Interview: Democratic Party Chair
>> president bush today making his first public comments on reports that he authorized the disclosure of sensitive intelligence on iraq’s weapons program. bush saying he ordered parts of the prewar national intelligence estimate on iraq declassified so the public would better understand his reasons for war.
>> i wanted people to see the truth. and i thought it made sense for people to see the truth. and that’s why i declassified the document.
>> the president, going on to say the information did not jeopardize any ongoing intelligence operations. democrats are charging bush put politics in front of national security and disclosed the information only to discredit a leading war critic. questions about the president’s role in the leak investigation come as new polls show his approval ratings at or near all-time lows but are democrats ready to take advantage? i spoke to democratic party chair howard dean in new york and asked him whether his party could retake congress if the midterms were teld today.
>> we would win control of the house and the senate, as well. what people want is a government they can trust and somebody who can balance the budget. only the democratic president in the past 40 years have balanced the budget and we’ll be in deep trouble if we continue on this road.
>> the president talked about it briefly today, the leak investigation. no suggestion at this point that president bush environmented the law when he authorized the declassification of prewar intelligence. do you think this will make a difference to voters in november?
>> i think it will make an enormous issue because it speaks to the value issues of the republican party. the head of the republican party has been caught demanding that leakers be fired while he authorized the leaks themselves. it’s just awful. it’s a sad way for the president to essentially end whatever credibility me may have once had with the american people.
>> we have protests in the streets of washington today, new york, as well, other cities around the country, over immigration. i want to ask you about that. republicans accusing democrats of standing in the way of a bipartisan compromise bill in congress, suggesting that democrats would rather have it as a political issue at the midterm elections than solve the problem. does this issue go away for democrats if there is a deal in congress?
>> this is so silly. the republicans run the house, the senate and the presidency and every democrat that voted -- every person who voted yes on the bill was a democrat, every one. this is an example of the republicans saying one thing and doing the opposite. and you know what, the american people aren’t being fooled any more which is why the republicans have the poll numbers they do. we want to have border control in the country and we’re going to do something about it when we take back power but we also believe we ought not punish the 11 million hard working people that are already here so we have a pretty go the immigration bill. other it’s republican side agreed to it but not one of them voted for it. the republicans are playing games with this as they played games and didn’t tell the american people the truth about iraq, or hurricane katrina, or the budget deficits and on and on. the first plank in our platform to take this country back again is we want an honest and open government again and i think we’ll have one after the elections coming up.
>> the politics of immigration, republicans who favor fixing the nation’s borders first say this issue will resonate for voters for them next november, specifically the notion that many democrats favor changes that could lead to more immigrants taking jobs that americans might hold now. are democrats potentially on the wrong side of this issue politically?
>> that’s also a lie. if any republican said that, that’s just a flat-out lie. the truth is that democrats favor a proposal that will keep americans safe, first of all, by making the borders safe, and that will simply not punish the 11 michael people. the people here already have jobs. i don’t think the president’s guest worker program is a very good idea because it’s essentially indentured servitude. we don’t think that importing more people into the country to work for minimum wages and be expelled if their corporation fires them, i don’t think that’s a good idea but we believe in treating the people with dignity who are here already. the president talks about border security, doesn’t deliver what he needs to. he could have had the bill passed. he is the leader of the republican party. the republicans voted against it. the senate bill was a reasonable, thoughtful bill and harry reid was right, we don’t want the bill filibustered by amendment and we want the democrats to have something to say about it because we’re the ones who will stand up by up for the 11 million people who are already here.
>> let me ask you about fund-raising. senator hillary rodham clinton has raised $3 million -- $3 million alone last year for her re-election bid in new york but some suggest donors may not be giving her support until they see she’s running for president. is that a concern for you right now?
>> not a concern for me. every month that goes by, we’re raising record amounts. people want a change in this country and the democratic party believes that the central election will be, do you want more of the same or do you want a real change and we plan to provide a real change back to fiscal responsibility, american jobs staying in american using energy independence and above all, initial security, border security and telling the truly to our―truth to our people about how government should be run. i think that’s a platform for change and our fund-raising is going great.
>> you’ve talked about trying to get democrats to compete in all 50 states while some democrats say it may be a waste to spread resources too thing. is it time to start targeting the states where you have the best chances of winning in 2006?
>> we will do that but i intend to continue to fight in every state. we’ve picked up four elections in mississippi, won mayorships in alabama, alaska and oklahoma last week. we can win anywhere if we’ll put our mind to it and i don’t aim to leave any states back. the democratic part needs to govern the whole country, not just the so-called blue states. we need to be a party for the whole country again, and we will be.
>> howard dean. coming up, public education in america, next in today’s “poll of the day.”
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Listen Focus: Alcoa
>> just moments ago, alcoa reported its first-quarter earnings. the aluminum maker posted earnings per share that were 19 cents ahead of estimates. they also reported a 9% increase in revenue, 7.21 billion dollars. alcoa shares hit a new high today. shares, as far as we can tell, halted in the extended session. let’s get reaction to the data. brian hicks manages the u.s. global investors global resources fund, beating 99% of its peers this year and the fun holds about 200,000 shares of alcoa. brian’s joining us from san antonio, texas. welcome, brian.
>> good afternoon.
>> a lot of analysts were expecting, as were you, a strong first quarter from alcoa. are you satisfied?
>> i think so. and at first glance, it looks like the results are much stronger than expected and it’s encouraging. it’s good to see alcoa finally start to benefit from stronger aluminum prices and be able to contain costs in order to increase the earnings.
>> key for alcoa, of course, are those aluminum prices. on the london metal exchange in the first quarter, prices were 17% above the prior quarter, averaging $1 pent 10 a pound. today, aluminum futures traded at about $1 pent 18 a pound. do you see aluminum prices continuing to rise?
>> we think at least be it elevated levels primarily due to very strong demand with strong worldwide economic growth particularly out of china. china’s g.d.p. last year up around 9.9%. and we think we’re going to continue to see an acceleration and then in addition to that, we think that supply will be somewhat muted and we should be able to keep inventories at relatively tight levels, somewhere below 10 weeks’ worth of supply.
>> can alcoa do a better job of taking advantage of rising aluminum prices?
>> we think so. in the second quarter, traditionally that’s when the downstream business is usually longer or stronger and we think that we should be able to see more improvement out of the fabrication component of their business.
>> costs, raw materials costs and what-not have been a problem for alcoa recently. the company did implement a cost savings plan. what is your view on that. are you seeing results?
>> it looks like it. from quarter to quarter, it looks like costs of goods sold as a percentage of sales actually came down. that’s extremely encouraging and we think that trend will continue. they initiated a $1.2 billion cost initiating service plan and we think that’s going to continue going forward.
>> you own 200,000 alcoa shares in your u.s. global resources fund. do you have any near-term plans to change your exposure to alcoa?
>> no, not at all. it’s a core holding for us and we think that alcoa will continue to do well. we think earnings are understated heading out into 2007 and 2008 and we think that that bodes well. we think that we could potential see a $40 price for alcoa.
>> earnings are understated, that’s an interesting comment. we’ll keep an eye on that.
