The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

MARGARET WARNER: Good evening. I'm Margaret Warner. Jim Lehrer is off this week. On the NewsHour tonight: Ray Suarez explores Sunday's Mother's Day march for new gun laws; Kwame Holman reports on the political pressures surrounding the China trade vote; Mark Shields and Paul Gigot wrap up the political week; Elizabeth Farnsworth talks with teacher- of-the-year Marilyn Whirry; and poet laureate Robert Pinsky has a Mother's Day poem. It all follows our summary of the news this Friday.

NEWS SUMMARY

MARGARET WARNER: Firefighters got a break today in their battle against the blaze that's ravaged Los Alamos, New Mexico. It came from the weather as the winds calmed and humidity the winds calmed and humidity rose, even as the tally of losses mounted. Officials said the fire had burned 28,000 acres and destroyed 260 homes. The National Park Service set the fire last week to burn brush, but it quickly flared out of control. Today, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt was asked if the federal government would compensate the victims.

BRUCE BABBITT, Secretary of the Interior: We are all deeply impressed by the extent of this tragedy, and we are committed to working together to do the best we can to make the victims whole. Now beyond that, I cannot go because the lawyers will ultimately have the say along with the members of Congress.

MARGARET WARNER: Babbitt also announced he was temporarily suspending so-called controlled burns in the West. Organizers made final plans today for a Mother's Day march for gun control. Though it's being billed as "The Million Mom March," but leaders predicted a turnout of about 150,000 on the national mall in Washington. They said thousands more would attend similar events around the country. They also said that after this their group will become a political organization to endorse or oppose candidates based on their support for tighter gun laws.

DONNA DEES-THOMASES, "MillionMoms" March Organizer: We simply want licensing and registration of handguns. We just want to treat handguns like we treat automobiles in this country. It is a national disgrace that we have to march on Washington to ask for such basic commonsense gun policy. Until we achieve that, we are out of step with the rest of the developed world.

MARGARET WARNER: An anti-gun control group, the Second Amendment Sisters plans a competing march on Sunday. We'll have more on all this right after the News Summary. Overseas today, Indonesia's government signed a three-month cease-fire with rebels in Aceh Province. It was the first formal truce in 25 years of fighting that's killed thousands of people. The truce was signed in Geneva, but rebel leaders in the province said they haven't dropped their long range goal of independence. New fighting erupted today between Ethiopia and Eritrea, ending a year-long lull in the conflict along their disputed border. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Richard Holbrooke, had just finished an African peace mission when the fighting broke out. Today, in Germany, he held out hope that negotiations could be resumed.

RICHARD HOLBROOKE, U.N. Ambassador: This crisis, and there is no other word for it in the Horn of Africa, was a direct result of the breakdown of the talks in Algiers on May 5. I think that the negotiations in Algiers are not necessarily dead and the reason I say that is that the last two years there's been a fight-talk, fight-talk pattern each year at exactly this time.

MARGARET WARNER: Eritrea accused Ethiopia of starting the latest fighting, and Ethiopia did not deny it. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Back in this country, a Michigan man stepped forward today and claimed his half of this week's record Big Game lottery jackpot. Larry Ross, a swimming pool installer in suburban Detroit, held one of the two winning tickets drawn Tuesday night. His share of the $363 million jackpot is actually $90 million, before taxes. That's because he elected to take his money in one lump sum. Ross appeared with his family at a news conference in Lansing.

LARRY ROSS, Lottery Winner: Then we stopped at Mr. Kay's Party Store and bought a hot dog, and I told the guy, "my wife told me to buy some lottery tickets," because I don't normally buy lottery tickets. I'm not a normal... I'm not an everyday buyer, so everybody out there that doesn't buy lottery tickets, it really does happen. And I told the guy to give me the rest of the change in lotto tickets, and that was it. Now, it was 98, I think.

REPORTER: You're saying you won with change from a hot dog?

LARRY ROSS: Yes. I had a $100-bill, that's all I had, and then I asked the guy to give me the change in lotto tickets.

REPORTER: You bought one ticket?

LARRY ROSS: No, I bought 98 tickets, the balance of the hot dog. (Laughter) so the following morning, I got up and Nancy said, "oh, these are the lottery tickets you bought." I left them on the counter because I didn't see a number four in the globe ball. I said, "well, we didn't win nothing because we don't have a number four." And she says, "it's right here in the front." And so I woke up and we went out and looked at them, and she just happened to turn on the TV and the guy I bought the tickets from was on television, George Kassab's son. So I said, "this is just too freaky, that's the guy I bought the tickets from." And he said... I said, "well, get the ticket, let's check these numbers again." So the next thing you know, the number comes on the screen, and I'm looking, and I said, "Jesus, they match." (Laughter) We're a pretty tight family, and we'll be the same people. I mean, obviously we're going to have more toys, but we'll be the same personably. I've always been a pretty personable person, I like to joke around, I like to laugh, and I like people. And my kids are pretty well to the grindstone, right now. They're very down-to-earth and they're very smart, and I think we'll stay all together. We'll hold it together.

MARGARET WARNER: Ross said he'd give some of the money to charity and might buy his wife the purple Jaguar she's always wanted. But he said they won't spend any of the winnings for at least 90 days. The holder of the other winning ticket sold in Illinois has yet to come forward. That's it for the News Summary tonight. Now it's on to the Moms' March for gun control; the politics of the China trade fight; Shields and Gigot; the teacher of the year, and some Mother's Day poetry.

FOCUS - UP IN ARMS

MARGARET WARNER: Ray Suarez has Mother's Day march story.

DONNA KELLY-WATTS, Mother of Gun Victim: I am taking action in the memory of my son and in an effort to protect thousands of other mothers and children from having to suffer the same pain that I have.

RAY SUAREZ: Donna Kelly-Watts is one of the 150,000 people expected to join the so-called "Million Moms' March" in Washington on Sunday.

DONNA DEES-THOMASES, "Million Moms" March Organizer: You hear these mothers who tell these stories and you remember why you started out -- because no one should have to go through this.

RAY SUAREZ: The march is the brainchild of Donna Dee Thomases' sister-in-law, one of First Lady Hillary Clinton's advisors. Dees-Thomases said she got the idea last summer when she saw TV coverage of the shootings at a day care center in California in august. Rallies are planned in 60 cities plus the nation's capital. March organizers say participants will cross economic, racial, and political lines with both Republicans and Democrats expected to attend. Organizers say they want changes in gun control laws, including licensing handgun owners and registering all handguns, sensible "cooling off" periods and background checks of any individual purchasing a weapon; safety locks for all handguns; limiting purchases to one-handgun-per-month; no-nonsense enforcement of gun laws; and the enlistment of help from corporate America.

CHARLTON HESTON: This is one week to put politics aside.

RAY SUAREZ: The National Rifle Association has countered the demands with a television ad campaign and a million dollar contribution for gun safety education.

SUSAN HOWARD: Can we talk woman to woman? You see, this week you're going to hear lots of disagreement about gun politics, but we all can agree on gun safety. We all want safe kids and the NRA knows how to make children safe.

RAY SUAREZ: Wayne La Pierre is executive vice-president of the NRA.

WAYNE LA PIERRE: Let's use this week to put firearm safety education in every elementary class in America, so young kids know if they see a gun what to do: Stop, don't touch it, leave the area, and call an adult.

RAY SUAREZ: The marching mothers will have competition from a group called the Second Amendment Sisters, a pro-gun advocacy group, who will hold a counter-rally a few blocks away at the same time. Both the sisters, who say they are not supported by the NRA, and the marching mothers have their own web sites where they are recruiting participants.

SPOKESPERSON: I'm going to start again if I could, sir.

RAY SUAREZ: The Clinton administration has publicly endorsed the march. President Clinton met with women from both sides of the issue today. Mr. Clinton used the meeting, broadcast on ABC's "Good Morning America," to chastise the NRA..

PRESIDENT CLINTON: They do well if they can turn this into a gun control battle, we do well when we make this a specific battle. The things that the mothers coming here will do is make this a voting issue. But if it doesn't, they're going to keep winning. Voting issue. But if it's not, they'll keep winning. And you just have to realize that.

RAY SUAREZ: Tents are going up on the National Mall, and first aid stations are prepared. March organizers have erected a wall with the names of gun victims inscribed on it.

RAY SUAREZ: Two different perspectives now on this weekend's march. Mary Leigh Blek is the western regional organizer for the event. She's also the co-founder and president of the Bell Campaign, a grassroots organization in orange county, California, dedicated to the prevention of gun deaths and injuries. Robin Ball is the owner of an indoor shooting range and gun shop in Spokane, Washington. She is a member of the Second Amendment Sisters, an anti-gun control organization that is planning a counter-demonstration Sunday. Mary Leigh Blek, tell us how you came to this issue. What called you to activism?

MARY LEIGH BLEK, Million Mom March: I got a call on June 29, 1994, informing me that our 21-year-old son, who was on a college break and had gone to New York City to spend the summer, and as he was walking a new date home, was approached by three 15 year olds wielding two handguns. And they demanded his wallet. And as he started to hand over the wallet, they put a little Saturday Night special to his forehead and fired it. And that was my introduction to gun violence.

RAY SUAREZ: So your son died shortly thereafter.

MARY LEIGH BLEK: He died within the hour, yes.

RAY SUAREZ: Had you ever been involved in this way in an issue like this before?

MARY LEIGH BLEK: Not to this degree. Certainly I was active in my PTA and my children's activities. I was a Brownie leader and member of assistance league. I was considered active in the community, but not to this degree. Certainly I was very much a homemaker for my family.

RAY SUAREZ: Robin Ball, tell us how you got involved on the other side of the question. Public opinion researchers tell us that this is one of the surest gender gap questions that women cut very heavily in favor of gun control.

ROBIN BALL, Second Amendment Sisters: Well, I don't see it that way because about 90% of the people that I teach to shoot are women. And I find women to be very actively involved in the shooting sports and most likely to take a stand on the issue. It really has been a male-dominated issue until just recently. This vote does swing with the women. And I think that women, if they look at both sides of the issue and stay focused on what we see as the problems, will understand that more laws are not the answer.

RAY SUAREZ: What is the answer?

ROBIN BALL: The answer really is education. We need to stay focused on what we can do to educate not only the kids and what we expect them to say and what we expect them to do if they find a gun somewhere, but in educating gun owners, in safe storage, in keeping guns out of the wrong hands. And I'm not talking about just out of your kids' hands. It's out of the hands of their friends, and out of the hands of criminals who break into homes and steal guns, which is where they get them.

RAY SUAREZ: Mary Leigh Blek, this seems to be one of the big differences between your group and Second Amendment Sisters. They say let's enforce the laws we have. You say we need more regulations.

MARY LEIGH BLEK: Actually I heard her saying education. And to me that's what licensing is all about, to make sure that gun owners, before they purchase a gun, know how to properly use that gun, and to know what the laws are as well as to know how to unjam a gun and to... what safe storage is. I think she's saying the same thing I am with that statement. I believe that that's what we want with licensing of guns. And the registering of guns is just making that owner account of accountable and responsible for his weapon. To me that's common sense. I think they would think twice before passing that gun off to a juvenile or to somebody prohibited from owning it if they knew they would be held accountable for their registered weapon. That's all we're talking about. We're not talking about banning guns. We're talking about being responsible. We have licensing and registering for a lot of other products. I'm a registered nurse, a public health nurse. I have a license to practice public health. I think this is just very common and I think women understand that. And when it comes to our firearm death rate for our children, 14 and under, when we know it's 12 times higher than for 25 other industrialized nations combined...

RAY SUAREZ: Yes, but it's been dropping throughout the 90s without the kind of regulation that you've been talking about.

MARY LEIGH BLEK: Oh, we've been... I beg to differ with you on that. I think there's lots of reasons why our gun death rate is dropping, however not so much with our youth. And besides, it is down to a lower level than previously, but for heaven's sakes, if we're going to talk about how great it was in the 60s, we had a lot of gun deaths in the 60s. And when you compare it with other countries who regulate their guns, we are way out of step. And I think that even the number that we have is intolerable. And there's something that we can do to prevent a death. And as far as enforcing the laws you're not going to get me to disagree with you there, nor the other mothers. We are calling for sensible law, you know, have the laws enforced. I think licensing and registration will help our law enforcement do a better job of enforcing. If you have that gun and it goes into a criminal's hand, they will know who had that gun by registration. We do that with automobiles. Let's do it for gun owners.

RAY SUAREZ: Robin Ball, how do you respond?

ROBIN BALL: The licensing and registration issue is completely off the subject of safety. First of all, on the licensing issue, we have people who have been teaching firearm safety across this country. You're never going to legislate accidents in any form, including Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. We're never going to legislate this down to zero. If we can maintain this trend, which we will because we have more and more instructors all the time coming on to teach firearm safety, we're going to get it down to a very, very low rate. The responsibility aspect of it, as far as transferring a gun to somebody who is not eligible to have one such as you commented on, transferring a gun to a youth, that's against the law already. We don't need to layer the laws we have. We need to enforce what we have going on. There is no reason to add more to the books. Let's take care of what is already there -- in excess of 20,000 laws on the books. Let's see some enforcement.

RAY SUAREZ: Well, you began our talk with a terrifying story of the death of your son. Would the kind of measures that you suggest have made that crime any less likely to happen?

MARY LEIGH BLEK: Absolutely.

RAY SUAREZ: How?

MARY LEIGH BLEK: I think... I definitely wanted to hold that perpetrator responsible for that criminal act. But how many adult hands did that gun pass through before it reached my son? We know that crime guns, especially youth crime guns, have a -- from manufacture to crime three years. If it's a Saturday Night Special that's even a shorter period. It's a two-year period of time. That suggests to me that we have a legal purchase and that gun is being slipped out into an illegal market. And this is what you need licensing and registration for. In my state, California police chief papers are strong on that. They want licensing and registration as a crime fighting tool.

RAY SUAREZ: Now, you mentioned you can't legislate this down to zero. But I think the movement on the other side of the question has purposely steered clear of prohibition-style zero-tolerance measures and have gone for what they would term a moderate approach.

MICHAEL BARNES: They've termed it a very reasonable approach. Unfortunately, you keep referring to the Saturday Night Special issue. What happens is when guns are stolen, they tend to steal what is coined the Saturday Night Special. They're an inexpensive gun is all that means. I don't know where the phrase originated. The fact is the reason they steal those is because they can turn and sell them so quickly on the street. How many laws do we have to break here to get somebody to enforce them? It's already against the law to steal guns. It's against the law to do all of those things you're talking about.

MARY LEIGH BLEK: And they go back to the person where the sale is registered, original sale and the person can say, you know, I must have lost that gun. If we have registration that is on a periodic basis, that gun owner is saying yes, I have that gun in my possession. We do that with automobiles. And if a gun -- or a car is out in the street has been stolen and is out on the street, within 30 seconds, the police can find out who is the registered owner. Why not do that with guns? This is accountability and responsibility. And what we have here is lives being lost. I don't care if it's down from the 1992 level, it is still outrageous and it's our young people who are paying a disproportionate price because we don't regulate guns.

RAY SUAREZ: What do you hope to accomplish Sunday, briefly?

MARY LEIGH BLEK: I hope that we show Congress that we are here to support them. I think many legislators do want to do the right thing, but they're fearful of the NRA and gun lobby. They're very vocal. They are a minority but they are very vocal. I think that by seeing us, they'll know we are here and we're going to support them. We are now educated. We know what we want and we are watching the candidates. If they are unwilling or unable to protect our children by sensible gun laws, then we're going to elect someone who will.

RAY SUAREZ: And you've thought enough of this to have a counter demonstration. What do you want to accomplish?

ROBIN BALL: Absolutely. I want the legislators to know that this group of women doesn't speak for those of us around the country who are responsible law abiding citizens who enjoy the sport of shooting. I also believe that I would go to any extreme to protect my family. And I don't want my right to self-defense impeded by this process that they're going through. I also don't agree that the NRA represents a minority of people. Whether they're members or not, the NRA speaks for a lot of gun owners.

RAY SUAREZ: We're going to have to leave it there. Thank you very much both.

MARY LEIGH BLEK: Thank you.

ROBIN BALL: Thank you.

MARGARET WARNER: Still to come on the NewsHour tonight: The China trade fight; Shields and Gigot; the teacher of the year; and a Mother's Day poem.

FOCUS - WINNERS & LOSERS

MARGARET WARNER: Kwame Holman looks at the politics surrounding the upcoming China trade vote.

KWAME HOLMAN: Critics of global trade claim it always creates winners and losers. And the people here at the Inman Textile Mill are convinced they will be losers if a U.S. Trade agreement with China goes through. Rob Chapman owns this mill in the tiny town of Enoree, South Carolina. The mill was founded by his great-grandfather in 1902.

ROB CHAPMAN: We know we are going to lose. We are going to lose jobs.

KWAME HOLMAN: Chapman's mill produces fabric that goes into everything from furniture upholstery to khaki pants. He and many of his workers say if Congress votes to normalize trade relations with China, the U.S. will be flooded with cheap Chinese fabric imports, making it hard to compete. Many workers here are mill veterans. It's been 26 years for machine technician Ricky May.

RICKY MAY: How can you trust a Communist country that's already smuggling billions of dollars of goods into this country already. They talk about equal trade? I mean, ask yourself -- they pay these people 25 cents an hour. How can you have equal trade?

KWAME HOLMAN: May's colleague, Linda Simmons, is a 24-year Inman veteran.

LINDA SIMMONS: I'm a single parent, so I have only one income coming in, and if this place was to close down, I'm sure I'd have to be like everybody else. I'd have to be out there trying to find a job.

KWAME HOLMAN: But in the complex calculus of international trade, many others believe the China trade deal will make them winners. In and around New York's Kennedy Airport, there's much talk that the China agreement will open access to that country's huge market, and that will add up to more goods shipped, more demand for workers on the loading dock, and more money to be made for cargo companies and middle men.

MARTIN HARTUNG: Signed these endorsements?

KWAME HOLMAN: Martin Hartung is regional vice president of UAC, an air cargo company that ships products across the globe.

MARTIN HARTUNG: So right now I'm thrilled with China. I hope the door opens up and that we can do more trade. The only thing I see happening is more jobs for Americans.

KWAME HOLMAN: The Clinton administration's top trade negotiator, Charlene Barshefsky, signed the trade agreement last fall in Beijing after protracted negotiations with Chinese officials. The deal would pave the way for China's entry into the 136- nation World Trade Organization. But for the deal to go through, Congress must vote to normalize trade with China on a permanent basis. Barshefsky was on Capitol Hill earlier this month urging members to do so.

CHARLENE BARSHEFSKY: This agreement with China will open China's market, a market that will be the largest single market in the world to the full range of American exports of industrial goods, farm products, and services, to a degree unprecedented in the modern era.

KWAME HOLMAN: Lobbying by business interests for permanent normal trade status for China has been fierce.

ANNOUNCER: With 1.3 billion people, China is the world's largest marketplace.

KWAME HOLMAN: Ads like this one from a business coalition have flooded the airwaves in the districts of some of the dozens of undecided members, urging them to vote yes. But organized labor is pushing back just as hard against the China trade deal. (Labor rally) Labor leaders have held rallies to whip up support among their traditional Democratic and Republican allies.

JOHN SWEENEY, AFL-CIO: And while we are losing hundreds of thousands of jobs, China is setting new records for violations of human rights and polluting the environment.

KWAME HOLMAN: And like their business counterparts, labor leaders have button-holed key undeclared members of Congress. New York Democrat Gregory Meeks is one of them. In mid-April, he met with a contingent of New York labor leaders, including Dennis Hughes, the head of the state AFL-CIO. Meeks' Queens New York district includes trade-dependent Kennedy airport.

SPOKESMAN: Come on in...concerns that go back and forth. I don't know which way yet the column lines up.

KWAME HOLMAN: Hughes argues for a temporary, one-year extension of favored trading status to keep pressure on China to improve its human rights practices and labor standards.

DENIS HUGHES: Do it on a yearly or so renewal and be able to impose and discuss and try to get them to improve the conditions that prevail in China in terms of human rights and other situations.

KWAME HOLMAN: But Martin Hartung says anything short of permanent normal trade status for China is a loser for his and other U.S. companies.

MARTIN HARTUNG: We should open the door. If we don't, China has already has agreement in place now with over 43 nations countries. If America if America says no, China will open the door for trade with these other countries, and we will lose on this. I will promise Mr. Meeks that if they don't vote yes, that he can come back to this dock a couple of years from now, or even a year from now, when we lose that China trade, and he can watch the jobs go away.

KWAME HOLMAN: To help navigate the crosscurrents, Meeks spent part of the Easter recess with three other House members on an administration-sponsored fact- finding trip toChina. Meeks said he had opportunities to talk to ordinary Chinese people and heard some complaints about human rights violations.

REP. GREGORY MEEKS, (D) New York: Is it substantial enough for me to say at this moment that it, in and of itself, will prevent me from voting for this bill? No, I don't think so. But there are other issues that still remain that could prevent me from voting for this bill.

REP. JIM DeMINT, (R) South Carolina: How are you doing?

MAN: Good to meet you.

KWAME HOLMAN: South Carolina Republican Jim DeMint spent his Easter recess a lot closer to home. But like Meeks, he, too, was trying to make up his mind on the China vote. DeMint represents the Congressional district that is home to Inman Mills in the northwest part of the state.

REP. JIM DeMINT: I'm undecided about it and I want to listen to what people really think.

KWAME HOLMAN: DeMint's district also is home to Haemonetics, a pharmaceutical company that produces a cutting- edge process for blood collection. The company, located near Union, South Carolina, hopes to do millions of dollars of business in China should the market there open up. 24-year-old Angela Todd is a microbiologist at the plant. She said without Haemonetics she'd have a hard time finding a good job so close to home.

ANGELA TODD, Microbiologist: Well, a lot of people don't know that Haemonetics really exists here in Union. And then you tell them about the growth potential, and that we have the opportunity, maybe, to have some of our products in China, and that will give us more growth, and we can hire people, and that will help Union grow.

KWAME HOLMAN: A 60-minute drive up the road, past the farms where cattlemen hope China trade will create more demand for their beef, the urban city of Greenville is thriving. Brew pubs, coffee houses, and chic bistros line the street. Unemployment is a staggeringly low 1.7%. Much of this prosperity is being driven by trade-dependent international companies that line the local interstate. The jewel in the economic crown here is the BMW plant, the only one in the United States. It employs 3,000, including Spokesman Robert Hitt.

ROBERT HITT: Within about a 50-mile radius of the BMW plant, here in the upstate, there are 273 international companies flying 17 different national flags. It has been a place that international companies have found a ready work force. China is an important market for companies, such as BMW, and I think ultimately, it will be an important market for many of the companies in South Carolina that export around the world.

KWAME HOLMAN: Such as the general electric plant in Greenville that produces massive gas-driven turbines for power plants. It is the largest such plant in the world, and plant officials say China with its growing need for power represents a fertile market. Congressman DeMint says he's concerned about human rights violations in China. But he concedes that after listening to many of his constituents, he was leaning in favor of the deal. He talked to us about the China trade agreement during a break in his tour of the plant. Behind him was a 100,000 pound turbine headed for Taiwan it sells for $30 million.

REP. JIM DeMINT: Well, I am real concerned, as many Americans are, about China as a whole, about their products flooding our markets, and taking our jobs, but the agreement we're working on now is not so when approached this, I was skeptical of expanding any trade relationship with them. But the agreement we're working on now is not about more T-shirts that say made in China in America. It's about gas turbines that say "made in U.S.A., Sold in China."

KWAME HOLMAN: But the Inman Mills, Rob Chapman is unconvinced. He says those who favor the China trade deal are willing to sacrifice his company.

ROBERT CHAPMAN, Mill Owner: Sure, they do want to trade us off. They're willing to trade us off now. And that's... that's the battle that we're fighting, because we can compete anywhere in the world with the technology that we have and the people that we have working for us. But they're willing to trade us off and we're going to fight it 'til... 'Til the end.

KWAME HOLMAN: Located in the shadow of the New York City skyline, Gregory Meek's mostly African American district is in sharp contrast to South Carolina.

REP. GREGORY MEEKS: It's a largely middle-class community, where we had at the time of segregation, of course all the ball players, Count Basie, and Billie Holiday, and James Brown. They all had homes here. And so it's largely, or mostly, a home-ownership community that is looking to continue to develop its commercial infrastructure. Yes, this is a district I'm very proud of.

KWAME HOLMAN: While Meeks said while he still was weighing the potential job losses and gains in the China trade equation, he's convinced those American business leaders who favor the deal should be willing do more in American communities like his Congressional district.

REP. GREOGRY MEEKS: I'm asking for engagement, not only in my district, but throughout the United States of America. We need to make sure that the same kind of investment and creation of jobs that they are looking to do, that also happens in America.

KWAME HOLMAN: The workers and managers in this part of New York, and their counterparts in South Carolina, will be keeping a close eye on Washington. The House is scheduled to vote on permanent trade relations with China during the week of May 22, with neither side yet assured of victory. The Senate will vote soon after, but passage there is almost a certainty.

FOCUS - POLITICAL WRAP

MARGARET WARNER: Now, Shields and Gigot with analysis of the China trade fight and other matters political. That's syndicated columnist Mark Shields and "Wall Street Journal" columnist Paul Gigot. Well, Mark, the President was also out in the Midwest stumping for this China trade bill. Do they have the votes yet in the House to pass it?

MARK SHIELDS: They don't. Both sides say they don't have the votes. But, Margaret, you heard from Kwame's piece. You have on one side of this, you have the President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, majority party in Congress, the fierce backing of the American business community, the press establishment of the country, the foreign policy establishment of the country. On the other side you have got some religious groups, a divided labor movement and human rights people. And you needed 150 Republicans from the House and 70 Democrats. And I would say right now don't bet against their being 220.

MARGARET WARNER: How do you see the prospects?

PAUL GIGOT: I see it the same way. They don't have the votes yet but the big clashes tend not to have the votes until the end because a lot of people don't want to vote unless they really have to -- to declare themselves because there's hot feelings -- passions on either side. This is going to pass because the president wants it and that noted friend of his, bosom buddy Tom Delay, the Republican Whip, the isolationist as the President called him a couple of years back, wants to pass this. And he is working very hard to help the President pass this bill. And it's like just about every significant thing that this President has passed since 1994, it's going to be done with majority Republican votes. Not a single member. Democratic house leadership, not one is in favor of this bill.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Let's turn to the New York Senate race and Rudy Giuliani's rather remarkable week. What did you make of his very public revelations about his marital problems?

MARK SHIELDS: Well, first of all, Margaret, on most issues, whether it's China trade or nuclear non-proliferation, most people are reluctant to express themselves because they don't really identify with it. This is one where people feel totally comfortable. I mean everybody knows somebody whose marriage is breaking up, who has another woman in his life, who has just got word he's got the disease that killed his father. I mean everybody knows that. They have opinions. They have a reaction. New Yorkers feel, whether they're naturalized or native born, they feel it is their constitutional innate right to have opinions on anything they want. They've expressed them. I think that Rudy Giuliani's candidacy is toast. It's history.

MARGARET WARNER: Recap briefly because I didn't, for non-New Yorkers. Just very briefly. He announced he had prostate cancer.

MARK SHIELDS: Rudy Giuliani revealed he had prostate cancer, a disease that killed his father and he would have to determine the treatment and decide upon that. He got a great wave of sympathy. In the course of that wave of sympathy, he revealed that there was another woman in his life who had given him great comfort and great consolation and then that seemed to be... New Yorkers seemed to accept -- what New Yorkers rebelled against, not the allegedly adulterous relationship that this married father of two has, but the fact that when he's announced this past week in a public press gathering that he was going to seek a legal separation from his wife, he had not informed his wife, and almost mandated, almost guaranteed she would come back with a hurt and totally proportional response. And I guess maybe he didn't understand that, in which she charged this is not the first time this happened. She had tried to keep the marriage together and there had been a previous one which had been alleged and which he denied. And if that sounds like another political figure we know, so be it.

PAUL GIGOT: Brilliant summary by the way.

MARGARET WARNER: Very succinct.

PAUL GIGOT: I'm glad you asked him do that. I think it is so hard at the human level to see how Rudy Giuliani can endure this. I know politicians of this stature tend to have an extra chromosome that they can endure things most people can't, they can endure abuse and scrutiny. But, man, he has got a marriage to put together, he's got a wife who's angry, he's got a new girlfriend he cares a lot about and he was very human in expressing that. He has children to reassure and he has got a Senate race that the world is going to be looking at to focus on. The decision that mark talked about to go out and say I'm getting a legal separation without informing his wife is the bad judgment that shows maybe you've got a lot of other things on your mind that don't allow you to focus on what you need to be focusing on. So most of the Republicans in the state think that he's going to have to drop out. He's a tough guy. Maybe he is going to go at it and still do it. But it's going to be difficult.

MARGARET WARNER: But you wrote today that you said he might be doing himself and Republicans a favor if he didn't run.

PAUL GIGOT: I think interms of himself. He has all this stuff to think about. I've never been sure he wants to be a Senator per se. He's got an executive mindset. He loves to give orders. He is not the collegial type for the Senate. I think the governorship might suit him better in a couple of years once he... if he can settle this out of his personal life. George Pataki, on the other hand would be... the governor, two-term, second term governor of New York, would be, at this stage, I think, a more formidable candidate against the First Lady. He has the kind of personality that could get along in the Senate. And if he wins, he has ambitions for the White House. If he wins, he is automatically a national figure and could raise his stature quite a bit.

MARGARET WARNER: Do you think this would amount to Giuliani, to baggage for Giuliani if he decides to go forward?

MARK SHIELDS: Oh, yeah. I think, Margaret, the idea of seeking treatment for cancer for prostate cancer and any kind of cancer is a stress in your life - I just think it's such a risk. And I think because of Mrs. Giuliani's statement about the former communications chief is going to open himself up to questions. After she left his staff, she received $150,000 a year job with the New York Tourist and Convention Bureau at the mayor's behest or with his backing. Just one thing on George Pataki; I've been around politics so long, I can tell you what every governor goes through. Everybody says the guy would be great. I talked to Democrats in New York today who think Pataki be far and away the strongest candidate the Republicans could offer. But every governor faces enormous pressure not to run for the Senate. Where does it come from? It comes from his own people. Governors Bill Bridges. Governors build roads, they build hospitals, they build colleges, they make judges and they have thousands of appointees. Senators don't; they have two dozen people on this staff. You can be sure he is under enormous pressure from everyone near him not to run.

MARGARET WARNER: Let's go to the main event, the presidential race. Bush first. What kind of week did the governor have this week?

PAUL GIGOT: I think he had a good week. He got out of the McCain event, the great summit, the ultimate meeting -

MARGARET WARNER: Long awaited.

PAUL GIGOT: -- long awaited, way over hyped event. He got out of it what he wanted which was a photo op and the magic word endorse, six times -- maybe under duress but John McCain uttered it and that's what he wanted out of it and John McCain got what he wanted too, he is going to be a loyal Republican, campaign for Bush. He is winking at his buddies in the press corps saying, you know I really don't mean this all that much. It wasn't a terribly warm event but a step forward for Bush.

MARGARET WARNER: Can McCain really deliver anything to George w. Bush? I mean is his appeal transferable, worth much to Bush?

MARK SHIELDS: That's two different questions. Can McCain deliver anybody? McCain's constituency is a Midwestern and Catholic constituency. Those are two groups up for grabs and are pivotal in this election. Even today in the "Wall Street Journal"-NBC News poll, he is getting 23%. This is a man who has been off the political radar for the past two months, against Bush and Gore. So he can't deliver, no, but he can provide a sense of credential. I think that John McCain wants Al Gore to lose. I don't think there's a question whether he wants George Bush to win. And I think that's a legitimate question.

PAUL GIGOT: I think Margaret there is a problem in this the way... I think the press corps has been looking at the hole instead of the doughnut. The bigger story if you ask me in part is Bill Bradley has been doing extremely well in uncontested primaries. I mean in Nebraska he got 27% of the democratic vote against Gore and West Virginia 18%. Last week in North Carolina he got 19%.

MARGARET WARNER: None of this has been reported.

PAUL GIGOT: McCain meanwhile is getting 15, 13 and 11 doing much less well. What this says to me is that George Bush is doing much better consolidating his base right now at this stage than Gore is doing consolidating his base. This is the real... this is the bigger story. And why Gore has a bigger problem.

MARK SHIELDS: I don't think there's any argument that George Bush has done a better job thus far of consolidating his base. But to look at today's numbers as something that is chiseled in granite, they really aren't. We don't have an engaged electorate. I would say this. The Republicans in the year 2000 are comparable to the Democrats in the year 1992. 1992, recall, the Democrats lost the White House three times in a row. They weren't going to ask Bill Clinton any questions, where he had gone ideologically, what he was doing when he was out. A new democrat.

MARGARET WARNER: They wanted to win.

MARK SHIELDS: They wanted to win. The right-wing of the Republican party is asking George Bush nothing. He's a compassionate conservative. Bill Clinton is a new Democrat. Don't ask what it means, he is cutting down the angle on the Democrats on everything from health care to Medicare and these were issues that in a Republican primary he would have been scrutinized and criticized and maybe chastised for, but now, son of a gun, he is not only doing it, he's ahead in the polls. Who are we?

MARGARET WARNER: One of most amazing thing in the national polls and I agree with Mark that they are not determinative in a bigger sense, but that Gore was losing badly not only among men, but among married women, a group that the soccer moms that Clinton got. One is that valid and how do you explain it?

PAUL GIGOT: Well, it's true - it's appearing in every poll, 21 points among married voters and the LA Times poll -- the Bush advantage over Gore. That's amazing. Dole just barely carried married women. Bush is up something like 19 percent points among married women. The marriage gap, not the gender gap is the bigger story. I relate it to a couple of things. One is the predominance of the moral values issue. The number one issue on the battleground, the number one thing on people's minds and that tends to be what people who have children care an awful lot about is the moral climate of the country. Bill Clinton has not set the best moral example. There are a lot of voters who would like to see a better moral example set. I think there is a lot of Clinton fatigue built into that concern and that affects parents voting. I would back that up with one other thing. Gore is really losing right now badly in the whole southern tier of the country, the socially most conservative part of the country; he's losing in West Virginia by nine points, which Mike Dukakis carried. He is losing in Louisiana by 11 points which Bill Clinton won twice. He is losing by ten in North Carolina. That's the most culturally conservative part of the country and the moral values issues is part of it.

MARK SHIELDS: Let me just say I think moral values are people talk about it, they're concerned about it. They've been embarrassed and through a painful period. But any party that thinks it can play that issue, I think is being very, very self-deceptive and delusionary. We've just seen what moral values were going to do in New York. Mrs. Clinton was a member of a dysfunctional marriage, waits... obviously it was going to hurt her. We saw how something turns on a dime. We saw the Speaker of the House, the former speaker of the house testified he was conducting an illicit relationship with a staff member while condemning the President of the same thing. There is the danger of hypocrisy. I'm not saying - certainly not in Governor Bush's case but when a party assumes that white cloak, that mantle of righteousness, boy, I'll tell you, the slightest speck of mud that appears upon it can be devastating. And it's not the way... I think George Bush is running a smarter campaign running on issues that are of concern to people where they feel a President can make a difference. And I think that's where he has neutralized Gore's support. The other thing - he did make one small mistake this week and that was at the McCain press conference where he was given the chance to distance himself from Pat Robertson, that Pat Robertson said John McCain was unacceptable, couldn't be trusted, dangerous as a vice presidential nominee. His chance to stand up there and say Pat Robertson has been a good friend. He is wrong on this one; John McCain is a great man. He didn't do it.

MARGARET WARNER: Have to leave it there. Thanks.

CONVERSATION - TEACHER OF THE YEAR

MARGARET WARNER: Next, the teacher of the year, and to Elizabeth Farnsworth.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Marilyn Whirry received the national teacher of the year award at the White House yesterday. She has taught English at Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, California, since 1967. She is also adjunct professor of education at Loyola-Marymount University in Los Angeles, and is helping develop a California state high school graduation exam. The teacher of the year is chosen by a selection committee composed of representatives from fourteen national education organizations.

Thank you very much for being with us.

MARILYN WHIRRY, National Teacher of the Year: Thank you very much for everything me here this evening.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Congratulations to you.

MARILYN WHIRRY: Thank you.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: I have read that you are very adventurous. You sought adventure as a young college student and didn't want to be a teacher because it would be boring. What changed your mind?

MARILYN WHIRRY: Well, perhaps I didn't have as exciting a teacher in my youth as I wish I had. But more than that, I wanted very much to do something exotic something that was new in my field, and of course what I loved was television journalism. I had a program on Saturday mornings with my local television channel as student body president and calls would come in and I found that delightful. However, when I went to get my masters degree, and it was a scholarship, I had to teach a class in literary criticism. At first I was grumpy about it. But once I started teaching something, something magnificent happened. It was like an epiphany. I found I could relate to people; I found I could excite them and give them some joy of learning. I found they responded to me. And fortunately for me, I never left the classroom again.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Tell us how you run your classroom. By all accounts, you're anything but boring. What do you do?

MARILYN WHIRRY: Well, I try not, because we don't want kids to be bored. We want them to be thrilled with what they learn. I run primarily a Socratic seminar-type class but a lot of small group discussions. I very early on got rid of my desk because they prevent good thinking; they prevent good discussion in a classroom. In doing so, I was able to get some tables and some beanbag chairs and put kids in clumps of people talking about ideas, analyzing, synthesizing, developing ideas. Then we come back and we talk about them. And I question them and they question me and they question each other. And I hope in this environment kids and students of all ages begin to love to learn.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Is that your main goal? Teaching the children to love to learn? Or do you have goals about their broader life, too, and if so, what are they?

MARILYN WHIRRY: Much so. Well, I have four ideals that I talk to my students about and try to portray in my own life. First of all I want my students to love to learn. I want them to leave my class with the idea that their learning is just beginning, and because it's been so exciting, so wonderful, it will continue. But I also want my students in my classroom to develop a passion, a passion for learning which is so important, but a passion for living. And so frequently, in this time of and place, our students don't have that passion for very much. And we have to help them develop it so they see the wonder of a new idea or the excitement of a new book, or the excitement of making a choice in life. Then I want my students to be compassionate. I want them to understand through literature and through life that there is another world out there, a world of pain and suffering and we must be attuned to it and we must do our best all through our lives to help those less fortunate than we are. And finally, I would like to see my students become committed individuals, committed to the idea that I can make the world a better place in my lifetime and I will work every day to do so. If just some of my students gather together these ideas, I feel that I've succeeded.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: You've had a bad brush with cancer and you, as I understand it, kept teaching right through it, lost your hair, got help from your students. Were you trying to teach them something important by staying at the job and letting them see what you went through?

MARILYN WHIRRY: I think I was trying to teach my students something about who I am and how I feel about life. I was also teaching myself something. I was also teaching myself that one needs to be strong, one needs to be committed, one needs to follow through. And in so doing, it made the process of recovery much, much easier.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Ms. Whirry, what is your favorite book or novel or poem to teach? You're teaching advanced placement.

MARILYN WHIRRY: It's usually the book I'm teaching that is my favorite. I just finished "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison. That's a wonderful piece of literature to teach kids in their senior year because it talks about a young man who finds himself in a novel, understands his heritage, understands who he is and understands that he... Once he discovers this and can lead his life fully, he can fly. And I would like to teach each one of my students how to fly.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: You're freed from teaching responsibilities for a year as part of this award. As I understand it, you become an advocate for the teaching profession. What will you...what will your main message be?

MARILYN WHIRRY: Well, I'm still putting that all together. But I think my message is going to be one that is important to everybody. And that's that each child can learn and develop and grow. We must teach each child equally and well. To do that we need wonderful new teachers in our classrooms. We need teachers who are well educated, teachers who are devoted to children. And then once we get them into our classroom, these bright, young energetic people, we need to work with them. We don't want to lose them. We want to keep them through the first years of the education and we want to give them professional development. We want to mentor them and we want to hold on to them and treasure them because they're our hope for the kids.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: How do you do that? I was going to ask you exactly that so many young teachers in the community I live in stay for a couple of years that they just can't make enough money and they leave.

MARILYN WHIRRY: That's one thing we have to address, the monetary value of a teacher. If people don't respect our profession, it's primarily because we're not paid well. I think we have to work for this. Secretary Riley has a wonderful idea about a year-round profession that would raise our salaries and give us time for professional development in the 11th month, and to continue work on curriculum. It would make us better teachers. And an idea like that could be very, very workable in our schools.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Go ahead. Sorry.

MARILYN WHIRRY: That's okay.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: What about teacher testing and accountability of teachers? What do you think should be done there?

MARILYN WHIRRY: I think I'm very accountable as a teacher. I should be accountable. I have those kids in front of me every day. If I don't teach them to grow, to know, to read, to write, to become better people, I'm failing. I'm an AP teacher, so I am evaluated and accountable each your when my students take the final exam and try their best to do well. And if they didn't do well, I'm sure would I not be teaching this class. So I think we need that accountability. How it's done is going to be very, very important. For example, if you give a teacher's students a pre-test in September and post-test in may, you have a good gauge as to whether that teacher has taught anything. But just to give that final test alone doesn't hold the teacher accountable because we don't know where the children were to begin with. So there's a difficult process to work out. Yes I think we should all be accountable for what we do. And as for testing, every other profession takes a test. I think we should be proud to take that test. And should a teacher be asked to pass a basic skills test? Yes. Of course we should.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Marilyn Whirry, congratulations and thanks for being with us.

MARILYN WHIRRY: Thank you so much for having me; it's a pleasure

FINALLY - MOTHER'S DAY

MARGARET WARNER: Finally tonight, poet laureate and NewsHour contributor Robert Pinsky has a poem for Mother's Day.

ROBERT PINSKY: The English poet Frances Cornford distills something basic about the idea of motherhood in a short poem so compressed and indelible that it reminds me of William Blake. Cornford makes her meaning plain in eight lines about the idea of mother. Here's her poem, "The Newborn Baby's Song." "When I was 20 inches long, I could not hear the thrush's song. The radiance of the morning skies was most displeasing to my eyes. For loving looks, caressing words, I cared no more than sun and birds. But I could bite my mother's breast and that made up for all the rest." I wish you an affectionate and undistracted Mother's Day.

RECAP

MARGARET WARNER: Again, the major stories of this Friday: Firefighters made some headway against the big blaze that's ravaged Los Alamos, New Mexico, and organizers made final plans for Sunday's Mother's Day March for gun control. We'll see you on-line, and again here Monday evening. Have a nice weekend. I'm Margaret Warner. Thanks for being with us. Good night.