[Jeanne Meserve, Cnn Anchor:] And now more finger-pointing on Capitol Hill today where a Senate panel, now investigating the huge Firestone tire recall, held hearings. Joining us now is CNN's Carl Rochelle, who has been monitoring the hearings Carl.
[Carl Rochelle, Cnn Correspondent:] Jeanne, the hearing is into its second panel now and there is a bit of finger pointing. The first panel this morning was Secretary Slater of the Department of Transportation, and the administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Senators wanted to know why they didn't know more sooner about this, but they also heard a request from the NHTSA and the DOT folks for more money and more authority to deal with a situation like this in the future. But the interesting point Firestone is testifying right now. Now, last week, Ford, at one of the hearings on Capitol Hill, tried to point the blame almost directly at Firestone and Firestone hadn't accepted much, blaming Ford for part of the problem. Listen to testimony this morning now as John Lampe of Firestone sort of shifts some of that blame, or tries to shift some of it, to Ford.
[John Lampe, Bridgestone/firestone:] We take full responsibility, senators, when a tire fails because of a defect. We firmly believe, however, that the tire is only part of the overall safety problem shown by these tragic accidents. If we are really concerned and we are about consumer safety, we will leave no stone unturned.
[Rochelle:] And Lampe said they should investigate the relationship between the vehicle and the tire and the inflation of it, clearly saying they believe Ford is also partly at fault.
[Meserve:] And did Ford have any response to that?
[Rochelle:] No response from Ford today, but last week Ford said that they had to pry the information, pry the data out of Firestone, implying that Ford Firestone was not very helpful in helping them come to grips with the problem. And we will hear from Ford later today. They probably will rebut this.
[Meserve:] Carl Rochelle, thank you.