[Cooper:] Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi arrived in Washington today to talk about his country's reconstruction efforts. But as you probably know, it wasn't as simple as all that. Chalabi was once a favorite in Washington, but he has since fallen far from grace, to say the least. CNN political correspondent Candy Crowley has more on a very interesting day for, well he's a very complicated man.
[Ahmad Chalabi, Deputy Prime Minister Of Iraq:] Well, I'm very pleased with the reception and the warmth and the welcome that I received from everyone.
[Candy Crowley, Cnn Political Corresondent:] A news quiz about the visiting deputy prime minister if Iraq. He is, A, a gifted politician, a coalition builder who may run for Iraqi prime minister; B, a former Iraqi exile, suspected by critics of supplying bad info to goad the U.S. into removing Saddam; C, a former Bush administration favorite flown triumphantly by U.S. forces, who less than a year later saw his Baghdad office raided because the Americans suspected he betrayed the U.S. by passing secrets to Iran. Yes, yes and yes. Ahmad Chalabi is all of the above.
[Sen. Richard Durbin , Minority Whip:] Well, I don't know what the word for cat is in Iraq, but it may be Chalabi. This man has more lives. He comes back in so many different ways at us. And it appears that we don't learn from his previous lives. We just keep entertaining him as if he's a new person arriving on the scene.
[Danielle Pletka, American Enterprise Institution:] Chalabi is a smart and a capable politician. He's gone a variety of different ways. What we want is for him to be our ally and for him to do the right thing and for him to work with other Iraqis to do the right thing.
[Crowley:] Chalabi is in the United States now getting a nice welcome and not. The FBI is still investigating who might have given Chalabi the information he's suspected of giving to Iran, which he says didn't happen. And Democrats on Capitol Hill want him subpoenaed, to talk about his role in pre-war intelligence. That won't happen this trip, but for the record...
[Chalabi:] As for the fact that I deliberately mislead the American government, this is an urban myth.
[Crowley:] Chalabi is quite a sticky wicket in Bushville, which can neither embrace nor dismiss the relationship.
[J. Adam Ereli, State Department Spokesman:] I would characterize it the way I did, which is he's a member of the government of Iraq.
[Crowley:] Probably the blandest thing ever said about one of the most controversial figures in this most controversial war. But love him or hate him, trust him or not...
[Chalabi:] It's always more important to look to the future than to the past.
[Crowley:] No debate. Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi is a survivor. Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.
[Cooper:] Chalabi's fall from grace in Washington may not seem all that unusual, especially after no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq. What you may find shocking is that the problems in Iraq have reportedly put a strain on the relationship between President Bush and Vice President Cheney, though they'll never let it show. In public, their relationship is a solid as it's ever been. Zero cracks in their resolve. In private, however, things may be different.
[Thomas Defrank, "new York Daily News":] The relationship between the president and the vice president has eroded somewhat, and actually it's not new. This has been going on for a couple of years. It really has its roots in the run-up to the Iraq war, but this "distance" is the word that the phrase that I keep hearing.
[Cooper:] If that's true. And nobody in official Washington is going anywhere this as of right now. Reporters are saying it is mainly because the vice president and that CIA leak investigation. The two- year probe centered around former Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife, a CIA officer whose identity was disclosed in a newspaper column.
[Ron Brownstein, Cnn Political Analyst:] It is not implausible at all that there is some frustration on the part or President Bush about the situation he's in over this leak not only from the vice president's actions and the actions of the vice president but also Karl Rove, his top political adviser.
[Cooper:] The resulting indictment of Mr. Cheney's top aide, Louis "Scooter" Libby, may have done little to strengthen the bond between the two. But even before that, according to some journalists, seeds of discord were being sown.
[Defrank:] Some of the political advice that the president got from the vice president about how Iraq would spin out has become troublesome and has created a bit of a wedge in the relationship. There are other issues as well. Some people think that maybe he should not have gone so hard on Social Security.
[Cooper:] Republicans say all this is wishful thinking in the extreme. Mr. Cheney, they argue, is a Washington insider who has survived dozens of inside the Beltway power struggles and has always come out on top.
[Brownstein:] There is not doubt that the president has relied enormously on Dick Cheney. Dick Cheney is an important bridge and an ambassador to the conservative wing of party. And even though there may be tension in this relationship, as some are reporting and I think there is enough reporting on it that there is probably some fire behind the smoke that doesn't mean that Dick Cheney is going to be isolated or exiled.
[Cooper:] Well, just ahead, answers emerging from the scene of the school shooting in Tennessee. We're going to take you step by step through the killing ground and try to piece together a portrait of the young suspect. Also, what turns a kid into a killer? We're going to talk to a young man who pulled the trigger twice at another school, and is now paying the price. He killed a boy from the school and the school's principal. I spoke to him earlier tonight. Also later, coping with the trauma. We'll hear from an expert who says professional help may actually hurting, not helping. A break first. You are watching 360.