The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

JIM LEHRER: Good evening, I'm Jim Lehrer. On the NewsHour tonight, we look at inspections and other developments in the Alaska Airlines crash; Terence Smith examines the charge the press is soft on John McCain; Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on how Jesse Ventura is doing as a governor; Gwen Ifill follows the orbiting asteroid in space; and to mark Valentine's Day, we have an excerpt from the late Charles Schulz's vision of a "Peanuts" valentine, and some poetry read by poet laureate Robert Pinsky. It all follows our summary of the news this Monday.

NEWS SUMMARY

JIM LEHRER: Tornadoes tore through Southwest Georgia early today, killing at least 22 people in three counties. More than 100 others were injured. Search and rescue teams were looking for more victims. One twister cut a five-mile gash across the outskirts of the town of Camilla. Officials said 50 to 60 homes were destroyed. Severe storms also hit parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Today was the deadline for the nation's airlines to inspect more than 1,000 planes. The Federal Aviation Administration ordered the checks after the Alaska Airlines crash. They focused on the jackscrew, a two-foot-long threaded rod that drives the horizontal stabilizer. The airlines reported finding problems in 22 planes, with the inspections nearly completed. We'll have more on this story right after the News Summary. Overseas today, Kosovo's most multiethnic city was mostly quiet, a day after ethnic Albanians attacked peacekeepers. Snipers wounded two French soldiers yesterday in Mitrovica, and the soldiers killed one of the gunmen. NATO troops arrested dozens of ethnic Albanians, and imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew. In Washington, State Department Spokesman James Rubin had this to say.

JAMES RUBIN: These violent incidents are deplorable. We call on all the parties there to cease confrontation, and it should be very clear that the confrontation is coming from both sides. But week after week in place after place in Kosovo, the situation has improved in terms of security, in terms of murder, in terms of robbery and crime. This particular spot, Mitrovica, is a particularly hot spot.

JIM LEHRER: And that town had been restive since a grenade attack killed two elderly Serbs earlier this month. Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat said today an "explosive situation" has been created with Israel. The two sides missed Sunday's deadline for a framework peace treaty. And last night, Arafat's organization said it would declare statehood by September if there's no final agreement by then. The Israelis blamed the Palestinians for lack of progress in the talks. Donald Trump will not run for President this year. The New York real estate developer said today he considered seeking the Reform Party nomination, but he said the party is "a total mess." Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura had backed Trump, but he quit the party Friday. And over the weekend, an ally of Pat Buchanan was made its chairman. Buchanan is running for the Reform nomination. A robot spacecraft became the first manmade object to orbit an asteroid today. The near earth asteroid rendezvous, known as NEAR, began a year-long study of an asteroid named Eros. Scientists said its findings could help defend the earth from possible asteroid collisions in the future.

DR. CARL PILCHER: You could imagine that if you are trying to deflect an asteroid that's on a collision course with earth, you'd sure like to know how that asteroid is going to respond to whatever force you manage to put on it, whether it be an explosion or a collision or whatever. So, we have to understand asteroids in order to ever have any hope of being able to deflect an asteroid, should we ever find one on a collision course with earth.

JIM LEHRER: And we'll have more on this story later in the program tonight. Two prominent Americans died over the weekend. Tom Landry was the victim of leukemia. He coached the Dallas Cowboys to five Super Bowls, and won two of them; he was 75 years old. And cartoonist Charles Schulz died from colon cancer. He was the creator of the "Peanuts" characters. His final Sunday installment appeared yesterday. It showed Charlie Brown, Lucy, Snoopy and the rest, along with a letter thanking readers. We'll have a Valentine memory of Charles Schulz, and a Valentine poem at the end of the program tonight. Between now and then, inspecting airliners, McCain and the media, Jesse Ventura as governor, and orbiting an asteroid.

UPDATE - CRASH AFTERMATH

JIM LEHRER: Our update on Alaska Air Flight 261 and related developments comes from Lee Dickinson, a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board, now director of the Washington Office of Exponent Failure Analysis, which does aviation investigation work; and Michael Goldfarb, former chief of staff at the Federal Aviation Administration. He now runs a consulting firm on aviation.

First on the discovery that a critical part on that Alaska Airlines plane, the plane that was on Flight 261, there was a part on there that was found faulty but it was not replaced. This was in 1997. That was the jackscrew. Explain what that process was all about.

LEE DICKINSON: The process itself, Jim, is the jackscrew itself is a basically a rod that's about two feet long and it's about one-and-a-half inches in diameter. It has threads on it. It screws down into this gimbel nut that was supposed to have been replaced or was inspected in September of 1997 and apparently was not replaced. The jackscrew itself is attached to the front of the horizontal stabilizer. When it moves down or screws down into this gimbel nut, it pulls the front of the stabilizer down as it unscrews and moves up, it pushes the horizontal stabilizer up which controls the pitch of the aircraft.

JIM LEHRER: Makes the plane go up or down.

LEE DICKINSON: It does.

JIM LEHRER: Yeah, right. Now, Mr. Goldfarb, the word on this was that they discovered this thing had a problem but then they reinspected it and decided not to replace it and that was considered perfectly within the rules, is that correct?

MICHAEL GOLDFARB: Upon the reinspection they found it was within the normal limits. What both the board and the FAA have to look at is the procedures for doing maintenance at Alaska Air. You know, 8 out of 24 of the planes at Alaska Air have these problems. It's too early to make any conclusions either on the crash or what this jackscrew problem may be.

JIM LEHRER: But let's go through that. Alaska air found 8... how many of these planes did they have?

MICHAEL GOLDFARB: I think a fleet of 34. A fairly high percentage of planes that had some kind of problem with the jackscrew, not necessarily the shavings of the gimbel nut off them, maybe just grease - but, in other words, some problems, enough to warrant the FAA concern.

JIM LEHRER: What about an overview here. There were almost 1200, about 1100 of these planes that were MD-80, 83s and planes that were related in some way to this plane that went down, Alaska Airlines Flight 261, and they found 22 altogether that had stabilizer problems. Did that surprise you? Is that a lot of them to have a problem?

LEE DICKINSON: As Mike indicated, Jim, I don't think 22 out of 1100 or 1200, unless you know specifically what that problem is -- because we don't know if it was all the same problem is related to that area. That's something that the Board will be investigating. So 22 out of 1100 or 1200 is a small number. However, to put that more in perspective, if 8 of those 22 are from a fleet of 34, the board will have to specifically look at what were the problems on those 8 of Alaska Airlines' 34.

JIM LEHRER: Explain why these planes are all related, why the DC-9s and others.

MICHAEL GOLDFARB: It's a family of planes, a series of planes. The airlines put different names on those aircraft as they give the next modern upgrade. The DC-9 became the MD-80; the 83 a stretch version. The airlines ordered different kinds but they're all basically the same aircraft configuration. The component parts may be different but it's very important that the order that the FAA announced extends to all the planes that have the stabilizer and the horizontal trim configured in the same manner. Right now, we have nothing to indicate yet what caused this crash. The worst thing in aviation is not to know why because you don't know what corrective action to take. This is precautionary. There's been no indication yet that even the stabilizer itself brought down the plane off the California coast.

JIM LEHRER: But they have found the screw jack off of 261 and it was damaged.

MICHAEL GOLDFARB: Absolutely.

JIM LEHRER: Now the question is how do you determine what damaged it, right?

LEE DICKINSON: That's exactly right. Again, it's like I indicated -- we have to make sure. The Boards especially have to make sure that they don't focus in on something that may be the triggering event. It may end up being but it's too early to tell. So they are focusing right now on looking at the material. They have determined that some of the material, these shavings that are on this jackscrew are indeed fromthe interior part of the gimbel nut. That is softer material than the jackscrew itself. They need to compare the information they're getting from that analysis to the other airplane parts they're examining.

JIM LEHRER: We have a little diagram that shows what you all have been talking about. Anybody who in all of this have had occasion to occasionally to screw a screw into a nut and it can get loose and the shavings you're talking about are just normal wear and tear.

LEE DICKINSON: Could be.

JIM LEHRER: Now, just for additional perspective here, the nut itself is how big?

LEE DICKINSON: The nut itself is about, if you can see, probably several inches, maybe 6 or 8 inches if I'm correct in that. The diameter of the inside of the nut is just a little bit larger than the diameter of the jackscrew itself.

JIM LEHRER: Which is one point, an inch-and-a-half, right?

LEE DICKINSON: 1.6 inches, about an inch-and-a-half, that's correct. What happens is that jackscrew screws down into this gimbel nut. And there are a couple motors that are sitting on top of this whole... the jackscrew itself. They move up and down as the jackscrew screws down or screws up, that part is connected to the horizontal stabilizer which indeed is moved up or moved down to control the pitch of the aircraft.

JIM LEHRER: Now, Mr. Goldfarb, both of you say, hey, wait a minute, 22 out of 1,000 or more airplanes is not a problem but why wouldn't these 22 and the 8 in Alaska Airlines and this one on Flight 261 if, in fact, that's the cause here or the problem here, why wouldn't they have been found in routine investigations and inspections?

MICHAEL GOLDFARB: First of all, I don't believe either Lee or I said they weren't a problem -- the fact that one additional problem on a plane can be very significant to aviation investigators. So the number isn't as important as what they're coming up with. These tail stabilizers are really torn apart during heavier maintenance, called c-check, it's simply when they tail the tail apart. It's not done everyday on a routine inspection. And there's been no prior history. There have been five or six MD-80s that had stabilizer problems but none tied to this jackscrew. So there's no prior way that either the FAA or the airlines would have known that this problem that we're finding here is probably a first of its kind in terms of a safety concern.

JIM LEHRER: Now why would that be? Because what could be the possible explanations for that? Why this was never uncovered or never a problem before?

MICHAEL GOLDFARB: Flying so safe and it doesn't feel that way with such high profile crashes lately, quite frankly there's millions of parts on an aircraft. Every aircraft has a service bulletin on it, or directive about something, just like your engine light comes on, change your oil soon, on a car. So there's millions of parts that need repair or replacement, and the ability to regulate and oversee an industry that precisely is pretty much like to the manufacturer and to the airlines and they have a pretty good maintenance programs in general. That's why crashes are so rare. But here's a case where we just don't know; we don't know what's going on here. It may not have been the stabilizer. It may have been exacerbated by the crew. We have to look at the piloting of the aircraft; we have to look at many other things before we can be definitive. And I think they are moving fairly rapidly here to come to some answers but the FAA didn't want to take chances. And they said let's not have the benefit of the doubt. Let's take the benefit ofthe doubt. Let's ground, you know, inspect this fleet immediately so there isn't an unforeseen problem.

JIM LEHRER: What would you add to that just in terms of the process? I mean the layman would look at this and say, that's fine, guys, after a plane goes down, then everybody inspects 1,000 airplanes and finds 22 that are damaged in some way -- why the normal process of inspection doesn't find something like this?

LEE DICKINSON: Well, again, you have to keep in mind that, as Mike indicated, this is a high-profile accident. The aviation safety record is superb.

JIM LEHRER: On this particular airplane, yeah.

LEE DICKINSON: The MD-80 itself. The aviation safety in general is superb in the United States and worldwide. The MD-80 specifically is a very safe airplane. If you look at the accident rates on MD-80s, it's very good in terms of numbers. One thing you have to keep in mind though is there has not been a history of a problem such as this. One of the things you need to do is look to see if data suggests a problem does or does not exist. The fact that the safety board has uncovered through these inspections with the Federal Aviation Administration 22 airplanes that may have problems, again, I caution-- may have problems-

JIM LEHRER: May have problems, right.

LEE DICKINSON: -- we have to know what the problems are, are all 22 the same problems? Does one have more grease or less grease than another? I mean, that may be something that's more or less important in these others. But there's no question that with the focus right now on the investigation, that the jackscrew, the gimbel nut, the horizontal stabilizer, the board needs to find out what went wrong and did this happen -- was this 20% into the accident where something happened or did this trigger the event? They'll look at maintenance, inspections, the operating procedures of the crew. They'll look at a whole number of things, the physical evidence in terms of the parts themselves that they're retrieving from the ocean. They'll look at what the airplane was doing from the flight data recorder - they'll couple that with what the crew was saying when they were putting inputs into the plane itself. That is all the foundation for the investigation that will then lead to the cause of the accident.

JIM LEHRER: Mr. Dickinson has said on this program before, Mr. Goldfarb, that usually it's more than one thing that goes wrong that causes calamity such as Alaska Airlines 261 -- that it's not usually one thing. It's this and that, has that been your experience as well?

MICHAEL GOLDFARB: Absolutely. I think it's a unique series of events that come together simultaneously. Even that horrible TWA crash off Long Island Sound about three years ago, a first of a kind center fuel tank, plane sitting on a tarmac, hot temperatures, not having their tanks loaded. It's always a series of things coming together which is why, you know, people say, well, you have a problem here, why don't you just go after it across all those aircraft. Sometimes the cure is worse than the problem you're trying to solve. It takes time in aviation to remedy and find the right fix to these things. They tend to be not what's always apparent which is why early speculation on crashes invariably go back on the shelf prior... Early speculation turns out often to be not what the cause of the crash was.

JIM LEHRER: But based on what you know, this thus far about Alaska-- I've asked this question before -- does this smell like one we'll get a definitive answer to eventually?

MICHAEL GOLDFARB: I believe we will. It was absolute luck and wonderful that the Navy was able to come up with the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder in that deep of water. That was amazing. The fact that they're bringing up the rest of the wreckage is terrific from an investigative standpoint. We're not faced with months of dredging the ocean floor with these pieces. With the information they have and with this known problem hopefully fairly rapidly we put this together and come up with at least a probable cause if not a definitive one. Based on probable cause repair and remedy can be done so that people can stop being so white knuckled when they fly and stop saying that this plane is going to be a problem.

JIM LEHRER: Okay. Thank you both very much.

LEE DICKINSON: You're welcome.

FOCUS - MEDIA DARLING?

JIM LEHRER: Now, charges that Senator John McCain has received most- favored-candidate treatment from the press, and to media correspondent Terence Smith.

TERENCE SMITH: From the outset of his presidential campaign, John McCain has afforded the political press extraordinary access. His campaign bus, dubbed "the straight talk express," has ferried candidate and reporters on a nonstop rolling press conference along the highways of the early primary states. Have news organizations returned the favor in the form of positive, even adoring coverage? That's what Senator McCain's Republican opponents claim. Here to debate that issue are Haley Barbour, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, and a supporter of Texas Governor George W. Bush; also former Senator Warren Rudman, who is a national co-chairman of the McCain campaign; Evan Thomas, assistant managing editor of "Newsweek;" and Geneva Overholser, syndicated columnist and former ombudsman at the "Washington Post." Welcome to you all.

Haley Barbour, has the media gone soft on John McCain?

HALEY BARBOUR: I think it's probably more than that, Terry. I said last week that the news... the news media were slobbering all over John McCain and that well known conservative correspondent Mary McGorey of the "Washington Post" said that absolutely it was true, that I was quite right, that the press has swooned for McCain. I've never seen anything like it. I think what's interesting for most viewers or people who are interested is that the press that is most pro McCain are the most liberal press. The ones who are the biggest Clinton supporters like the "New York Times" and the Boston Globe have come out and said, McCain is the anti-Clinton. The "Washington Post" actually ran an editorial that proclaimed that McCain was the conservative candidate in the race. It's been a long time since Republican looked to the "Washington Post" to tell them who was a conservative.

TERENCE SMITH: Warren Rudman, is it true?

WARREN RUDMAN: Of course it's true. They're not gone easy. If you want to use the word slobber, I'll take slobber. But let me tell you why. You covered it in your opening. I've traveled on that bus. Several of the people here have traveled on that bus. It's remarkable -- unprecedented access -- not mealy-mouth campaign bite answers. Ask a question, get an answer. But most of all, the press has watched him at 114 town meetings in New Hampshire answer every question and they've respected this guy and they like him. Now as far as conservative, John McCain has one of the most conservative voting records in the Senate. As a matter of fact, Haley, I thought the most interesting piece was Richard Cohen, a very liberal columnist in the "Washington Post" who said, almost quote, you know, I disagree with almost everything about this guy's voting record but I really like this guy. This goes beyond politics. This goes back to the Kennedy era of the American people suddenly having their minds and hearts captured by an insurgent candidacy, almost like Ronald Reagan did to Gerry Ford in 1976. So that's the reason, nothing to do with liberal-conservative. It has to do with access. It has to do with openness, has to do with the candidate himself.

TERENCE SMITH: Is that so Evan Thomas?

EVAN THOMAS: I think that's pretty fair. I think we overestimate how liberal the press is. A lot of the correspondents on that bus are national political correspondents who make a lot of money and their editors make a lot of money. And in their old age they've turned into Republicans, believe it or not. I think it's just a myth that the press is all that liberal. I don't believe it. They tend to be more middle of the road, really.

TERENCE SMITH: But are they in love with John McCain?

EVAN THOMAS: Yes, they are totally in love with John McCain for the reason that Senator Rudman has given. He gives great access. He gives great quotes. He's funny-he's teasing. He's a fellow subversive in some ways. And they're all sort of united against the establishment. And he's a great story.

TERENCE SMITH: Geneva Overholser, is it true, a, and b, has it affected coverage?

GENEVA OVERHOLSER: Well, I think there's no question that the press adores John McCain. I don't think any of us would think of the press as a subtle machine. I mean, the press doesn't do subtlety. We tend to go all out for somebody and then to decide, oh, no, and tear that person down. But I think what's more important is it isn't the reason for McCain's success. When I was in New Hampshire, it was the people I talked to who kept praising his accessibility. They don't care that he's so accessible to the press. What they love is he was out there at town hall meeting after town hall meeting in their high schools, and that's what they like, not that he was so accessible to the press.

TERENCE SMITH: But as access equaled favorable coverage?

GENEVA OVERHOLSER: I don't think that there's any question that accessibility will get you better coverage. And I hope that that's something that we take away from this campaign. The people who are straightforward are better treated. I think we all believe in this. You tell the truth and they'll like you.

WARREN RUDMAN: In fairness, you know, Haley's candidate - you know - I admire. George Bush is a good man, but whoever is handling him up in New Hampshire, they surrounded him with security, with the rope lines. They denied access. And suddenly after he got clobbered in New Hampshire, he's adopted the campaign playbook in South Carolina. And he's starting to get more access. That's good. It comes with risks -- as we know from politics -- but it's risks you have to take.

HALEY BARBOUR: But you're getting away, Terry, from the real point. And the point is John McCain can be very accessible. John McCain is a genuine American hero whom I admire very much. But that doesn't give the press the right to not blow the whistle. I mean, when you're on the straight talk express for what was it, Senator, 100-something visits --

WARREN RUDMAN: 114.

HALEY BARBOUR: -- in New Hampshire. And John McCain went all over New Hampshire saying I never voted for a tax increase. In fact, everybody sitting at this table knows John McCain voted for a tax increase. He proposed one of the biggest tax increases in American history.

WARREN RUDMAN: On tobacco.

HALEY BARBOUR: That's fine, but his defense was, I was never for a tobacco -- tax increase on tobacco.

WARREN RUDMAN: On tobacco.

HALEY BARBOUR: He said I never voted for a tax increase. And no reporter ever blue the whistle on him.

TERENCE SMITH: Have they failed to blow the whistle?

EVAN THOMAS: They have been too forgiving I think that's true.

TERENCE SMITH: They have been too forgiving.

EVAN THOMAS: I think so. I mean, put it this way -- there's a double standard. They've been more forgiving of Senator McCain than they would have been or they have been of candidates who don't put them out that way - I think there are good and human reasons for this. I think if you spend time with somebody, generally you tend to like him. And it's not always true, but -

GENEVA OVERHOLSER: Are you sure they're more forgiving? What about the temper question? There was endless stuff on the temper question. We've heard about Marie, the flame of Florida. I mean, people haven't just completely left the guy off the hook.

EVAN THOMAS: But I think that they have forgiven him his gaffes. Handlers like to believe that you can't put a candidate out there because he's going to say something stupid and it's going to become a three-day story. McCain has said stupid things again and again and the press has generally forgiven him.

TERENCE SMITH: But, you know, the worm has turned a bit here. Last summer and fall, George W. Bush got the most extraordinary coverage. Look at this cover -- back in June "Time" Magazine says President Bush? In June?

GENEVA OVERHOLSER: If that isn't slobbering I don't know what slobbering is.

HALEY BARBOUR: I can tell you, there won't be anything like this again. What we really need from the straight talk express is some straight talk. You know, we talked about Senator McCain saying I never voted for a tax increase and Senator Rudman says that's okay because it was about tobacco. Senator McCain said over and over again I never voted for public financing of campaigns. Of course he did vote for public financing of campaigns -- and finally a reporter asked him about it yesterday. He had been saying it for weeks and weeks. It's not just, this guy is a good guy or bad guy. It is holding people to the truth, the same standard for everybody.

EVAN THOMAS: As you know, the press is fickle. They may fall in love but they can also fall out of love. It's a long campaign. I mean, give them time. I'm not predicting this will happen but the press loves a story, it loves the parable, and they love stories that go up and down. They love tension - they love conflict. And for that reason, the press may still turn on McCain.

WARREN RUDMAN: I think that John McCain has earned the respect of the people he's appeared before. That includes the press who last time I checked with people because of his forthright way, because of the way he campaigned, as far as being easy on him, I recall some pretty tough stories about John McCain over the last month in the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, the "New York Times," the "Washington Post." Now, you know, they picked up every little thing, probably not Haley, but they haven't picked up every little thing on George Bush either.

GENEVA OVERHOLSER: Well, I'd like to at least float the theory that one reason the press has been easy on McCain, to use the phrase that's been used here, is because of the very accessibility. If we like to believe that if you say enough good things, then they sort of outshine the bad, then that's part of what's going on here.

TERENCE SMITH: What about Haley's charge that they would not havefollowed up the way they would have with other candidates?

GENEVA OVERHOLSER: Well, my argument about that is that you're exactly right, Haley, and that the same is true, we will don't follow up enough with other candidates. That's the part I disagree with.

TERENCE SMITH: Including George W. Bush?

GENEVA OVERHOLSER: We get on campaign buses, and we all do the same thing. We report about the same things. Questions are raised and debates. People after the debate between Gore and Bradley are going is it true then about $150?

EVAN THOMAS: What we haven't done with McCain is belabor petty points.

WARREN RUDMAN: That's exactly right.

EVAN THOMAS: Often in a campaign a trivial mistake will come up and we'll make a five-day story with a spin and counter spin. With McCain that hasn't happened. Look at the letters, for instance, that he sent out as committee chairman. I don't personally think there's anything terribly scandalous about that. But with a different candidate the press would have done a lot with that story. And I think the fact they didn't is partly because McCain is disarming and he's a human being. He did his best to confront and deal with the issue and it pretty much went away.

HALEY BARBOUR: I would like to say on Evan's points, there's nothing wrong in my mind with what Senator McCain has done. There's nothing wrong with the fact that his campaign manager is a lobbyist. There's nothing wrong with the fact that a bunch of lobbyist had a big successful fund-raiser in Washington for him. What's wrong is for him to act like it's wrong when somebody else does it and the press does not blow the whistle on him. Let me make one point and I'll be quiet. Evan made to me a crucial point for us Republicans. Right now the McCain campaign is being promoted by the liberal media establishment.

TERENCE SMITH: Are they portraying him as more liberal than he is?

HALEY BARBOUR: They are promoting him, even the new republic voice of the left for two generations says McCain is the model of what Republicans ought to be like. Here's the problem though - that all of these people are going to be for Albert Gore in November. Every one of them is going to be to be for Albert Gore in November.

TERENCE SMITH: Is he misportrayed as a result of all of this?

WARREN RUDMAN: Absolutely not. Not all the time, thank God, or I wouldn't be standing here but on many of them, John McCain laid out his positions. Haley, you should have been there. He disagreed with people. He argued with people. If they took a position contrary to his, he didn't pander to the people. The fact is he is a conservative, very conservative. He'll be a conservative president -- let me say something, Haley, with all due respect, I've watched this campaign. If we as Republicans want to win the White House, we have to pull in independents and a lot of Democrats like Ronald Reagan did in 1980. After watching what I've been watching in New Hampshire and we'll see what happens in South Carolina, there are certain indications that John McCain has the greatest opportunity to win the White House back to the Republican Party and he is a Republican. He is a conservative Republican. And people do believe in John McCain. The problem is the entire establishment got on George Bush's bandwagon eight months ago and decided we'd have a coronation. But something happened on the way to the coronation.

HALEY BARBOUR: Sir, I would just respond by saying this. John McCain would be a ten times better president than Albert Gore.

WARREN RUDMAN: Thank you.

HALEY BARBOUR: There's no question about that.

WARREN RUDMAN: Thank you very much.

HALEY BARBOUR: The problem is that the people that have floated John McCain's vote throughout this have been the liberal media and they have been outspoken in trying to help him. Again....

GENEVA OVERHOLSER: I want to say something here. This is the second time you have said that - the people who have floated this campaign -- the other time you said they're the ones who have promoted it. I am amazed to hear you do what I think the press does way too much of and that is say "we" are the point, we have the power, we can do this. That is not true.

TERENCE SMITH: The people of New Hampshire....

GENEVA OVERHOLSER: The people who floated McCain's campaign is the people of New Hampshire. If your candidate didn't win there, then it is not the press's fault. I've talked to those New Hampshirites, and they were very impressed because he was accessible.

HALEY BARBOUR: In all fairness....

EVAN THOMAS: The support has been critical to McCain...

GENEVA OVERHOLSER: Yes, but he's the one who promoted ...

TERENCE SMITH: How much of this is motivated by press self-interest? In other words, are the media looking for a horse race?

EVAN THOMAS: Sure. Of course, we love a story. I mean, we love a story and McCain is a great story. We love tension and we love insurgence. We love all those things. We do in every campaign. It's just particularly juicy in this campaign because you have a good and interesting insurgence.

TERENCE SMITH: Final word.

HALEY BARBOUR: The principal beneficiary of McCain style campaign finance reform is the media because you all will have more control over the information of political information than Americans receive.

TERENCE SMITH: Okay. Listen, we're out of time. Thank you all very much, all four of you.

JIM LEHRER: Still to come on the NewsHour tonight, Jesse as governor; the orbiting asteroid; a "Peanuts" Valentine; and a poetry Valentine.

FOCUS - VENTURA AS GOVERNOR

JIM LEHRER: The other political side of Jesse Ventura: As a member of the reform party, he pulled out of the organization Friday, saying the national party was "dysfunctional." But as governor of Minnesota, how is he doing? Well, Fred De Sam Lazaro of twin cities public television reports.

JESSE VENTURA: And the American dream lives on in Minnesota.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Until the last hours of the campaign, few people expected Jesse Ventura to become governor, so few knew what to expect when he did.

CROWD: Jesse!

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Jesse Ventura, former Navy Seal with a carefully cultivated bad guy image in wrestling, got a running start in the less overt combat of state government. He won praise for enlisting advisors and a cabinet of well- regarded leaders from the Democratic, Republican, and his own reform party. He told David Letterman it was proof of widespread goodwill among Minnesotans, after his stunning defeat of the far- better-known major party contenders.

JESSE VENTURA: And I think it really acted as circling the wagons, where Minnesotans said, "hey, we're going to make sure that he's successful," and I've had people come on board... And I mean, Michael O'Keefe, my head of human services, has a degree in nuclear physics.

DAVID LETTERMAN: Really?

JESSE VENTURA: Yes.

DAVID LETTERMAN: Well, that'll come in handy. (Laughter)

JESSE VENTURA: well, government is like physics, you know-- for every action, there's a reaction.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: From all accounts, the reaction to Ventura's early pronouncements was positive. Many people said they liked his candor, his seeming lack of political IOU'S. For example, even though college students voted for him in droves, the newly elected governor rejected their calls for more financial aid, coming out to the capitol steps to meet these demonstrators.

JESSE VENTURA: Then maybe your professors better take a pay cut. (Boos) No? Why not? Who put me through college? You earn it! You earn it.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The idea of personal responsibility became an early mantra for Governor Ventura. He even took on a single mother at this rally.

JESSE VENTURA: A single parent? I don't want to seem hard-core but why did you become a parent? (Boos) Wait a minute. You're asking government to make up for mistakes. Is that government's job, to make up for people's mistakes?

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Ventura brought that same message into the capital's legislative chamber, in his first state-of-the-state address.

JESSE VENTURA: I stand before you as governor willing to say what too many politicians at all levels of government have been scared to say: The free ride is over.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: His tough talk on social programs echoed the sentiments of many republicans and conservatives in the legislature. But Ventura's first budget contained plenty that Democrats have long sought: A new light rail system in the twin cities, more money for public schools, and a rejection of vouchers that would allow children to attend private schools, an idea championed by Ventura's Republican predecessor.

JESSE VENTURA: It is my goal to erase the word "voucher" from the vocabulary by investing in public education and expecting local school boards to deliver results. (Applause)

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: By steering a middle course, the governor's ideas largely prevailed in the legislature, according to political science Professor Steven Schier.

STEVEN SCHIER: We have a democratically dominated state senate and a Republican majority in the state house. Jesse's proposals tended to be in between, and there was a natural point of convergence between the House and Senate negotiators, which ended up being fairly close to where the governor had begun in the first place, and the governor I think was viewed as a success with the legislature with the result of those activities, and his public popularity in the first six months as measured by most state polls, was extremely high.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Topping the legislative success, the state also dispensed money from Minnesota's large budget surplus to every taxpayer, an average rebate of $700 per household. That rocketed Ventura's popularity last summer to an unprecedented 73% approval rating. But not for long.

STEVEN SCHIER: Once the session ended, however, the governor seemed to think that many of his official duties were now in the past, and that he could make some money as a wrestling referee, take a national media tour with a book that he had just written.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: He called religion "a sham for the weak-minded," a group in which he also included overweight and suicidal people; he said it felt good "to be king, because no one can tell you what to do," and revealed that he'd like to be reincarnated as a size 38-D bra. Among those expressing outrage was Republican activist Darrell McKigney.

DARRELL McKIGNEY: He makes an idiot and an ass out of all the people of Minnesota. Based on these latest comments, if the governor wants to come back as a brassiere, and God chooses to do that for him, God's not going to have to give him a brain upgrade to do it.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Roger Moe, the State Senate Majority Leader, also came out to condemn the "Playboy" interview.

ROGER MOE, State Senate Majority Leader: The governor was quotes as saying the best thing there's no one in the state that can tell me what to do.. Governor, every citizen in this state has a right to tell you what to do.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: In response, Ventura angrily accused the local media of blowing his comments out of proportion.

JESSE VENTURA: That interview has nothing to do with how I govern, nothing whatsoever. Judge me by my policies. Judge me by my commissioners, and judge me by the work that we're trying to do -- not a feeding frenzy of media so that you can get ratings and make money.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The governor insisted that he had a right to his private opinions, quite apart from his public duties. But his October approval ratings dropped 20 to 30 points from their summer highs, showing many Minnesotans disagreed.

MAN ON STREET: He should be inspiring people and making the state look good. Instead, he badmouths people, insults people, and has a crass attitude toward anyone who has got problems, or is weaker than he is as a governor and a wrestler. And I don't like how he commercializes the office, and makes money from it. I think it's unethical.

MAN: Everything I've hard him say has not been... Good, you know, hasn't been right.

MAN: I personally don't think he's taken much time to be governor. He's more interested in being a celebrity.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Ventura did cut back on media appearances and focused more on state business. In November, he led a trade delegation to Japan that seemed all business, including a deal to export more Minnesota pork to this market.

STEVEN SCHIER: His trip to Japan -- trade mission trip was apparently successful and produced no major gaffes, despite of the fact that all of the state media followed him around, looking for a verbal explosion from the governor. None was forthcoming.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Members of Ventura's cabinet say that in contrast to his public persona, they've always seen that serious side of Jesse Ventura, a CEO who is a keen listener, who defers to the expertise of his cabinet. Sheryl Ramstad Hvass, a Republican, is commissioner of corrections.

SHERYL RAMSTAND HVASS: Anyone who works with the governor feels like they get his undivided attention. I've found him to be a very straight shooter. When the governor tells you his view or discusses with you and agrees upon a position, he's not going to sway with the political winds.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: That willingness to speak his mind continues to endear Ventura to many Minnesotans.

WOMAN: I think that overall, Jesse's doing a good job. He could be a little bit more careful in some of the things he says, but he speaks his mind.

WOMAN: I think Jesse Ventura has raised some important issues that bring those issues to a point where we can discuss them, but I think he's a little too eccentric for our state.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Eccentric or not, Ventura seems to have rebounded. His ratings, according to the "Star Tribune" poll, moved up to 68%. The governor now embarks on his next challenge: A ballot initiative to eliminate one house of the state legislature, a move that he says will make government more efficient.

FOCUS - RENDEZVOUS IN SPACE

JIM LEHRER: A close encounter of an unusual kind, and to Gwen Ifill.

GWEN IFILL: Today a NASA spacecraft completed its journey to the asteroid named for the Greek god of love, Eros, becoming the first craft ever to orbit an asteroid. The near spacecraft was launched in February 1996 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

SPOKESMAN: We've ignited the other three solid engines. All three of the first set are off.

GWEN IFILL: Taking four years to reach Eros, 160 million miles away from the earth. Discovered in 1898, Eros is the second-largest near-earth asteroid, and has been studied longer than any other. If all goes as planned, NEAR will conduct a year-long scientific study of the asteroid's chemical and physical features, hoping to learn more about its evolutionary history. Joining us now for a discussion about the mission is project scientist Andrew Cheng. Welcome. Tell us exactly what is an asteroid first of all.

ANDREW CHENG, Project Scientist, NEAR Mission: Okay. Well, we all learned as children that the solar system contains nine planets orbiting the sun. But in addition to those nine planets, there are a large number of what we call minor planets. These are small bodies that also orbit the sun. And, of those, they fall into basically two categories. There is the kind that when we look at them in the sky, we see a glowing tail of gas and dust. Those are the comets. And then there's the other kind that don't make this kind of tail. Those are the asteroids. There's probably hundreds of thousands of them, maybe even half a million of them that are bigger than one kilometer in diameter. So they're the most numerous members of our solar system.

GWEN IFILL: What are meteors and meteorites in that constellation?

ANDREW CHENG: The meteorites, some people would also include as members of our solar system. They are. They're just smaller. They're pieces of asteroids, even smaller. Going down even more than that is dust. We have hundreds of tons of dust from outer space falling into earth's atmosphere everyday. We live and breathe in that stuff --we just aren't aware of that.

GWEN IFILL: The one that we are talking about is simply named Eros. Describe it to us. We have a picture of it. Tell us what we're looking at that you released today, this picture.

ANDREW CHENG: This picture is actually very important because it was the first picture taken after we got into orbit -- an hour after we got into orbit. First thing it means is that the spacecraft is working fine and we are in orbit. It also tells us that the camera is working fine. The way we have to take this picture is we have to tell the spacecraft in advance which way to turn and then when to take the picture.

GWEN IFILL: And what are we looking at in that picture? A crater? What is it?

ANDREW CHENG: We have looking at a crater, probably the second largest crater on Eros, it's on the eastern face. And, some days ago, for those of you who follow the web site, I called it about the most perfect crater I ever hope to see or something like that. Now that I got a good look at it, it's clear. It's nothing of the sort. It's quite imperfect and all the more interesting for that. It turns out it's a complex of several craters and other interesting features. Okay. The large crater you see there is about three miles across. And we see inside, although you may not be able to make it out on the screen, there are boulders, some of them about a hundred or a couple hundred feet across. We see grooves. These are troughs in the surface.

GWEN IFILL: So, how large is the entire asteroid?

ANDREW CHENG: The entire asteroid is about 30 kilometers, which is 20 some miles long. We are in this picture from end to end of the picture looking at about one half of the asteroid.

GWEN IFILL: It heard it described somewhere as the size of a highway toll booth. So, when we think about asteroids in this country, whichthink maybe one might fall from the sky and hit the earth. What's the chance of that happening?

ANDREW CHENG: Well, asteroids fall from the sky... pieces of asteroids, meteorites, they literally fall to earth every day. Now, smaller impactors hit the earth more often. The large impacts, a kilometer in size, let's say, those are the sizes that are big enough to cause global catastrophes when we hit. Those happen about once every million years or a few times every million years.

GWEN IFILL: So this is not happening in our lifetime.

ANDREW CHENG: Not in our lifetime. The largest recent impact was in Tunguska, which is a remote area in Siberia in 1908, a 60 meter or smaller than a football field asteroid hit. And it destroyed several thousand square miles of that forest.

GWEN IFILL: So, is it possible that a collision with the asteroid and the earth? Is that science fiction panic or is it something that's real?

ANDREW CHENG: It's definitely real. It's definitely real.

GWEN IFILL: Why is this mission... why is it important for us to go and study asteroids?

ANDREW CHENG: Well, we have a couple of reasons. One of them is the one that you already mentioned, that asteroids, one of these days we will discover possibly an asteroid that poses an immediate threat to earth. At that point you might want to consider pushing it aside so it doesn't hit the earth. And in order to be able to do that, we have to know the physical nature of that asteroid, whether it's a single solid rock or a loose pile of rubble. That's the kind of thing we'll find out about Eros for example.

GWEN IFILL: I wanted to correct myself. I said Eros is the side of a highway toll booth. I'm getting my metaphors mixed up. It's the spacecraft. Describe the spacecraft to us because it's one of the faster, better, cheaper models that NASA's so in love with.

ANDREW CHENG: That's right. This whole mission cost every man, woman, child in the country less than $1. We could spend $7 to watch a movie. We're spending $1 for the NEAR mission.

GWEN IFILL: A year ago it was a near miss.

ANDREW CHENG: A year ago it was a near miss. That's true. I felt an awful lot better this time.

GWEN IFILL: So it's solar power.

ANDREW CHENG: That's right. Solar panels are six foot long by four foot wide. The whole spacecraft is about six foot tall.

GWEN IFILL: What is it equipped to do, just send pictures back?

ANDREW CHENG: It's making all kinds of measurements. In fact, one of the most important things it will be doing is trying to figure out if the asteroid Eros is made up of material that's been around basically since before even the earth formed, from the very beginning of the solar system. And so we're taking measurements that will tell us whether this material has undergone the main process of planet formation. So, that's the process in which the planet inside gets hot enough to melt. Different liquids separate out. So that it's very similar to what happens in your salad. Your oil and your water don't mix together. They separate out. The same thing happens when you have a planet. Inside it's warm enough to melt the rock. And then the different constituents of the rock separate out. When that happens-- and we see pieces from the inside of such an object or the outside, they have different compositions. We will try to look for that.

GWEN IFILL: Eros is potato shaped. Somehow this spacecraft has to orbit Eros in the opposite direction that it's turning. It seems tricky.

ANDREW CHENG: Very tricky. Eros has very little gravity. It something like 1,000 or 2,000 times less gravity than the earth. When we're in orbit, we're only going something like five miles an hour not thousands of miles an hour like an orbit around a planet. We have to control the orbit of the spacecraft very, very precisely. If we're wrong by even a few miles per hour, we're in completely the wrong orbit or in danger of running into the asteroid or something.

GWEN IFILL: We didn't know what an asteroid looked like until recently. When the fly-by happened, when it overshot its mission a year ago, we did get to get some pictures. What did we learn from that?

ANDREW CHENG: At that time we got a preliminary value for the mass. We also learned something about what the shape of the asteroid was. It turned out to be a little smaller than people had thought before.

GWEN IFILL: So, before I get to this question, let me edit myself here. What exactly happens in a year? Will they see this spacecraft ever land on the planet?

ANDREW CHENG: Well, that has not been decided yet. We're going to actually focus for the first several months on just opening all the Christmas presents we've been given and just see what kinds of secrets the asteroid is going to tell us. Toward the middle of the year we'll be deciding what to do at the end of the mission. And landing is one possibility, yes.

GWEN IFILL: So there is actually a possibility that that wouldn't be gathering up, it doesn't have a scoop mechanism or anything to send anything back to earth but it would just be a little bit more up and personal. Would that be the whole point?

ANDREW CHENG: That's the idea. Every time you get closer to a target, you learn more about it. Just in the same way that we just saw with the image we saw earlier, what looked like a very perfectly round and ordinary crater turns out to be very complicated and very interesting.

GWEN IFILL: Okay. I have to ask. It's Valentine's Day. Here we have a sighting of an asteroid named Eros. This is not a coincidence, is it?

ANDREW CHENG: Not entirely.

GWEN IFILL: How do you plan something like that?

ANDREW CHENG: Okay. It was partly a coincidence. Without causing too much extra use of fuel, we could have arrived a week or two earlier or later. But given that choice, of course, we would arrive on Valentine's Day.

GWEN IFILL: Why not? It gives you a little bit of extra boost.

ANDREW CHENG: That's right. It proves we're all romantics at heart.

GWEN IFILL: Well, Andrew Cheng, thank you very much and Happy Valentine's Day to you.

ANDREW CHENG: Thank you.

FINALLY - IN MEMORIAM

JIM LEHRER: And speaking of valentines, we have two of them tonight. The first is to cartoonist Charles Schulz, who for 50 years drew the story of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, and the rest of the "Peanuts" gang. In addition to the daily strip, more than 60 animated TV specials were made. And here's a clip from one from 1975 that seems especially appropriate tonight. It's called "Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown."

CHARLIE BROWN: I'd give anything if that little red-haired girl had sent me a valentine. Hey, maybe she did send me one. Maybe she did send me a valentine and it didn't get here until today. Maybe it's in our mailbox right now. I'm afraid to look. If I look and there's nothing there, I'll be crushed. On the other hand, if she did send me a valentine... I've got to look. I hate Valentine's Day.

LUCY: Charlie Brown, we've been feeling awfully guilty about not giving you a valentine this year. Here, I've erased my name from this one. I'd like you to have it.

SCHROEDER: Hold on there. What do you think you're doing? Who do you think you are? Where were you yesterday when everyone else was giving out valentine's? Is kindness and thoughtfulness something you can make retroactive? Don't you think he has any feelings? You and your friends are the most thoughtless bunch I've ever known. You don't care anything about Charlie Brown. You just hate to feel guilty. And now you have the nerve to come around one day later and offer him a used valentine just to ease your conscience. Let me tell you something. Charlie Brown doesn't need your....

CHARLIE BROWN: Don't listen to him.

CHARLIE BROWN: I'll take it.

CHARLIE BROWN: I guess I let Schroeder down, but it was my first valentine, you know.

LINUS: I didn't do too well either. She went off with her boyfriend. She never even knew I had a valentine's gift for her.

CHARLIE BROWN: Well, maybe it wasn't a total flop for me. At least they were showing a little thought for me even if it was a used valentine. At least they care a little bit about me. Hey, maybe this is a start of a trend. Maybe this is a whole new trend for old Charlie Brown. Maybe this is the start of something big. Maybe next year I'll get a whole bunch of valentine's. Maybe next year I'll need three briefcases instead of two. Maybe next year I'll even....

LINUS: Happy Valentine's Day, Charlie Brown.

JIM LEHRER: Charles Schulz died Saturday at age 77, just hours before his last cartoon ran in the Sunday newspapers.

Our second valentine tonight is from NewsHour contributor Robert Pinsky, the poet laureate of the United States.

ROBERT PINSKY: Valentines and the feelings that go with them do not belong to any one stage of life. People of every age have romantic feelings, but the nature of those feelings may vary with age. Comparing love when young and old is the theme of Robert Frost's poem "To Earthward." "To Earthward: Love at the lips was touch as sweet as I could bear; and once that seemed too much, I lived on air that crossed me from sweet things. The flow of... Was it musk from hidden grapevine springs downhill at dusk? I had the swirl and ache from sprays of honeysuckle that when they're gathered, shake dew on the knuckle. I craved strong sweets, but those seemed strong when I was young; the petal of the rose it was that stung. Now no joy but lacks salt that is not dashed with pain, and weariness and fault; I crave the stain of tears, the aftermark of almost too much love, the sweet of bitter bark and burning clove. When stiff and sore and scarred, I take away my hand from leaning on it hard in grass and sand, the hurt is not enough. I long for weight and strength to feel the earth as rough to all my lengths."

RECAP

JIM LEHRER: And again, the major stories of this Valentine's Day: Tornadoes killed at least 22 people early today in Southwestern Georgia. And a deadline passed for major airlines to inspect tail sections on more than 1,000 planes. The inspections were ordered after the Alaska Airlines crash. We'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. I'm Jim Lehrer. Thank you and good night.