[Unidentified Male:] Now is the time for Mississippi to step out of its racist past.
[Unidentified Female:] That flag is a part of our history.
[Announcer:] A banner vote in Mississippi on the future of the state flag. Also ahead...
[George W. Bush, President Of The United States:] Max Cleland said that he is interested in supporting the $1.6 trillion plan.
[Announcer:] Is Georgia's senior Democratic senator really behind the Bush tax cut? We'll ask him about that and his re-election headaches. And: so long trees, hello visitors! A growing controversy on Capitol Hill. Now, Judy Woodruff takes you
[Inside Politics. Judy Woodruff, Cnn Anchor:] Thank you for joining us. We begin in Mississippi, where voters have another three hours to weigh in on the future of their flag. Other states have grappled with criticism of banners that bear the controversial Confederate emblem. But Mississippi is the first to let voters decide whether the flag is a symbol of racism that should be banished or a piece of history that should be preserved. CNN's Brian Cabell joins us from Jackson, Mississippi Brian.
[Brian Cabell, Cnn Correspondent:] Good afternoon, Judy. We should get results here on this referendum in about three hours or so. But if the pre-election polls are any indication, those that have been taken in the last few months, it will be an uphill battle for those who want to change this flag. A few month ago, there was a 20-point lead for those who wanted to keep the flag. Just about three weeks ago, there was a 30-point lead for those who wanted to keep that flag. So, as I say, an uphill battle for them. The turnout today, it's been spotty in some places, along the Gulf Coast in Meridian over by the Mississippi river, but here in Jackson, we are being told, it's been quite heavy as a matter of fact. For the voters, the ballot is really very simple, very straightforward. It will take all of 10 seconds to vote. You either vote for the old flag with the Confederate emblem on it in the corner or you vote for the new flag that contains 20 stars over the blue background.
[Unidentified Male:] It's time now for us to look for things that can bring us together, rather than to maintain symbols that continues to divide us.
[Unidentified Female:] You know, I really don't like the magnolia, which is our flower. I would much rather have a pine tree. But I know we're not going to change it. And also, I don't really like the bird that we have. I would like to have a turkey. And I think we have a lot of turkeys around that would appreciate that.
[Cabell:] I think that what she is trying to say is that Mississippi already has a flag, it's a perfectly good flag and Mississippians will have to learn to live with it. Now, we've got one report of irregularities, this in a town of Clinton, about 10 miles north of Jackson. Apparently, there is a number of dog, we are told, German shepherds outside of one of the precincts, apparently intimidating some voters. That has been reported into federal monitors. But overall, this has been a very peaceful and quiet campaign. As I said, Judy, we should have the results here in the next three our four hours or so. Back to you.
[Woodruff:] Brian, any sense of just how interested people are in this, how many of them are actually coming out to vote on it?
[Cabell:] Well, as I say, the turnout has been spotty in some places, and, frankly, what we have seen in the last couple of days is that there is quite a bit of apathy on the part of both black and white voters. They I think that in a sense, people outside of Mississippi seem to care more about this election than people within the state of Mississippi. There hasn't been an awful lot of money spent on either side of this campaign. It's been a campaign devoid of really heated rhetoric, and people are just waiting for this to get over with. But for the most part, it has not been like South Carolina and Georgia, where it was a very big and hot campaign.
[Woodruff:] All right. Brian Cabell, reporting from Jackson, thanks. Meantime, in Cincinnati, concerns about race and civil rights remain very much on the agenda today within the city council, the police department and throughout the community. CNN's Bob Franken joins us with an update on the fallout from the recent violence on Cincinnati's streets Bob.
[Bob Franken, Cnn National Correspondent:] Well, Judy, this is the violence has subsided. Last night was the first night without the curfew that was imposed as I response to the violence, and the city streets were normal, the city streets were quiet, and now people are talking about reform in the wake of the shooting of the 19-year-old unarmed African-American male, which set off all of the confrontation. It was over a week ago. And right now, the city council is having a hearing to decide on the reform over the police department, which would change the city charter. This is live picture, by the way would change the city charter to allow the police chief to be chosen from outside of the Cincinnati police department. Right now, the requirement is he must come through the ranks. In any case, that's the reason for this hearing, but it's really been a long discussion about the issues that are the hostilities that exist between the police department and the African-American community, including the plight of African-American men who say that they live in consistent danger.
[Unidentified Male:] We feel that, you know what I am saying, we are tired of just, you know what I am saying, getting harassed for no reason at all. We want to be treated like you all are getting treated. We want love in your communities. We want everyone to be able to come together. We are tired of all the pain.
[Franken:] Now, recurring subject was the incident that followed the burial of the young man on Saturday in which police officers left their cars and fired bean bag pellets from their shotguns into the crowd. Any number of people said that they did this without provocation, and there were a lot of a large number of witnesses.
[Unidentified Female:] I was assembled peacefully after Timothy Thomas' funeral when an 11-year-old girl and a 7-year-old girl were shot with bean bag bullets. Don't tell me that those two girls also had guns. Don't tell me we weren't peacefully assembled. Don't tell the police that police actions have been to serve us. This is very, very wrong.
[Franken:] Now, there are any number of investigations that are under way into this incident. Among them, the FBI investigation to see if, in fact, the police acted in an inappropriate way. They have not been taken off the streets. The investigations are far and wide. There is a grand jury investigation of the shooting of the 19-year-old young man. There are federal investigations into the conduct of the Cincinnati police department. There is a lawsuit that has been filed, charging racial profiling, that was the lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. It has now been joined by the NAACP Judy.
[Woodruff:] Bob, which of all of these investigations takes precedence, the ones at the federal level, or all in there in there with equal running, or what?
[Franken:] Well, they all have their own purpose. The federal investigation, of course, would look at other among other things, at civil rights violations. There is the possibility that the Justice Department could decide that the Cincinnati police department needed to be taken over, at least have some of its operations taken over. The grand jury investigation into the shooting is certainly a priority for that police officer, because he faces the possibility if there is an adverse finding that he could be charged criminally.
[Woodruff:] All right. Bob Franken, reporting from Cincinnati. Now, we turn to the Bush administration and its environmental policies. After weeks of being attacked by Democrats and environmental advocates, the president appears to be trying a different tack. Here is our senior White House correspondent John King John.
[John King, Cnn Senior White House Correspondent:] Well, Judy, in the announcement here today at the White House that is significant both from the substantive standpoint and from the political standpoint, the EPA administrator, Christie Whitman, brought into the White House briefing room this afternoon to announce that the administration was allowing to stay in place regulations issued in the final hours of the Clinton administration that significantly reduced the levels of lead that industries are allowed to put out into the environment without reporting it to the government. Now, many small business organizations had hoped the Bush administration would overturn these regulations. Of course, the administration has been criticized for overturning other Clinton administration regulations: arsenic in drinking water for one, some rules against minors that the Clinton administration put in place trying to reduce levels. The Bush administration overturned those. Still, Secretary Whitman and the White House insisting today she was not here for political reasons, and the secretary saying that the Bush administration would not have been put into this predicament of having to review so many Clinton administration regulations, if the former president hadn't waited until the final days in office to issue all of those rules.
[Christie Whitman, Epa Administrator:] We have been undertaking an appropriate review of a number of the things that the previous administration couldn't get done in eight years. And now, we are taking steps to get them done, to make sure they happen. And what we want to make very clear to the American people is that this administration, this president, cares about these issues, and on a case-by-case basis as we move forward, as we look at them, as we analyze them, we are going to make what we feel are the appropriate decisions.
[King:] Now, despite the public denials from the White House and from Administrator Whitman, privately senior administration officials acknowledging this is part of the effort by the White House to rehabilitate the president's image on the environment. He has been widely criticized by major environmental groups, and just today, a new television advertising campaign launched by a dozen such groups in key states around the country. [Begin Video Clip, "environmental Anti-bush Ad"]
[Narrator:] President Bush is already active to ignore global warming pollution, weaken arsenic standards in drinking water and open national forest to new logging, all to help his coal, oil, mining and logging contributors. Send President Bush a message. Let's move forward, not backward, and save our environment.
[King:] Now, the administration insists that criticism is unfair and that on balance, the president's record is pretty good whether it comes to the environment. But again, Administrator Whitman here today for a clear reason. The White House has made a political calculation that they're not doing a good enough selling the president's agenda when it comes to the environment. They acknowledge it's an issue very important across the country, especially to women in suburban swing districts Judy.
[Woodruff:] John, the White House had to know that some of their early actions would bring on criticism. Why now have they decided that this criticism is so damaging for them?
[King:] Privately, they concede they were caught flat-footed, the political steps. So much emphasis put on selling the president's tax cutting agenda and his education agenda, even the faith-based administration in the early days of the administration, that they had not thought it through that if they were going to roll back some of those Clinton administration regulations and they make the case that those regulations go too far that they should have sprinkled in with those announcements of the retreat from the Clinton administration some of the announcements like yesterday, when they left in place wetlands protection, like today's announcement: that they could have balanced their announcements somewhat better. That's what they're trying to do now. They acknowledge and they admit that this a bit of a rehabilitation effort.
[Woodruff:] So are they learning a lesson, you might say, John, from this?
[King:] Well, I think they learned a lesson that they could perhaps better coordinate their announcements in the early days of the administration. But they also say, look, the No. 1 priority here is the tax cut and the budget agenda and the spending agenda. And that was where their emphasis had to be placed. Look what we went through with a 5050 Senate. They had a difficult fight there. They did need to dedicate significant resources to it, and they still are, including the president's travel tomorrow and in the week ahead. But they do acknowledge they could have done a better job here, trying to strike a better balance and perhaps reaching out more to those environmental groups that are now being so critical of the new administration.
[Woodruff:] All right, John King at the White House, thanks. Well, speaking of priorities, while others focus on his environmental policies, President Bush says he would prefer to keep the spotlight for now on his proposed tax cut. While pitching the plan yesterday, Mr. Bush said he may have picked up the support of another Senate Democrat.
[George W. Bush, President Of The United States:] I've learned that the people can make a big difference in a lot of debates, particularly the tax relief debate. We're making some pretty good progress. I saw a good, good Democratic senator out of Georgia the other day. Max Cleland said that he is interested, and when he comes back, interested in supporting the $1.6 trillion plan. I think that's what he said. It certainly sounded like it to me.
[Woodruff:] Well, what did Senator Cleland mean? Senator Max Cleland joins us now from Augusta, Georgia to answer that question and to talk about his newly launched bid for re-election. Senator Cleland, did the president understand you correctly that you're going to be with him on this tax cut?
[Sen. Max Cleland , Georgia:] Well, I'm on board with 64 other senators to support, and did support, a $1.2 trillion tax cut that included an $85 billion up-front economic stimulus package that rolls the taxes back and actually is retroactive to 1 January of this year. I think that's a healthy bite for us to take this year. I have indicated that we should maybe look at the full 1.67 tax cut that the president is talking about next year if we need a continued economic stimulus for our economy.
[Woodruff:] Where do you think the president got the idea that you were willing to support him for that much right now?
[Cleland:] Well, I wrote an op-ed piece for "The Atlanta Constitution" about a week ago when I voted for the $1.2 trillion tax cut as part of the centrist coalition. And there were 65 of us: 50 Republicans and 15 Democrats that supported that position. I indicated that I was willing to look another look at this next year to see if we needed to go the full point 1.67 trillion. I think we still ought to keep our options open. My problem is with a sinking economy, we can't bite off too much too soon.
[Woodruff:] Well, what do you think, senator, are the economic conditions that have to be there before you and others would be willing to support a tax cut the size the president wants?
[Cleland:] Well, you know, it's interesting: One of the things you want to do, if the economy is still sinking, is to continue to cut taxes. I just think that right now we do have a surplus, we don't want to get out of our surplus, we want to stay in a surplus situation, and we don't want to bite off too much too soon. That's why I supported the centrist plan that had 65 votes in the Senate.
[Woodruff:] All right. Well, just to be clear then, senator, as of right now, you would not support a tax cut for 10 years, starting now, that would be of the level of the president is asking, just to be clear?
[Cleland:] That is that is correct. I am part of a centralist coalition, a bipartisan centralist coalition that voted 65 votes in the Senate, very bipartisan, and we said that the middle road was the best road: 1.2 trillion now, which includes reform of the inheritance tax, the death tax, and reform of the marriage penalty. I think that's a good tax package.
[Woodruff:] Senator, some people are surprised that you're announcing your decision to run for re-election a whole year-and-a- half away from the time of election day. Is it because President Bush did so well in in your state of Georgia last November?
[Cleland:] No, it's because I would like to do well in November 2002. I mean, that's why I'm running. I love the Senate, I want to stay there, I want to make sure everybody in Georgia knows that. And we're going all out. We're going over some 10 cities in about seven days here in Georgia. Today, we're in Augusta. Tomorrow, we'll be in Macon and Columbus and other cities. So I want everybody to understand I'm running, I'm in this race to win.
[Woodruff:] The conservative business group called the Club for Growth is is already targeting you, not only talking about the president's tax cut, but about other issues. Is this the sort of thing that makes your nights sleepless?
[Cleland:] I don't have sleepless nights.
[Woodruff:] Senator, the Senate, as we all know, 5050 right now: 50 Republicans, 50 Democrats. Are the Republicans going to come after you and any other Democrats who are up next year who they think they might have a chance to beat with greater intensity than usual because the Senate is split right down the middle?
[Cleland:] Well, I've been a target for a long time, and the South is a very competitive region of our country. Georgia is a very strong two-party state. I'm sure there will be an able opponent on the other side. And I understand that the Republicans have targeted me, but that's OK. I'm targeting to win. I'm targeting to represent Georgians in Washington, not Washington in Georgia. I think Georgia voters are moderate, they're split-ticket, and they vote for the person, not so much the party.
[Woodruff:] You're fellow Democratic senator, Zell Miller, was one of the only Democrats, very few Democrats, to support the president's tax cut in its full size, 1.6 trillion. Does that make it any harder on you, does that make it any harder on you in terms of what you can do?
[Cleland:] Well, he started out at that level, but he wound up voting with the rest of us, 64, the rest of us, at the 1.2 level. You know, there were 15 Democrats, and he was one of them. He was part of the centralist effort to make sure we didn't bite off more than we can chew. I think that's the key. I'm open to considering further tax cuts next year as we see how the economy goes.
[Woodruff:] All right, with Senator Max Cleland, we thank you very much for joining us on
[Inside Politics. Cleland:] Thank you.
[Woodruff:] Thank you. Good to see you.
[Cleland:] You, too.
[Woodruff:] There's much more ahead on INSIDE POLITICS, including a discussion on the Mississippi flag vote. We'll hear from state residents for and against a change, right after the break. Also: new video of a Chinese pilot intercepting a U.S. flight up close and personal. We'll preview tomorrow's talks between the U.S. and China over the U.S. surveillance plane incident. And the latest on the escalating violence in the Middle East. Secretary of State Powell calls on both sides to exercise restraint. This is INSIDE POLITICS.