The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

JIM LEHRER: Good evening. I'm Jim Lehrer. On the NewsHour tonight, Super Tuesday: Gwen Ifill with Robert Reich and Senator Tom Harkin looks at the Democrats; Ray Suarez, with Senator Chuck Hagel and Governor Paul Cellucci, does the same to the Republicans; and Mark Shields and Paul Gigot offer their analysis. Then, essayist Roger Rosenblatt enjoys 75 years of cartoons in "The New Yorker," and we all get to enjoy "The Tennessee Waltz" in memory of the composer. It all follows our summary of the news this Wednesday.

NEWS SUMMARY

JIM LEHRER: There was another deadly shooting today. Four people died and one was wounded in Memphis, Tennessee. Police said a gunman ambushed firemen outside a burning house. A firefighter and two sheriff's deputies were shot to death. A woman was found dead inside the garage, but it was unclear how she was killed. The gunman was shot by a deputy and taken into custody. The motive for the attack was unknown. On this day after Super Tuesday, the Associated Press reported Bill Bradley will quit the Democratic race tomorrow and endorse Vice President Gore. Gore on all the Democratic contests yesterday. On the Republican side, aides to Senator McCain suggested he might drop out as well. Governor Bush beat McCain in eight of eleven primaries, including New York and California. We'll have more on all this right after the News Summary. In other Super Tuesday action, Californians resolved two major referendum issues. They voted not to recognize gay marriages performed in other states, and they approved overhauling the state's juvenile justice system. Youth offenders will now face tougher prosecutions and penalties. Overseas today Israel and the Palestinians agreed to resume peace talks. They'll do so later this month in Washington after a Muslim religious holiday. We have more from Philippa Meagher of Associated Press Television News.

PHILIPPA MEAGHER: Chairman Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Ehud Barak arrived for talks in Ramallah. This, their second week in just 14 hours signaled the end of months of deadlock between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The breakthrough came after intensive mediation from U.S. Special Envoy Dennis Ross and Mabry Egis. Negotiators are trying to formulate the outline of a final peace treaty and resolve disagreements left over from previous talks. After the meeting, Ross said the leaders had agreed to resume negotiations.

DENNIS ROSS: The parties made good progress in addressing and resolving many of the interim issues, and agreed to intensify their negotiations. Towards this end they agreed that negotiations would resume after the meeting in Washington.

PHILLIPA MEAGHER: Ross reaffirmed Washington's commitment to resolving the many remaining disputes.

DENNIS ROSS: President Clinton and Secretary Albright have said that the Palestinian issue constitutes the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict. And that is why the meeting today represents an important step in reaffirming the Israeli and Palestinian commitment to work in a spirit of partnership and mutual confidence to end the conflict between them.

PHILLIPA MEAGHER: A framework agreement is needed as soon as possible so that all the permanent status issues, such as the future of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees and Israeli settlements, can be resolved by the September deadline.

JIM LEHRER: Talks between the two sides broke down last month after disagreeing on the terms for an Israeli pull-back on the West Bank. Shipments of food moved across flood-ravaged Mozambique today. The World Food Program said help had reached 350,000 people, but another 300,000 had not yet been fed. And there was a new danger. The country's president warned the floods may have dislodged land mines left from the civil war. A UN aid official said the mines could kill or maim people trying to plant new crops. In Kosovo today, thousands of ethnic Albanian women marched in Mitrovica. They said many of their sons and husbands are being held in Serbian prisons. They demanded a full accounting of the missing men, and they warned there will be no peace in the troubled city until that happens. Back in this country today, President Clinton sent a bill to Congress that would give permanent trade benefits to China. It would also ease China's entry into the World Trade Organization. In Washington, Mr. Clinton said this:

PRESIDENT CLINTON: If you believe in a future of greater openness and freedom for the people of China, you ought to be for this agreement. If you believe in a future of greater prosperity for the American people, you certainly should be for this agreement. If you believe in a future of peace and security for Asia and the world, you should be for this agreement. This is the right thing to do. It's an historic opportunity and a profound American responsibility.

JIM LEHRER: Republican and Democratic leaders in the Senate said they expected the bill to pass, and House Majority Leader Dick Armey said it should clear the House. But there's opposition from labor unions, environmental groups and some Democrats. Oil prices fell nearly three dollars a barrel in New Yorktoday. They dropped after Iran and Saudi Arabia suggested they might support increased production. The two OPEC members said they wanted to ensure timely supplies to stabilize markets. The cost of crude has surged in the last y year, raising heating oil and gasoline prices in the US. And that's it for the News Summary tonight. Now it's on to Super Tuesday for the Democrats and Republicans and for Shields and Gigot, plus a Roger Rosenblatt essay and the Tennessee Waltz.

FOCUS - CLEAN SWEEP

JIM LEHRER: Assessing Super Tuesday. We begin with the Democratic race and to Gwen Ifill.

GWEN IFILL: Voters in 16 states effectively sealed the Democratic nomination for president Tuesday. In every contest Vice President Gore resoundingly defeated rival Bill Bradley, the former New Jersey Senator.

SPOKESMAN: This is the Early Show -

GWEN IFILL: Gore made his valedictory sprint on this morning's network talk shows.

AL GORE: Well, I'm feeling a lot of joy and a lot of gratitude to all the people who helped me to all of the people who helped me to the victories last night.

GWEN IFILL: Bradley headed home to his New Jersey headquarters to work out a graceful exit. His aides expect him to withdraw tomorrow. Gore's victory was a sweet one. According to the latest estimates Gore now holds 1418 delegates compared with Bradley's 406. It takes 2,170 delegates to earn the party nomination. Gore's more than halfway there. The two Democrats immediately set about healing lingering wounds.

BILL BRADLEY: I just called the Vice President to congratulate him on his victories tonight. He won, I lost. And on one level I agree with Vince Lombardi when he said, "winning isn't everything, it's the only thing."

GWEN IFILL: At a jubilant Super Tuesday party at Gore's Nashville headquarters, the victor praised the vanquished.

AL GORE: I think that anybody who has heard Bill Bradley throughout this campaign has come away from the experience moved and touched by the strength of his commitment to healing the divisions in our country, especially divisions based on race.

GWEN IFILL: But the Gore campaign has already turned its attention to the general election ahead, and to the Republican Party's likely nominee, Texas Governor George W. Bush.

AL GORE: We need to build on our record of prosperity. We don't need to go back to where we were eight years ago. (Cheers and applause) They tried... They tried their approach before. It produced a triple-dip recession and quadrupled the national debt. If you don't want to go back to that, then join us now. Our campaign is your cause. (Applause) If you believe... If you believe in a woman's right to choose... (Cheers and applause) ...a right that must never be weakened, never be undermined, never be taken away, join us now. (Cheers and applause) The Supreme Court is at stake, and our campaign is your cause.

GWEN IFILL: Gore also declared his support for campaign finance reform, hoping to ward off Republican criticism of his ties to supporters who broke campaign finance laws.

AL GORE: I spoke just last night about the fact that I've learned from my mistakes. And one of the things I've learned is the need for strong campaign finance reform. Three of the four candidates running last night support campaign finance reform. I've called upon the republican nominee to join me in banning all so-called soft money and even go further, and that is to eliminate all the 30-second and 60-second TV and radio ads and instead debate twice a week a different issue each time every week from the time the nominations are decided.-- until election day.

GWEN IFILL: Bradley, in his concession speech last night, said the principles of his campaign were still intact.

BILL BRADLEY: Tonight I want to go deeper than winning or losing and agree with Kipling, who said we should treat those two impostors just the same. Despite our lack of victory tonight, there's so much that every one of you who became a part of our campaign has to be proud of. We've shaped the national debate in this campaign. We've brought core democratic issues to the floor. When no one was talking about the 44 million Americans without health insurance, we did. (Cheers and applause) We gave voice to the voiceless. When no one was talking-- when no one was talking about the 13 children who die every day of gun violence, we heard their cries. (Applause) When no one was talking about the nearly 14 million children who still live in poverty in this country, we said America can't be America if they remain poor in a time of plenty.

GWEN IFILL: As for Gore, he campaigns in Michigan tonight and Minnesota tomorrow. Democratic caucuses will be held in both states on Saturday.

GWEN IFILL: What's next for these two candidates? We hear from two prominent democrats: Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, an early Gore supporter; and, from the Bradley camp, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich. He now teaches social and economic policy at Brandeis University.

Senator Harkin, how did Al Gore turn what was a deprived campaign only a few months ago into a sweep last night?

SEN. TOM HARKIN: Well, I think Al saw early before anyone else did that he had to change his structure of his campaign and change the way he was doing things. And he did that. And I think that really takes a lot of courage and foresight. He moved the campaign out of "K" Street in Washington and moved it to Nashville, cut the staff, restructured everything, threw off the trappings of office and went out like a candidate. And I think the reason he did so well yesterday is the American people over the last several months saw the real Al Gore, someone who is a real fighter for our working families.

GWEN IFILL: Senator, of course he did throw off a lot of the trappings of Washington. In your opinion, is the Vice President's victory last night an endorsement of the last eight years?

SEN. TOM HARKIN: Well, I think the Vice President's victory indicates that people want to keep the prosperity going, keep our economic growth going. They don't want to tinker with these risky tax schemes that the Republicans are coming up with, but they also want something else. This is what Al Gore has been talking about and so has Bill Bradley, and that is, making sure that the economic prosperity now reaches everyone. The gap between the rich and the poor is still too wide in our country. And Al Gore has talked about making sure that we close that gap by making sure that every child is covered with health care and making universal pre-school available, prescription drugs for the elderly - in other words, making sure that this economic prosperity that we have gained over the last eight years inures to everyone in this country.

GWEN IFILL: Robert Reich, Bill Bradley talked about a lot of those same issues as well yet it just didn't take. What went wrong?

ROBERT REICH: Well, Gwen, I think that perhaps Bill Bradley made a couple of mistakes. One I think is very clear: He did not respond as clearly and as forcefully as he could to some of the accusations made by Al Gore during the campaign about Bill Bradley's health care plan, about his failure to vote in favor of flood control orflood aid in Iowa, several other things. Also there was one issue over which he had no control at all: And that was that John McCain stole some of the reformist's thunder after the New Hampshire primary -- where Bill Bradley didn't perform as well as expectations held that he should. But I think right now Tom Harkin is absolutely right. It's time for Democrats to kiss and make up. The general election begins right now, and all Democrats know that we have much more in common than we do with Republicans. It has a lot to do with making sure that this prosperity works for everyone.

GWEN IFILL: Before you kiss and make up, let me ask you one more question about this - what's just come to pass. You were a member of this Clinton-Gore administration. Do you think that there are things that Bill Bradley failed to exploit in trying to go head-to-head with Al Gore?

ROBERT REICH: Gwen, I don't think so. I think Bill Bradley should feel very good, and many of the thousands of people who supported Bill Bradley and worked for him ought to feel very good about making health care a very, very large issue -- campaign finance reform a larger issue than it was certainly back in September, October and November -- making sure that gun control and controlling the proliferation of weapons, registration of firearms, all of those issues become very central to the campaign as well as the issue of poverty, the widening gap between rich and poor in this country. Those are all very much Democratic themes. I think Bill Bradley pushed Al Gore a little bit to be somewhat bolder on them. He certainly made the Vice President a better candidate, a more forceful candidate, a more energetic candidate.

GWEN IFILL: Senator Harkin, did he make the Vice President a more liberal candidate and is that good for the fall?

SEN. TOM HARKIN: I think I'd agree with Bob. He made Al Gore a better candidate. There's no doubt about that. Al will say that himself. And I think it really honed, I think, the Vice President's approach in this campaign and I think Al rose to the occasion. But, you know, we can sit here and analyze this to death, Gwen. But I think -- again I want to agree with Bob: Now is the time to look ahead. There are primaries yet to be held. Al Gore is not taking any votes for granted. He's going to be out there daily working to gain the votes of the people in the primaries coming up and to make sure that we lay the groundwork for a successful campaign this fall. So I think now is the time to get together. I just want to say this. I've known Bill Bradley for a long time. He is a good guy. He is very bright and intelligent. He has a lot to offer our party. I want and I hope that Bill Bradley will be with us. I trust he will be in going ahead this fall so that we can not only elect Al Gore to the presidency but also win back the House and the Senate.

GWEN IFILL: But in your opinion is there such a thing as being too liberal in the general election campaign, Senator?

SEN. TOM HARKIN: Well, I believe in -- there's a difference between idealistic and having high ideals. Al Gore has high ideals. But those ideals are grounded in common sense. So when he talks about health care for all of our children and covering all of our children from prenatal care to age 18, that's doable. We can get that done. And when he talks about universal pre-school for our kids, we can get that done. Those are high ideals. When he talks about prescription dugs for the elderly, those are high ideals but they're grounded in common-sense practicality, we can get those things done.

GWEN IFILL: Mr. Reich, you were in New Hampshire with senator Bradley when he started talking about the Vice President's fund raising irregularities or at least the irregularities of people he was associated with. Do you think that Senator Bradley inadvertently handed Mr. Gore - handed George W. Bush a bat with which to beat Mr. Gore with in the fall?

ROBERT REICH: Well, Gwen, I think that George W. Bush is going to use that bat to the extent that he possibly can. You heard the Vice President say earlier today that he has learned some lessons. Remember, he is supportive of campaign finance reform. George W. Bush has not called for an end or a ban on soft money. The Democrats are very, very clear on this and very united that there has to be campaign finance reform. So although George W. Bush may try to use that bat, it's going to be very hard for him unless he embraces the same cause of campaign finance reform himself.

SEN. TOM HARKIN: Gwen?

GWEN IFILL: Yes, Senator.

SEN. TOM HARKIN: I just want to make this point. If they try to use that as an issue, keep in mind the reason we have not been able to get the McCain-Feingold bill through on campaign finance reform is because the Republicans keep filibustering it. Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, leads the filibuster. We have the votes here. We have some Republican votes and Democratic votes to pass campaign finance reform. The only reason we don't have it is because the Republicans continue to till filibuster.

GWEN IFILL: Mr. Reich, the same thing that many of Mr. Bradley's supporters loved about him are the same thing that his critics hated about him, which is his high-mindedness, what they call his moral superiority, do you think that there was room for that? First of all do you think that that's true and do you think there was room for him to win running the kind of campaign he ran?

ROBERT REICH: Gwen, I think high mindedness in terms of idealism is completely appropriate. It brought in a lot of voters who might otherwise not have been there. I think John McCain was quite high minded as well. Hopefully a lot of people who were brought into the primary campaigns will continue to be involved in politics. The biggest problem for the Vice President and also for George W. Bush right now is that you have eight months to go before the general election. You have Gore and Bush, which is basically the two candidates you had eight months ago. And how do you continue to educate the public and have a good, solid discussion about major issues that affect this country over a period of eight months? How does the press stay involved and interested? That's a big challenge that I think we're all going to have to worry.

GWEN IFILL: Well, Senator Harkin, you get to answer that question. How does Vice President Gore do that for the next several months?

SEN. TOM HARKIN: Well, Gwen, again, I think it's going to come out very clearly that George Bush has really sold himself and his leadership of the Republican Party to the far right wing. That's what got him there. You know, there's that old saw in politics, you dance with them that brung you. He's going to have to dance with Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell and the people at Bob Jones University and the people that got him to where he is. He's not going to be able to shake that off, and I think the people of this country don't want that kind of narrow ideological leadership in the White House. They want, as I have said earlier, someone with good ideals that Al Gore has, but someone who has the common sense to know how to get forward withthe American people but not on a narrow ideological basis.

GWEN IFILL: That big race to the middle, right, Senator?

SEN. TOM HARKIN: Well, it's making sure that you get the middle to support the ideals you have to make our country better and to close that gap between the rich and the poor. That's what Al Gore's message is, and that's why he's going to win.

GWEN IFILL: Senator Tom Harkin, Bob Reich, thank you both very much.

FOCUS - BATTLE TESTED

JIM LEHRER: Now the Republicans, and to Ray Suarez.

RAY SUAREZ: Texas Governor George W. Bush moved closer to securing his party's nomination last night, losing just four of Super Tuesday's 13 Republican primaries. He spoke to reporters today.

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: Good morning, everybody. I took a large step toward becoming the nominee last night. I'm really pleased with the results. I had a good conversation with Senator McCain. I appreciate very much his phone call. John is going to decide whether he continues on. It's his choice to do so. I know I'm continuing on, and then we'll resolve any differences we have at a later date. I hope... I'm confident we'll be able to do so. He waged a good campaign. He was a tough competitor.

RAY SUAREZ: In the 13 Super Tuesday Republican primaries last night, Senator McCain did well in New England, winning primaries in Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. But it was Governor Bush who came out the winner, pulling in the majority, including Georgia, Ohio, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, New York, Minnesota, Washington State and the big prize, California. In all, Governor Bush won 446 delegates on Super Tuesday, giving him a total of 661 delegates to date. Senator McCain's 114 delegates from last night brings his delegate count to 219; 1,034 are needed for the Republican nomination. This morning, the Governor turned his attention to the campaign ahead.

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: In terms of Vice President Gore's statement last night... he said a lot of things last night, including getting rid of soft money. The first thing he needs to do is debate Bill Clinton on soft money. It was just last week that Bill Clinton was bragging about how much soft money he had raised. This is an old rouse. It seems like to me, it's an attempt to divert the attention of America away from what has been going on in Washington, DC. for seven years. As I said last night, I'll be glad to ban soft money, I'd be glad to work with Vice President Gore to getting rid of soft money so long as there's paycheck protection. If Vice President Gore is serious about ridding our system of soft money, then he needs to work with me to say that people who are members of the unions ought to be allowed to decide whether their money gets spent on campaigns or causes. As to debates, I'm sure there's going to be a lot of debates. I look forward to them.

RAY SUAREZ: Unlike his rival, Senator McCain stayed out of the spotlight today. He flew from California to his ranch in Arizona.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN: I'm glad to be home. I'm glad to have the opportunity to spend some time with our friends and evaluate the situation and then we'll be making decisions as to what we will do concerning the campaign and exactly how we'll do it. I'm glad to be home.

RAY SUAREZ: But at his rally last night, the Senator assured his supporters he will continue the fight.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN: Our crusade continues tonight, tomorrow, the next day, the day after that, and for as long as it takes to restore America's confidence and pride in the practice and institutions of our great democracy. (Cheers and applause) As is evident by the great numbers of voters who have rallied to our banner, so many of whom have been disaffected by politics in recent times, America needs and wants a thorough reform of the way we conduct our nation's business. (Applause) And the Republican Party... the Republican Party, the party of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan, needs to recover its purpose to be as big as the country we serve. That's the purpose of our campaign. And as I said, I have no intention of ever surrendering it. (Cheers and applause)

RAY SUAREZ: Now the road ahead as seen by two campaign insiders. Massachusetts Governor Paul Cellucci was an early bush supporter. And Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel was one of four U.S. Senators backing McCain.

Senator Hagel, is John McCain's campaign over?

SEN. CHUCK HAGEL: Well, you heard what Senator McCain said, he will make an announcement very soon as to where we go from here.

RAY SUAREZ: And is there anything to be gained if he, as we just heard him say, wants to keep up the crusade to reform politics -- is there anything to be gained by playing out the string with the remaining primaries?

SEN. CHUCK HAGEL: I don't think you'll see that happen. Obviously I can't speak for Senator McCain, but John McCain, when he began this very significant uphill fight, because he believes in things, making this country better, making politics more accountable, elevating the debate, will continue to do exactly what he said he would do. He won't put-- and that is, making this a more accountable process. He won't drag the country and the party through the high drama and theater of saying we should stay in it to tilt at windmills. Obviously the mathematics are fairly obvious. And it's going to be pretty difficult for John McCain to go on and collect enough delegates to be the nominee.

RAY SUAREZ: But can retiring part of the package of retiring from the field be an assurance that his issues will get some airing, either in the Republican platform or in the convention in August?

SEN. CHUCK HAGEL: Well I think the fact is-- and surely Governor Bush understands this-- in order for the Republicans to win in November and beat Al Gore, we are going to need both the Bush and McCain forces. You know, what John McCain has been able to do is attract and appeal to vast numbers of new voters across the political spectrum, all over America, and we're going to need that. I think Governor Bush understands that. So to bring back together Bush and McCain personally and their forces with a reform agenda is, I think, a winning combination, and we've seen that throughout the primary.

RAY SUAREZ: Governor Cellucci, from the other campaign's perspective, how do you assess the impact of John McCain's candidacy?

GOV. PAUL CELLUCCI: Well, I agree with Senator Hagel. I think it's important that Governor Bush get Senator McCain's support. He's brought thousands and thousands of people into the process, a record turnout in my state, in the Massachusetts Republican primary. Two-thirds of the voters were independents -- a lot of Democrats who actually had to change their party affiliation more than a month ago so they could vote in the Republican primary. We want to keep those people in the Republican column. I think what Senator McCain has done is he's brought these people in. I think it's a sign of his personal appeal, his record as a war hero, his pushing of reform, but I also think it has something to do with dissatisfaction with the Democratic candidates. I think it's part of this Clinton fatigue that we see around the country. To see it in a state like Massachusetts, which is Bill Clinton's best state, they say, thousands and thousands of Democrats and independents chose not to participate in the Democratic primary, chose not to vote for Al Gore or Bill Bradley. They chose to vote for Senator McCain. I think that's something that Senator McCain has brought to the Republican Party. I think it's going to help us in the fall. I think it's good news for the Republicans and bad news for the Democrats.

RAY SUAREZ: And you think you can keep these people in November, that this wasn't a one-time only McCain-driven....

GOV. PAUL CELLUCCI: We're going to have to work at it because we have a good shot because they're not satisfied with the Democratic candidates otherwise they would have voted in the Democratic primary. And I think if Governor Bush talks about what he has done in Texas, as the dust settles here, one thing we can be pretty sure of: Al Gore is the Washington insider and George W. Bush is the outsider in this race. He's coming from Texas. He's not part of the Washington establishment. He has got a record as a reformer in Texas. He talked passionately in that debate with Senator McCain last week about what he's done to improve the public schools of Texas, ending social promotion, insisting on high standards and accountability in the schools in Texas. He wants to insist on that in schools all across this country. This is an issue that these independents and Democrats who voted for Senator McCain yesterday in Massachusetts will agree with and I think they will agree with Governor Bush.

RAY SUAREZ: Senator Hagel, earlier in the program maybe you heard Robert Reich talk about Democrats kissing and making up. This is a race that got pretty rough at times. Will it be as easy, even possible, to kiss and make up on the Republican side?

SEN. CHUCK HAGEL: Well, primaries are always a tough business. We understand that. But I would say our primary was rather tepid comparing it to the Democrats. We didn't have anything quite like the Al Sharpton high drama at the Apollo Theater a couple weeks ago like the Democrats did when it was almost a blow-for-blow presentation. We will come back together as a party because we believe in things. We know that the objective is to take back the White House, take back the government, restore some dignity and honesty and what's best and what's right for this country. That's the objective. And I think when you harness that energy and that passion and emotion that we've seen over the last six months in the Republican primary-- and we can do that-- then we'll win in November.

RAY SUAREZ: In defeat, does John McCain still have enough clout if he leaves the field now to have some say about the tone of the remaining months of the campaign, all the way to November from the Republican side?

SEN. CHUCK HAGEL: Well, I think we have to understand something here: We have two newly established leaders in the Republican Party; one is Governor Bush. the other is Senator McCain. These two men have earned it. They have fought for it. They've been down on the floor and on the battlefield and in the arena. And together, they will lead the Republican Party. They will form the agenda. Yes, John McCain's influence in effect in leadership can be felt all the way through. Let's not forget, he's still a United States Senator. He still is a national figure. He is a man who has injected himself into national politics. He is still a man highly regarded and respected across this country who has brought in hundreds of thousands of voters. So, yes, he is going to be a rather potent force well into the next few years in American politics.

RAY SUAREZ: Well, Governor Bush has suggested, Governor Cellucci, that he's not going to trim his sails or change direction. But when you see the message of some of these various primaries like the one in your own state of Massachusetts, how do you incorporate that into what you're doing when staying on course?

GOV. PAUL CELLUCCI: I think you have to talk about some of the things that Governor Bush has been talking about. You talk about high standards and accountability for our schools. You talk about cutting taxes so that families will have more money and taking money out of Washington because after all it's not the government's money. It's the taxpayers' money. Governor Bush has been very consistent about those messages. And he'll continue to be consistent. I know he likes Senator McCain. And I believe that they will work together to help get the White House back for the Republicans this fall. The other thing I'll say is this campaign has been good for Governor Bush. He had a very tough competitor in Senator McCain. There were questions as to whether he was tough enough, whether he was a heavyweight. Well, he took some pretty good hits. He got knocked down. He dusted himself off. He got up and fought back. I think his stature as a candidate has improved dramatically. I think he's a much stronger candidate for our party because of the strong challenge that Senator McCain presented. I think they will work together to win the white house for the Republicans this fall.

RAY SUAREZ: Governor Cellucci, Senator Hagel, thank you both.

JIM LEHRER: Still to come on the NewsHour tonight, Shields and Gigot, a Roger Rosenblatt essay, and "The Tennessee Waltz."

FOCUS- LOOKING AHEAD

JIM LEHRER: And some more now on Super Tuesday from Shields and Gigot and to Margaret Warner.

MARGARET WARNER: And that's syndicated columnist Mark Shields and "Wall Street Journal" columnist Paul Gigot.

Well, Paul, we just heard what the supporters of all the candidates said. What is your view on why in the end we ended up with the two establishment candidates, why these two insurgents failed?

PAUL GIGOT: I think it's a little different in each case. I think that John McCain picked too many fights with some of the Republican rank and file and in the end was beaten by them. For the Democrats, I think Robert Reich had it right. The seminal moment was when Al Gore attacked his health plan back at Dartmouth College in November, October - he didn't respond. And I think that really hurt Bill Bradley; he never recovered.

MARGARET WARNER: So, Mark, is this the triumph of the establishment? Was it preordained?

MARK SHIELDS: I don't think it was preordained, Margaret, but you certainly have to say that both these candidates had remarkable establishment backing. What impressed me the most in looking over yesterday's numbers was Al Gore's emergence as a national leader of the Democratic Party. He averaged 65 to 77% of the vote in states-- in New York, California, Missouri, Ohio. I mean, I think it's fair to say that Gore has... leads a unified Democratic Party now and that's a major achievement.

MARGARET WARNER: So Paul, is John McCain now in a position to demand anything from Governor Bush in return for his support? You heard Chuck Hagel say, "well, we've really now got two established leaders of the Republican Party."

PAUL GIGOT: I don't know that he is. I mean, I think that he can certainly... he certainly demands respect and can command respect. I think that Governor Bush has to show him that. And I think that you saw some of that in the excerpts we showed from Governor Bush in Texas. He has to reach out to John McCain particularly once he leaves the race. I don't think there's any question about that. And then I think he's actually paved the way a little bit showing Governor Bush the appeal of the reform message -- not campaign finance, per se, but the broader reform agenda saying that we want to change Washington. In the end John McCain was trying to make a case on tax reform. He was trying to make a case, however fitfully, on education reform and with Social Security. And Governor Bush was forced to pick that theme up on his own. So it's tough once you decide to leave a race to be able to demand anything in particular. But if you're Governor Bush, you have to think very carefully, how can you keep those McCain voters on board because you need them, you need them to win, and you have to think maybe adopt some of his agenda but also maybe think about putting John McCain on the ticket.

MARGARET WARNER: Mark, how do you see that in terms of the rapprochement to come between Bush and McCain and what each has to do?

MARK SHIELDS: All the responsibility is on George Bush's side, Margaret. As of yesterday according to the exit polls 35% of McCain voters will vote for Al Gore in November. And McCain voters had a negative impression of Governor Bush by better than 3-to-2, closer to 2-to-1. So, that's an uphill fight for him. Now, the easy and facile answer is, "well, those are Democrats." That's not true because only 8% of John McCain's voters yesterday were Democrats. So it's a real uphill struggle. George Bush has to devote attention, energy and effort, and the McCain voters are really up for grabs. I mean, whether they will be wooed and won by each... either side who gives them voice, whose voice sounds genuine to them, as genuine as McCain's did, that's the competition right now that both George Bush and Al Gore are engaged in.

MARGARET WARNER: We saw Al Gore saying to the McCain people, "your campaign is my cause," making this offer about let's ban soft money and so on. Do you think Gore can possibly make that pitch? Who has a better shot at getting those McCain voters?

PAUL GIGOT: Well, he can make that pitch. It's partly defensive because he's got to defend the record of the last seven years. That's what he's trying to do. I think the fact that they voted for John McCain rather than vote in the Democratic primary makes them more available to somebody who is the outsider, who is the challenger. A lot of those Democrats I talk to don't want to vote on the stump who will go to McCain events. They say they're not going to vote for Al Gore. They may not vote for George W. Bush. He has still got to persuade them. But they're not going to go back to Al Gore. I think the... they're up for grabs. I think you have two candidates here who have both consolidated most of their base. I mean, George Bush, one advantage he has coming out of here is that he has become almost by default the candidate of the conservative base of the Republican Party. No question Al Gore has the union base, the institutional base. The middle, as I see it, is up for grabs. I mean, in California 34% of the voters said George W. Bush was too conservative. 35% of the voters said Al Gore was too liberal. So you're going to have a real fight for the center, and both of them are going to be scrambling there very fast.

MARK SHIELDS: Margaret, let me dissent. Bill Bradley's voters are really very sympathetic to Al Gore in every measurement of opinion -- they intend to support him. They give him a favorable rating. That is not the case with McCain and Bush. I mean, George Bush has a tough struggle to persuade the McCain folks to come across. It was fascinating last night in their speeches. Each man tried-- Gore and Bush in their triumphant addresses-- tried to adopt the rhetoric of McCain, talking about terms of mission of reform and renewal and come join me and so forth, which, of course, have been the McCain sound. The question really does become, are these folks going to drop out -- because they are people who came into this process because of John McCain. And the turnout, the record turnouts are traceable to McCain's candidacy. When McCain wasn't present, as in Delaware and Iowa, turnout was down. Where he was present, they turned out and the question is now do they turn off?

MARGARET WARNER: Paul, we heard both the representative for Governor Bush and for Al Gore, that is in the two previous segments, say, "well, these primary challenges have made them stronger candidates." One, who do you think is the stronger of the stronger candidates? Who improved the most, but also who took on the most baggage from this primary?

PAUL GIGOT: First of all, candidates always say that. Primary - candidates always say that and almost always it isn't true. In this case I think it's true of both of them. A lot better. I don't think there's any question about it. I think George Bush got better - more because he had further go to; he was a rookie in this. Al Gore ran in 1988, remember. And he didn't have a very good experience then. He had two vice presidential candidacies. There's nothing to compare to a national campaign. But he was able to... when he got out on the stump, Gore was, to shed some of the Clinton institutional baggage and get out there and show his stuff a little bit, and I think that helped him. George Bush just had to learn on the job. I mean, when he came out in those early debates, he looked like he wasn't really ready for prime time. As he's gone onward and he mixes it up a little more, I think he's become more comfortable. And I think you see at the press conferences and in some of the later debates that he is more confident. And I think he's going to be a better standard bearer.

MARGARET WARNER: Mark, do you agree with that? And then go on to the question of baggage from this primary campaign.

MARK SHIELDS: Well, Margaret, there's no question that George Bush is a better candidate - a better candidate professionally and a worse-off nominee than he was four months ago. I mean, he was cruising to a nomination with incredibly favorable ratings, which are a thing of the past now -- and with real problems now of voters thinking that he is not anti-Catholic-- I think that was resolved yesterday. It's not a question that McCain charged that Bush was anti-catholic did not sell. It was not bought by voters in the primary states. But there is a question about his being too beholding to certain religious conservative leaders. So Paul is right. After every bruising primary we want to say, "our guy, boy, he's battled tested now. I mean, he's hardened. He's ready." And how hardened, I ask you, Margaret, was Bob Dole after Steve Forbes and Pat Buchanan's challenge in 1996? How hardened and polished and ready for work was George Bush after Pat Buchanan in 1992 or Jimmy Carter after Ted Kennedy? You don't like primary challenges. I think you can look and say they're better candidates but they're more weakened nominees.

PAUL GIGOT: I disagree with this Mark in this sense. I mean BobDole and George Bush, the President former Bush in 1992 and 1996 both had real problems mobilizing their own base. They had a real disconsolate Republican Party. This time George W. Bush, because of this McCain challenge, which forced him into the arms of his base, I think he's got that base unified and mobilized. Now it gives him more leeway to reach out and I think gives him more flexibility in a vice presidential choice. I think it gives him more opportunity to reach out to the McCain moderates and to floating Democrats.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Well, thanks. You all have a great weekend.

ESSAY - CARTOONS THAT WORK

JIM LEHRER: Now please join essayist Roger Rosenblatt in laughing over 75 years of cartoons in "The New Yorker" Magazine.

ROGER ROSENBLATT: This essay on a cartoon collection from the "New Yorker" Magazine comes with the following warning label: "Don't pay any attention to it." There's no point in trying to say something serious about humor. It just gets depressing. Cartoons, especially, defy analysis. We only want to look and laugh, something the readers of the "New Yorker" have been doing blissfully these past 75 years, at the work of James Thurber... ...Charles Addams... ...Ed Koren... ...Chon Day... ...Booth... ...Steig... ...Peter Arno... ...Bob Mankoff, who edited the collection... ...Roz Chast, and on and on. If it's sophisticated analysis you want, analyze this: Peter Arno's "Priest at a Baseball Game." Or Charles Addams' "Man in Flight." Or Thurber's famous courtroom confrontation involving a kangaroo. James Thurber was a particularly intriguing cartoonist. He used to say that he really didn't know how to draw, so when he started out on a cartoon, he didn't know how it would wind up. This may account for a nutty though tantalizing ambiguity in his work. The obvious joke in the courtroom cartoon asks the question how exactly could a kangaroo, as a piece of evidence, rouse anybody's memory, and of what? But then there is also the idea at play of a kangaroo court, if you see what I mean. Then there is Thurber's "Woman on a Bookcase," for some reason omitted from the recent "New Yorker" collection. Crouching on her perch, is she dead and stuffed? Is she alive and insane? Do you care? Do you really want me to go into Max Eastman's treatise on comedy, or Havlitz on humor? Or Henri Bergson's complicated theory of laughter and physical momentum? I don't think so. Back to the magazine, then, which, it seems to me, has used cartoons in a particularly clever way. Nowadays, all magazines open with little items of news and gossip aimed at drawing the reluctant reader toward the longer and more substantial articles. The "New Yorker" cartoons have functioned in the same way, but more elegantly and enjoyably. One flips through the pages of an issue, made happy here and there by a cartoon, and then the eyes are seduced to the words on a page. Many cartoons are articles: Chast's "Cab to Hell;" Stevenson's "Man and Wife;" C.E. Martin's "Father and Son;" Saul Steinberg's "Interior Calendar." In its early days, "New Yorker" cartoons played a subtle game of making fun of the upper classes, while at the same time courting them. The totemic figure of Eustice Tilley serves this double purpose. There were lots of drawings of maids and butlers, plumbers and coal delivery men, putting on airs that blew in both directions. Gilbert Bundy's organist brings all that back. Today, the brush is broader-- political jokes, jokes of the moment. I tend to like cartoons that don't make a lot of sense, deliberately, like Leo Cullum's "Doctor and Cow." And Danny Shanahan's "Elvis." One wonders where a cartoon originates in the imagination. How much fun it must have been for Bill Woodman, once the toasters popped into his head, to let them fly. The best definition of a cartoon I know of is that of critic Stefan Kanfer, who wrote "a cartoon is an oblong island entirely surrounded by laughter." That's as much as anyone needs. Sorry, I can't tell you why this cartoon by Ed Koren is funny. Or this one. But why would you want to know? I'm Roger Rosenblatt.

RECAP

JIM LEHRER: Again, the major stories of this Wednesday: A shooting attack left four people dead, one wounded in Memphis, Tennessee. Police shot the gunman and took him into custody. And the Associated Press reported Bill Bradley will quit the Democratic presidential race tomorrow; aides to Republican John McCain suggested he might drop out as well.

FINALLY - THE TENNESSEE WALTZ

JIM LEHRER: And before we go tonight, we remember a man and his very famous song, country music star Frank "Peewee" King died yesterday at age 86. He was best known for co-writing "Tennessee Waltz," which became a number one hit in 1950, when Patti Page recorded it. Here's Patti Page 48 years later, 1998, singing "Tennessee Waltz" on a PBS broadcast.

PATTI PAGE (singing): I was dancing with my darlin'

to the Tennessee Waltz

when an old friend I happened to see

introduced here to my loved one

and while they were dancing my friend stole my sweetheart from me

I remember the night and the Tennessee Waltz

Now I know just how much I have lost.

Yes, I lost my little darling the night they were playing

the beautiful Tennessee Waltz.

Yes, I lost my little darling the night they were playing

the beautiful Tennessee Waltz

JIM LEHRER: We'll see you on-line and again here tomorrow evening. I'm Jim Lehrer. Thank you and good night.