TONY COX, host:
From NPR News this is News and Notes. I'm Tony Cox. He has been in the White House just a few days, but already President Barack Obama is reversing some of his predecessor's executive orders. And New York Governor David Paterson picks a congresswoman from Upstate New York to fill Hilary Clinton's senate seat. To go over the week's top headlines, we turn to our reporter's roundtable, joining us now today, Clarence Page, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune and Charisse Jones, a national correspondent for USA Today. Clarence, Charisse, welcome.
Mr. CLARENCE PAGE (Columnist, Chicago Tribune): Hi, Tony.
Ms. CHARISSE JONES (National Correspondent, USA Today): Thank you.
COX: Let's begin with this, Clarence. You were in D.C. for the event. Chief Justice John Roberts flubbed the oath we know the first time, and Mr. Obama repeated the flawed text. So they did it do over without a Bible in the White House out of quote "an abundance of caution." But here's the issue. Only a few print reporters were invited to the do-over, and some of the members of the press not so happy about that. Was that a mistake?
Mr. PAGE: Well, it's a part of the getting-to-know-you process between the new president and the White House Press Corps. Yeah, the Press Corps, of course, we're always upset when we are left out of any particular proceeding. And so, the reporters were pushing back saying, look there's no reason why we can't all be in on something like this. There's plenty of room, there's plenty of precedent for it. So, I think that's all part of the process here right now and they probably will loosen up especially because this administration stresses transparency so much.
COX: Well, we'll find out for sure. Charisse, you know, one of President Obama's first actions was to block all the executive orders made by former President George Bush that had not yet become official. The blocked orders deal with everything from emission regulations to food labeling requirements and the sort. But this was to be expected, wasn't it?
Ms. JONES: You know, absolutely. I mean, I think that President Obama is trying to put out the message that there is a new sheriff in town. And he ran on, you know, a campaign theme of change in the fact that he was going to be very different from George Bush, and so he came out swinging. You know, he doesn't agree with a lot of the positions the Bush administration took and so right out of door he decided to pass ethics reforms, you know, put a freeze on these orders that Bush had put out, and basically say we're going to do things differently now that he's there.
COX: Now, today it was announced that Mr. Obama will sign an executive order that will end a ban on federal funds going to international groups that perform or that promote abortion. Many conservatives support this ban, Clarence. What does this signal about Obama position on this issue?
Mr. PAGE: On this issue, he's falling in line with the traditional Democratic Party position. Bill Clinton opposed gag rules. George Bush, both Bushes, favor gag rules that prevent any money, any federal dollars going to aid countries that in turn fund abortion. This is one of those defining issues like affirmative action and Supreme Court picks that really differentiate the parties on values.
COX: Now, Charisse, it's only been a few days, but are we seeing Obama administration change with a capital C or change with a small C?
Mr. JONES: I think we're seeing change with a capital C. I mean, just the fact that he has frozen the salaries of senior White House staff and basically said that once you leave his administration you will not be able to lobby your former co-workers for the duration of his time in office which could be eight years. It's a significance change from an administration that many saw as being secretive, imperial, out of touch with the American public; an administration that seemed to really favor the privileged and the wealthy as opposed to the common ordinary person. And so I think that the break what would we had just a few days ago when the White House could not be more stark or extreme.
COX: Let's move on to the economy. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says Congress could have an economic stimulus package ready for the White House by mid-February, but listening to GOP leaders like John Boehner and Mitch McConnell just today, Clarence, I'm not so sure about that.
Mr. PAGE: Well, they're pushing back now to show that they're not just going to get walked over by this administration. I think that the House has already pretty much shown that they're going to approve the package the Senate will, but only after arguing, because the Senates got more ways for each senator to put brakes on the process. There's also Boehner, House Republican leader, indicated that he will somewhat miffed by Barack Obama's inauguration speech and it's somewhat confrontational tone, now, that's arguable but nevertheless, they're sounding like the feelings are hurt. They say, well, we want to work with his administration but they want to do blah, blah. So, yeah, there's going to a lot of going back and forth. But you know, the Dutch train's out of the station right now. The Republicans don't want to appear to be obstructionist and the country has signaled that they're putting their faith for now in Barack Obama and his plans to stimulate the economy.
COX: Now, Timothy Geithner's nomination as Treasury Secretary is moving along slower than Obama must have wanted, I would say. How important is it, Charisse, that he become confirmed soon given the deteriorating situation with the economy?
Mr. JONES: You know, I think that the push back that Timothy Geithner is getting, I mean, obviously, if you're going to be the head of the Treasury Department and you didn't handle your own personal financial business very well that sends a discordened(ph) note out to the masses, but I think the fact remains that in the end going to go ahead and do this. They had to point out that he hadn't paid his payroll taxes and if this was an issue to show they weren't' going just to roll over and accept every person that Barack Obama wanted without any questions. But the bottom line is they want the president to have the person in that position that he wants and he's consider very capable and competent. And we are in such trouble in this county economically that nobody, Republican or Democrat, wants to block someone who they think can actually do an effective job of turning it around.
COX: Let's go back to the stimulus package one more time, Clarence. The issue seems not to be whether to have a stimulus package, the issues seems to be how much money to attach to it. Correct?
Mr. PAGE: Well, yeah. And don't ask me how much they're going to finally attach?
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. PAGE: Of the issue from the Washington point of view is not how much money, but how many votes can you get? Initially, Democrats were talking about getting 80 votes in the Senate, now they're talking about 60. So what does that tell you? That tells you don't get as much money through as they wanted initially.
COX: All right. Let's talk about foreign policy. Perhaps, Obama's boldest move so far was to sign the executive order closing Guantanamo, but that creates other challenges like what to do with 240 plus detainees being held there. Even the Democrats aren't in complete agreement on what to do, are they Charisse?
Mr. JONES: They're not. And President Obama has talked about putting together kind of an advisory team that'll include the secretary of state, the secretary of defense and other to try and sort out the thicket of Guantanamo because, you know, clearly you've got people that are in that prison who are too dangerous to release, but if you try to them in a court room in the United States they might reveal information that you don't want the public to know. Countries elsewhere may not want to take these inmates and so, you know, it remains a quandary about what you're going to do with these folks. But that Guantanamo was really a stain on this country around the world. It really undermined the kind of ideals that we propagate, that we say that we stand for in terms of, you know, the torture that went on and the types of abuses that happened. And so it's an action that he said he was going to take and he had to take, but they're going to have to work out the details or what to do with the folks that are there.
COX: You know, there are those, Clarence, who say that as long as we are in a war footing which we are definitely in that places like Guantanamo have to be kept because of the people that you need to capture and put in places like Guantanamo.
Mr. PAGE: Well, Barack Obama has completely refuted that position. It's very significant that this is the first major step he's taken right after his inauguration. That tells me that he is making it very clear, don't bother me with the details right now, this is policy. By the end of this year, the place is going to be closed one way or the other, that's what he's saying. And this is a signal around the world. Right now, this country does not believe in preventive detentions. Our Constitution doesn't believe in it. During the civil war, Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus but that was for the extent of a specific war and he got away with it barely. Barack Obama's taking a very firm position here and I think in the long run, he will be rewarded for it unless, say we have another terrorist attack and the debate possibly shifts against him. Nevertheless, I think that that holding that fear over people's heads is the kind of presidential policy that this administration is firmly against.
COX: Do you - would you say, Charisse, that so far at least and it's very early, I know that the president has had what might be described as a balanced attack both in terms of his domestic and foreign policy agenda, early on?
Ms. .JONES: Well, I think so. I mean, he began the domestic agenda conversation before he was elected because the crisis was so great in terms of the economy and he was criticized by a lot of people, particularly those who were concerned about the Palestinians in Gaza that he wasn't saying enough about it before he actually assumed office. And so, the fact that in his first week, he called the leaders of Israel and Egypt and the Palestinian authority in Jordan, that he's closing Guantanamo or saying that he's going to close it within the year, et cetera shows that you know, this is a president that understands that we're not an isolated country. That there are a lot of things going on in the world that we have to take a position on and he's ready to do it. At the same time, he tries to right our economy.
COX: Now, Obama has also called for the withdrawal of combat troops in Iraq over the next 16 months. But in the meantime, reports are saying that missiles have been fired from a suspected U.S. spy plane that killed 10 in Pakistan. There's disagreement about a troop build-up in Afghanistan, envoy Richard Holbrook was just named to the region, I'm going to ask you both to think about whether or not this is going according to plan or are we winging it? But I want you to hold on to your thought. We're going to take a break and we will come back in just a few moments.
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COX: This is News & Notes. I'm Tony Cox. We're back with our reporter's roundtable. With us today, Clarence Page, columnist for the Chicago Tribune and Charisse Jones, national correspondent for USA Today. Before the break, folks, I was asking you to think about whether or not the foreign policy as it relates so far to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq, are we winging it or are we going according to plan with the new Obama administration, Clarence?
Mr. PAGE: Well, through the campaign, we saw certain things were clear that we are moving toward a consensus on what to do about Iraq. Both McCain and Obama weren't that far apart. It was just a question of the timetable. Same thing with Afghanistan, both agreed we need more troops in Afghanistan and the same thing with Pakistan, everybody agrees it is unstable and in recent weeks, we have seen more of these cross-border battles where the U.S. has been firing over there or we've had back and forth, gun fire between Pakistan troops and our own. The Taliban is still a big question mark but they're growing. They're becoming more of a force to reckon with. We've known all this, it's just that interestingly enough, Tony, it's been kind of squeezed off the front page by interesting news here from Sarah Palin to, you name it.
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COX: Well actually, one of the people who has pushed that story off the headlines, Charisse is Caroline Kennedy. She will not be replacing Hillary in the Senate. New York Governor David Patterson appointing Congresswoman Kirsten Gilibrand, described as an upstate Conservative Democrat loved by both the NRA and the ACLU which is no easy feat. So what happened, Caroline? Did Patterson bungled this or did Caroline?
Ms. JONES: You know, I don't think that either one of them handled it very well. You know, Caroline Kennedy when she first said she wanted the seat, you know, was suaved in romance and glamor. You know the air as to Camelot trying to take over the Senate seat left vacant by her slain uncle. And you know, people were really caught up in it, but it was a very awkward entry into the political sphere. She was not speaking to reporters, answering their questions, when she did answer, she was not always very articulate about how she - why she wanted to suddenly be in politics after being such a private person. And then there were - there was talk about her not wanting to reveal her financial records, et cetera. So it just seemed that she wasn't very comfortable in the spotlight. And then the governor seemed to play kind of coy, you know, he - have this 28-page questionnaire that he wanted everybody to fill out and he was still looking and she has pluses and minuses, and then all these rumors would come out that he had already made up his mind and it was going to be her. So I don't think either one of them really emerged looking too good in this process and she may have just said, you know, I don't need this. You know, I've got, you know, my uncle is ill. I don't want to reveal all my business and I'll just go back to being a private citizen and do my good deeds behind the scenes.
COX: I would imagine Gilibrand is not likely to be treated the same way Roland Burris was by the Senate, would you say, Clarence?
Mr. PAGE: No. Well, obviously, New York's governor isn't currently on the verge of indictment of impeachment (laughing) that's House says. Well actually, I was - has been impeached by the House, about to be tried by the Senate makes a big difference and nor were there, the very interesting quotes from court order, the wiretaps of the governor referring to this appointment process, as kind of a gold mine of potential campaign donations that sort of thing. So, we always have a way of putting a little more color in our scandals and our appointments in Illinois.
(Soundbite of laughter)
COX: I guess you do in Chicago. Listen, our time is out but I can't let you get away without bringing up this one last topic. We've got really got a few seconds, Charisse. Because I'm curious, everyone is talking about Michelle Obama's wardrobe and I'm curious from you, does this story have, pardon the expression, legs?
Ms. JONES: It's going to have legs for the next four years. I mean, this woman, people are fascinated by her, you know? They've never seen a black woman in this position. She's brilliant. She's professional. She's got these two little girls she's raising and she's become a style icon so, it's got legs but I think we'll be talking about more than that when we refer to Michelle Obama because she brings a lot to the table.
COX: All right. Thank you so much. Clarence Page is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune. He joined us from our NPR headquarters in Washington, and Charisse Jones is a national correspondent with USA Today, joining us for the first time. We're going to have you back. She joined us from NPR studios in New York. Thanks again.
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