SCOTT SIMON, host:
This is Weekend Edition from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. And this week, President Bush offered the auto industry an emergency rescue package worth more than $17 billion. President-elect Obama named more choices for his Cabinet and set off a controversy with his choice of the pastor who will give the invocation. And former President Bill Clinton released the names of more than 200,000 donors to his foundation. Will that list pose any complications for Senator Hillary Clinton's nomination as secretary of state? NPR's senior news analyst Dan Schorr joins us. Good morning, Dan.
DANIEL SCHORR: Good morning, Scott.
SIMON: First, this rescue package for the auto industry. It was senators in President Bush's own party who had opposed any kind of rescue package in the Senate. Why did the president go ahead and do it now?
SCHORR: Well, it had to be particularly painful for him because the whole dogma of let the market prevail dies very hard. But if he had not done so, there was a likelihood of a collapse in the auto industry on his watch. What he's now succeeded in doing is kicking it down - kicking the can down the road to March 31st, which will be on some other president's watch.
SIMON: Well, of course, President-elect Obama, who interestingly enough didn't stir up much controversy this week with his Cabinet appointments, but his choice of Pastor Rick Warren to delivery the invocation at his inauguration, a number of gay rights activists were outspoken in their criticism. Pastor Warren favors a ban on gay marriage. Dan, do you see, given his recent history with very deliberate Cabinet choices, was this decision a political slip-up, a mistake or a deliberate step that President-elect Obama made?
SCHORR: Well, it's a little hard to say, but it appears to me that it didn't come as a big surprise to him. I think he knew more or less what the reaction would be, especially from the gay community, to having Rick Warren as delivering this invocation. But I think it follows through on his general line that he's going to reach out, and he's going to reach out to those who agree with him, those who don't agree with him, and he's willing to take that risk.
SIMON: And Pastor Warren gave him a forum during the campaign, alongside John McCain, when a lot of other evangelical ministers probably wouldn't have bothered.
SCHORR: I guess that's right. That's right. I mean, he clearly picked someone that he knew would be controversial, but that is his way.
SIMON: There are a couple of major Senate seats that need to be filled. Of course, Minnesota is still in dispute. But let's talk about New York first because Caroline Kennedy says that she wants the appointment for Hillary Clinton's seat. A whole bunch of famous New York politicians, including Attorney General Cuomo, were openly interested but chose to play it coy. Let me put it to you this bluntly. What qualifies Caroline Kennedy to sit in the U.S. Senate?
SCHORR: Well, what qualifies anybody? I mean, what did Bobby Kennedy know about New York before he ran? How - what did Senator Pat Moynihan know about New York?
SIMON: Well, Bobby Kennedy had been attorney general. Pat Moynihan had been in the White House and UN ambassador.
SCHORR: That's right. But there are no set lines about who can be a senator. In this case, one line that you can draw, and that is she had - she would have to face an election in two years, and she's a great money raiser. And certainly for Governor Paterson, who has to make that choice, the idea that she can finance her own campaign and help to finance other campaigns must register.
SIMON: And Illinois. Is Governor Rod Blagojevich going to get to appoint someone?
SCHORR: Everybody is just with crossed fingers and maybe crossed eyes waiting to find out. If he's going to simply wait for the prosecutorial process to go its way, it's one thing. But you know, no one knows what he's going to do. I would say this, however. If he does decide to nominate a senator, chances are the Senate will not seat that person.
SIMON: President Bill Clinton's foundation disclosed a list of more than 200,000 donors this week. There are some donors like Saudi Arabia, which reportedly gave at least $10 million, corporate donors like Blackwater. Could any of these donors pose any kind of complication for Senator Clinton's confirmation here into secretary of state?
SCHORR: Well, quite obviously, there's a lot of money from Saudi Arabia, for example, and Saudi Arabia has issues that will have to be referred through the secretary of state. Theoretically, that's always possible, but what I understand from what the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on both sides of the aisle are saying, they're going to go over it but it's not likely to be an end-all.
SIMON: Any practical complications when she becomes secretary of state?
SCHORR: Only if she lets them happen. I mean, I don't see it. There will be those who will say that if your husband has accepted money for his foundation then you have to be very careful about what you do. But I think these things happen.
SIMON: Mark Felt, the man who was known as Deep Throat in the Watergate scandal, died this week.
SCHORR: Yeah.
SIMON: You followed that scandal so intensively for years. What do you think his motivation was?
SCHORR: Well, I think a double - double motivation. One was that the FBI was going to look bad if it was perceived as not carrying out its mission to carry - to investigate Watergate. And he was speaking for the integrity of the FBI. The other side of it was that he wanted very much to be director after the death of J. Edgar Hoover and was passed over and didn't like that.
SIMON: Dan, thanks so much.
SCHORR: Yeah, sure thing.
SIMON: NPR's senior news analyst, Dan Schorr.
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