White House Battles to Save Attorney General Nominee
LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, startling new evidence that our defenses against dangerous imports have utterly collapsed, a last- minute recall today of tens of thousands of tainted Halloween toys from communist China. We will have complete coverage. Also tonight, Senator Hillary Clinton having trouble deciding whether she is for or against giving driver's licenses to illegal aliens. Just how important will the issue of illegal immigration be in the outcome of the presidential election? We will have that report. And ferocious new criticism in the New York State Senate of the governor's outrageous plan to give away those driver's licenses to illegal aliens. New York State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno joins us. And we will have all of that, all the day's news, a lot more right here tonight.</s>ANNOUNCER: This is</s>LOU DOBBS TONIGHT: news, debate, and opinion for Wednesday, October 31. Live from New York, Lou Dobbs.</s>DOBBS: Good evening, everybody. The White House tonight battling to save the nomination of Judge Michael Mukasey as the next U.S. attorney general. Democrats in the Senate are blasting the judge for his refusal to say that a controversial interrogation method called water-boarding is outright torture. The White House today declared it remains confident that the Senate will confirm Judge Mukasey as attorney general, but some senators who had supported the judge's nomination two weeks ago are now, apparently, reconsidering. Jessica Yellin has our report from Capitol Hill -- Jessica.</s>JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Lou, despite some new defections and plenty of hand-wringing over the fate of Michael Mukasey's nomination, one senior Democratic senator on the Judiciary Committee tells CNN, the president's nominee will ultimately be confirmed.</s>YELLIN (voice-over): Two more Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee now oppose the confirmation of Michael Mukasey over his response to a question about water-boarding.</s>SEN. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE (D), RHODE ISLAND: He has failed to recognize that water-boarding is clearly a form of torture. I will oppose this nomination.</s>SEN. RICHARD DURBIN (D-IL), MAJORITY WHIP: When you have a number of Democratic senators who have already publicly come out against Judge Mukasey, it creates a problem for him. I think that he could have resolved this so easily, so clearly and so simply with a straightforward answer: Water-boarding is torture, period.</s>YELLIN: Still others say they're undecided.</s>SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: Well, the first thing is I need to think more about it.</s>YELLIN: At issue, when asked whether water-boarding is torture, Mukasey offered his personal view of the controversial interrogation technique, writing, "These techniques seem over the line or on a personal basis repugnant to me." But since he was never briefed on U.S. interrogation programs, he insists say whether the practice is legal or not. That was enough for one key Republican.</s>SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I feel more comfortable voting for him after the letter than I did before. There's A couple issues I would like to flesh out, but I think he will get all the Republican votes.</s>YELLIN: But key Republicans on the Judiciary Committee are defending the nominee and insist Democrats are just looking for an issue.</s>SEN. ORRIN HATCH (R-UT), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: My Democratic colleagues cannot insist that Judge Mukasey be independent toward a Republican president, but compliant toward a Democratic Senate. What kind of a crazy, topsy-turvy confirmation process is this?</s>SEN. JON KYL (R), ARIZONA: What this debate boils down to is politics.</s>YELLIN: These Senate Republicans and the White House insist Mukasey will be confirmed. One person who's staying unusually quiet, the generally outspoken New York Senator Chuck Schumer, Mukasey's chief Democratic sponsor. He now tells reporters he's still reviewing Mukasey's answers and won't comment on how he plans to vote.</s>YELLIN: And, today, Lou, three Republican senators, John McCain, John Warner and Lindsey Graham, sent this letter to the White House in which they tell the president they support Mukasey's nomination, but call on him to renounce water-boarding, should he become attorney general -- Lou.</s>DOBBS: Thank you very much, Jessica Yellin from Capitol Hill. Turning to the war in Iraq now, new indications that the level of violence have fallen. The Iraqi government reporting that 758 Iraqi civilians were killed in the war this month. That is the lowest monthly total of this year. The decline in Iraqi civilian deaths coincides with a large reduction of the number of our troops who have been killed in the war, 37 of our troops killed this month, the lowest monthly total since March of last year. The number of U.S. and NATO troops killed in Afghanistan, however, has risen and risen sharply. More of our troops have already been killed in Afghanistan this year than the entirety of last year. Today, NATO troops supported by American forces fought with hundreds of insurgents outside Afghanistan's largest city, Kandahar. Barbara Starr has our report from the Pentagon.</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Afghan villagers, their vehicles piled high with possessions, are on the run from a new wave of fighting, as hundreds of Taliban fighters have suddenly regrouped near Kandahar, once a safe haven for Osama bin Laden. One NATO official in Afghanistan confirms to CNN that troops are moving through the area where the Taliban have taken up fighting positions inside homes, drawing NATO forces into a house-to-house firefight. The coalition cannot drop bombs for fear of civilian casualties. Canadian and British forces are on the attack. Officials say U.S. troops may also be called into action. The fighting comes days after Defense Secretary Robert Gates pressed NATO allies to do more in Afghanistan.</s>ROBERT GATES, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The mission still requires more maneuver elements and fewer restraints on how forces can be used.</s>STARR: One solution? More contractors. To free up military choppers for combat duty, NATO is hiring a fleet of privately-owned helicopters to start hauling cargo around the country. But NATO and U.S. officials warn it will still take years of commitment and more than just troops to establish enough security in a country where the poppy crop and warlords still reign.</s>BRIG. GEN. RODNEY ANDERSON, U.S. ARMY: There's evidence of corruption throughout the government in almost every activity.</s>STARR: Even the CIA director agrees Afghanistan is now much more than a military challenge.</s>GEN. MICHAEL HAYDEN, CIA DIRECTOR: It's not solely a tactical issue. If it were, this would be a lot easier.</s>STARR: But, Lou, make no mistake, Afghanistan is plagued by IEDs, suicide bombers and endless attacks. In this latest fighting, the goal, however, is to try and keep the Taliban from reentering Kandahar, a city the coalition where they drove them from power some six years ago -- Lou.</s>DOBBS: Thank you very much, Barbara -- Barbara Starr reporting from Pentagon. Well, the Pentagon today said Defense Secretary Robert Gates will be going to communist China, Japan and South Korea next week. His tour to first China comes as Beijing continues its aggressive military buildup. Secretary Gates says he doesn't believe China is a strategic adversary of the United States, but China is rapidly modernizing its military forces, buying sophisticated Russian weaponry, all, most analysts believe, to challenge U.S. interests in Asia. One of the president's closest advisers, Karen Hughes, is, once again, leaving his administration, leaving her job at the State Department. Hughes will quit her post as undersecretary for public diplomacy at the end of the year to spend more time with her family in Texas. Secretary of State Rice praised Hughes' role at the State Department.</s>CONDOLEEZZA RICE, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Karen has been a contributor to the war on terror, having created the Counterterrorism Communication Center that is staffed by people from around the government so that we are able to work to counter the message of terrorists and to spread, instead, a message of hope and democracy.</s>DOBBS: Hughes doubled the public diplomacy budget to nearly $1 billion. Polls, however, showing clearly that Hughes failed to shift public opinion in Muslim countries closer to the American point of view, an all-but-impossible task, no matter the size of the budget. A surprising outcome today in the largest-ever terrorism trial held in Spain. Spain's national court convicted three defendants of mass murder in the Madrid train bombings three years ago. But that court convicted four other leading suspects of lesser charges, acquitted one suspected ringleader altogether. Families of the nearly 200 people killed in those bombings are simply furious. The terrorists convicted of the most serious charges will serve no more than 40 years in prison. Spain has no death penalty or life imprisonment. And all of those accused of being ringleaders were set free. Coming up next here, consumer groups and Congress say the Bush administration has no idea how to protect Americans from dangerous imports. Christine Romans will have that report -- Christine.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lou, on Halloween, more recalls today of dangerous toys and Halloween trinkets made in communist China, of course, even as Congress rushes to fix our broken consumer safety system -- Lou.</s>DOBBS: Thanks, Christine -- that report coming up. And fury in the New York State Senate over New York's governor, Eliot Spitzer's plan to give away driver's licenses to illegal aliens. I will be joined by the majority leader of the New York State Senate, Joe Bruno. And Senator Hillary Clinton dodging questions about whether she agrees with prince Eliot's plan. Is Senator Clinton playing politics with national security? What's the deal here? Is her candidacy going to survive the waffling? We will have that report and a great deal more. Stay with us.