Soldier Sues Over Stop-Loss Policy; Candidates' Families Divided Over Gay Marriage
COLLINS: "360" next, the voters that could decide who will be the next president. We've got the latest poll. Plus, forced to stay married. Why a judge won't allow an angry wife to divorce her cheating husband. But first let's check our top stories in "The Reset." An Army investigation of prison abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison will recommend disciplinary action against nearly two dozen military personnel. A report is expected to be released next week. Military sources tell CNN the report concludes abuse of prisoners was not ordered by senior commanders. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's on the offensive about a missile defense system. He told a conference in Alabama that the first ground base U.S. interceptor missile installed in Fort Greeley in Alaska is a triumph over pessimists who say the system is costly and unproven. Relief is coming to passengers frustrated by flight delays at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. The government and the airlines have agreed to cut the number of planes arriving during peak hours of the day from 100 down to 88. That starts on November 1. Today, John Kerry brought his campaign to Ohio with a stump speech at the VFW national convention. Both Kerry and Bush have spent a lot of time and a lot of money in the Buckeye State, with good reason. It's a battleground state with 20 electoral votes. And in the latest CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll among registered voters in Ohio, Kerry has a slight lead now with 50 percent supporting him, 41 percent for Bush. But the race is too close call when you factor in those most likely to vote in Ohio. Tonight at 8 Eastern on CNN, Paula Zahn hosts "The Undecided Vote: A Town Hall Meeting" in Canton, Ohio. She's joining us now with a preview tonight. Paula, this is a huge battleground state. Do you think the undecideds are going to be able to rally here?</s>PAULA ZAHN, HOST, "PAULA ZAHN NOW": Not only are they going to rally, they could be pivotal in deciding who our next president is. You know, the voters of Ohio, since 1892, have backed the winning president with the exception of two elections. The reason why we are here tonight is that those 20 electoral votes you're talking about that are up for grabs. And we have in our audience tonight a mixture of Republicans, Democrats and those key undecideds. And there is a reason, Heidi, when you mentioned the tremendous involvement both candidates have in the state. There's a tremendous reason for that, and that is because the election could ride on the undecided vote in Ohio. A lot of critical issues for us to address tonight and we're going to allow the audience members to ask representatives of both campaigns some very specific questions. It should be interesting.</s>COLLINS: Speaking of the issues, Paula, in Ohio, what are the issues? The key issues there? I mean, do they lean domestically in their concerns?</s>ZAHN: I would say it would be the economy. You take a look at a number of polls that have been done over the last several months, and they would indicate the economy is at the top of the list. Ohio is a state that has lost some 200,000 manufacturing jobs since the year 2000, 12,000 of those jobs lost right here in the Canton, Ohio, area. So I am sure that our guests will be peppered with some pretty hot questions tonight about what either one of the candidates are going to do to help them find jobs. A number of unemployed people here in Stark County.</s>COLLINS: All right. Lots of questions coming up just about 20 minutes from now. Have a great show. We'll be watching, Paula. Thanks.</s>ZAHN: We're glad you're going to join us then. Thanks.</s>COLLINS: Moving on now. The military calls it stop-loss. Opponents call it a backdoor draft. Members of the National Guard who are not being allowed to leave the service at the end of their enlistment period call it just unfair. Now one soldier in that position has decided to sue. Here's Miguel Marquez.</s>MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He is now in the National Guard, Company B of the 1st of the 184th in Dublin, California. His lawyers say he served nine years of active duty in the Marines and Army and that he got awards for his combat service. But now he's anonymously suing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who his lawyers claim is keeping him from getting out of the military.</s>MICHAEL SORGEN, PLAINTIFF'S LAWYER: He is challenging the stop- loss policy because it's really unfair. And it's unfair, because what it does is it extends the enlistments involuntarily.</s>MARQUEZ: The soldier, known only as John Doe, has filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to allow him to leave the military when his obligation ends in December. But because of the Pentagon's stop-loss program, put into effect by President Bush in the days following September 11, John Doe is headed to Iraq again. Groups opposed to the Iraq war, like the Military Law Task Force, call stop-loss a backdoor draft.</s>MARGUERITE HIKEN, MILITARY LAW TASK FORCE: Daily, we in the Military Law Task Force and those on the GRI top line deal with and recognize the depth of dissatisfaction and anger with those serving in Iraq.</s>MARQUEZ: The lawsuit contends that when President Bush put stop- loss into effect it was to assist in the war on terror, and now that Iraq has been declared a sovereign nation with questionable ties to al Qaeda, the order should be declared invalid. The dean of Golden Gate University Law School says good luck.</s>PETER KEANE, DEAN, GOLDEN GATE UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL: The likelihood of the courts wanting to go ahead and get in there and start interpreting what the powers of the commander in chief of the United States is as president are about zilch.</s>MARQUEZ: An Army spokeswoman says about 20,000 soldiers are now serving because of the stop-loss program. The military also says that they have no response to the lawsuit, because their lawyers haven't even seen it yet. But they said the idea behind the stop-loss program is to have trained soldiers taking positions and remaining in their positions, because if they had untrained soldiers or new soldiers coming in all the time, it does nothing for unit cohesion -- Heidi.</s>COLLINS: Miguel Marquez. Miguel, thanks so much for that. On the domestic front now, one of the big hot-button issues in this year's election campaign is gay marriage. Not only has it divided the public. But it seems to have divided the families of both candidates, which sometimes happens in raw politics.</s>COLLINS (voice-over): Officially, the Bush-Cheney political family wants to ban same-sex marriage.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I believe a marriage is between a man and a woman.</s>COLLINS: But it is a marriage between two men that the president's twin daughters have been invited to celebrate, and according to Barbara and Jenna's gay pals, who invited them, the twins say they, quote, "will try to make it." When contacted by CNN, a campaign spokesperson for the twins refused to comment about the invitation to a same-sex marriage reception. Jenna and Barbara Bush would not be the only family members, though, to privately contradict their parents' public stances on the issue of gay marriage. If Dick Cheney's family was united on the issue in 2000...</s>DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: People should be free to enter into any relationship they want to enter on into.</s>COLLINS: ... they are now divided. The vice president supports a federal ban on same-sex marriage. His daughter, Mary, a lesbian, opposes it, and so does his wife Lynn, saying it should be left up to the states. Lynn once wrote a novel that included a racy scene about lesbian coupling. And it's not just Republicans. Vanessa Kerry supports gay marriage. Her father, John Kerry, does not.</s>CARLOS WATSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It's actually not unusual in American politics for presidential candidates and their families to disagree. In the past we've seen it over civil rights, the Vietnam War, and today it's not a surprise that gay marriage, one of the most controversial issues in the country, is also dividing the first and even the second family.</s>COLLINS: Sometimes your own personal family can contradict your own political stance, inside the closet of raw politics.</s>COLLINS: "360" next, divorce denied in court, despite a cheating husband, the wife speaks out. Plus, U.S. men's basketball looking nothing like a Dream Team at the Olympics. Our mid-week crisis. And a dining experience like you've never seen before. We'll take you to the cat cafe.