The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer; April 4, 2006

Good evening, I'm Jim Laera. On the news hour tonight, the news of this Tuesday. In full coverage of the under-fire resignation from Congress, a former majority leader Tom DeLay. Analysis the continuing protests in France over the new jobs law. A news hour report about the eroding landscape south of New Orleans, and a conversation about the nation's crumbling infrastructure, with former ambassador and banker Felix Rohitin. Major funding for the news hour with Jim Laera has been provided by... Here's a company that builds more than a million vehicles a year in places called Indiana and Kentucky.

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This program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you. Thank you. Tom DeLay announced today he's resigning from Congress. The Texas Republican gave up his House Majority Leader post last fall. He'd been indicted on charges of breaking state campaign laws. Today, he again denied wrongdoing, but he said he would not let Democrats use scandal to win his seat. He spoke in a taped statement. The voters of the 22nd District of Texas deserve a campaign about the vital national issues that they care most about, and that affect their lines every day, and not a campaign focused solely as a referendum on me. So today, I am announcing my intention to resign my seat in the House. I will make that resignation effective sometime before mid-June. DeLay has served in Congress for 11 terms, but House Democratic Leader Pelosi said

his decision to leave isn't the end of the story by any means. Every Republican in the House has enabled the Republicans to continue this culture of corruption and has benefited from it, and they must be held accountable. So this isn't about just about Tom DeLay, although he's the ring leader. It's about the Republicans in Congress who enabled and benefited from this corruption. We'll have more on-de-lay right after this news summary. Senate advocates of a guest worker program conceded today they don't have the votes. A bill on the Senate floor would let illegal immigrants obtain green cards, letting them stay after working here six years. But today, Republican John McCain said supporters like the votes to break a filibuster. A House bill passed last year does not include any guest worker provision. Violence across Iraq killed at least 22 people today. When Iraqis died, when a car bomb exploded in a Shiite section of Baghdad, dozens more were wounded.

A separate explosion killed a woman and her two young sons. Also in Baghdad, nearly 2,500 followers of Shiite radical Mutata Al-Sutter marched to support Prime Minister Al-Jafri. Sunnis Kurds and some Shiites oppose him, and that has stalled talks on a new government. In Iraqi tribunal announced new charges against Saddam Hussein and six co-defendants today. We have a report narrated by Lindsey Hillson of Independent Television News. Iraqi attacks against the Kurds back in the 1980s. The most notorious was the use of chemical weapons in halabjah. Today it was announced that Saddam Hussein is to be tried for genocide against the Kurds, with a specific charge on halabjah to come later. The investigative judges in the supreme Iraqi criminal tribunal would like to declare to the Iraqi people and to the victims of the former regime that the investigations of crimes committed against our Kurdish people in the villages of Kurdistan have been completed. The so-called unfall operation claimed the lives of thousands of women, children and men,

and the victims were buried in mass graves. Here Kurdish fighters, the Peshmerga, show how prisoners were tied up. In these cells, they say Saddam's lieutenant tortured and murdered thousands, some hanged from hooks. The Kurds have insisted from the beginning that Saddam should stand trial for genocide against them, while others, including shears in the south of Iraq, want their day in court as well. But the former Iraqi president is already on trial for the alleged murder of 140 people in the village of Tijail. Under Iraqi law, cases rather than individuals are tried, so there's nothing unusual about someone facing one charge and then another. But human rights groups fear that simultaneous trials would strain the defense. Saddam's lawyers say their client has no fate in the system anyway. Saddam's brother-in-law Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as chemical Ali because of halabjah, has also been named in the new case.

Saddam could go on trial on the new charges as early as next month. Labor protests in France turned violent again today as students clashed with riot police in Paris. It started during a new nationwide strike against a law that makes it easier to fire young workers. Police dressed in plain clothes, chased demonstrators, and broke up fights. Protests also hit Marseille and other cities and tied up air and train travel. We'll have more on-the-story later in the program. The Prime Minister of Thailand announced today he's stepping down. He faced a strong protest vote in last Sunday's election over charges of corruption and abuse of power. Opposition forces have staged mass demonstrations for the past two months. The body of another tornado victim was found today in West Tennessee at May 28 deaths and Sunday storms across the south and the Midwest. Tennessee Governor Phil Bredison viewed the damage from a helicopter today. He said it looked like the wrath of God, at least 1,000 homes were destroyed in the state.

Further north in North Dakota and Minnesota, the problem was the Red River, still rising today. In Fargo, it reached nearly 20 feet over flood stage. Officials were counting mainly on levees built after record flooding in 1997. On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones industrial average gained nearly 59 points to close above 11,203, the Nasdaq rose more than 8 points to close at 23.45. The University of Florida celebrated today after winning the National Championship in Men's Basketball that Gators defeated UCLA 73-57 last night in Indianapolis. Joe Keem Noah led the way with 16 points and 6 blocks. Tonight, Duke and Maryland played for the women's title in Boston. And that's it for the new summer tonight. Now Tom D'Alay calls it quits, the job protests in France, the wetlands in Louisiana, and repairing the infrastructure.

The going of Tom D'Alay, news hour congressional correspondent, Kwame Holman, begins our coverage. Tom D'Alay of Texas, the bare knuckle politician, never was known to back down from a fight during any of his 22 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. And so his announcement that he will step down in the face of a tough re-election race stunned the political world. I started looking at it. We ran a poll. It showed that I had a 50-50 chance of winning, spent a lot of time praying about it, trying to seek what the Lord wanted me to do, and it became more and more obvious that I can do more outside of Congress right now than inside. D'Alay admitted that the ongoing criminal investigation into his use of campaign funds to redraw Texas' congressional districts in 2002 was lasting longer than he expected. And another investigation hangs over D'Alay as well.

Last week in Washington, his former A Tony Rudy pleaded guilty to conspiring with lobbyist Jack Abramoff to corrupt public officials. Neither Rudy nor Abramoff has accused D'Alay publicly of breaking the law, but Rudy confessed that he had engaged in illegal activities while working in D'Alay's majority whip office in early 2000. However, D'Alay today rejected the notion that scandal was a factor in his decision to step down. The Abramoff affair has nothing to do with me. The Justice Department has told my lawyers I'm not a target of this investigation. But those men did have greatly disappointed me, but it has nothing to do with me. And it's common that D'Alay's problems could drag down other Republicans in November's midterm elections has been intense, and today on Capitol Hill, Republican Todd T. Hart of Kansas acknowledged that D'Alay's departure could help the party. By Tom D'Alay removing himself from the political process, one of the targets of the Democrat Party is simply not on the table, not available.

So in that sense, it's better for the Republican Party. D'Alay's decision to resign ends the reign of one of the most powerful and controversial Republican leaders in modern times. First elected to the House in 1984, D'Alay rose to power 10 years later when the Republican revolution swept the party into the House majority for the first time in 40 years. D'Alay, a loyal supporter of then-speaker Newt Gingrich, established himself as a forceful majority whip earning the nickname the Hammer. His ability to keep rank-and-file members in line with the leadership was legendary, as were his prodigious fundraising skills. D'Alay also was a driving force behind President Clinton's impeachment in 1999. The House has no choice, but to proceed with an impeachment inquiry. And in 2003, when majority leader Dick Army retired, D'Alay easily won election to replace it. He spoke to the NewsHour's race Suarez shortly afterwards. I'm very passionate about what I believe in.

Some people think I'm a little too aggressive with the passion, but yes, I have things I deeply believe in, and I speak out on them, and I use my position to further that agenda. But D'Alay's style and actions began to work against him. In 2004, the House Ethics Committee had managed him three times for inappropriate behavior once for improperly trying to influence a member's vote on Medicare legislation. And early last year, the Washington Post ran a series of stories detailing trips delay and other Republicans took to London, Scotland, and South Korea, paid for by lobbyists interested in influencing legislation, one of whom was Jack Abramoff. Later when a Texas grand jury indicted him for the alleged illegal use of campaign money to sway state legislative races, delay was forced to quit his leadership post. Though other indictments followed a month later, delay vowed to return to power.

I will temporarily step aside as for leader in order to win exoneration from these basis charges. But in January, when former lobbyist Jack Abramoff was indicted, a group of House Republicans circulated a petition calling for a permanent replacement for delay. Soon after, delay relinquished the leader post for good, but maintained his congressional seat in Texas' 22nd district. I am still a candidate for reelection this November, and I plan to run a very vigorous campaign campaign, and I plan to win it. Delay easily won his primary bid for reelection a few weeks ago, but now says the campaign would be too difficult for his constituents. They don't deserve a nasty eight-month campaign that's a national campaign with all the Michael Moore's and the Barbara Streisands, and coming down here in Texas to support my liberal Democrat opponent, and there's no guarantee that I can win.

I think I could win. It would be a very close race, it would be very expensive, but if I step aside, whoever replaces me on the ballot will be guaranteed a seat in Congress, and it's too important for me, and I've worked too hard to have a Republican majority to give the seat up to a Democrat. At the Capitol today, where delay staff greeted him with cheers, many of his Republican colleagues argued that despite the scandals, the former majority leader has been a force who will leave a lasting impact. Alabama's Robert Atterholt. Tom Delay is someone that I was really an icon around here. He's someone that has had, he's got great common sense, but yet at the same time he understands politics, and he understands the needs of the members, and I think he is someone who will go down as probably most powerful majority quips, and majority leaders that we've seen in this century.

Tom Delay will not officially resign his congressional seat until May or June. He then plans to move permanently to the Washington area, too, as he said, put his life back together. And to Gwen Eiffel. The beginning of the end of Tom Delay's political career was first reported last night in Time Magazine online by reporter Mike Allen, who interviewed Tom and Christine Delay at their Sugarland, Texas home yesterday. He joins us tonight, along with Congressional expert Norman Orenstein, who's also with the American Enterprise Institute. Mike Allen, we've been hearing at least one Republican congressman say that Tom Delay's resignation takes a target off the table. Is that true as far as you know from what you're reporting today from prosecutors for Democrats, for Republicans? Well, I don't think it takes a table, anything off the table for prosecutors, but for Republicans, it is helpful when, as you know, that this fall, any Republican in a tight race was going to have to answer the question, do you support Tom Delay? And he was their leader, a lot of them had a respect and affection for them, a lot of

them were there because of him. And so it was not an easy question for them to answer. Now they can sort of try and portray him as old news. Of course, Democrats will try to make the case, oh, this shows that there was substance to what we were saying, that there really was something there. Now, Mr. Delay said yesterday, yesterday that he believes he does not have any vulnerability in this Justice Department probe of Jack Habromoff that's going on. His legal team told me that around Christmas, they handed over a thousand emails, sort of as a preemptive strike out of Mr. Delay's office, the concerned Jack Habromoff was basically a staffer's chattering with him and about him. And they said that it did not, there was nothing, they didn't seem to be helpful, but they didn't seem to be anything devastating in it. And what I didn't think to ask at the time, and I was thinking about it today, if they have a thousand emails out of that office, the concerned Jack Habromoff, I mean, that may

tell you something of a story it itself. That's the very, very, very, very, very close. I also was interested in your article today. You mentioned that Tom delay actually said that he had hired someone to do all the investigating into his background that he thought prosecutors would do, and they turned up nothing. So he thought took this seriously enough to hire his own investigative? Yeah, I think these were lawyers, and I don't think that's an uncommon step. It was sort of the approach that they took to it. But in their view, he personally did not have responsibility for these things. Now, one of the targets that is removed by this is Mr. Will delay now does not have to fear what the House Ethics Committee might do if it ever shakes off the paralysis and gets on the job. Because failure to supervise staff is an offense that they can look into. And I asked Mr. delay if he was guilty of that. He said he was not.

He said, two people disappointed me out of the hundreds that have worked for me. And I said, yes sir, but two people now have testified that they committed crimes while they were on your payroll. They accepted goods of value. And he said if any office were under the scrutiny that might have been for 10 years, you could find two people who were going to disappoint you. Norm Orenstein, how powerful was is Tom delay? Tom delay has been extraordinarily powerful when, if you think about Republicans over the last 20 years who have shaped the House of Representatives policy and our politics. The two that would come to mind would be Newt Gingrich and Tom delay. And since Mr. Gingrich left the speakership in 1998, delay has been the dominant figure in Washington other than the president. Tom delay was the driving force behind the impeachment of Bill Clinton. If it weren't for delay almost certainly we would have had a censure motion that would have gotten bipartisan support, Tom delay has had as much to do with the policy success of the Bush years in getting almost perfect unity with a small majority in Congress that helped

to power them to successes from tax cuts to Medicare prescription drugs. And of course he's had an enormous influence on politics. As Mike suggested, he had a lot to do with the numbers that they have in Congress now. You almost single handedly engineer the redistricting in Texas that gave them an extra six seats that may be the cushion potentially to keep them in power now. So how does it affect that balance of power for 2006? This is just one congressional seat after all that we're talking about in Texas. It's one congressional seat. What Mr. delay said is he wants to be sure he can keep it in Republican hands and it'll be easier to do that with a district that went 64% for Mr. Bush in President Bush in 2004, although only 55% for delay with another figure out there. And it may be that these scandals will result in a few more members leaving before they are actually vulnerable in a reelection campaign. But I think the bigger problem is that while he's not a target in the same way for Democrats

and their campaigns, as Mike suggested, he does remain in the crosshairs of prosecutors and more members do as well. We've not only had two prominent staffers of his who were extremely close to him, former communications director Mike Scanlan, former Deputy Chief of Staff Tony Rudy, basically plead now guilty and cooperate with prosecutors in the latter case for conducting a criminal enterprise within the majority leader's office. We have a third former staffer very close to him, Ed Buckham, a former chief of staff, who's also committed some clear improprieties and maybe next on the list. But for Mr. Delay, whose watchword as a leader was his attention to detail, his indefatigability, keeping on top of everything, basically have three top staffers committing mayhem underneath your nose and not know about it, it does make a lot of sense. Mike Allen, this is not the first time that Tom Delay has had a brush with ethics issues. He's been rebuked three separate times by the ethics committee when it was actually

working. But why step down now? Well Gwen, I think he was fairly candid about the fact that he could have lost. And his campaign recently got a poll that had very bleak news for him. And he told me there was a slightly better than 50-50 chance he could win, but of course that also meant that he could lose. And so what he will tell you is he wanted to spare his district the mudfests that was going to spare the party that when, as Norm mentions, almost any other Republican could basically walk into the seat. The other way to look at it though is this avoids the possibility that this remarkable career, and that's an amazing way that Norm phrased it, the dominated Washington second on the President, could end with a loss. What surprised me about Mr. Delay's comments was he did not seem to have grappled with or realize how indelible some of these appearance issues are.

You mentioned the previous brushes with the ethics. And one of the most difficult things that any of us can do is see ourselves as others see us. I certainly can't. But I was surprised when I asked Mr. Delay about the news stories about the $740-night hotel rooms, the cigars, the limos, the golf resorts. I asked him if any of that high-living had been a mistake for a servant of the people. And he said that it hadn't been, that that was a matter of going where the people were, that he correctly pointed out that he doesn't choose where these groups that he's speaking to are going to have their events. He goes to them, and you heard a bit of the bitterness, a bit of the feistiness left in him when he said that the news media, when he'll speak at an event all day and play golf in the afternoon, of course the news stories will be about the golf and not about the speaking. He really feels like he's gotten a bum deal. Delay, as you know, the Delay mindset has always been to play very aggressively, pay right up to the line.

But what they've always said is we have lots of lawyers, we listen to them, we follow their advice. And what he'd always said was he went right up to the line with no apologies, proudly, he told me he was against any sort of lobbying reform yesterday, but didn't cross it. Of course, prosecutors are looking to see if that happened at all. It's very possible that Mr. Delay personally did not do any of these things. But I asked him about what all of our mothers told us. You're known by the company you keep. Was that a problem? And he didn't see that as a problem either. Norm Ornstein, the Democrats have really enjoyed in some respects having Tom Delay as the poster boy for the culture of corruption. They talk about a lot. What will they do now? They're going to have to talk more generally, of course. But if Tom Delay stayed in Congress and weren't indicted, they would have difficulty making this of larger national issue anyhow. If he gets indicted even out of Congress, he's going to remain a major national figure in that front. What we're waiting for now, Gwen, is a reality.

He may say that he left because he got a bad poll. He just went through a primary campaign less than just over a month ago. We've got seven months to go before an election. It's hard to imagine that this wasn't related to his staffers guilty plea and what may flow from that. And the fact is, we've got prosecutors moving in a classic way up the food chain through the lower figures to get the big fish. It's very likely that a number of members of Congress are going to be indicted before we're done with this. And then the culture of corruption issue may not need a single symbol. Norm Ornstein, Mike Allen, thank you both very much. Sure, Gwen. Have a beautiful week, Gwen. So to come on the news hour tonight, the protesters of France, shrinking wetlands and the failing infrastructure. Margaret Warner has the French story. The strike against France's new employment law began peacefully today with more than

a million people taking part in marches across the country. Airlines had to cancel a third of their flights. Trains and the Paris metro were also curtailed. But late in the day, after the march in Paris reached the large Place de Tali, young men began throwing stones, tearing street signs, and scuffling with plain clothes police. Scores were arrested. For two months, students and trade unions have been staging demonstrations against the bill, which is intended to encourage the hiring of people under 26 by letting employers dismiss them without cause during their first two years on the job. President Jacques Chirac told a televised audience last Friday he would sign the bill despite the protests because it would help France compete in a globalized economy. But he did order two key changes to soften it. He reduced the trial period on the job for younger workers from two years to one, and said

employers must give reasons for terminating them. The protesters are demanding the lobby scrapped entirely because it would loosen labor and social protections when guaranteed for generations. This is a large sector of France who lived precariously, especially amongst the young, and we are adding another layer of precariousness, and we will not accept that. The protests have provoked some ridicule in Britain and the U.S., where labor laws allow layoffs with little or no warning. Prime Minister Dominique Deville-Pant, who introduced the measure, told Parliament today something had to be done to address France's 22 percent jobless rate among young people, and he insisted the government, quote, would not throw in the towel. The priority, and we are all conscious about that, is to get out of the current crisis. It is in nobody's interest, and especially not the young people who are looking for a job and waiting for solutions to their difficulties.

Yet there were signs the French government may be ready for additional compromise. A Cabinet Minister said negotiations with the unions would open tomorrow and there won't be any limits to the talks. The law won't take effect until Parliament approves Chirac's changes. And now the longer view of all this from two long-time observers of France and Europe. Jim Hoagland is a Foreign Affairs columnist for the Washington Post and a former Paris Bureau chief for the Post, and Stefan Richter is editor and publisher of the globalist and online daily that covers international economy and politics. He also writes a monthly column for the French business paper, Lace Echoe. Did I say that right? Correct. Lace Echoe. So, Stefan and Jim, welcome, as we know, many West European countries have far more generous social benefits than the U.S. But several have trimmed them without this kind of outcry. What is it about France that explains this violent reaction? Revolutionary traditions, 1789, 1848, 1968. It's part of the French identity that you sometimes need to be on the barricades as we

see today. It's also, unfortunately, feeling that the French have a sense of that they're a little bit better than the rest of us, never mind the Americans. But in Europe, whether it's the Danes, the Germans, and some lots of countries have gone through severe adjustments, following really the United States where in our life here change is a daily occurrence. It's not a cosmic event. We know it's a founding condition of this country. And the Europeans at long last have embraced this message, not willingly, but because they realize with the onset of China and everything else, there was no choice. And in this sense, America actually has led the way, not that the Europeans on any other matter willingly follow the United States, and they do it grudgingly on this one. But I think it's important that that has worked. What do you think, Jim, how will it is about France that makes this the flashpoint? Well, the French do have, as Stefan said, a tradition of protest. This is the country, after all, where the philosopher Descartes said, I think, therefore I am.

Many of the French feel, I protest, therefore I am. It's a way of proving the existence of a certain kind of solidarity, that the French say that is very unique in their society. The feeling of being together is under such siege right now in France, because of the pressures of globalization, because of a failing government that is in serious political trouble, and because of other factors, these pressures all come to bear on the French sense of identity. And the French sense of work, the changing nature of work, the relationship between work and leisure. One of the pieces of graffiti that has been on the walls and parishes, Tavi, Mwap, or Vivo Pus, work less to live more. That's a very French attitude. They feel that there is a way of life, an identity that is being threatened by all of these pressures. But now, Stefan, this weekend, as we saw, the French President Shirak did offer the students half a loaf. I mean, he went half way in his speech.

He said, I understand the concerns of these French students and their parents I want to speak to them. Why wasn't that enough? I mean, what he's proposing now is fairly mild. It is, but he just doesn't have any credibility anymore. This after all is the man who, for the first time, was Prime Minister of France in 1974. He's been with most French people as one of their leaders for as long as anybody can remember. It takes him till the year 2006, to mouth words about, we're not just glorious France, but we actually do need to change the world out there. We have to react like everybody else, pardon me, but, you know, sir, you've had two full terms in office, which in the case of France are seven years each. He has not done this until now. His predecessors have done it. He has failed the country. He has misled the young people, the old people, everybody. He has pretended France is such a glorious place, and as Jim discussed, it is a wonderful place to be, you know, to vacation in many Americans who can afford the airline tariffs these days, enjoy it as well, but the need to change is they and politicians ought to lead

that change, and he has been the biggest failure. He is at liberty then removed Prime Ministers, which is the prerogative of the President of France. He's always blamed somebody else. If it wasn't the Americans in bad market capitalism, it was Prime Ministers and so on. But that's just not cutting it any more in today's world. But Jim Hobland, the economist magazine, which on the one hand reported that there was a poll saying three quarters of French university students would like to work for the government sector. On the other hand, it also reported that French private companies saw their profits jump by 50 percent last year. Why can't the French companies give more? Well, if you looked closely at those statistics of the French companies, you'd find that many of those profits come from overseas, which is true for companies in any country today. So, it's money-losing propositions at home are financed by profits that come from overseas now. The details, the economic details of this particular struggle, have been overtaken now by the test of wills that is involved now between the government on one hand and the unions,

the students on the other. The government has adopted a strategy under Prime Minister Dominique DeVito-Pant of trying to change the psychology of the French. I think the Prime Minister sees this as the kind of test that Margaret Thatcher faced in Britain in the early 80s when she beat the unions. And he's trying to set up a situation to do that in France. It is much tougher in France. And the importance of these demonstrations today, the immediate importance, is that the momentum was not lost. As many people turned out today, as turned out last week, the government was counting on the demonstrations to begin to fizzle. You then have the spring break. Actually, Iraq gave his concession, pardon me. And our perhaps, if it became more violent, then the government would see a law and order response from the population. Neither of those things has happened. Now, you also wrote Sunday, though, that you think, despite the particular nature of France,

this is also tapping into something much broader. Well, I found some echoes, really, in the what's going on in France, in this test of wills and the changing nature of work and the kind of social contracts that we need to have. One of the hidden features of this conflict in France is that the young people, people under 26, are being discriminated against with this law. This law applies only to people in their first job who are under 26, it withdraws protections from them that all of their elders have, that people who are older have under French law. So there's a feeling of discrimination. There's a feeling of the sacrifices that globalization is demanding of people is being disproportionately applied to the young. It's an echo of what's going on in this country with the huge budget deficits, the trade deficits, the passing on of the bill for the future to young people.

So that's one echo. Another echo is the way in which the globalization, which is after all the movement of people, of ideas, of goods across porous national borders now, that globalization is putting pressures on the workplace that we don't understand very well. We see this in terms of the protest, the arguments that are going on here over immigration. Immigration is a phenomenon that increases with globalization will continue to increase, and we have to find ways to accommodate it in this country, I believe. Efforts to stand against it, to be king, canoot, ordering the tides to stop. Very much like the French government's reaction, trying to do tinkering with their social model, which has been overtaken already by globalization. Do you agree, Stefan, Richter, that this is a symptom or a manifestation of resistance to kind of this new global capitalism that we are seeing in other countries, even the

U.S.? Wherever the French protest too much, we protest too little. I mean, we've had pensions totally disappear and lots of other things. We don't even have health security for most people, for a vital part of America and even those at large companies, it's shrinking and shrinking. So there is a fear balance in the middle, but I think what is important also to remember is that as much as we want to talk about globalization, globalization means change. Change means evolution. It's been the human condition since way before the Romans. And what we don't understand in the case of France, the tragedy really has been that in order to move a society, it's better if you had a left-of-center government, the case of Germany, the case of Denmark, various Scandinavian countries. You need to bring after these decades of big benefits for workers. You need to bring the unions along and left-of-center governments have a much better chance to do that. And France has had the tragedy to have right-of-center governments who never had the courage and had to risk general strikes, which is sort of what we're a little bit close to now.

And other countries have had the good fortunes to have more wiser, leftist leaders. So the Nixon to China syndrome very briefly, how do you think this is going to end? Will the government fall? I hope not, because it doesn't make a difference, and if the socialists who are hoping for it are asking to be in government, they'll face the same things plus some. So somebody's got to resolve this mess that the French have gotten themselves into, and it takes a leader, whoever that will be. How do you think it will be resolved? I think the law will be withdrawn. You do. I do. The government will cave. The government will eventually cave. If the protests continue at the same kind of momentum. All right, Jim Hogan, Stefan Richter. Thank you both. Now, restoring the wetlands in southern Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, NewsHour correspondent Betty Ann Bowser has our science unit report. Take an airboat ride through the wetlands south of New Orleans, and you might think you're

moving through an unchanging wilderness. The air is thick with e-grads and blue herons. Alligators swim through the water or sun themselves on mud banks. But the pristine look is deceptive. Before Katrina, Louisiana was already losing 25 to 35 square miles of these wetlands a year. The equivalent of a football field every half hour. Coastal scientists Charles Villarubia says, in the past, wetlands slowed down the force of hurricanes. When they start getting friction, they start to slow down a little bit and weaken. In fact, years ago, just even a few years ago, my parents never even thought of evacuating from New Orleans. But now they do because of the loss of wetlands. The storms are coming in stronger than they had previous. The change in wetlands pre and post Katrina shows up most dramatically in satellite photos. Villarubia says what is now open water was green when he visited before the storm.

We were standing just right across the canal here and fresh water vegetation over our heads. And further down south, I've got pictures of beautiful brackish marsh with fresh water marsh coming in on the sides of the canals, just like what's supposed to happen. But the erosion goes back generations. Robert Twillie of Louisiana State University has plotted the loss on his computer. So all those green areas, that's what the wetlands look like in 1839. It was extensive area of landscape in 1839. And what you notice in this landscape is that it's pretty solid land. And what happens when you move in time is that you change the spatial configuration of the landscape. And then when you get to 1993, you can literally see water that is now closer to communities. In past ages, the Mississippi and other rivers carried sediment that sometimes overflowed

its banks and helped build up the land, counteracting a natural tendency to sink. Once it took root and grew, creating and restoring the wetlands naturally. For 5,000 years, there were hurricanes, there were 5,000 years, there were floods, there was sea level rise, and there was subsidence. So you know, there are forces of nature that wetlands have been able to survive. The one different ingredient in our landscape in the last 300 years is humans. The biggest human intervention was generations of levee building. After the catastrophic 1927 Mississippi River flood, the federal government subsidized on almost continuous series of levees on the lower river. The flooding was controlled, but sediment that once buildup the wetlands flowed out to the Gulf of Mexico. The wetlands also suffered because of the extensive canal system built to help oil companies move their products from offshore platforms to market.

Those allowed in salt water, killing thousands of acres of fresh water wetlands. This wetland complex is so vulnerable to human settlement that has actually led to removing a coastal processes that stabilize this landscape and that degradation has increased the risk to every coastal community because it's not that the people in 300 years have been moving closer to the sea. The sea is moving closer to the people. Randy Hanchi, the number two man at the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, gave us an aerial tour of the wetlands that remain. I don't know that the Gulf is going to show up on the doorstep of New Orleans in 50 years, but you're going to have shallow open water all the way to do all the metropolitan areas if we don't do something about restoring some of these wetlands. The state has been trying to restore some of the thousands of acres of wetlands.

One of their projects is 15 miles south of New Orleans. Here, steel gates allow thousands of tons of fresh water to flow from the Mississippi River under the levee and into the open wetlands beyond. The fresh water supports healthy plants that create more land. The process works the way it did before levees were built, but in a more controlled way without the floods. But the state estimates that a serious program to restore wetlands would require many more water diversions than those already built. There would also have to be more projects to rebuild barrier islands in the Gulf, like East Timberland Island. Hanchi says at East Timberland the state rebuilt dunes and marshes and replanted lost grass. Once restored, the island acted like a speed bump to slow down incoming storms.

What a major wetlands restoration would cost big bucks, which is why New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagan was in Congress recently asking for additional funds. For every mile of wetlands, it allows for us to subside a storm surge by one foot. And since the coastal erosion problem in Louisiana is so severe right now, we probably lost 100 years worth of coastline as it relates to this storm. But years ago, the state estimated a comprehensive wetland plan alone without rebuilding the levees would cost $14 billion. The Bush administration rejected that plan three years ago and told the state to come up with a smaller, more affordable plan instead, $1.8 billion worth. Yet after Katrina, scientists like Twilley say the larger scale program is more important than ever.

I don't think it's fair to put $1.8 billion into a program and sell this expectation that we're restoring the coast. It's not going to do it. In fact, I could even argue that until you reach some threshold of funding and commitment, then you really are not going to have an impact on what we feel here in Louisiana is the challenge and the commitment needed to sustain this coast. Recently, the Army Corps of Engineers began asking the people of New Orleans to comment on a new single plan to combine flood protection and wetland restoration into one package. We've got input from a lot of the professionals. We are in a partnership here with the state of Louisiana and we continue getting bullets listening input from them and any of the other people that are on the team, but we need the public input. Twilley agrees, levees alone won't protect New Orleans from future flooding. The guarantee of protection related to that barrier system when water is lapping at your

heels, I feel is a real, almost, fetal effort that unless you actually replace those water areas with land that is much more stable, then I think there's going to be a real fault sense of security relative to what we're going to tell the public in relation to the degree of protection that we can guarantee in the future. So far, neither the federal government nor the state of Louisiana has indicated it will undertake a massive wetlands restoration. And finally, tonight, a conversation about the nation's infrastructure and erase worries. The U.S. has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on building the nation's roads, bridges, water systems, and other infrastructure, yet for all of that spending, much of the nation's

infrastructure is either deteriorating or inadequate to meet the demands of a growing population. That's the conclusion of a special bipartisan commission that issued its own blueprint for fixing the problem. The commission was created by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, among other things. It calls for changing funding priorities for the transportation system so that safety and congestion problems are reduced on the road, in the skies, and at harbors. Making more money in the creation and replacement of public school buildings, and creating a national federal corporation that would oversee the dollars, cut waste, and limit political interference. Felix Roeden is an investment banker and co-chairs the commission with former Senator Warren Rudman. He's the former U.S. ambassador to France and is perhaps best known for his role in helping New York City emerge from bankruptcy in the 1970s, and he joins us now. Was it a Roeden? What are the kinds of things you want to fix? Well, first of all, I think one has to recognize that the federal government used to be

a full partner with the states and local governments with respect to spending on infrastructure. And the federal government has cut way back, and therefore now, even though the states are trying to keep up with the needs, the absence of the federal government in a serious way is sufficiently large, so that it's very, very difficult to do. In any way, what you do, you have to do more efficiently if you're going to begin to make up for that big differential. Most importantly, what I would like to see happen is for the political system to recognize and for the American people to recognize that investment isn't the same as simply expenditures. And infrastructure requires investment, which over the years will provide a return, but it isn't the same as spending money for bullets or for just day-to-day expenditures. And therefore that you ought to consider what you spend on infrastructure as long as it's

intelligently done and as long as it has all of the controls as a long-term investment, and it should be financed with long-term bonds, which gives the economy time to grow underneath and earn back the investment that's being made. And that every other country in the world does that. And as a matter of fact, every great United States president has looked at this thing in this way, beginning with Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase. The momentum in Washington in the last 20 years has been to push these things down the ladder of government, block grant them away to states, to counties, to cities. Why try to set up a new federal architecture for such a vast national challenge? You can look at the investment corporation at what we're trying to create as a catalyst for investments by the federal government and the states and the private sector together.

I mean, imagine this bank as being fulfilling somewhat the role of the World Bank on the one hand and the role of Goldman Sachs on the other, i.e., making long-term loans on important development projects that take a very long time and planning for these investments. And at the same time dealing with a private sector and bringing private capital into this mix. But it can't be done simply at the local level. And more and more, you're dealing also with regional problems where regional financing mechanisms should come into play. In certain kinds of infrastructure, tunnels, bridges, railways, there are fees, there are taxes, there are revenues that come in, and ways of counting whether or not you've been successful. But one of the things that you've identified as a critical need is school rebuilding. And a child that's learned well is a little harder to count the return on over time.

Well, we have specifically singled out school construction because we think it's a vital it's part of the process of education. You can't have a program that's called Leave No Child Behind and then put the child in buildings where the roofs are leaking and where the windows are broken and where you can't really study. And in that case, then the corporation would have the right to actually make a grant to a school system that is in dire need for money for a school provided the school district to take proper action in terms of the educational standards and the way they run their system. We would just make grants for new schools. We've watched repeated accidents on the nation's rail system, which is crumbling in many places, too heavily used in some places and not used at all in others. We watched a very slow federal response before and after Hurricane Katrina to flood alleviation

in the Gulf Coast. And people really believe that a federal response is what's needed now when the federal government has been found to be lacking in its ability to handle some challenges. Well, just because an agency of the federal government has been found incompetent to deal with the problem doesn't mean that the problem can't be dealt with by competent people. I mean, you know, that is, I hate to say this, but there's this, that it's a fact. You have to be able to deal with these and you have to be able to deal with these things in combination by the federal government and the state and the city and the local government. I mean, when New York was going bankrupt in the 70s, the first thing we did was to put around the same table, the governor, the representative of the federal government, the mayor, the heads of the unions and the heads of the banks, because it's the only way you

can deal with large problems is with A, on a bipartisan basis and B, on a business labor court basis and you just can't have one agency try to do it all by itself. 1.6 trillion dollars, is that the contemplated price tag? No, no, no, no, no, no, what the association of civil engineers has done and they do this every two or three years is they do some kind of a balance sheet of the nation's public assets and they give it a grade about A, B, C, D on the level of being adequate. And they've come, their latest figure is that it would take a trillion, 600 billion dollars to bring the infrastructure of this country up to an acceptable level of decency. We're falling another 300 billion dollars every two or three years behind because we don't provide adequate support to this problem, now I can also tell you that it's very difficult to do this if you religiously think that you can't raise taxes and that you can't raise

revenues and that fees are a problem and certainly taxes are a problem. But the fact that it's going to cost more money next year and more money still the year after that, doesn't that put some urgency on this in your opinion? Of course, every ten minutes it costs more money, absolutely. But you know, I used to have a boss in mind and when I started working at my firm, we used to say, you know, you can explain things to people that you can't understand for them. Ambassador Felix Road and thanks a lot. Thank you. Again, the major developments of this day, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, announced he's resigning from Congress. And Iraqi tribunal announced new charges against Saddam Hussein and Sixth Code defendants and labor protests in France turned violent again as students clashed with riot police in Paris.

We'll see you online and again here. Tomorrow evening, I'm Jim Lara. Thank you and good night. Major funding for the news hour with Jim Lara has been provided by. Sometimes success needs to be nurtured, sometimes it wants to be pushed, sometimes success takes everything we can give and then demands more. And sometimes all it takes is someone who sees what you see at CIT, wearing the business of financing great ideas so you can take yours all the way to the top. You've worked hard over the years creating a good life for yourself and for your family. At Pacific Life, we understand the importance of building a legacy that will stand the test of time. For over 135 years, Pacific Life has provided millions of Americans with the power of choice, a wide array of solutions to help them meet their financial and estate planning goals.

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I'm Jim Lehrer, on the news hour tonight the news of this Tuesday, then full coverage of the under-fire resignation from Congress, a former majority leader Tom DeLay, analysis

the continuing protests in France over the new jobs law. A news hour report about the eroding landscape south of New Orleans, and a conversation about the nation's crumbling infrastructure with former ambassador and banker Felix Roetton. There's a company that builds more than a million vehicles a year in places called Indiana and Kentucky, one that has 10 plants from the foothills of West Virginia to the Pacific coastline. What company is this? Toyota, a company that along with its dealers and suppliers has helped create hundreds of thousands of US jobs, a company proud to do its small part to add to the landscape of America. The world's demand for energy will never stop, which is why a farmer is growing corn, and a farmer is growing soy, and why ADN is turning these crops into biofuels.

The world's demand for energy will never stop, which is why ADN will never stop. We're only getting started, ADN, resourceful by nature. And by Pacific life, CIT, and the Atlantic Philanthropies, and this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you. Thank you. Tom DeLay announced today he's resigning from Congress. The Texas Republican gave up his House Majority Leader post last fall. He'd been indicted on charges of breaking state campaign laws. Right.