[Mayor Rudy Giuliani , New York City:] People in New York City sort of have a reputation for being very tough and they have a reputation for being kind of cynical, but the reality is that they're the most generous and the most loving people in the whole world.
[Judy Woodruff, Cnn Anchor:] A day after disclosing his prostate cancer, Rudy Giuliani exudes warmth, while his aides try to make the future of his Senate campaign seem less fuzzy. Also ahead
[Bruce Morton, Cnn Correspondent:] Landmarks are there, but something is missing. In a state which likes politics, voters are coming late to campaign 2000
[Woodruff:] Bruce Morton on the political scene in Illinois. Plus
[William O'brien, Ret. Miami Police Chief:] I refuse to be the chief of police in a city that has someone as divisive and disruptive as Joe Carollo as mayor.
[Woodruff:] In Miami, political casualties from the Elian Gonzalez case.
[Announcer:] From Washington, this is INSIDE POLITICS, with Bernard Shaw and Judy Woodruff.
[Woodruff:] Thank you for joining us. Bernie is on assignment. We begin with the talk of New York and beyond, after Rudy Giuliani's prostate cancer diagnosis. Even many supporters who are interested, first and foremost, in the mayor's recovery also are anxious that he may decide not to run for the Senate, so Giuliani's aides are launching a new campaign of reassurance. CNN's Frank Buckley looks at Giuliani's day and his future.
[Frank Buckley, Cnn Correspondent:] New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani remained on the job, but received a reminder of his newly diagnosed condition.
[Unidentified Male:] I brought you some get-well canoli from Royal Crown Bakery in Staten Island.
[Buckley:] The kidding over the mayor's serious diagnosis, matched by his Senate campaign staff's furious effort to keep up appearances.
[Juleanna Glover Weiss, Giuliani Campaign Spokeswoman:] At this point in time, the schedule is to remain as is, and we're going to go ahead.
[Buckley:] Giuliani aides are on overdrive, reassuring reporters and supporters that the mayor is still in the Senate race, after he left the door open to the possibility of pulling out. He said Friday he plans to cut back on campaign events while he evaluates his future.
[Giuliani:] Over the next two weeks, I need to meet with doctors and others to talk about what's the best thing to do, how should we do it, so I'm going to need to do that. So I will do some campaign events, but I will cut them probably in half.
[Buckley:] But Giuliani's campaign sent signals the candidacy is still viable, sources telling CNN Giuliani is sending out two million pieces of direct mail and making his biggest ad buy to date. The mayor telling listeners on his weekly radio show that physically he's alright.
[Giuliani:] I want to reassure everyone that I'm in very good spirits.
[Buckley:] Some political observers say, from a raw political perspective, Giuliani could be helped by the health issue.
[Nelson Warfield, Fmr. Bob Dole Spokesman:] There's also something from a sort of whole
[Buckley:] But if Giuliani decides to back out, Congressman Rick Lazio could be first to get in. The Long Island Republican said just last month that he was still open to a run. Other potential candidates, Westchester County DA Janine Piro and even New York Governor George Pataki. The governor saying, however, he expects Giuliani to be the candidate.
[Gov. George Pataki , New York:] Obviously, he'll have to make a decision now based on how strong he feels, but I would hope that he would be in a position to continue to lead the city and help us lead the state into the 21st century.
[Buckley:] Giuliani remains focused on his job as mayor for the moment, fully aware of the storm of speculation billowing around him.
[Giuliani:] This is my 66th town hall meeting 76th.
[Buckley:] Most Republicans here continue to believe Giuliani will run. And on May 30, they'll nominate they're Senate candidate at their state convention. They hope Rudy Giuliani will be ready to accept. Frank Buckley, CNN, New York.
[Woodruff:] Mayor Giuliani plans to attend a Republican women's dinner in Upstate New York tonight, and he appears tomorrow in Buffalo, where Hillary Rodham Clinton now says she that she will join Giuliani at a forum sponsored by New York's Independence Party. Many see Giuliani's continued campaigning as an example of the fighting spirit that has been both an asset and a target of criticism during his political career. Political observers say the seeds of New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's combative nature were sown in childhood. He grew up a Yankees fan on the home turf of the Dodgers, Brooklyn, and took considerable heat from the kids in his neighborhood. As a grownup and throughout his career, Giuliani has treated public service as a battle. He's built a reputation for straight talk, political independence and obstinacy. Controversy has followed him his entire public life. As number three in the Reagan Justice Department, Giuliani made headlines, denying political asylum to Haitian refugees fleeing dictator Jean Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier. As the U.S. attorney for New York's southern district in the 1980s, Giuliani humiliated three Wall Street traders accused of insider trading by parading them in handcuffs, took down '80s icons Michael Milken and Leona Helmsley and took on the mob. He jokes about that time fondly.
[Giuliani:] It's nice of all yous to have me here tonight. Families are represented from all over the country.
[Woodruff:] In 1989, Giuliani ran for mayor, and narrowly lost to David Dinkins. He got his revenge four years later, and won re- election easily in 1997. Giuliani's record as mayor, impressive and of course controversial. He has angered many New Yorkers, black and white alike, for his support of police officers in brutality scandals, but Giuliani has also led a transformation of New York from a bankrupt, crime ridden and dangerous place to the prosperous city best symbolized by the rebirth of Times Square. His reputation, combined with Hillary Rodham Clinton's celebrity, has made their matchup the most talked about Senate race in the century, billed as the political slugfest to rival the best of the Madison Square Garden prize fights. And now this.
[Giuliani:] And I know all these cameras are here because they're very, very interested in all the issues that involve
[Woodruff:] For Giuliani, politics has always been personal, and never more than now. The question on many New Yorkers minds, will this tough as nails mayor choose to fight for the Senate seat anyway, or step aside and focus exclusively on his illness? And Joining us now, E.J. Dionne of "The Washington Post" and Bill Kristol of "The Weekly Standard." Bill, what are the chances, do you think, that Rudy Giuliani might decide not make this race after all?
[Bill Kristol, "weekly Standard":] Judy, I just spoke to Bruce Teitelbaum about 20 minutes ago, Mayor Giuliani's top political operative, who said the mayor gave the go signal this morning, the green light to go ahead with a plan, a 2 million piece direct mail drop with a major media buy for the month of May. Obviously, the mayor is going to have to make up his mind when he decides on the medical treatment that he's going to have, but the medical prognosis is good, the cancer is localized, and Bruce Teitelbaum said the mayor said to him, Bruce, you know me, I'm a fighter; as of now, at least, I plan to go ahead, and I plan to win.
[Woodruff:] E.J., based on what you know, do you believe he's going to go ahead?
[E.j. Dionne, "washington Post":] Well, my inclination is to think he'll go ahead, and I think what Bill just said is interesting, because as soon as Giuliani got sick, people started speculating about, well, he didn't really want to make this race and there's some reluctance on his part, and so he would use this as an excuse to drop out, and I think it was very important that he send the signal that he seems to be sending through what Bill said and what others are saying, that no, no, no, he is really in this for reel. It would put the Republican Party in a very difficult position if he couldn't run, if he decided to drop out. None of the money he has raised, lot of which is money directed as much against Mrs. Clinton as it is for Mr. Giuliani none of that money could be transferred to another Republican candidate, so they'd have to kind of start from scratch. Now you can probably raise a lot of money running against Mrs. Clinton, but it would be a problem, so I would guess he's going to run unless somebody terrible happens. But as Bill said, the health prognosis looks pretty good.
[Woodruff:] So, Bill Kristol, not even worth speculating about who might run in his stead.
[Kristol:] Well, it's always worth speculating, Judy; this is politics after all. Look, and we don't know, and Mayor Giuliani says, he's not certain right now. There are a bunch of names, a bunch of congressman, two from Long Island in particular, Rick Lazio, who was tempted to run earlier and backed out when Giuliani took a plunge, Peter King, also from Long Island, two independent, pretty attractive congressman, and then there's the question of Governor Pataki, who is not, I think, going to be George Bush's vice presidential pick, and who might be tempted to get in himself. And it's a late primary, a September primary, the Republican Party doesn't have its convention until May 30. So there's a whole month here for us to talk about this. But look, I think the odds are Giuliani stays in, and if he does, obviously no one else gets it.
[Woodruff:] And E.J., predictions about whether this whole thing assuming he can keep this treatment under control, can continue campaigning any predictions about how this affects his strength as a candidate?
[Dionne:] Well, I'm sure the last thing Rudy Giuliani wanted was to get cancer. I think but when you look at the flow of the campaign, the flow of the campaign was not very good for him at this point. This not only broke the flow of the campaign, but I was talking to a Democrat yesterday who said that Giuliani, not surprisingly, looked terribly human and sort of conveyed something that he had not easily conveyed when he was talking about issues or talking about talks, something a softer side of himself, and so I think that helps him. And obviously, Mrs. Clinton is going to lay off Rudy Giuliani for a while, so it gets in the way of what I think was a pretty good trajectory for her in this period. But all that said, I'm sure Rudy Rudy Giuliani would still rather not have that cancer.
[Woodruff:] I want to interject here that CNN has learned that John McCain offered to to do whatever he could for Giuliani when he heard about the prostate cancer. And among other things, he's going to fill in for him on two Sunday shows, including here on CNN on "LATE EDITION." Meantime, a lot of toing and froing about whether there's a meeting between John McCain and George W. Bush. There was a meeting between their two top aides today. They say the meeting is going ahead. Bill Kristol, is this meeting going to be meaningful? Is it going to produce some results that are going to help George W. Bush in his march to the nomination and on in November?
[Kristol:] Well, who knows? And I don't think it will be terribly meaningful, but I don't know that it will be terribly reply damaging either. And at the end of the day, John McCain will support George W. Bush. I now think he will not be George W. Bush's vice presidential nominee. I once did think, right after March 7th when the primaries ended, that if Bush had really made a run at getting McCain for five or six weeks, had romanced him, had made a pitch to him, I think McCain was getable. I think that's the case anymore. So I think McCain will not be the VP. They'll have a meeting, they'll have another meeting. McCain will speak in primetime at the convention, and the Bush campaign will chug ahead.
[Woodruff:] So, E.J., what role then does John McCain play in this election?
[Dionne:] You know, what I think is funny, almost every week or every other week we discuss this. It's almost a soap opera, "The Edge of Endorsement." And I think the fact that we keep discussing it is talks about where the problem is, which is to say that McCain and Bush don't really like each other from everything you can gather. They do have real problems reaching any kind of accord on issues that Bush cares about. McCain wants to preserve his integrity. He also wants to be a loyal Republican. He's got a terrible balancing act here, I think. And then there have been snafus all along the line where things leak out of one side or the other that get in the way of the endorsement that both sides claim to want. In the end, I think McCain will support Bush. I think he's going to hold back a little bit. I think you're going to be able to tell that he's not wild about Bush. But he doesn't want to hurt himself in the long run. If Bush loses and he wants to run again, he's going to have to look loyal enough that Republicans will take a look at McCain in 2004.
[Woodruff:] McCain, as we know, has been over in Vietnam for the 25th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, but before he left today, he had some very harsh words for the country where he was held prisoner. This is what he had to say.
[Sen. John Mccain , Arizona:] I think that the wrong guys won. I think that they lost millions of their best people, who left by boat, thousands by execution, and hundreds of thousands who went to re-education camps. But the object of my relationship with Vietnam has been to heal the wounds that exist between particularly amongst our veterans and move forward with a positive relationship. Apparently, some in the Vietnamese government don't want to do that, and that's their decision.
[Woodruff:] Coming on the heels of that statement, which was made some hours earlier, our Bill Kristol, your your colleague, Tucker Carlson, and our frequent contributor, commentator here on INSIDE POLITICS, Tucker Carlson was detained in Vietnam. Bill, what can you tell us about that?
[Kristol:] Well, he has been Tucker has been detained in Vietnam, perhaps in retribution for what they regarded as Senator McCain's harsh comments, but what were in fact truthful comments about who should have won the Vietnam War and the terrible consequences of the communist victory. They said that Tucker did not have an exit visa. Apparently, they messed up and didn't stamp his passport on the way in. In any case, it was a ridiculous formality. There were harsh words exchanged at the airport. Senator McCain held the Lufthansa flight up for a couple of hours, making an argument to let Tucker Carlson on board the plane with Senator McCain and his wife and the rest of the journalists who have been traveling with Senator McCain. The Vietnamese were obdurate and wouldn't let him on. They tried to make Tucker sign a statement that he had been in the country illegally. He refused to. They tried to make him fly up to Hanoi somehow on the grounds that that was the only place they could process his papers. He refused to do that. He's with American embassy officials. They're they believe they will be able to get him out of there and get him back home. And we've obviously been in contact with the State Department, and I'm sure CNN has as well, and I'm sure it will work out. But right now, Tucker is detained in Vietnam.
[Woodruff:] But your again, your assumption, Bill Kristol, is that he will be able to get out safely.
[Kristol:] Yes, I told our managing editor, Richard Starr, who was on the phone with him a few hours ago, to reassure Tucker that he was 5 12 years short of the amount of time that Senator McCain had been detained in Vietnam, and so he shouldn't worry. No, look, it's not a laughing matter. I mean, he deserves to be he deserved to be on that flight out of there, and I hope and trust that he'll be out of there soon.
[Woodruff:] Well, I think that's true for all of us. We certainly do. E.J. Dionne and Bill Kristol, thank you both very much for joining us.
[Dionne:] Thank you.
[Kristol:] Thanks, Judy.
[Woodruff:] Up next on INSIDE POLITICS, from the windy city to down on the farm: We'll look at Illinois this election year and how some voters' views have been changing. Plus...
[Al Gore, Vice President Of The United States:] Governor Bush says he cares about education and wants to improve our schools. Be that as it may, he has a bad plan.
[Woodruff:] Al Gore invades Bush's turf in more ways than one.