Gas Prices Reach All-Time High
COOPER: Time now for the reset. In New York, investigating 9/11. Today the independent commission found the emergency response in New York City was hampered by communication breakdowns, and poor coordination between government agencies. In Washington today, the White House won't tap into the nation's Strategic Oil Reserve to ease the soaring price of gasoline. Democrats insist that the release of 60 million barrels will help lower the record pump price. More on this story in a few moments. Nationwide, hitting the road despite record gas price prices. AAA predicts Americans will travel more this Memorial Day weekend than last year thanks to a recovering economy. The survey shows nearly 31 million travelers will drive 50 miles or more this Memorial Day. That's up 3.4 percent. Also in Washington, no link found between vaccines and autism. That's the finding of a government panel. Some parents refuse to vaccinate their kids believing it causes autism. Researchers say there is no evidence to prove any link. Also in Washington, you can take it with you. Today the FCC said all cell phone users in the nation can keep their existing phone numbers when they switch to a new wireless carrier. The rule, which will affect millions, goes into effect next week. Those are the stories in the reset. With all the media focus on the prison abuse scandal over the past couple of weeks, it's easy to forget about other aspects of the war in Iraq. In particular easy to forget about the men and women serving their country admirably. How quickly we forget. Tonight CNN's Gary Tuchman brings us one soldier's amazing story, wounded in action and wanting to go back into battle as an amputee.</s>GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Army Specialist Garth Stewart has just graduated from a hand-to-hand combat class at Fort Benning, Georgia. And he's done it as an amputee. The Minnesota native was wounded in Iraq from a land mine. Now he's back on active duty and has volunteered to go back into combat.</s>SPC. GARTH STEWART, U.S. ARMY: Got to be diplomatic about this. Not necessarily singing the army's praises -- doesn't have as much to do with that as it does maybe to do with perhaps the camaraderie I feel with some of the people specifically in my platoon. Especially at the time I got injured.</s>TUCHMAN: It's exceedingly rare for an amputee to go back to war but Stewart has received his medical clearance and could be redeployed with his unit in a matter of months.</s>SGT. MATT LARSEK, DIRECTOR, HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT PROGRAM: He can literally do everything that you can with two legs. So there's no issues whatsoever.</s>TUCHMAN: Stewart served as base gunner in a mortar platoon.</s>STEWART: First in my platoon without a doubt. Mortar skills, mortar gunning. I mean, I am not even bragging to say that.</s>TUCHMAN: Garth Stewart does say he plans to leave the army when his term of enlistment is up in June of 2005. He hopes to go to college and then possibly become a philosopher. Is there anything about it, though, going back to war, without a leg that scares you?</s>STEWART: No. You're like 50 percent immune to land mines now.</s>TUCHMAN: Gary Tuchman, CNN, Fort Benning, Georgia.</s>COOPER: Remarkable young man. Today on the campaign trail, soaring gas prices on a day where the average price reached an all- time high averaging $2.01 a gallon. That's up 52 cents from the same time last year. Today the Democrats said it's the president's fault, the Bush campaign pointed the finger right back at John Kerry. Earlier I took it up with "CROSSFIRE" co-hosts Robert Novak and Paul Begala. Take a look.</s>COOPER: Bob, today Democrats came out guns blazing talking about gas prices and oil policy. Should the White House be concerned?</s>ROBERT NOVAK, CO-HOST, "CROSSFIRE": I don't believe so. I've been around a long time, and every time the gas prices go up, the party out of power says oh, it's terrible, the president's fault. It has never yet been an issue in a campaign. And one of the reasons is, that gas prices always go down in the fall. In case you haven't noticed, we have elections in November. Not in -- in the summer. And the gas prices will be considerably lower after Labor Day than they are now.</s>COOPER: Paul, I take it you don't agree with that. The Democrats seem to be playing up the idea that the Bush camp is somehow in the pockets of a Texas oil money.</s>PAUL BEGALA, CO-HOST, "CROSSFIRE": Well, I think there's that problem to begin with that the president comes out of that industry. I think there's a longer problem that it's going to last beyond if and when the gas price drops. That is credibility. The president is suffering credibility problems because the war in Iraq. Turns out when he was running for president as an oilman he promised he would jawbone, his phrase, OPEC, to try to bring down the price of gas. Now that the price of gas is going through the roof he's been asked, his press secretary has been asked, have you followed through on your promise and they had to candidly answer no. So the president's got a broken promise problem and a credibility problem. He promised us if we made this oil man president, he'd use those connections to leverage down the price, and now he's had to admit that he hasn't kept that promise.</s>COOPER: Paul, and Bob as you well know the Bush campaign is saying John Kerry's record on voting for -- to increase taxes on gas prices is kind of spotty for him.</s>NOVAK: It's not spotty. In 1994 he wanted -- when he never dreamed he would be running for president, who did, that he proposed a 50 cent a gallon increase in gasoline. See right now, this is very hard. This election is a long way off. And you can't talk about Iraq every day. So the topic of the day almost is gasoline prices. I'll tell you a little secret right now. Whether you're paying $2.02 or paying $1.80 a gallon for gasoline is not an issue that drives decisions. Boy, oh, boy I'm going to vote for John Kerry because George Bush did not jawbone the Arab sheiks. Politics doesn't work that way and Paul Begala knows that.</s>BEGALA: Actually things like credibility matter. And things like consistency matter. As the Bush campaign is attacking John Kerry because he never introduced any legislation to raise the gas tax. Turns out Dick Cheney did introduce legislation that would have raised fuel prices by $1.2 trillion and he gave a speech in which he said look, the United States has to let go of this fiction that somehow low oil prices are good for America. He actually campaigned for higher energy prices. Well, in fact, he's become a millionaire because of high energy prices. It stands to reason.</s>NOVAK: Anderson, one thing I think the American people ought to get a reality test on, in the first place, adjusted for inflation, the price of gasoline today is less than it was 25 years ago. And it's much less than it was any place in the world. It is almost three times as high in most of the European countries. They look at us and they say my goodness, $2 a gallon. That is a bargain. And it is a bargain. It's one commodity that's a lot cheaper now than it was in the past.</s>BEGALA: The conservative message, the Republican message, Anderson, is going to be America is booming and gas prices should be higher. They should be as high as they are in France. I like those odds. I'll take those to the polling booth any day of the week.</s>COOPER: We're going to leave it there, guys. Thanks very much. Bob Novak, Paul Begala.</s>COOPER: Today's buzz is this. What do you think? Will prices at the pump change your vote for president? Log on to CNN.com/360. Cast your votes, we'll have results at the end of the show. Coming up, unlocking the secrets of the brain. In a moment, a woman who studies serial killers. What has she learned about what goes on inside their minds. That's part of our week-long series. Also tonight, remembering actor Tony Randall. Fans knew him best as neat freak Felix Unger on "The Odd Couple." We'll take a look back at his career. Plus why is Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger suing a toy company? The mind bobbles. We'll take a look at the case.