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CNN NEWSNIGHT AARON BROWN

Democratic debate turned into gentleman's debate; Communication problems with Mars rover; Mars rover team not ready to give up; Women fighting for rights in Baghdad

Aired January 22, 2004 - 22:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

AARON, BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening again everyone.
As we wrote this page tonight the Democrats were debating in New Hampshire. We always say these debates are important. Sometimes they really are and we think the one tonight, though it surely drew a fairly small audience compared to the entertainment shows, was in fact quite important.

In a changed race and that’s what we have now people look at the candidates with fresh eyes. Some candidates need that new look now more than ever. We’ll talk with one of them tonight, Joe Lieberman, who seems if the polls are to be believed in real trouble.

New Hampshire will answer some questions. Can Dean rebound? Is Kerry for real? Can John Edwards sustain? Can Joe Lieberman survive? Tonight’s debate mattered and it’s why it leads the program and the whip.

So off to New Hampshire we go and we begin with CNN's Candy Crowley, Candy, a headline from the debate.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Aaron. Seven candidates, five days until the first primary, you'd think that would add up to some fireworks but what we got was a gentleman's debate -- Aaron.

BROWN: Was that Jeff Greenfield in New Hampshire as well listening to it all, Jeff, a headline.

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST: If the focus was on Howard Dean tonight it's pretty clear that he (audio gap) he was determined to present himself a cool, confident chief executive who would accomplish much yet still have the kind of passion that endeared him at first to his followers. And, oh yes, he did talk about that speech -- Aaron.

BROWN: Jeff, thank you.

And to Pasadena now, NASA scientists struggling, struggling to reestablish contact with the Mars rover, Miles O'Brien there for us of course, Miles a headline.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Spirit rover has phoned home but the level of communication is just not up to snuff -- Aaron.

BROWN: We'll get the details from you Miles on that and all of you shortly.

Also on the program tonight we'll talk with one of the top scientists on the Mars program about what may have gone wrong with Rover and now what?

We'll also talk, as we mentioned, with Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Lieberman literally fresh from the debate in New Hampshire.

Later in Segment 7, the question of women's rights in Iraq, has the American victory there or could the American victory there turn into a setback for women? It’s a complicated story.

And, of course, we’ll check morning papers to give you a jump on Friday if you can endure the rooster, all that and more in the hour ahead.

We begin with the Democrats, the debate and all that was riding on it. Just four days to go now in New Hampshire. The debate just ended. The candidates and their handlers are in the spin room spinning.

We've rescued Candy Crowley from that. She joins us live to report now on what was said and how it seemed to play.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY (voice-over): With so much at stake they risked very little. Joe Lieberman's faltering campaign may live or die here.

SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will pledge to the death to protect the New Hampshire primary so help me God.

CROWLEY: Iowa's number three pummeled for his boisterous concession speech has the most to win or the most to lose in New Hampshire. His voice hoarse from a cold, his manner tempered, Howard Dean looked for a fresh start or at least a way to get back to where he was.

HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know I'm not a perfect person. I think a lot of people have had a lot of fun at my expense over the Iowa hooting and hollering and that's justified.

The one thing I can tell you is that I'm not kidding about what I say. The things that I do are things I believe in. I think it's important that the president of the United States be willing to stand up for what's right and not stand up for what's popular.

CROWLEY: In the last debate the sometimes surprising, ever entertaining Al Sharpton went after Howard Dean for not hiring minorities in Vermont. This time the reverend offered absolution.

AL SHARPTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Governor Dean don't be hard on yourself about hooting and hollering. If I spent the money you did and got 18 percent I'd still be in Iowa hooting and hollering. So, don't worry about it Howard. CROWLEY: And looking to turn his win in Iowa into the beginning of a streak, John Kerry looked beyond his current competitors to the end game.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But this president has created an economy that feeds the special interests and the powerful and the corporate power and he has not helped the average worker in America to advance their cause.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: Wesley Clark had to defend his credentials as a Democrat and John Edwards turned a question about gay marriage into an impassioned plea for Democrats to address the problem of poverty.

There were some hits. There were no fouls and most important no errors. Indeed that is what they're looking for five days before that all important primary -- Aaron.

BROWN: So, I was watching some of it, not all of it. I was trying to write as well but it occurred to me at one point this is a debate without a lead. It's hard to figure out exactly what the news lead in this. It was almost stayed from where, at least the parts I saw.

CROWLEY: It absolutely was and you think you had a problem finding the lead. Look, you know, it was -- they don't want to -- it was very stayed in the sense that they didn’t go after each other. They were all on message, which you know we hate but they came out and did what they wanted to do.

Howard Dean wanted to redeem himself and talk about his results. John Edwards wanted to show, you know, his credentials. John Kerry, I'm a fighter, I'm a leader, and they all did what they wanted in their separate little worlds but they didn’t connect and that, you know, sort of takes away the lead.

BROWN: It is interesting to me that in that little synopsis you did not mention Joe Lieberman who it does seem to me and we'll ask him about this in a few minutes needed to shake things up a bit there.

CROWLEY: He did and toward the end he did defend his position on the war very well. He was charming. He was, you know, did all those things that Joe Lieberman is but I’m not sure one debate -- he’d really have to have a homerun to knock this out if we are to believe the polls, which sometimes we do and sometimes we don’t. But it was a solid performance but not a homerun performance.

BROWN: Candy, thank you. Sometimes we do at our own peril believe the polls. Thank you very much.

As Candy said and we said earlier a lot to win or lose on that stage tonight depending on who you were. Expectations were different, another set of eyes on the debate for us, our Senior Analyst Jeff Greenfield was watching it as well. Since we're going to talk to Senator Lieberman in a second let me start there. Do you agree that he had to somehow change the dynamic of this race or has to and did he do any of that tonight?

GREENFIELD: Joe Lieberman, who I proudly claim as a classmate, is indeed charming. He has the most natural sense of humor of anybody and when he confronted Howard Dean on the question of Saddam and are we safer he was extremely strong.

But the problem is, as Candy said, if nobody is paying much attention to you and you come into a debate with six other people and there's no time really for rebuttal and the format encourages basically stock speeches what are you going to do? You can only do so much and Senator Lieberman did, I think, as well as he could do given that format.

But the idea that suddenly massive numbers of New Hampshire voters are now going to move from their first choice to Senator Lieberman is -- it’s just not conceivable and I don't know what he could have done in this debate, short of mailing out instantly thousand dollar checks, to do that.

BROWN: Let's talk about Dr. Dean who's had a complicated, perhaps a generous word for it, few days. Did he do himself some good tonight from the way you saw it?

GREENFIELD: Yes, I think so. Look, they had clearly made a decision and I think they made it even as they knew that Iowa was going badly and before the most famous piece of political tape since I did not have sex with that woman, they knew they had to recast Howard Dean.

His ads have been stressing his achievements, as he did tonight. The message that he offered tonight was at one with a new notion. He's a governor. Guess what he was a governor for eleven years and balanced eleven budgets.

And when he was asked in reference to the speech I think is it really good for a president to lead with your heart and not your head I think he had a fairly skillful answer. He recounted his accomplishments and then he said but you have to tell people who you are. You have to stand up for what you believe.

Interestingly enough he reached out to talk about the civil union bill he saw in which I read, perhaps cynically or skeptically, as a move to say to the left in New Hampshire, the social left, I stood up for you folks. I stood up for the belief that we have.

And I thought given what he’d been through the last few days that Dr. Dean or, I guess we should start calling him now Governor Dean, did a pretty good job. Does it change votes? You tell me, Aaron.

BROWN: No, I never tell you Jeff. Let's talk about the other two we haven’t mentioned. Just watching from my office I felt that both Senator Kerry and Senator Edwards were playing quite safe tonight. GREENFIELD: John Kerry came in here -- I'm going to quote Mark Twain to you like a Christian with four aces. Everything is going his way. There was no reason for him to do anything to change that dynamic.

He cited his experience. He too gave some stock speeches and basically I think he was saying I'm the guy that Iowans had and basically I think he was saying I'm the guy that Iowans had and that those of you here in New England may haven't seen for a while, strong on national security, ready to defend your economic interests, ready to beat George Bush -- Aaron.

BROWN: Jeff, thank you, Jeff Greenfield in New Hampshire with Candy and the gang tonight after the debate.

On to Mars now where the NASA mission has some problems. For more than two weeks the Spirit rover has been a chatterbox sending a steady stream of data, including extraordinary pictures back to earth but yesterday the data flow stopped and that does not bode well.

Here's CNN's Miles O'Brien.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN (voice-over): On its 18th Martian morning, NASA's Spirit rover awakened alive but clearly not well.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have had a very serious anomaly on the vehicle and our ability to determine exactly what has happened has been limited by our inability to receive telemetry from the vehicle.

O'BRIEN: Instead of returning another raft of amazing images and scientific data across 100 million miles of space, Spirit sent a tone, a scientifically meaningless signal which does mean the golf cart sized rover is in big trouble but what could it be? Engineers are mystified because it came without warning after 17 days of near flawless operation on the surface.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Something could break. Clearly, something could fail. That’s a concern we seriously have. It’s very serious.

O'BRIEN: And for this team, many of them veterans of the failed Mars Polar Lander mission four years ago, tone is a lot better than nothing.

RICHARD COOK, DEPUTY PROJECT MANAGER: Whenever you get confirmation that it's working, I mean that you’re seeing a signal both receiving and transmitting that means that a number of things in the chain has to work.

O'BRIEN: While there is no good time for a failure of this magnitude, Spirit’s communication meltdown comes as the engineering team should be turning its focus to its twin. Opportunity is on target to arrive on the other side on Mars on Saturday night.

FIROUZ NADERI, MARS PROGRAM MANAGER: Hopefully by the end of the day today we will be able to ascertain that Spirit can do no harm to itself and then we can leave it in a safe state and, you know, turn out attention to Opportunity.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: With all that in mind the Spirit engineering team is sleeping. It is the Martian night for the Spirit rover and during that nightfall there will be two passes overhead by NASA satellites. The hope is that Spirit will wake up briefly and communicate more effectively with the ground -- Aaron.

BROWN: They've been in and out of there a bunch now over the last couple of weeks. Are they depressed?

O'BRIEN: No, we're not at depression just yet. This is a team that is still very early in this game. If you harken back to Pathfinder in '97 there were quite a few occasions when they lost communication. It didn't last for much more than a day so we'll watch very closely tonight during those passes to see what kind of communication there is.

The fact is there has been a two-way transmission between the ground and the spacecraft. The hope is the next time they'll be able to get some diagnostics to see what might be wrong.

BROWN: Miles, thank you and we will see you tomorrow no matter what, 3-D night.

O'BRIEN: No matter what.

BROWN: No matter what. We have to do it.

In the last couple of weeks and change, the Spirit rover has seemed at times almost human. We know it's not. It's a robot but also clearly NASA's baby, cutting the umbilical cord they called it when rover finally left its lander and when it rolled onto Martian soil they cheered its first steps.

Professor Steven Squyres of Cornell University is the mission's lead scientist and on a difficult day we're glad to have him with us. How difficult a day professor?

STEVEN SQUYRES, SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Well, it's always tough when something like this happens. This is definitely cause for concern. It's certainly not cause for alarm and we've got a long road ahead of us to get things back on track here.

BROWN: Why is it not cause for alarm?

SQUYRES: Well, a couple things. First of all this is not an uncommon occurrence in missions like this. I've been doing this stuff for 25 years now. I've been involved in about a dozen of these missions and I have never been involved in one that didn't have something like this and I'm talking about missions like Voyager, Magellan. Every one of those has had a moment like this so there is a good precedent for this kind of thing happening and spacecraft coming out of it just fine.

BROWN: How does -- explain to me how they come out of it just fine. Is it that the robot somehow fixes itself or is it that people on the ground are sending signals to it to try and fix something? How does this work?

SQUYRES: Well, every one of these spacecraft has built into it a lot of capability to keep itself safe. The first rule is don’t do anything that can harm the vehicle and so a spacecraft like this always has what's called a fault protection capability.

If it senses that something has gone wrong it switches into a mode of operations where its first job is to keep itself safe and then give the team on the ground time to figure out what's going on and send commands to set things right again.

So right now the vehicle is busy just keeping itself really, really safe and then the people here on the ground are busy trying to figure out what’s going on and coming up with a set of commands that will set things right.

BROWN: Is there any sense, do you have any sense that they have made progress in figuring out what has gone wrong either by literally figuring it out or by eliminating those things that haven't gone wrong?

SQUYRES: I think a number of possibilities have been eliminated. The fact that we are able to send a command and get a signal back from the spacecraft, what’s called a beep, indicates that a lot of stuff is working right on this vehicle. There are many things that are working as they should.

There are a lot of things that you could imagine going wrong that we know haven't and so now it's a matter of working out the remaining possibilities and figuring out how to get things going properly again.

BROWN: Do you think that you and the others, given just how remarkable it had performed over the last couple of weeks, have gotten over confident? Do you feel like wow?

SQUYRES: Over confident, no, not at all.

BROWN: OK.

SQUYRES: I mean when you're operating a vehicle like this you are always focused on what could go wrong, what do we have to do to make sure things go properly? That's a -- anytime you're in any kind of space flight operations that's the way you do business.

BROWN: Just and finally if in the worst case if you don't -- if you don't get it back would you still see this as a successful mission?

SQUYRES: I think so. I mean we've learned a great deal and we also have Opportunity about to land but I'm not ready to go there at all yet. I have a great deal of confidence in this team’s ability to figure this out and I have a great deal of confidence in this spacecraft's ability to keep itself safe for a long period of time. It's going to take a while to get things going again but I have a great deal of confidence that we’re going to do that.

BROWN: Well, all of us who have marveled at what it's done so far are with you are hoping it all turns out. Thanks again for your time tonight. Thank you.

SQUYRES: Thanks very much, Aaron, I appreciate that.

BROWN: Thank you.

A little bit later in the program, by the way, we'll talk with Bill Nye, who not only has an experiment onboard the rover, see how all this works together for us, but will also make 3-D glasses for your viewing pleasure tomorrow night.

We'll get into that. It's 3-D night here on NEWSNIGHT. We'll tell you about that later in the program.

Also coming up, what else, before we get to that Joe Lieberman will join us. He just finished the debate in New Hampshire and we'll talk with him.

And later in the program omens rights in Iraq, is the new governing council taking a big step back?

From New York this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: It's been a very busy day today. headgates a quick look at some of the stories that made news around the country.

In South Dakota, former U.S. Congressman Bill Janklow was sentenced to just 100 days in jail and three years probation for killing a motorcyclist in an accident that ended his political career. He was convicted of second degree manslaughter and other charges late last year. He could have faced as much as ten years in prison. He got 100 days.

In California, the Scott Peterson trial, two days ago the venue changed. Yesterday a new judge was chosen. Today lawyers, defendants lawyers -- it was prosecutors actually rejected that choice. Another judge will be appointed. The trial will be delayed. It was supposed to start on Monday.

Singer Art Garfunkel is due in court in New York next week to face charges of marijuana possession. His driver was stopped for speeding over the weekend. The arresting officer didn't recognize the 62-year-old singer. How can you not recognize Art Garfunkel. He did notice the smell of marijuana coming from the limousine.

In California, the actress and dance Ann Miller has died. Ann Miller was 81. She had lung cancer. She began her career as a baby almost. She was just 13, starred in more than 30 movies and Broadway shows. She danced with the best, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, and Ginger Rogers.

And here are a few more stories that made news around the world this time starting with Iraqi most volatile region, the Sunni Triangle. Insurgents there launched three attacks in 24 hours killing two American soldiers, three Iraqi police officers and four civilians. The number of Americans who have died in Iraq now stands at 504.

The White House keeps saying President Bush's post State of the Union road trip is not the start of his reelection campaign. OK, that didn't stop the president from mingling today at a restaurant in a state he lost to Al Gore in 2000 by just 366 votes, New Mexico.

And some welcome news from the Centers for Disease Control. The agency says it looks like the flu season in the United States, at least, has peaked, just five states now reporting widespread cases of the flu. That is down from a high of 45 states at the end of the year. The CDC warn however a resurgence in flu could happen at any time.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT more on tonight's debate. We'll talk with Senator Joe Lieberman after the break.

From New York this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Well if you look really carefully you can see the top of Joe Lieberman's head. He's in the spin room after the debate in New Hampshire. Senator Lieberman is and he's having his picture taken by half the photographers on the planet it appears and perhaps giving an interview or two and we're still hopeful he will, as promised, make his way to our location but he is clearly not there yet and we're move along until he gets there.

No serious person I suspect would argue that Iraqis were better off with Saddam than without him. He was an evil man who did horrible things but he was not a cartoon character. In the Iraq that was Saddam, women enjoyed more rights than women do in most, if not all, of the Muslim world.

In the new Iraq that may or may not be so, there are troubling signs in that regard and it is hard to imagine that Americans who supported the war supported the notion that women after liberation would become second class citizens.

Here's CNN's Sheila MacVicar.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): At Mr. Ali's beauty salon a bride gets ready for her wedding. The talk isn’t about parties or nerves but about a change in Iraqi family law approved by the American appointed governing council, a decision women here fear will take away their rights in everything from marriage to divorce and many women are very angry. I don't know who they're talking to” says this hairdresser. We're used to working to having rights. I don't know what they think they're doing.” This is not what they expected, they say, from the end of Saddam Hussein.

(on camera): For more than 50 years even under Saddam Hussein, Iraqi women have been equal to Iraqi men in the eyes of the law, protected by some of the most socially progressive legislation in the Middle East.

(voice-over): The new law would wipe out that legislation and put such matters not in the hands of courts and judges but Muslim and Christian clerics. Muslim families would have to abide by the strict Islamic code of Shari.

ZAKKIA HAKKI, RETIRED JUDGE: What kind of decision is this?

MACVICAR: Zakkia Hakki is a retired judge. The new law, she says, could set back women's status by centuries.

HAKKI: Because this will bring all Iraqi families, Muslim and non-Muslim to the Middle Ages.

MACVICAR: Fadal (ph) and Housum (ph) are in divorce court after eight years of marriage. He wants to take a second wife, permissible in Islam. She has refused and demanded a divorce instead. Under Shari, Housum could lose her right to the modern day concept of alimony, something even her now ex-husband doesn't accept.

We divorced legally so she would keep her rights he says and we both agree on that.

In the days since the decision of the governing council was made public, women's groups in Iraq have demonstrated and help conference. Angry that a time when Iraq needs so much to be done the council voted to change law that had worked for years.

These women are planning what to do next, how to battle the conservatives. Basma Al Khateb heads a U.N. organization for Iraqi women.

BASMA AL KHATEB, HEAD, U.N. ORGANIZATION FOR IRAQI WOMEN: But I can tell you women what are they sensing, they're sensing that this is something dangerous and they have to be really aware of that and they have to work, go out, claim their rights.

MACVICAR: Rule 137, as it is called, is not yet law. Coalition officials say Ambassador Paul Bremer, as Iraqi administrator, will not approve it. The governing council because of the anger of the women is discussing it again.

But by July under the current plan Iraqis will be passing their own laws and even clerics who are now cooperating with the coalition say they believe this will be the will of the people. The women and some men say this is the road to theocracy and that it must be stopped. Sheila MacVicar, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Last month the Iraqi Governing Council named Rend Al- Rahim as its representative to the United States. Born in Baghdad, she was forced to leave Iraq in 1978. She became a U.S. citizen in 1987. We talked with her about this earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Madam Ambassador, let’s start with I think sort of literally where we are now. This change has been proposed but it has not yet become law?

AMB. REND AL-RAHIM, IRAQI REPRESENTATIVE TO THE U.S.: No, it’s not law yet. I think certainly it has been proposed in the Iraqi Governing Council. I think there has been debate on it but it is -- it's not law yet and it hasn't been passed.

BROWN: Do you expect it will be?

AL-RAHIM: It's very difficult to anticipate. You know I should say and this is something that's important to realize that a lot of the decisions in the governing council have been made not by an up and down vote where it's winner takes all but by consensus and compromise and I see no reason why this issue should not also be dealt with in that spirit.

So, it's very difficult to know where the compromises or the arrangements are going to be made. I don't want to anticipate. I do know that this is a subject not only -- of debate not only in the governing council but also a national debate.

BROWN: Tell me how it is or where it is there is room for compromise in what is, I think, at least to an American's ear, a fundamental human rights question? Are women, first, equal citizens or are they second-class citizens?

AL-RAHIM: By the Sharia law does not make women second-class citizens.

Let's be clear what is being proposed. What's being proposed in Iraq is to put family law under Sharia law, in other words, issues that affect marriage, divorce, inheritance, and so on. And a clear distinction has to be made and a clear understanding that we are talking about family law. We're not talking about all the civil code and civil law.

And, by the way, it's not unusual for Muslim countries to have two sets of law, one for civic fairs, corporations, interpersonal dealings, and the other family law, which comes under Sharia law or Muslim canon law.

BROWN: I think the questions that many Americans will have, given the cost of the war in lives and in dollars, is, is this what we fought for, so that women are, in effect, set back? Do you not see this as a setback for women?

AL-RAHIM: I do not see it as a setback for women professionally or politically.

I'll give you an example. In Lebanon, for example, and in Egypt, family law is under Sharia law. This does not stop women from being lawyers, doctors, politicians, ambassadors, whatever they want, and parliamentarians. It does not. It affects marriage, divorce, inheritance.

So there is nothing that is going to stop women from participating fully in public, professional and political life. Now, does it disadvantage them in terms of marriage, settlements, in terms of inheritance? That is really what we ought to be talking about. And I think the debate in Iraq is not about whether it's going to stop them from participating in public life, but whether it's detrimental to their interests in the context of family regulations and family conduct.

BROWN: We'll watch and see how it plays out. It's one of many difficult choices that your country has to make in the months ahead. We appreciate your time today. Thank you.

AL-RAHIM: Thank you very much, yes.

BROWN: Thank you, ma'am.

AL-RAHIM: Thank you.

BROWN: A complicated question.

Senator Joe Lieberman has made his way around the spin room and to our camera. And we will talk with the senator after this break.

This is NEWSNIGHT around the world.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: All the Democratic candidates had something to gain or lose from tonight's debate in New Hampshire. For Howard Dean, it was a chance to turn around the fumbles of last week. Since the unthinkable happened in Iowa, his campaign has been tweaking, or perhaps a little bit more than tweaking, strategy.

Today, Dr. Dean appeared in an ABC News interview with his wife, the very-low profile Dr. Judith Steinberg Dean. And, yes, the subject of the concession speech came up again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "PRIMETIME LIVE")

DIANE SAWYER, HOST: What do you see when you look at this?

HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I was having a great time. Look at me. I was. Look.

I am not a perfect person, believe me. I have all kinds of warts. I wear cheap suits sometimes. I say things that I probably ought not to say. But I lead with my heart. And that's what I was doing right there, is leading with my heart.

Yes, I would not make a case for a moment that that was presidential, not for a moment. Last night, I went to a hockey game. My son got an assist on the first goal. I went, yahoo, and jumped up in the air. That's presidential? Probably not. Look, I'm a dad. I'm a human being. And I'm going to keep being a dad and a human being.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Howard Dean.

Senator Joe Lieberman made a choice. He decided not to compete in Iowa. He focused his attentions on New Hampshire. Tuesday's vote is hugely important to him. And, if the polls are to be believed, the senator still has plenty of work to do in New Hampshire.

We are always pleased to see him. And we certainly are on a busy night. I'm sure doing one more interview is just what you're dying to do, Senator.

How did it go today?

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D-CT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Aaron, I felt very good about tonight.

I actually felt tonight was my best debate performance. And I got a feeling it might just start the kind of popular uprising against some of the favorites that occurred in Iowa. I just thought I was myself tonight, 30 years of experience. I'm an independent. I'm going to say what I believe, do what's right for the country, take a few boos every now and then.

But the people can trust me in office to fight for them and not play politics. So I thought I carried my message across. And I'm very encouraged by the reactions I've gotten.

BROWN: Have you felt at all in this that, in some respects, you were tool well-known, that people knew Joe Lieberman, they had made their choices about Joe Lieberman, and they were looking past you at all the others?

LIEBERMAN: You know, I don't know. I know I'm not the newest face in this race.

But I do think I've had some of the newest ideas. I've come out for paid family and medical leave. I'm the only Democrat to do that. I've come out for real tax reform. I'm the only Democrat to do that. So I've come out for a center for cures, great idea. I'm excited about it, which will invest federal money to actually come up with some cures to chronic diseases, like cancer and diabetes and Alzheimer's and a lot of the rest.

So, I feel people are beginning to listen. And, most of all, I know who I am. I've campaigned from my heart and my belief and my record. And I'm going to leave it to the voters.

BROWN: Do you think that -- as you talk about all of the things you have proposed -- and all candidates propose lots of things -- has all of that gotten lost in what you believe about Iraq and what they believe about Iraq?

LIEBERMAN: Well, I hope not.

But, as I said during the debate, I had no illusions. When I voted for the resolution for the war against Saddam, I knew it would not be popular in big sections of the Democratic Party. But I've got a responsibility to do what's right for the safety of my country. Obviously, I hope and believe that, ultimately, voters in an independent-minded state like this will listen to our positions on the different issues, but finally decide, do I know this person? Can I trust him to be a president who protect my safety and be there for me and my family when I need the federal government?

So I think they judge the person and, ultimately, that matters most. And part of that, I hope, will be that I had the guts not to waffle on the war, because I believed it was the right fight for us to make for our security.

BROWN: Do you think, in the general election campaign, sir, that national security will be the defining issue of the campaign?

LIEBERMAN: Well, there's no question, Aaron, that President Bush will try to make it the defining issue, because he hasn't done anything to improve life here at home.

More people don't have health insurance. More people don't have jobs. More people can't afford their health insurance. More people are in poverty. So that's why I think I'm the best candidate to run against him, because they can't -- the Republicans can't play their normal games with me. They can't say I'm weak on defense. You know, I'm the only candidate who supported both the Gulf War and the war against Saddam, stuck by the troops, supported them.

I wrote the Homeland Security Department bill. So I think we need to run a candidate who can stand toe to toe with the president on security and then win the election on his failures here at home and the fact that he left the mainstream as president and went way over to the right. That's not America. And I want to reconnect with that mainstream, reassure them on security, and promise them a better life here at home than they've received under George Bush.

BROWN: How did the surprising results -- I think surprising to me, at least -- surprising results in Iowa make your task in New Hampshire either easier or harder, or neither, I suppose is possible?

LIEBERMAN: Yes.

Well, the results in Iowa, which were surprising, just confirmed what I'd been hearing around here, that people were taking a second look at Howard Dean. I believe they're taking a second look at Wes Clark, the two leaders beforehand. I think they're going to take a second look here at John Kerry, because New Hampshire, historically, doesn't follow Iowa in what it does.

So it gave me encouragement that this was fundamentally undecided, very fluid, and there's room for a popular uprising for an independent, experienced candidate like myself.

BROWN: Senator, we're always glad to see you. We wish you nothing but the best on Tuesday.

LIEBERMAN: Thank you, Aaron.

BROWN: Thank you, sir, very much, Senator Joe Lieberman.

LIEBERMAN: Have a good night.

BROWN: Up in New Hampshire tonight. And he's got some work to do before Tuesday's election. We suspect he'll be out there doing it.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, we'll go back to Mars. Bill Nye, the Science Guy, joins us to talk about 3-D glasses and other things, too. A break first.

This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Back to Mars now.

Like all good scientists -- and we try to be that -- we expect a setback now and again. But we will not be deterred from completing our mission to do a segment -- one segment tomorrow -- on Mars in 3-D on this program. Tomorrow is the night, a segment of the program that surely will become the TV event of the new millennium.

Now, here's the problem. Some of you have yet to get your 3-D glasses. But never fear. Bill Nye, the Science Guy, is here -- well, he's actually in Los Angeles, but here in a television sense -- to actually show us how to make them at home, among other things. So get your arts and crafts supplies out there and get ready to go. And it is very nice to see an old friend.

Bill, good to have you with us.

All right, start -- just explain the easiest way to make these glasses for people.

BILL NYE, THE SCIENCE GUY: Well, for me, the easiest way is to use a piece of packing material, like this, and a couple of very popular brand of permanent markers.

And you put the red on your left eye, not the red on your right eye. Now, you see, you might think -- you look at -- this is a commercially available pair of glasses right here. And they would be backwards. So you have to wear these inside out. Just be cautious. Red goes on the left. Red and left both have a short e. I'm not sure that works so well.

But all you've got to do is color them like that and hold them up. And, in a rudimentary sense, you'll have a pair of 3-D glasses.

BROWN: And you'll also look terrific, by the way.

NYE: Well, I was going to say, they're pretty styling.

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: Can you explain to me why one color has to be on one side?

NYE: Ah, they're anaglyphic, yes.

So what we've done, we go to Mars -- I say we, we taxpayers and voters. We go to Mars and these cameras are all black and white. Now, you might have a digital camera or a camcorder that's color. Well, three of those pixels are used to form, in a sense, one area of color. So it would be red, green, blue or magenta, cyan, yellow.

But, on Mars, to maximize the accuracy and the clarity of the pictures, all of them are black and white. And we drop filters in front of the lenses. It sounds kind of primitive. But this is how we get these amazing high-quality pictures.

So what you do, you drop a red one in front of the left side and a blue one in front of the right side. And then, when we look at them with our exciting and happy 3-D glasses, we'll see a pretty nice effect, a 3-D effect. Our eyes are nominally 60, 70 millimeters apart. The ones on the Mars rover are 30 centimeters. That's about a foot in the primitive English system.

And so they focus. They're turned in about one degree. They focus out about 17 meters. That's like 56 feet or something like that. And this effect is pretty good.

BROWN: All right.

Now, I'm told that you looked at our Web site and found a design flaw in the way we've been suggesting to people how to make these things.

NYE: Well, design flaw.

To me, your Web site, when you have to glue that corner to the flat portion of the 3-D glasses, you're going to have a failure there. You're going to have high stress. You're going to have stress raisers. And that's where it's going to fail. You reinforce it with tape. OK.

Let's think -- as the modern saying goes, how do we say -- that's right -- out of the box. So, we encourage you to cut the thing diagonally and then you'll get a continuous piece of cardboard. These pieces are cellophane available at a very popular art store. And these are OK. This isn't bad. This is another piece of packing material. This is the opera glass look. This is OK.

But we encourage everyone, Aaron, to go to Bill Nye to NyeLabs.com, BillNye.com. And we set up -- the Web designers at Pop.com, the guys I work with, who also do the Web site for the Mars rovers, set these up pretty quickly. And these work if you have transparency, if you're the kind of person that still does overhead projector presentations.

BROWN: Yes.

NYE: This stuff -- this works. It's OK. And none of them are really as good as the very expensive commercially made ones. Some of these run 50 cents.

BROWN: I know. We've heard from viewers on this.

Quickly -- we've got probably less than a minute. Talk about the sun dials that are on the rover, because they're there because you never give up.

NYE: That's right.

Well, as you may know, my dad was interested in sun dials. And I had a lot of sun dials in my head. Then they had this thing that was going to cast a shadow on purpose on Mars. And I said, hey, you guys, it's got to be a sun dial. And that was back in 1998. And the mission changed. The verb is rescoped at NASA. And now there are these instruments or these test patterns, photometric calibration targets, on Mars.

And they're only this big. And you see them in some of the closeups. And it's really -- it's a cool little thing, because it carries a message. All sun dials should have a motto. It has a motto, two worlds, one sun. You know, the shadows on Mars and the shadows on Earth are cast by the same star, our sun, the life-giving sun. And the next couple days, you'll be able to download this image and print your own Mars dial.

And, just let me say, before we go, the Spirit rover, we haven't heard from it, I think it was about 20 hours.

BROWN: Yes.

NYE: And then we got the beep.

I am not that close to these space guys. But I hang out with them a lot. And just don't worry yet.

BROWN: All right.

NYE: We'll probably get back in touch with this thing. These guys know what they're doing. These guys and gals know what they're doing.

BROWN: It's great to see you. You've come a long way from being a joke writer back when I met you.

NYE: It's great to see you.

That's right. And you were a news anchor back in Seattle. Go, Mariners.

BROWN: Yes, I was. Good to see you, Bill. Thank you for your help tonight.

NYE: Good to see you.

BROWN: We'll check morning papers in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(ROOSTER CROWING)

BROWN: Okeydokey, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world, sort of.

"The International Herald Tribune," published in Paris by "The New York Times." If you're traveling, you'll find this in Paris and other places around the world. "Kerry is Surging as Next Fight Nears. Poll Puts Him in New Hampshire Lead. Dean Regrouping, Adopts of Softer Tone." And there is a picture of Dr. Dean shaking hands in New Hampshire up there somewhere.

And this story I expect will be in "The New York Times" tomorrow. This is a fabulous story. It's gotten some play today already. "Thumbs Up From Pope a Mystery." This about whether or not the pope endorsed the movie "Passion," the Mel Gibson movie that's caused all this flap. Anyway, that's "The Herald Tribune."

"USA Today," if you're traveling in this country, a story we did here last night. "Guard Survey Hints at Exodus. Reenlistments May Dip With Longer Tours." This is a real problem for the Pentagon, is how to keep the reserves in place, if these men and women feel they're going to be gone for a year or a year and a half. "American Goalie Rises to the Top of Soccer World." I don't know about that story, but that's a cool one. Tim Howard's success in England. That's a nice story.

"The Oregonian." Down at the bottom, "Judge Orders Pesticide Ban to Protect Salmon." Salmon is a huge resource out West in the Northwest, and trying to keep them alive is important. "

"The Dallas Morning News" leads politics. "A New Dean or the Old One? Candidate's Ultraliberal Label May Peel Back to Reveal Moderate Bent." In fact, I think Dr. Dean is more moderate than ultraliberal. And so do a lot of people, but I'll probably get in trouble from conservatives for saying that.

"The Philadelphia Inquirer." "Iraqi Hunt For Al Qaeda" is their lead. I'm running out of time, I'll bet, aren't I?

The weather tomorrow in Chicago, by the way, is "ruthless." But, for the second night in a row, we don't have "The Sun-Times," but we do know the weather.

We'll wrap up the day after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: A quick recap of our top story before we leave you tonight.

With four days to go, the candidates faced off in New Hampshire, seven contenders, one stage, lots of questions, a fair number of attacks on President Bush, but not many on each other. The primary is on Tuesday.

Tomorrow night on this program, the night you have been waiting for. Hard to believe it's finally here, Mars 3-D extravaganza. It will happen even if mission control fails to regain communication with the rover, because we know that rover would want us to go ahead with the program, to push on with our quest for a complete segment. You'll need your 3-D glasses, folks.

Here's Soledad with a look at what's coming up tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Aaron.

Tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING," Victoria Gotti, the daughter of the late mobster John Gotti, is now getting her own magazine. She's also getting a reality show. If you don't know her yet, you're going to soon. We're going to introduce you tomorrow, 7:00 a.m. Eastern.

That's CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING" -- back to you, Aaron.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Thank you. And thank you for being with us.

"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" next for most of you. We'll see you tomorrow, a huge night here, 10:00 Eastern time.

Good night for all of us.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com



Communication problems with Mars rover; Mars rover team not ready to give up; Women fighting for rights in Baghdad>


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