[Aaron Brown:] Good evening again. OK, we can't deny it much any longer. There really is something funny going on around here. Suddenly, we're living in a world in which New York transit workers don't go on strike, Trent Lott comes out in favor of affirmative action and McDonald's is losing money. When the company made that announcement today it knocked U.S. for a loop. In its entire history, McDonald's has never ever lost a dime and never stopped growing either. That's also changing. The losses come from the cost of closing locations, not opening new ones. So is this the high watermark for an empire with 30,000 outposts in 121 countries? One day, when you're bouncing your grandchildren on your knee, will they ask you, grandpa, where were you when the golden arches came tumbling down? Well, thousands of teenagers once again have time to spend at home, say, mowing the lawn. Does this mean some day the French will like U.S. again? Will they forgive U.S. for giving them Le Big Mac? Probably not, but stranger things have happened. And indeed seem to be happening this week. On to "The Whip" now and the tribulations of the junior Senator from the state of Mississippi. CNN's Jonathan Karl has the duty again tonight. Jon, start U.S. off with a headline, please.
[Jonathan Karl, Cnn Congressional Correspondent:] With Trent Lott's future increasingly uncertain, he's vowed today to fight to remain in his position as Senate majority leader.
[Brown:] Jon, thank you. Back to you at the top tonight. The Pentagon next, and a decision on missile defense. CNN's Jamie McIntyre with that. Jamie, the headline from you.
[Jamie Mcintyre, Cnn Pentagon Correspondent:] Well, Aaron, the Pentagon's thinking is something like this: if you don't have a defense against missiles, you're spending billions to build one, why not deploy it sooner than later? Today President Bush said, Go for it.
[Brown:] Jamie, thank you. To Venezuela next, a country caught in the middle of a political crisis, with millions of barrels of oil at stake. CNN's Harris Whitbeck on the video phone. A headline, please.
[Harris Whitbeck, Cnn Correspondent:] Aaron,
[Brown:] We'll fill in the rest of the words later. In Miami, it's a question once again of missing children. CNN's Mark Potter is there with the headline tonight. Mark, use all the words, please.
[Mark Potter, Cnn Correspondent:] I certainly will, Aaron. After a three-month investigation, Florida officials say they have found nearly 300 missing children from the child welfare system, and it appears they may have some 300 more to go, mostly runaways Aaron.
[Brown:] Thank you, Mark. It is so much easier to understand that way. Back with all of you shortly. Also tonight, we'll hear what a leading Senate Republican has to say about Trent Lott and his party's record on race. Utah Senator Orrin Hatch is with U.S. tonight. And a man climbed a skyscraper in Houston, Texas, then jumped or fell to his death. Some local stations carried it live. Others chose not to. Who made the right call? We'll explore the tensions between the need to know and the human desire to watch, and how the media sorts it all out. And what happens when you try and take the sin out of a city known as Disneyland for adults? New Orleans cleaning up its act. Is it a good thing or just a lowdown dirty shame? All of that in the hour ahead. We begin once again with Senator Trent Lott, who finds himself tonight as deep in political quicksand as ever. As deep perhaps as a politician can be without actually drowning. And where's a tree branch when you really need one? In a moment you'll hear from Orrin Hatch, the Republican senator from Utah, who offers a strong defense of his colleague. But no one with the power to save him, meaning the president of the United States, seems inclined to try. That's becoming clear in so many words, or, more importantly, in so much silence. Here again CNN Capitol Hill correspondent Jonathan Karl.
[Karl:] Trent Lott's fellow Senate Republicans are not now clamoring for his resignation, but most of them are not offering their support either.
[Sen. Chuck Grassley , Iowa:] And maybe we will have a new leader. But I'm going to wait and not waste any time on that until I have to make that decision.
[Karl:] With headlines in the newspapers declaring President Bush wouldn't mind seeing Lott go, the official White House line is that, although the president doesn't think Lott needs to resign, he will not side with him in a leadership battle.
[Ari Fleischer, White House Press Secretary:] Senators have indicated they are calling for a meeting on January 6, and the White House will not comment on that meeting or anything leading up to that meeting.
[Karl:] Republicans are divided. GOP Senate sources say, at this point, Lott does not have enough support to stay on as leader. But there are not enough votes to remove him either. And Lott himself is determined to fight, telling ABC, "I'm the son of a shipyard worker from Pascagoula, Mississippi I've have to fight all my life, and I'm not stopping now." And he has the support of some key Republicans, including Ted Stevens, the incoming appropriations chairman and the most senior GOP Senator, who said, "I'm going to go back and I'm going to defend my friend. And I'm going to tell him he stays as our leader." Rick Santorum, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, also reaffirmed his support for Lott. But Jim Talent, the newly elected Senator from Missouri, took an unusual step for a freshman, suggesting in a statement that Lott is too weak to push for the GOP agenda. "There is now a substantial question as to whether Senator Lott has the capacity to move that agenda forward." Democrats are content to sit on the sidelines for now. Tom Daschle told CNN the idea of censuring Lott is now on hold. [on camera]: Should he be censured by the Senate?
[Sen. Tom Daschle , Majority Leader:] Well, it looks like events have gone beyond that. Now the caucus is looking as if they may be examining whether he should be leader. So until that decision is made, I think anything else is too speculative.
[Karl:] There is widespread frustration, as you can imagine, Aaron, among Republicans that this whole situation could drag out with uncertainty until January 6. Many of those Republicans here have been telling each other that they would like to see Trent Lott resign and simply put this problem behind the party. But Trent Lott's allies, Trent Lott himself, have made it very clear that he has absolutely no intention of resigning. They say that is something that's not going to happen Aaron.
[Brown:] It's not going to happen yet. You know, it's a couple we've got a couple weeks to go. It's unimaginable, I would think, if you're a Republican, that every day for the next two weeks, three weeks, really, we're going to be going through this drill again and again counting noses. That's what they're afraid of, though, isn't it?
[Karl:] That's exactly what they're afraid of. And some of them are hoping one very senior Republican aide up here said what we need is three wise men, not to go to Bethlehem, but to go down to Pascagoula, Mississippi, to have a discussion with Trent Lott, to explain to him the situation and encourage him to step aside. Three Republican elder statesmen, maybe senators, maybe people outside the Senate. But right now, again, Lott supporters are adamant that he is simply not going to step aside. But, of course, there's reality. If somebody went to him and showed him the names of 26, 27 senators that wanted him to go, of course that would change the situation.
[Brown:] Jon, thank you. I think we're all going to work over the holidays. Jonathan Karl on Capitol Hill tonight. On now to the president's decision to deploy a limited defense against ballistic missiles. A piece of history, first. Twenty-seven years ago, after years of bitter fighting over whether missile defense would work and billions of dollars spent on research, the United States put a lone ABM site into operation. A day later, Congress voted to shut it down. Twenty-seven years later, after billions more dollars and even more bitter debate, the country is set to try again. And so here again CNN's Jamie McIntyre.
[Mcintyre:] Even though the latest U.S. missile defense test last week failed when a booster didn't separate, the Pentagon insists its hit-to-kill technology has worked four of five times this year.
[Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, Missile Defense Agency:] Our fundamental technology of hit to kill collision of the interceptor with the warheads that completely destroys the war warheads works.
[Mcintyre:] The goal, to produce a system of interceptors and radars that, by 2004, could, for example, detect, track and knock down a missile launched by North Korea before it could hit any of the 50 United States. Price tag: an additional $1.5 billion added to the $8 billion a year the U.S. is already spending on the program.
[Lisbeth Gronlund, Union Of Concerned Scientists:] I think it is a waste of money to deploy. I mean, it's really still in the very early stages of research and development. If this were any other military system, there would be no talk of deploying it.
[Mcintyre:] Still, better than nothing argues the Pentagon.
[Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary Of Defense:] I wouldn't want to overplay it, I wouldn't want to oversell it. I wouldn't want to suggest that it has a depth or breadth or capability that it will take some time to evolve.
[Mcintyre:] By 2005, the plan calls for 16 land-based interceptor missiles at Fort Greeley, Alaska, four interceptors at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The use of radars in Greenland and Great Britain. Modifying three Aegis ships to carry 20 interceptors, and 346 new patriot missiles. The Pentagon does admit that, initially, this system would have a limited value of protection. But they still think it would have some deterrent value, particularly for countries like North Korea, which might be tempted to fire a missile at the United States, but also against other potential adversaries who might have second thoughts about spending all the time, effort and money to acquire missiles knowing that the U.S. will only be improving its missile shield in the future Aaron.
[Brown:] And the decision to put them in Alaska and on the West Coast presumes that the threats are from Asia, from China and North Korea?
[Mcintyre:] Well, these missiles are best positioned to hit threats from Asia, but when they get this system together, in fact, they'll be able to counter missiles that come from any part of the world, including the Middle East, even though they're from those areas. If you think about how missiles might come over, a lot of them coming from the Middle East would come over the polar area, and missiles in Alaska would be positioned to hit those. In future, as the system grows, they'll add other sites, perhaps even in other countries.
[Brown:] Jamie, thank you. Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon tonight. Venezuela's our next stop. This story has somewhat gotten buried in the avalanche of domestic news, political news and war news. It surfaces now because the events unfolding there may, in fact, have a bearing on both. Venezuela exports a lot of oil to the United States, but hasn't exported more than a few drops since the country fell into political turmoil. So why is this happening? What are the stakes? And why should you care? Questions answered tonight by CNN's Harris Whitbeck.
[Whitbeck:] Shooting in the streets. Anger everywhere. Tanker ships float idle, their hulls filled with gasoline that cannot get to market. Thousands wait for hours for what little the government has in reserve. Venezuela is the second largest supplier of oil to the United States, but what began as a general strike has paralyzed the country's oil industry. It's become a weapon against the government here, as Venezuelans battle over who should lead their country.
[Julio Borges, Opposition Leader:] This has become a citizen's rebellion. It has gone beyond the work stoppage. This is about citizens demanding a change in the course their country is taking.
[Whitbeck:] For more than a year now, President Hugo Chavez has faced an increasingly vocal opposition. Mainly middle class and elite from the business community. In power since 2001, Chavez has vowed to completely restructure Venezuela's social and economic framework. Unhappy with his economic policies and his leftist politics, the opposition is demanding he either resign or call early elections. Last April, Chavez was even ousted for two days during a coup that eventually failed. On Sunday, he insisted he is not leaving office until the constitution he helped write allows a recall election. The president has won a strong show of support from the head of the Venezuelan army, who said the opposition's efforts amount to sabotage against the country's economic infrastructure. And Chavez has supporters. Mostly the poor who have responded to his populous policies, have vowed to fight to the death to defend him. The crisis has the attention of the White House, which Friday called for early elections. Venezuela's president called that intervention, which Monday the White House denied.
[Fleischer:] The most important way the president believes that peace can come to the people of Venezuela is through the Venezuelan people. The United States stands ready to play a constructive role through the Organization of American States and with the OAS to help them achieve that. For weeks the secretary general of the Organization of American States has tried to find a solution to the crisis. He is frustrated and concerned.
[Cesar Gaviria, Secretary General, The Organization Of American States:] While I was not expecting what would be that tensions will increase the way they have done, and that we had such a short time to find a solution.
[Whitbeck:] Both sides feel they have the winning edge. Chavez, with the support of the military and the country's majority poor. And the opposition, with hundreds of thousands in the streets, who every day seem more determined to stay there until the president is removed. Every day more tension and more passion. And, Aaron, neither side seems willing to give in Aaron.
[Brown:] Has anybody figured out even a plan for a compromise, where a compromise might work?
[Whitbeck:] Everybody seems to agree that every observer seems to agree that an electorate solution would be the most viable one, Aaron. But the president is insisting on the fact that the Venezuelan constitution does not allow for an early election unless there's a referendum in August 2003. The secretary general of the OAS, United States, and several other international observers and facilitators are trying to work out a way between the opposition and the government out of this mess. A way that would be legal. It's just going to take a long time to find it.
[Brown:] And, Harris, does the opposition have a single clear leader?
[Whitbeck:] No, and that's been one of the problems that the opposition has faced. There are several different business groups, several different opposition political parties, and several civic organizations that have arisen in the last year. Every one of them seems to have a common agenda that they want Mr. Chavez out, but there's not one clear leader. In fact, many observers say that, if there were a new election tomorrow a month from now, Mr. Chavez might win it again, precisely because the opposition does not have that one figure it needs.
[Brown:] Harris, thank you. Harris Whitbeck in Caracas, Venezuela, where much of your oil comes from. Still ahead on
[Newsnight:] Florida finds many of its so-called missing children, yet dozens remain missing tonight. And up next: we talk with Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah about the troubles for his friend and colleague, Trent Lott. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.