>CAFFERTY: Rosemary Palmer accused the president of refusing to make changes in a war policy that has failed. With the protest in Crawford gaining more attention as you saw a few minutes ago here on CNN in THE SITUATION ROOM, other grieving parents beginning to speak out. Here's the question for this hour. Should parents who have lost sons or daughters in Iraq be able to influence U.S. war policy? CaffertyFile -- one word -- @CNN.com. Let us know what you think about that.</s>BLITZER: We'll be going out there shortly to speak with our Anderson Cooper. He is on the scene for us. Jack, thanks very much. We'll get back to you this hour. Still ahead, the U.S. Army intelligence officer who's come forward with disturbing claims, extremely disturbing claims about terror warnings that were blocked before 9/11. He'll join us live here in THE SITUATION ROOM. I'll ask him what happened. Plus, why are some Democrats suddenly talking tougher against Judge John Roberts? The Supreme Court -- the Supreme Court battle, that comes up in our strategy session. And where in the world is Tony Blair? It's the question many Britons are asking about their prime minister. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.