[Miles O'brien, Cnn Anchor:] Senator John Kerry handing his opponents more ammo. He calls it a joke gone bad, but Republicans say he owes an apology to American troops.
[Soledad O'brien, Cnn Anchor:] A potentially troubling power shift in Iraq. More and more people say the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, not the elected leader in Iraq, is now calling the shots.
[M. O'brien:] And some new questions following some scares at the nation's airport. A plane lands on a taxiway, not a runway. Another takes off from the wrong runway, and a collision on the ground as well. Those stories and more ahead on this
[American Morning. S. O'brien:] Good morning. Welcome, everybody. It's November 1st. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
[M. O'brien:] And I'm Miles O'Brien. Thanks for being with us. Senator John Kerry trying to explain himself to all of us this morning. His party keeping himself keeping him at arm's length. And President Bush calling on him to apologize for insulting U.S. troops in Iraq. CNN's Ed Henry is live at the White House with more Ed.
[Ed Henry, Cnn White House Correspondent:] Good morning, Miles. That's right, the White House reacting almost as if this flap is manna from heaven. They obviously have an uphill climb heading into these midterm elections. They think having John Kerry front and center in this final week will help rally conservative voters. At his daily briefing, spokesman Tony Snow oftentimes will not jump into the fray when we throw out questions about various controversial things of senators that either party have said, but yesterday he was clearly armed and ready when he was asked about it. He fired away, demanded an apology from Senator Kerry. That was almost a trial balloon for the president himself. When he went to a rally in Georgia last night, he also went right at Kerry.
[George W. Bush, President Of The United States:] The members of the United States military are plenty smart, and they are plenty brave. And the senator from Massachusetts owes them an apology.
[Henry:] Now, Senator Kerry initially put out a written statement yesterday insisting his words were distorted, that he was referring to the president, not to soldiers out in the field with those comments in California. Then Senator Kerry had a press conference in Seattle and said this.
[Sen. John Kerry , Massachusetts:] My statement yesterday and the White House knows this full well was a botched joke about the president and the president's people, not about the troops.
[Henry:] Now, what's really at work here for Kerry is that he wants to run for president again in 2008. He's haunted by the fact that two years ago he did not push back against Republican attacks hard enough, so he's trying to do that now. But a lot of Democrats want him to leave the stage. CNN confirming this morning that two different Democratic House candidates, one in Iowa, one in Minnesota, have now canceled appearances with Kerry. The Democratic Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, Bob Casey, Jr., also canceling an appearance with Kerry. They do not want him to be a distraction. Senator Kerry, for his part, this morning appearing on the Don Imus radio show, trying to spin this as an effort by himself to try to get out of it and not be a distraction. He says that he is now headed back to D.C., getting off the campaign trail for the final days here. In his words, Senator Kerry saying that the White House is distorting his remarks and he does not want their fear and smear to win out Miles.
[M. O'brien:] Ed Henry at the White House. Thank you very much. Well, it may not be up there with the classic "I voted for it before I voted against it" line, but John Kerry has handed yet another bit of ammo to the other side. Clearly a self-inflicted wound, but is there collateral damage? Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider is here with more on that. Hello, Bill.
[William Schneider, Cnn Sr. Political Analyst:] Hi, Miles.
[M. O'brien:] This is an interesting statement at this point. It takes us back to 2004 in a way, doesn't it?
[Schneider:] Yes, it does. A foolish statement by John Kerry which gets him into a bind, just like his statement about "I voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it." Now he says that you can if you don't do well, you can get stuck in Iraq, which appears to be an insult to American troops. He said he misspoke, but this diverts the whole campaign on the path it doesn't want to be on, and it runs the risk of firing up a lot of Republican voters, making them angry. You know, the angry voters here are supposed to be the Democrats. But if the Republicans get juiced up, they could come to the polls in big numbers.
[M. O'brien:] Do you think that really could happen?
[Schneider:] It could in some key districts, yes. If they're angry and they see this stereotype of the Democrats, condescending, arrogant, elitist, reinforced, it could bring more Republicans out to vote. I don't think it's going to change any minds. Big events have big causes, and this is a small event. So I'm not sure it's going to change minds, but it could make some marginal differences.
[M. O'brien:] And while he was the Democratic nominee in 2004, he's on the margins this time. He's not even running. So, you have to wonder how much people will factor this in.
[Schneider:] Well, he's not on the ballot. And you've got all these Democratic candidates out there with no ties to Kerry. And they're rushing to disassociate themselves with him. So I think the damage will be limited, but they've got to get off this story. And yesterday Kerry kept trying to drive it forward.
[M. O'brien:] And Kerry, of course, may be one of the few people in the world who thinks he has a good chance to run for election in 2008. This morning, what are his chances?
[Schneider:] Less. They're diminishing rapidly. These kinds of statements, I think, confirm a damaging image of Kerry and of the Democratic Party that they can't afford to have: elitist, arrogant, condescending, the very thing that got him in trouble in 2004.
[M. O'brien:] Bill Schneider, thank you very much. A plan to boost Iraqi security forces will cost at least $1 billion of your money. The Pentagon will ask Congress to approve it. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld likes the plan but he isn't saying how many Iraqi troops will be added or what it will cost.
[Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary Of Defense:] The Iraqi government and General Casey have made their recommendations and General Dempsey. And that I'm very comfortable with the increases they've proposed and the accelerations in achievement of some of their targets that they've proposed. And the question and I understand that the Iraqi government is.
[M. O'brien:] Secretary Rumsfeld says he doubts more American troops will be needed to train the Iraqis or that U.S. units will have to stay in Iraq any longer to get it done Soledad.
[S. O'brien:] Just who's in control of Iraq? The Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, ordered the U.S. to take down those roadblocks, but the hero in Sadr City is the Shiite leader, Muqtada al-Sadr, who is increasingly a power player in the fight for Iraq. They're shouting, "No one can conquer the son of al-Sayyid!" It's a reference to the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. These residents of Sadr City, a giant Shiite slum in Baghdad, say al-Sadr is the reason Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, ended a week-long U.S. roadblock around their homes. The Americans continue to look for a missing U.S. soldier.
[Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Fmr. Baghdad Bureau Chief, "washington Post":] Certainly there's a perception on the streets of Sadr City that this was a victory. Clearly, the perception there is that Muqtada won.
[S. O'brien:] The former Baghdad bureau chief for "The Washington Post," Rajiv Chandrasekaran, believes al-Maliki ordered the Americans to open the checkpoints after al-Sadr called for a general strike and threatened possible violence.
[Chandrasekaran:] He was getting a lot of pressure from Muqtada al-Sadr. And Sadr's Sadr's political party is an important part of the governing coalition in Iraq. And Sadr himself is a is a potent political force in the country.
[S. O'brien:] Prime Minister al-Maliki cannot afford to make al- Sadr an enemy. Al-Sadr's political party holds at least 30 seats in the 275-seat government. One of the largest voting blocs in parliament. It also controls several ministries, including transportation and health.
[Chandrasekaran:] He realizes that going up against Muqtada al- Sadr right now would be incredibly detrimental to his own interests and that of his government.
[S. O'brien:] Perhaps, most importantly, al-Sadr controls the Mehdi militia, which is well armed and could number in the thousands. So al-Maliki chose instead to avoid conflict with his fellow Shiite leader while thumbing his nose at the Americans.
[Chandrasekaran:] Clearly trying to show that he's not a pawn, that he's not going to do the White House's bidding. He's trying to show that that he's his own man.
[S. O'brien:] Just days ago al-Maliki said he wasn't America's man in Baghdad. And this latest incident allowed him to make some much- needed concessions inside his own country, yet at the same time sending some important messages outside his country as well Miles.
[M. O'brien:] This morning federal investigators looking into two airplane mishaps at Newark International Airport in just the past few days. The latest incident, a slow-speed ground collision on Tuesday night. A more troubling one ver the weekend. On Saturday, a Continental Airline 757 loaded with passengers landing on a taxiway instead of a runway. CNN's Allan Chernoff at Newark with more. Hello, Allan.
[Allan Chernoff, Cnn Sr. Correspondent:] Hi, miles. Good morning. And in fact, that incident could have been catastrophic. It involved, as you said, a Continental 757 coming from Orlando packed with 157 passengers. This happened Saturday night at about 6:30 in the evening, so just after it turned dark over here. The plane got the go-ahead from the control tower to land, and it was approaching from the north. But instead of landing on a runway, it landed on a taxiway, which was about half the width of a runway. Now, fortunately, there were no other planes on that taxiway, because if there had been, this would have been a complete disaster.
[J.p. Tristani, Retired Pilot:] It tells me that Continental Airlines has a breakdown in its training procedures that it has to address immediately. And that in any case, the port authority, Continental and the pilot should be grateful that there was no one else taxiing around that ramp area, or any vehicles, because it would have just been an unmitigated disaster.
[Chernoff:] Continental has grounded the pilots on that plane. Now, another incident yesterday involving an empty Continental jet that actually was being pulled along on a taxiway. On an adjacent taxiway, there was a Lufthansa jet preparing to take off for Frankfurt. That jet had more than 300 people on board. As the Lufthansa jet was moving along, it clipped wings with the Continental jet. The Lufthansa jet was turned around, brought back to the terminal. The flight was canceled. Both planes are now out of service. And fortunately no one was injured in either incident Miles.
[M. O'brien:] Allan Chernoff at Newark. Thank you Soledad.
[S. O'brien:] Happening this morning, new developments in that arson wildfire to tell you about in southern California. Firefighter Pablo Cerda has died from his injuries. He suffered burns to over 90 percent of his body. He is the fifth firefighter to die in the line of duty fighting that fire, and his colleagues are honoring his sacrifice.
[Gabe Garcia, San Bernardino National Forest Ranger:] We just paid tribute to our fallen brother, Pablo, in a procession. It included every firefighting agency, law enforcement agency in the area. It's been a difficult few days, and we lost our last brother.
[S. O'brien:] Also a development to tell you about in the fire investigation. A person of interest is now being questioned, and he faces charges of arson from two different fires this summer. Six-nation talks about North Korea's nuclear program could soon start again. President Bush says, though, this won't stop U.S. efforts to enforce U.N. sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear tests. North Koreans say they're coming back to the talks because they want to access frozen bank accounts overseas. Israeli forces are defending their actions in northern Gaza today. They've launched air and ground attacks, they say, to take out the rockets that are being fired into Israeli. At least 10 Palestinians have died. An Israeli soldier may have been killed in the Israeli pushback. And it looks as if that salmonella outbreak that sickened more than 170 people across 18 states has now been contained. Massachusetts was the hardest hit, with 51 cases reported there. People generally get salmonella by eating contaminated food or undercooked meat and poultry Miles.
[M. O'brien:] Coming up on the program, Senator Kerry's so-called botched joke. Will it give new life to Republicans less than a week before Election Day? Democratic strategist James Carville will join us. You're going to hear what he has to say. And North Korea coming back to the table for those six-party talks, but there's no real plan to end its nuclear program. At least not yet. A closer look ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.