Courthouse Shooting in Seattle; Bolton Nomination Before the Senate ... Again
FOREMAN: The stock market is just about to close up on Wall Street. I am joined by Kitty Pilgrim in New York with "The Dobbs Report." Kitty?</s>KITTY PILGRIM, "THE DOBBS REPORT": Thanks, Tom. Well, let's start with the Dow Industrials, nine points lower. NASDAQ is flat now -- that snaps a seven-day losing streak. Oil prices above $59 a barrel, another all-time high there, and one of the big stories is the disappointing reading on the economy. The Index of Leading Economic Indicators fell in May, 4th drop in the past five months, basically at the lowest level since October 2003. That points to an economic slowdown. D-day for Adelphia, John and Timothy Rigas sentenced today in New York Federal Court. John just received 15 years; Timothy will be sentenced shortly. We're keeping our eye on that. And, it's happened again. Computer hackers thought to have tapped up to 40 million credit card accounts, 200,000 of those accounts are showing fraudulent activity. Now, this time the problem occurred with the credit card processor, who shouldn't even have had the information. Coming up on</s>CNN 6: 00 p.m. Eastern, "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT," we're going to look at just who's in charge with monitoring your data and protecting your identity. We'll keep you up to speed on that; it's a very big issue. Also, Captain David Rosell (ph) just returned from his most recent tour of duty in Iraq. We'll have his amazing story. Also, Bill Moyers, author of the best-selling book, "Moyers on America," tells us why he thinks democracy is at risk in the United States. And also, there's a growing divide in the European Union. And member nations can't agree on a constitution. Is Europe falling apart? We'll take a look at that. All that, and more, tonight, 6:00 p.m. Eastern on "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT." But for now, back to Tom in Washington -- Tom?</s>FOREMAN: Thank you, Kitty. We'll look forward to it. We want to do an update now on what's happening in Seattle at that shooting up there. What we understand now is a man carrying what appeared to be a hand grenade went into the federal courthouse in Seattle about noon Seattle time. Police said that the suspicious man appeared to have a hand grenade, went into the lobby of the downtown officer. Police agents were called. They responded, and the man was shot. And according to a police spokesman, he went down. We don't know what the extent of his injuries are or what else happened with that, but we know that, because this was an unknown device, the bomb squad was then called to ensure that it was safe for officers to begin treating the man. That's the only injury we know of at this point, but it was in the federal courthouse in downtown Seattle, a busy place on a Monday. The FBI is going to lead the investigation into what happened there. And of course, we'll be bringing you more about the evacuation and about the shooting as we get details moving along here. Now, let's get back to INSIDE POLITICS. The Senate here in Washington is about two hours away from a vote on whether to end debate on John Bolton's nomination to be U.N. ambassador. The outcome could convince the White House to act on its own and appoint Bolton to the post while Congress is in recess. As we reported earlier, the White House is refusing to rule out that option, at least at this point. So let's go now live to Capitol Hill for more on the Bolton debate with our congressional correspondent, Joe Johns -- Joe?</s>JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tom, the Senate expected to try once again on the Bolton nomination. No clear indication that that nomination will succeed the second time around. It failed on just about three votes. No clear indication right now that any Democrats are planning on changing their votes. Two Democrats, Joe Biden and Chris Dodd, continue to seek information from the administration. The administration does not want to give up, including information about those secret National Security Agency intercepts that Bolton had requested just a little while ago at the Capitol. Democratic Leader Harry Reid telling reporters, if the nomination is blocked, then the rest, of course, is in the president's hands.</s>SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: Unless the president comes forward with information which we are certain we are constitutionally entitled to, Bolton will not get enough votes to invoke cloture. The president will have to make a decision whether he wants to send this flawed candidate to the United Nations under an also-questionable constitutional measure which is being tested in the courts as we speak with a recess appointment.</s>JOHNS: For the record, no clear word from the White House right now as to whether a recess appointment will be issued in the event the nomination is blocked, as expected. Now, Republicans are preparing to blast the opponents of Bolton for blocking the nomination tonight. In fact, Senator John Cornyn of Texas, telling reporters through a press release earlier today, that this is, quote, "Washington gamesmanship." Tom, back to you.</s>FOREMAN: Joe, we have been hearing this, "John Bolton, John Bolton, John Bolton, John Bolton." Is there any sense that either side is saying, "We may be getting into that dangerous zone there where the public gets frustrated with both sides," and says, "Enough already, either vote this guy in or vote him out, but get it over with"?</s>JOHNS: Well, I mean, if you look at the totality of the picture, the fact of the matter is, polls show the American public has a very low approval rating, vis-a-vis the Congress at this time. There is some concern here on Capitol Hill about that. Of course, Republicans have so far decided they're going go to go forward with this, because, at the end of the day, this nomination, once it is blocked, presumably on the floor, if that happens tonight, it ends up in the president's lap, and he's the one who has to decide. It's also out of the realm of the United States Senate unless for some reason they think they can bring it back up again -- Tom?</s>FOREMAN: All right, Joe Johns. Thank you very much. To talk more about this, we are bringing in Ron Brownstein of "The L.A. Times." Ron, let me ask you this. It winds up in the president's lap. Is that good or bad?</s>RON BROWNSTEIN, "LOS ANGELES TIMES": Well, it's bad. It's obviously the less preferable alternative. He wanted his man confirmed by the full Senate. But look, Tom, from the beginning, from the moment that he appointed John Bolton, he knew he was not appointing a 60-40 choice in the Senate. It was a controversial decision. He thought that he could squeeze it through, and he hasn't, if the Democrats, in fact, do hold together, and there isn't an agreement on the information in the next few hours, he will not have gotten there. I think the White House has been consistently surprised on a broad range of issues, not just Bolton, but Social Security and many others, on the willingness of the red state Democratic senators, the senators from the state where Bush is strong that Bush won, to hold with the rest of the party against him and to give them enough votes to sustain a filibuster.</s>FOREMAN: Why can't the Republicans make the case on this guy? Why is it so hard?</s>BROWNSTEIN: Well, first of all, Bolton has gotten into a situation which is not unusual for controversial appointees. I think members of the Senate of both parties are reluctant to do a head-on ideological confrontation and say, "This is the wrong person for the job. The president should not be able to have his choice." They are more comfortable when they have an ethical or a process kind of argument to fall back on. And in this case, they have been able to construct an argument over Bolton where we are now not arguing necessarily about his qualifications for the job, but the prerogatives of the Senate to demand information from the executive branch. And that is grounds on which the Democrats, even, I think, the vulnerable Democrats from the more, as I say, Bush-friendly friendly states, feel comfortable standing.</s>FOREMAN: Same question I had to Joe Johns there, though. Doesn't this do, ultimately, a lot of damage to both sides? And frankly, right now, both sides are in pretty bad shape.</s>BROWNSTEIN: Well, right. I mean, I don't know about this individual fight. John Bolton probably isn't a household name. But, yes, the broad context of what we're seeing in this month is both parties are being hurt by a sense that Washington is driven by unusual partisan division, not getting a lot done, not focusing on the problems that concern ordinary Americans, the economy, gas prices, health care prices, and Iraq. But the question is, with the Republicans as the party in power, historically, they have had more to fear if there's a pox on both your houses. Now, they argue the Democrats are casting themselves as obstructionists. They can fire back. But historically, when approval for Congress is down to where it is now, in the low 30s, even the high 20s, the party in power is the one that has had the most to fear at election time.</s>FOREMAN: Do you think that the Republicans can win the battle on Bolton, through a presidential appointment or whatever, but lose the war?</s>BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think they can obviously put him in place. If the president wants to make the recess appointment, he's done it before. Bill Clinton has done it. I mean, they can do it. Bolton is changed, though, as a U.N. ambassador, if, in fact, he is forced to come through that way, not only through Democratic opposition, but George Voinovich of Ohio, the Republican senator, other Republicans raised many questions. It would be a different appointee. It would be more of a statement by the president he's not going to be pushed around, but John Bolton would not be the same U.N. ambassador, I think, in terms of credibility, as he would have been had he been able to win a majority or supermajority of votes.</s>FOREMAN: Well, heaven knows how this is going to end. It's been going on for -- Ron Brownstein from "The L.A. Times," thanks so much. More news in. Breaking news from Philadelphia. The jury now has the case, the murder case against a former Klansman charged in the slaying of -- excuse me, in Philadelphia, Mississippi, the murder case against a former Klansman charged in the slaying of three civil rights workers went to the jury this afternoon after prosecutors made an impassioned plea for conviction, saying the victims' families have waited a very long time, 41 years, for someone to be brought to justice. We're going to have more about what's being considered in that case and how it wrapped up as it headed to the jury all of a sudden, as we go on. And of course, if the jury were to come back quickly with a verdict, we would have that, as well. The search for Osama bin Laden from a military man's perspective, that's coming up. Our military analyst, Brigadier General James Marks, joins us to talk about the hunt for the world's most wanted terrorist. Plus, American troops who have stood guard over Saddam Hussein shed new light on the former Iraqi dictator and his life in captivity. You don't want to miss this. And in our strategy session, we'll talk more about the battle over John Bolton's nomination as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Stick with us.