The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

RAY SUAREZ: Good evening. I'm Ray Suarez. Jim Lehrer is on vacation. On the NewsHour tonight, the news of the day; jobs and the economy: We look at what's behind today's unemployment numbers; a report from Minneapolis on the Episcopal Church and its debate on homosexuality; a busy week in the Senate as it prepares for a summer recess; the weekly analysis of mark shields and David Brooks; and an encore look at a new museum of picture book art.

NEWS SUMMARY

RAY SUAREZ: U.S. unemployment fell last month despite more cuts in the workforce. The Labor Department reported today the jobless rate dropped 0.2 percent in July, to 6.2 percent . The economy actually lost another 44,000 jobs. But that was offset by the fact that nearly half a million people stopped looking for work. Also today, the Commerce Department reported consumer spending rose a modest 0.3 percent in June. And the private group, the Institute for Supply Management, said manufacturing expanded in July for the first time in five months. We'll have more on what all this means for the economy, in a moment. On Wall Street, the unemployment report sent stocks lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost more than 79 points to close under 9154. The NASDAQ fell 19 points to close at 1715. For the week, the Dow lost nearly 1.5 percent . The NASDAQ fell nearly 1 percent . A new message, purportedly from Saddam Hussein, appealed to Iraqis again to fight U.S. Forces. The al-Jazeera satellite network aired the audio recording. It said Saddam had faith that "one day the occupation army will falter, and that victory is possible at any moment." It also said looters could keep any government property they had stolen. U.S. forces in northern Iraq arrested two men today described as "important associates" of Saddam Hussein. The troops raided two homes in Tikrit, the former dictator's hometown. Late today, the U.S. Military released a series of digitally altered photographs of Saddam. They showed how he might have disguised himself to avoid capture. Saddam's daughters said today they don't know where he is now. They were granted refuge in Jordan yesterday. They told al-Abiya Television the fall of Baghdad was a great shock and they said their father was betrayed. On CNN, they said they have not seen Saddam since a family meeting in March.

RAGHAD HUSSEIN, Saddam Hussein's Daughter: The time of meeting was five days before the war, the other meeting with my mother only. I didn't see my father since that time, in April. At that time we separate and everybody chooses own way to decide destiny. So we didn't see each other since that time.

RAY SUAREZ: The two daughters said their father was loving and tender, but they would not discuss Saddam's decision to execute their husbands in 1996. North Korea confirmed today it will join expanded, multinational talks on its nuclear weapons programs. Originally, the North Koreans insisted on one-on-one meetings with the U.S. The new talks will also include South Korea, China, Japan and Russia. At a cabinet meeting today, President Bush said he's hoping those nations pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear plans.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: In the past, it was the lone voice of the United States speaking clearly about this. Now we'll have other parties who have a vested interest in peace on the Korean Peninsula. So I would say the progress is being... is good progress. And we are upbeat about the fact that others are assuming responsibility for peace besides the United States of America.

RAY SUAREZ: In their statement, the North Koreans said the U.S. indicated the two sides could meet privately during the six- way talks. A White House spokesman did not rule out that possibility. Heavy fighting erupted again today in Liberia's capital city, Monrovia. Mortar rounds and gunfire killed at least 12 people near a key bridge. Amid the violence, West African leaders arrived in the city. They intended to press President Charles Taylor to go into exile. But he left the city, and instead, said he would meet with them tomorrow. West African peacekeepers will begin deploying in Liberia on Monday. U.S. warships with 2,300 marines are due to arrive tomorrow to support the operation. A truck bomb destroyed a Russian military hospital near Chechnya today. The Interfax news agency reported at least 35 people were killed. It happened in the city of Mozdok in the north Ossetia region. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the city is headquarters for Russian forces fighting Chechen rebels. That's it for the News Summary tonight. Now it's on to an economic snapshot; a church debate on homosexuality; high energy in the Senate; Shields and Brooks; and a new museum of picture book art.

FOCUS - ECONOMIC PICTURE

RAY SUAREZ: We begin with the latest economic numbers. The Commerce Department reported yesterday that the Gross Domestic Product grew faster than expected in the second quarter of the year, at a rate of 2.4 percent . But today's job numbers were mixed. While the jobless rate did not decline, many workers stopped looking for employment. And the manufacturing sector lost 71,000 jobs last month, the biggest drop in three months. For a closer look at these numbers and what they mean, we get three perspectives. Maria FIorini Ramirez is a Wall Street economist in New York who runs her own consulting firm. Mark Vitner is senior economist at Wachovia Bank in Charlotte, North Carolina. And Lisa Lynch is former chief economist of the Labor Department. She is the academic dean of the Fletcher School of Law and diplomacy at Tufts University. Maria Ramirez, we've got a mix of numbers. Consumer spending up, incomes up but employment staying stuck while the GDP is said to be growing. What do you conclude out of this mix of numbers?

MARIA FIORINI RAMIREZ: Well, this mixed bag of numbers that we continue to be getting, I think all they can tell us is that the worst seems to be over, things seem to be bottoming out. I think the employment numbers are still going to be the key to sustainable economic growth. I think the best picture in the number was in the fact that temporary jobs continue to grow for the third month in a row. I really wouldn't put a lot of faith in the unemployment number -- the unemployment rate going down because it's still going to be boiling down to how many jobs out there that people are able to get. And you did point out that the labor force is really not growing in the sense that people are basically getting discouraged and not looking for jobs any longer. I think that's very negative. I think the GDP numbers yesterday, the story is in government spending, defense spending was very strong and also capital spending finally showing some sign of life as business spending picks up. That's clearly what you want to see in the longer term as companies spend more money, add more jobs, and it's more permanent in terms of what is sustaining economic growth.

RAY SUAREZ: Mark Vitner, when you crunch those numbers, what kind of portrait does it present for you in terms of the economy right now?

MARK VITNER: I think we may be a little bit more upbeat in terms of the GDP Number. Defense spending accounted for 1.6 percent to the 2.4 percent gain, we also had a huge increase in the trade deficit, which sliced off 1.6 percent . Also inventories declined, slicing up 8 tenths of a percent. When you put it together and look at the underlying growth in the economy's final domestic demand was, it was around 4 percent , which was very strong.

RAY SUAREZ: But, Mark Vitner, temporary? Will we see a number like that next quarter?

MARK VITNER: I don't know that we are going to get 4 percent in the third quarter. I think we are going to get 3.5 percent - or maybe 4 percent. That's what we currently have in our forecast.

RAY SUAREZ: Lisa Lynch, what do the numbers say to you?

LISA LYNCH: It is not often one has says a fall in the unemployment rate is bad news. But the fact that we went from 6.4 unemployment rate to 6.2 was driven by the discouraged workers. Workers are discouraged because even though the recession has been officially over since November of 2001, the U.S. economy is a million jobs less than it was in November of 2001. People are going out, they're looking, they're seeing that there are not new job opportunities, and they're getting discouraged and it is understandable. On top of that, we now have one in five unemployed workers who have been out of work for six months or more, and those individuals as well are facing an economy that just is not growing from the point of employment.

RAY SUAREZ: What happens to those workers, the ones that now, when you look at the numbers, are more than 27 weeks out of work? When their benefits run out, do they stop being counted, or as long as they continue to look for employment, they stay nominally in the work force?

LISA LYNCH: In the official statistics, as long as somebody reports that they are available for work and they have been looking for work, they will be continuing to be counted as unemployed. But individuals know, especially in smaller communities, know what job opportunities are there or are not there. And if you've exhausted all of your networks and all of the opportunities that you can see around you, you'll know when those opportunities come back up. But you may stop looking because you know that there's not anything around.

RAY SUAREZ: Mark Vitner, talk a little bit about the recession in manufacturing jobs? While other sectors have been badly hit during this decline in employment, manufacturing has really taken it on the chin. Where is it worst and what sectors are being hit?

MARK VITNER: Well, manufacturing has really been decimated in this recession. It is the worst recession since '81-'82, which was the worst recession since the great Depression. We've lost 2.7 million manufacturing jobs since July 2000. It has been spread across the industries. Computer and technical equipment have accounted for a lot of the loss and textiles and apparel, a relatively small component, has accounted for a disproportionately large share of the losses.

RAY SUAREZ: Are these people finding jobs?

MARK VITNER: In many cases, it's a hard road for them. Many of the textile mills are in the remote parts of the Carolinas, in Georgia and Virginia. There are not a lot of job opportunities for them. And a lot of the people who work in the textile plants do not have high school degrees or GED's. We had a mill close down recently, Pillow Tech Corporation. 40 percent of the workforce did not have a high school degree or GED.

RAY SUAREZ: Maria Ramirez, you mentioned in your opening remarks that a large portion of the GDP growth was coming from military spending. The old idea was that was very stimulative in previous times of heavy military spending, that was said to have a good effect on the economy. Is it something that can be banked on in the coming quarters and is it something that has a particular impact in certain parts of the country where military industry is very heavy?

MARIA FIORINI RAMIREZ: You know, the last time in the '80s when defense spending peaked, you could see a trend of defense spending going down and there was really a lot of that that took place in California. Some of the biggest cities for procurement spending was in California. I think the industry is more spread out. But if you look at, from the news coverage you were doing earlier, a lot of the defense spending is really taking place outside of the U.S. Yes, it's equipment that is being used, maybe U.S.-made, but I think it is more complex right now in terms of getting that defense spending stimulus. I want to add something to what was said earlier by our other guests. There is a huge amount of people coming from universities, college graduates in the last couple of years, that haven't been able to get a job, and that doesn't get really counted much in the employment numbers, but the contribution that you will get from them has not taken place. And on the manufacturing side, a lot of the jobs that are getting lost are getting lost permanently because the work is getting done in India or it's getting done in China even when it comes to technology and assembly, a lot of it is getting done in Asia. So I think the manufacturing jobs being lost might be more permanent in nature than what we've gone through in other cycles because the world is more flexible in terms of goods being made in other parts of the world and getting shipped to the U.S. I think it's hard to compare what is going on to other cycles because there is much more flexibility in the global economy.

RAY SUAREZ: You talked about outsourcing and manufacturing. Isn't there also job loss in white collar and technical fields being experienced? Jobs going to India and the Asian rim?

MARIA FIORINI RAMIREZ: And of course there's been a lot of talk about more recently. But I remember being in Mexico three years ago and the big problem was that they were losing jobs to China because it was cheaper to make things there than it was in Mexico. So we've gone through years of this already. Unfortunately, I think as we come out of it and the economy gets better, it is going to be hard to get the jobs back here.

RAY SUAREZ: Lisa Lynch, earlier this month the private statistical group that sort of keeps the score book on recessions said that this one has been over for quite a long time and was shorter than the average recession. Yet the economy still continues to shed jobs. What's going on?

LISA LYNCH: Well, this is... it's not unusual after a recession is officially declared over by the National Bureau of Economic Research to see, for example, that the unemployment rate continues to rise. But the usual story has been that the growth starts coming back into the economy, people that were discouraged come back in, start looking for jobs. You see an uptick in the unemployment rate. It takes a little while for employment to start growing again but then that kicks in. And then eventually with the growth of employment, you are able to absorb all of those new workers who have come back into the economy and absorb all those workers who have been unemployed for a long period of time. But what we are seeing with this recovery, is that we are not having that increase in employment growth that we've had in 20 odd months after the end of the recession. We're still not seeing that growth in employment that we've always seen in previous recoveries. So this has truly been a jobless recovery. Actually it has been a continued job contraction. Now, the unemployment rate is a lagging indicator in the economy, but it is worrying and I think you saw that reflected in the stock market today. It is worrying that we still do not have an increase in job growth in the U.S. Economy.

RAY SUAREZ: Let me go around and quickly get everybody's forecasts for the next two quarters. Starting with you, Lisa Lynch.

LISA LYNCH: Well, I think that there was some good news in today's report and that had to do with the temporary help industry as was mentioned earlier. That has increased. And that suggests that employers are dipping their toes into the water. They're hiring workers on. They're nervous, so they're hiring them on a temporary basis. But hopefully, as some of the fiscal stimulus associated with tax cuts, defense spending, the monetary stimulus that's in the economy from the actions of the Federal Reserve board, as those kick in, and as we see growth in other parts of the world-- we got some good data this week in terms of growth and this Japan's economy, some suggestion of flattening out or maybe some new growth in Europe-- as all that comes together in the second half of the year, hopefully we'll be on track to speed up this economy and create some jobs.

RAY SUAREZ: Very quickly, Mark Vitner?

MARK VITNER: Well, we think the economy is going to pick up a great deal of momentum in the second part of the year. The tax cuts are going to help out a lot, they're going to boost after tax income. We get at least 3.5 percent GDP In the fourth quarter, something closer to four in the fourth. I think we begin to add jobs in the next couple of months. I would not be surprised at all to see employment gains in the month of August.

RAY SUAREZ: Finally, quickly, Maria Ramirez?

MARIA FIORINI RAMIREZ: I think the worst is behind us. Balance sheets -- our companies are much better.The dividends are kicking in, checks are going out. Consumers are in better shape and I think that by year end we'll get some job growth and we're looking for GDP growth for the second half of the year 3 percent. And no Fed tightening for the next nine months or year but the market has done it for them already.

RAY SUAREZ: Guests, thanks a lot.

FOCUS - A CHURCH'S CHOICE

RAY SUAREZ: Next, the heated debate over homosexuality in the Episcopal Church. Fred de Sam Lazaro of Twin Cities Public Television reports on a contentious gathering underway in Minneapolis.

(people singing)

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The Episcopal Church of the United States comes together every three years for a general convention that mixes pomp, prayer and politics. This service, for example, was part of a seven-year-long campaign to create a new rite, or official blessing, for same sex unions. It was also to support this man, V. Gene Robinson.

SPOKESMAN: An advocate for justice for all, not just for himself, who is living his faith and his life truthfully in New Hampshire.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: If confirmed at this convention, Robinson would be the first openly homosexual person to serve as a bishop in the Episcopal Church. The 56-year-old Robinson was elected by his New Hampshire diocese in June. That has prompted a heated debate at this convention about the role of gays in the Church.

MARY HAYS: The scriptures, the word of God which we vow to uphold are clear. Homosexual behavior is wrong.

REV. RANDY DALES: We were led overwhelmingly to call Gene Robinson for his humanity, not his sexuality.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Today debate over Robinson's appointment went before the church's Consecration Committee: A rare occurrence since the national church almost always goes along with the local community vote. An overflow crowd heard detractors and supporters of the bishop-elect, including his 21-year-old daughter, Ella who read a statement from her mother, Robinson's ex-wife.

ELLA ROBINSON: Gene Robinson is a good man, a good priest, a good husband and partner and good father. That's my mom's story and here's mine. Divorce is never a good time but it was through love and dedication that both my sister and I were able to come away with more happy experiences and memories than sad ones.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: For his part, Robinson emphasizes he would minister to all congregants, including the minority in New Hampshire who opposed him.

BISHOP-ELECT V. GENE ROBINSON, Diocese of New Hampshire: The very first thing that I said after my election, and I was called forward, the first thing I said to the convention was, please join me in being as gentle and kind and compassionate with those who will not find this to be good news. We need to reach out to those folks.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The committee voted to confirm Robinson, sending the measure to two governing bodies for their approval in coming days: The house of deputies and the house of bishops. It's a process modeled after the American system of government. Like many Episcopalians, Reverend Susan Russell, a southern California pastor, is proud of the Church's connection with American history.

REV. SUSAN RUSSELL, Pasadena, CA: The very framers of our Constitution, many of them while they were working on creating the new American government, were walking down the street to Christ's Church Cathedral in Philadelphia and creating a governmental structure for this church in 1789.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: And like the nation itself, she says, the Church has long grappled with issues of rights, voting in 1976 to ordain women priests. Reverend Russell, who heads a Gay and Lesbian Caucus, says the issue of gay rights is now front and center in the church, just as it is in secular society. She cited the Supreme Court's recent rejection of the Texas sodomy law.

REV. SUSAN RUSSELL: The Lawrence V. Texas decision which came down recently, the movement in Canada on issues of gay marriage, I think that's all sort of linked in terms of we're sort of apace as a church with the culture in terms of working out how we really celebrate diversity.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: But Bishop Jack Iker, who heads the diocese of Forth Worth, Texas, takes fundamental issue with that reasoning.

BISHOP JACK IKER, Diocese of Ft. Worth, TX: Are we a culturally conditioned church, trying to keep up with the times and changing practices and teachings to conform with the times, or are we a part of the historic, biblical church of the ages? And I think it is the latter. The founding fathers of this church were not the founding fathers of this country, but Jesus and the apostles.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Bishop Iker says a vote to affirm Robinson could splinter the Church. He and other conservatives fear many foreign church leaders, particularly those from more conservative congregations in developing countries, will break with the American church. Episcopalians belong to the so- called Anglican communion, an affiliation of 38 national churches headed by the archbishop of Canterbury in England. Although foreign members do not vote in the U.S. Church, last week many gathered together with their conservative counterparts in the U.S. to send a message to this week's convention. Peter Jensen, the archbishop of Sydney, Australia, expressed grave concern about a pro-gay vote.

ARCHBISHOP PETER JENSEN: We've called it a salvation issue, because it puts souls at risk. It is something that we cannot afford to allow pass. It's not simply a matter of sexuality; it is a matter of the authority of God in his own church.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: But neither U.S nor foreign leaders in this group would say if they would break away from the Church if Robinson is confirmed. Kendall Harmon is a theologian in the South Carolina diocese.

REV. KENDALL HARMON: We are trying to preserve an element of surprise. We do not know what is going to happen. But we are going to wait and see what happens, but when it happens and if it happens, we wish not to spell out all the specifics, because this is a strategy and it involves an element of surprise.

BISHOP-ELECT V. GENE ROBINSON: If those people choose to leave, it needs to be said that this Church will have a division because they have chosen to leave, not because someone has wanted them to leave or asked them to leave or made them leave. And I pray every day that that will not happen.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Many of Robinson's supporters say they don't think the split will happen.

REV. SUSAN RUSSELL: It was with great fear and trembling that this Church voted in 1976 to more fully include women in the ministry, and all the dire predictions of the rupture of the Church... I mean, we heard a third of the Church was going to leave, and our statistics tell us now that we lost between 1 and 3 percent at that time, but over the last 30 years, the Church has grown and been strengthened by the ministry of women.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: But Bishop Iker says homosexuality is a far bigger threat to Church unity.

BISHOP JACK IKER: Never before has the Anglican communion spoken so unequivocally about a matter as they have on this, that homosexual practice is sinful and is incompatible with the teaching of scripture. Never has the Church said that about the ordination of women to the priesthood.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Robinson's personal history had also become an issue.

BISHOP JACK IKER: The fact that he became a priest as a married man and then divorced his wife, many would consider a divorced bishop being inappropriate. But to divorce his wife and leave his children and take up with another man and then purport to be a leader of the Christian Church is very upsetting.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Robinson has vigorously refuted that characterization of his divorce.

BISHOP-ELECT V. GENE ROBINSON: We ended our marriage in church. We took a priest with us to the judge's chambers, for the final divorce decree; we went back to his church, and then returned our wedding rings to each other as a symbol of the vows that we no longer held each other to. My wife was remarried, already remarried before I ever met my partner.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: In addition to Robinson's confirmation, the convention may also next week take up the issue of creating a national liturgy, a specific prayer service to bless same sex unions. Despite the bitter, even divisive debate heard here, Frank Griswold, presiding bishop of the U.S. Church, is confident it will remain undivided.

THE MOST REV. FRANK GRISWOLD, Presiding Bishop: This church has been through many stresses and strains. We are members-- like it or not-- that are bound to stay together within the body of Christ even though we may disagree. And my sense is that even though that vast and diverse center isn't necessarily the voice heard most loudly, it is the reality of the Episcopal Church and it will continue to be the reality of the Episcopal Church as we look to the future.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Many in the Church believe that that reality could be a smaller church. Conservatives say that departure from tradition has already caused a decline in membership in recent decades. Robinson supporters, on the other hand, argued his approval would make the Church grow by opening the door to many new worshippers.

RAY SUAREZ: Still to come on the NewsHour tonight, a rush of business in the Senate, Shields and Brooks, and the art in the picture book.

FOCUS - RUSH TO RECESS

RAY SUAREZ: The United States Senate shut down for the summer today, one week after the House of Representatives did. The annual rush to recess was the first for Tennessee's Bill Frist as the Senate's majority leader, and it's one he probably won't soon forget. Kwame Holman reports.

KWAME HOLMAN: As this last legislative week before the August recess got under way, Senate Republican leader Bill Frist made clear his number one priority was to finally pass a wide-ranging energy bill.

SEN. BILL FRIST: We are going to finish this bill this week. We need to stay focused with it, and we really can't tolerate the sort of delays we have seen to date.

KWAME HOLMAN: But Frist also announced he wanted to see movement toward confirming several controversial judicial nominees repeatedly blocked by Democrats, however, those two issues, energy and judges, weren't able to coexist on the Senate's daily agenda, and in the end, they collided.

SPOKESMAN: Mr. Coal, no.

KWAME HOLMAN: Debate and votes on the judicial nominations scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday constantly interrupted debate on the energy bill despite the pleading of Energy Committee chairman Pete Domenici.

SEN. PETE DOMENICI: Let's put that off and see if we can't stay on electricity for a few minutes... I beg you, if you don't mind!

KWAME HOLMAN: North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan was one of many senators to argue this was the wrong time to be talking about judges.

SEN. BYRON DORGAN: My colleague, Senator Cantwell from the state of Washington, sat here for two hours last night wanting to offer an amendment to go back to the electricity title of the energy bill, but couldn't because we were on a judgeship that we didn't have to do. We shouldn't have had to do that now.

KWAME HOLMAN: On Tuesday, it was Priscilla Owen, nominated by President Bush to the fifth circuit court of appeals in New Orleans by President Bush. Republicans spoke glowingly of her. Texas' Kay Bailey Hutchison:

SEN. KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON: This is the nicest, gentleperson one could ever meet, and she also happens to be smart as a whip.

KWAME HOLMAN: Democrats argued Owen wasn't fit for the job because of her staunch pro-business and anti-abortion beliefs. Patrick Leahy was chairman of the Judiciary Committee last year, when Owen's nomination was rejected.

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY: Never, ever in our nation's history has a president re-nominated somebody to the same judicial vacancy after rejection by the judiciary committee-- never. In this case, of course, they did, to create a political point.

KWAME HOLMAN: On Wednesday, it was Miguel Estrada, the president's nominee to the U.S. Court of appeals for the District of Columbia. Democrats already had blocked his nomination six times. And on Thursday it was William Pryor, nominated to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. Senators angrily accused each other of inserting the candidate's religion into the debate. Judiciary committee chairman Orrin Hatch:

SEN. ORRIN HATCH: I don't think my colleagues are against the catholic church, but it sure seems as if they are against a traditional pro-life conservative Catholic-- on a selective basis, of course, because they cannot do this to everybody.

KWAME HOLMAN: Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin responded.

SEN. DICK DURBIN: What the Republicans are trying to do is to divert our attention from the radical political beliefs of William Pryor by saying that the real issue isn't politics, it is his Catholic faith. Frankly, that is not only an unfair argument, it is inaccurate.

KWAME HOLMAN: Democrats once again prevailed, blocking all three nominees, and New York's Chuck Schumer vowed it would continue.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER: We believe we are following the will of the American people who don't want judges either too far left or too far right. And I assure you, Mr. President, I assure President Bush, and I assure my colleagues in the Senate that we will continue to do this.

KWAME HOLMAN: As the arguments over judges consumed the Senate, Majority Leader Frist's hopes of passing an energy bill, he conceded, were dimming.

SEN. BILL FRIST: In spite of that commitment on my part to plow ahead, it appears to me now, Wednesday night at 10:00, that the writing is on the wall: That we are not going to be able to complete the bill.

KWAME HOLMAN: By Thursday morning, with scores of Democratic amendments still pending, the energy bill, at least for the summer, was going nowhere.

SEN. BILL FRIST: It comes down to obstruction, and I do think at this point in time that the Democrats are bringing progress on this critically important issue of energy to a screeching halt.

KWAME HOLMAN: Frist's patience also was tested by a newspaper article quoting Republican senators criticizing of Frist's handling of the energy and judicial issues. Former majority leader Trent Lott went to the Senate floor to air his feelings.

SEN. TRENT LOTT: I'm not going to affix blame, but the way this energy bill is being handled is I think a huge problem for our country. I admit that I made some mistakes when I was majority leader in how I handled them, too, but it has gotten worse since then. I don't think anybody can deny that.

KWAME HOLMAN: Democratic leader Tom Daschle then stood and suggested the energy bill passed last year when he was majority leader was better.

SEN. TOM DASCHLE: If our Republican colleagues really wanted to get a bill, what would have been wrong with taking a bill that 88 of us voted for last year and starting with that?

KWAME HOLMAN: For Frist, it was the low point of the week. He quietly acknowledged the advice from his predecessor.

SEN. BILL FRIST: As we all know, we have heard from three majority leaders -- with the former majority leader, Senator Lott, commenting on the schedule, and myself, and the distinguished Democratic leader.

KWAME HOLMAN: And then, unexpectedly, he took the advice of his Democratic counterpart.

SEN. BILL FRIST: The Democratic leader mentioned last year's bill was passed with a bipartisan vote and suggested bringing that up. And, let's do that.

KWAME HOLMAN: Suddenly, Frist had what he wanted all week long: An energy bill before the August recess. The Senate approved it overwhelmingly last night. This morning Frist said, the particular details of the Senate energy bill aren't important. He expected the entire energy bill would be rewritten in a conference with House Republicans.

SEN. BILL FRIST: The Democrats know that, we know that, and we're going to write it.

KWAME HOLMAN: The two Houses will have to find common ground on ethanol subsidies, electricity market reforms, and the contentious issue of whether to permit oil exploration in Alaska's arctic national wildlife refuge. And the battle over judicial nominations will resume as well when Congress returns on the first Tuesday in September.

FOCUS - SHIELDS & BROOKS

RAY SUAREZ: And that brings us to the weekly analysis of Shields and Brooks. They are with Terence Smith.

TERENCE SMITH: That's syndicated columnist Mark Shields and David Brooks of the Weekly Standard. David Brooks, something of a spectacle in the Senate this week, dredging up a-year-old energy bill and stalemate with the judges. Your reaction.

DAVID BROOKS: The Senate is in chaos but Bill Frist's hair remains perfect. He is perfectly meticulous. It was disorganized and it was interesting to see Trent Lott just let it all hang out there. That was kind of fun. But he got what he wanted in the end, which was a Senate bill. They passed last year's bill. But it will go to Conference and Conference is Republican -- it's like there are three Houses of Congress now. There's the House, the Senate and the Conference. That's all Republican. So the Republicans are reasonably happy about that.

TERENCE SMITH: As he said, we'll write it.

DAVID BROOKS: Yes. Well, it will be Domenici, DeLay and Billy Tauzin from Louisiana, so that will be Republicans.

TERENCE SMITH: Mark?

MARK SHIELDS: A lot of conservationists in exile - (laughter) -- enviros beware. The best comment of the whole week was Jerry Taylor of the CATO Institute, the libertarian think tank, who said the original energy bill should be entitled leave no libertarian behind. Bill Frist was faced with having to do something and I think in a strange way Tom Daschle bailed him out.

TERENCE SMITH: All right. But what about the judicial nomination process, if you want to call it a process at this point? Where does it stand?

MARK SHIELDS: Well, where it stands is they're at 53 to 44. You can predict the vote before the vote's held. They need 60 to cut off debate. They're not going to get it. They're nowhere near. And now we are into straight politics. We are trying to appeal to Catholic voters, especially those most concerned in traditional moral and cultural values that the Democrats don't care about those things, because that's why they're stopping the nomination of the attorney general of Alabama, William Pryor - ads are being run in that direction. And so the civility and what has been historically senatorial courtesy, that is that the White House checked with a senator of the state that found the senator did not object to a nominee, now that's no longer being observed, certainly in the case of California, the case of Michigan. And ironically, Spence Abraham, the last Republican senator from Michigan, did exercise senatorial courtesy when the White House under Bill Clinton did, that this judge nominee was unacceptable. That was the case. So acrimony is real and it's permanent and it's not going to change.

TERENCE SMITH: An end to civility?

DAVID BROOKS: It went down another. This process has been in decline and I thought it was scuttling along the ocean floor but it went down another level with these ads charging Democrats being anti-Catholic. And the thinking among Republicans is you guys have been calling us racists for the last ten years. Okay, they get to call you bigots. The Republicans are actually divided because everybody knows it's not true. Everybody knows they don't oppose these people because they're Catholic. It's because they're pro life. They could be Jewish, Muslim, Protestant. They'd oppose them for that reason. And yet there's -- some people just want to say let's give as good as we get. Other people say, no, let's not sink to that level. Let's try to have some - you know - let's not be Ted Kennedy here.

MARK SHIELDS: A hundred and thirty-eight senators have been confirmed -

TERENCE SMITH: Judges.

MARK SHIELDS: -- judges, I'm sorry -- have been confirmed by the Senate and among them are several pro-life judges. So, I mean, it's not, you know I don't think it's that alone. But these high profile nominees are not objectionable and they are, you're absolutely right, they're all pro-life.

TERENCE SMITH: This week the president of the United States held a news conference, Mark. That's news.

MARK SHIELDS: That's news. By this time in his presidency his father had had 61 solo press conferences. Bill Clinton, who was hiding from the press a good part of the time, had had 33.

TERENCE SMITH: By this stage in his -

MARK SHIELDS: By this stage of his presidency, his first term, and George W. Bush just had his ninth. We hope to hit double figures sometime before the term is over. It enabled the president, first of all, to leave for a month-long stay at the ranch in Texas without being badgered, you've never answered questions you're continuing to avoid; you haven't had a press conference. So it put that behind him; it also it put behind him the best they could, what has been going on for three weeks. It started off the 16 words in the State of the Union speech; we went through serial suspects.

TERENCE SMITH: Sixteen words in which....

MARK SHIELDS: Sixteen words in which the president attributed the purchase, the attempt to purchase uranium for nuclear weapons to Saddam Hussein, relying upon British intelligence which the CIA had objected to and all the rest. But we had George Tenet take the bullet first, the CIA Director. Then Stephen Hadley. And while nobody was looking -- when Saddam's two sons were killed, Michael Gerson, the president's speechwriter, took the blame but he kind of got knocked out of the headlines.

DAVID BROOKS: Condi rice took the blame.

MARK SHIELDS: Condi Rice - Condi Rice came out of this kind of bad. She told the judge she didn't get a chance to read the memo. She is working for a president who doesn't read memos. I mean, you would think one of the things as a staff person you would do. So I think there was an attempt to put that -- it was three weeks that everybody was involved, was diminished by it politically -- a lot of finger pointing -- blame shifting. And I think, worst of all, it gave Democrats, from the Republicans' perspective, a sense that wait a minute, this could be the gang that couldn't shoot straight. Maybe we do have a chance in 2004.

TERENCE SMITH: What did the president mean, David, when he said, I take responsibility for what I said - those famous 16 words? What does that mean?

DAVID BROOKS: It doesn't mean anything. Everyone is taking responsibility. As Mark said, Steven Hadley, Mike Gerson, the pastry chef is going to take responsibility; they can all take responsibility. We all know what happened; they made a mistake. That claim was illegitimate apparently but he still is very proud of the justification for the war and he then went on to say I still did the right thing. The other thing that happened on that particular issue was David Kay came out this week, the arms inspector and gave some strong indications of their stuff that he's finding.

TERENCE SMITH: Right. The president asserted that all would come out well in the end. Did he add any evidence to support his justification of going to war in the first place?

MARK SHIELDS: No. What he did was, we have shifting rationales as recently as Friday and in the Washington Post we had a high ranking administration official say it was now stability in the Middle East was the underlying purpose rather than weapons of mass destruction or imminent threat. The president, I think the other thing that should not be overlooked, he wanted to be optimistic; he wanted to be upbeat about - both about weapons of mass destruction and about the economy. They had advanced notice that the economic growth is 2.4 percent. And they wanted to get up on that and wanted to make the pitch that it's working, that both his foreign policy... and I think there was an attempt to sort of emulate Reagan there, the idea that we can be upbeat and optimistic.

DAVID BROOKS: I just don't care if there are more press conferences, though. You know, there's sort of a prejudice that somehow you see the true Bush at these press conferences like it's going to be Barbara Walters and he's going to spill his guts. But it's never happened in press conferences. You never learn anything that -- reporters ask these stupid questions. The president evades them. What's the point?

TERENCE SMITH: There was one thing that might not have been in the playbook at the beginning, which was a question about gay marriage to the president.

DAVID BROOKS: That was the one time where he actually gave a pre-prepared policy statement, which was two steps: One, I feel for homosexuals but I am against gay marriage. Something amazing has happened in the last couple of weeks, which is that since the Supreme Court sodomy decision, the percentage of people who even say gay relationships should be acceptable has, the people who say it should be unacceptable has risen 10 percent, which is basically erases a ten year evolution of increasing acceptance, all of that gone in the period of a couple of weeks; it may come back, who knows, but there is clearly a sense in the public that if gay marriages come, wait a second, I've been quiet about it but I'm against it, there has been a sharp shift in public statement.

TERENCE SMITH: What did you make of the politics of the president's statement?

MARK SHIELDS: I think the president wanted to get on record. I mean, you're absolutely right; that was a prepared answer. I didn't know if he was going to find the word codified. He looked long and hard at his notes, and it did pop up on the screen, but I think the president wanted to get on record as being both personally tolerant and politically traditional, which he did. He said the barriers with which he would fight to maintain the barriers against gay marriage. I think what we have here is the word marriage. I don't think there is any question. It is a buzzword. It suggests a religious sanction; it suggests churches deciding who among its communicants or members can be married. And that... but when you individually ask, don't you think a couple that has spent 25 years together and one of the partners is an extremist and facing death's decision, that the surviving partner (a) should be able to see that person and help in the final resolution of their health? People overwhelmingly agree with it. But David is right. The numbers have changed dramatically and we don't know if it is an escalator going down or if they're stopped and they'll start going up again.

TERENCE SMITH: Speaking of numbers -- and very briefly -- the latest polls this week showed some shift in terms of approval of the president's performance. Your read briefly.

DAVID BROOKS: My read is it is coming down to 57. He is reasonably high for a third-year president. I don't pay too much attention to these ups and downs. To me the fundamental figure is the Democrats still have the security problem. They're still 30 points down. Who do you trust for security? And that's a long term problem.

MARK SHIELDS: Whoever the Democratic nominee is has to meet the threshold test on national security but the most cheerful note there in all surveys for the Wall Street Journal and NBC News poll that asked would you vote to re-elect George W. Bush, that number is down to 46 percent, would you vote for his Democratic opponent -- that's up to 36 percent. That's a major change in the last three months. And those 17 percent who are undecided at this point, are quite negative on the president's performance, especially on the economy. And that remains certainly his Achilles Heel.

TERENCE SMITH: So some shift is going on.

MARK SHIELDS: Yes.

TERENCE SMITH: Mark, David, thank you both very much.

FINALLY - PICTURE BOOK ART

RAY SUAREZ: Finally tonight, a museum dedicated to the art of children's picture books. Arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown has an encore report.

SPOKESMAN: (repeat from 12-24-02) You know, I still don't know this book by heart.

JEFFREY BROWN: The book is "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," and though author and illustrator Eric Carle forgets his words, for most anyone born after 1969 or anyone who has read to a child since then, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" is very familiar fare.

ERIC CARLE: "One Sunday morning, the warm sun came up and, pop, out of the egg came a tiny, and a very hungry caterpillar."

JEFFREY BROWN: The story of a tiny insect who eats too much has sold more than 17 million copies and been translated into 33 languages. Now the original, brilliantly colored images from the book have found a new home, appropriately enough, in an apple orchard in Central Massachusetts, in the brand new Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, the brainchild of the artist and his wife. Classics like "Good Night Moon," The Babar Stories, "Curious George," and so many more have a cherished place in the hearts of millions, but they have rarely been honored in the traditional art world. That's what makes this an unusual, if not unique, institution. On this museum's walls: A very grouchy lady bug, a horse, and a spider.

WOMAN: And what book is that from, Nicholas?

LITTLE BOY: Spider.

WOMAN: "The very busy spider."

SPOKESMAN: Okay, this is it.

JEFFREY BROWN: Nick Clark is the museum's director.

H. NICHOLAS CLARK: We're taking it out of the book and putting it up on the wall. It is honoring the art of the picture book, and recognizing it as a more legitimate and serious genre than it has heretofore been recognized as.

JEFFREY BROWN: Inside the exhibition rooms, Eric Carle's work occupies one large gallery. Trained as a graphic designer, Carle worked in advertising before turning to children's books. He uses bright colors and bold shapes that appeal to very young children or to anyone who's ever felt a bit small in the world.

ERIC CARLE: A painting draws you in, and you slowly digest everything. But in advertising it's, boom! I don't draw too well really. I'm a graphic designer, and big, small, night, day are graphic elements to draw you into pictures, for instance, I believe the white against a picture. As you notice, my picture -- my books are a lot of white space, concentrated color, and those are graphic... devices to entertain you and to entertain your eyes. And I just think whatever our eyes touch should be beautiful, tasteful, appealing, important.

JEFFREY BROWN: A second large gallery hosts guest exhibitions. The first is the work of Maurice Sendak, perhaps the most renowned figure in picture books. Illustrator of "A Hole is to Dig" and the "Little Bear" tales from the '50s; author and illustrator of the classic, "Where the Wild Things Are." Sendak is a master draftsman, his drawings full of detail and subtlety.

JEFFREY BROWN: You have said that this picture book makes aesthetic demands that few have mastered. So it's a hard form.

MAURICE SENDAK: It's a very difficult form. It's like balancing picture with words. It's rhythm, it's syncopation. It's where you stop writing and start drawing. It's a continuous thread-- words, pictures, words, pictures-- and it has a tempo, almost a metronome at the beginning, because why would children go through a book? So you've got to catch them with your metronome right from the start so they syncopate with the book.

JEFFREY BROWN: Sendak says he writes for the frightened child in all of us, young and old, himself included.

MAURICE SENDAK: People say, "oh, Mr. Sendak, you live with your child self," like Peter Pan under a mushroom. And I say, "how'd you like to live with your psychotic ancient self, grumbling and bumbling around in your belly? That's what it's like." You live with your child self, you have no choice. He is there lurking.

SPOKESPERSON: "In the Night Kitchen," by Maurice Sendak.

JEFFREY BROWN: One of the museum's goals is to bring children to art, through the books they already love.

PEOPLE READING IN UNISON: "Milk in the batter, milk in the batter, we bake cake and nothing's the matter."

JEFFREY BROWN: In another part of the museum, kids can create their own art. At a time when many museums are going high-tech, interactivity here means passing out crayons and glue. In fact, the tools are much the same in Eric Carle's professional studio a few miles away from the museum.

ERIC CARLE: Here are my reds, for instance.

JEFFREY BROWN: Carle's craft is collage. He paints large sheets of tissue paper. Storage drawers are color-coded.

ERIC CARLE: Let's say I need a red head, I cut it out, and I add one segment after the other. And it's easy for children to do, they love to do it. You know, kids in pre-school already do collages.

JEFFREY BROWN: Right, with these same materials: Paper, crayons, paints, glue.

ERIC CARLE: Yeah, yeah. And when I do a picture for kids and it's finished, then I say, "okay, now the picture is finished, what do you do when the picture is finished?" One time, a kid said, "Do another picture." I said, "no, no, no. When a picture is finished, you sign it."

JEFFREY BROWN: But do collages created to illustrate children's books belong in a museum? For both Carle and Sendak, the question is irrelevant.

ERIC CARLE: I think it's a silly debate, what is illustration? You know, the Sistine Chapel, the pope said to Michelangelo, "you go up there and paint a picture on the wall." Well, it's an illustration.

JEFFREY BROWN: And it tells a story, too, right?

ERIC CARLE: It tells a story.

MAURICE SENDAK: There has always been that divide between those who painted and cut their ears off, and those who were commercial and made a lot of money. It's no longer a battle for me, because it's an idiotic discussion altogether. It is art. I mean the first things I fell in love with was "Babar." By the time you finish that book, you are so in love with Babar and Celeste and the atmosphere and the country, the continent, everything, the lucidity of the language, which is so simple and so plain, and those pictures going. It's like exquisite poetry. That is art. That is very refined art.

JEFFREY BROWN: This sophisticated young museum-goer agreed, even if she didn't have all her vocabulary words down.

JEFFREY BROWN: What do you think about seeing the pictures from the books on the wall of a museum?

TAYLOR WITHERSPOON: I think it's very daring.

JEFFREY BROWN: Daring? Why?

TAYLOR WITHERSPOON: Because I think they're beautiful and expiring.

JEFFREY BROWN: Inspiring?

TAYLOR WITHERSPOON: Yeah.

JEFFREY BROWN: Museum Director Clark hopes this is just the beginning of a broader recognition for picture book art.

JEFFREY BROWN: You're an art historian who's worked in museums. Could you have imagined 20 years ago that gorillas, bears, caterpillars would be on the walls of a museum?

H. NICHOLS CLARK: No, and certainly the climate has changed enormously. My hope is that someday we will be able to lend those gorillas, and those monkeys, and those bears to the best museums in the country, and that they will want them.

JEFFREY BROWN: Eric Carle calls the museum, "the house the caterpillar built." In his book, the tiny insect grows and grows, until it transforms itself into something new and beautiful.

ERIC CARL: I never imagined that it would become so important to so many children. Why do children love it? It's a book of hope. You little, ugly, little, insignificant bug, you, too, can grow up to be a beautiful, big butterfly and fly into the world, and unfold your talents.

JEFFREY BROWN: In the end, it may be this extraordinary connection that so many of us have to the books of childhood that lends extra power to the art of the picture book on the page or on the walls of a museum.

ERIC CARL: "Then he made a hole in the cocoon, pushed his way out, and he was a beautiful butterfly."

RAY SUAREZ: This summer and fall, the Eric Carle Museum features the work of Leo Lionni, best known for his creations of Frederick the Mouse and Swimmy the Fish.

RECAP

RAY SUAREZ: Again, the major developments of this day. Unemployment fell to 6.2 percent in July, as nearly half a million Americans quit looking for work. And a new audiotape, said to be from Saddam Hussein, urged Iraqis to fight U.S. forces. A reminder, that Washington Week can be seen on most PBS stations later this evening. We'll see you online, and again here Monday evening. Have a good weekend. I'm Ray Suarez. Thanks and good night.