Bush & Immigration, Poll Talk, Chicago Youth Deaths, Raw Politics, Lake Chad, Smuggling Illegal Immigrants, And Princess Di (Tuesday's Show)

Hi everybody. We've got John King holding it down for Anderson Cooper tonight and the first piece is from Ed Henry on Bush trying to save immigration reform. Ed tells us, "The main course for lunch on the Hill was comfort food, but, when it comes to immigration, dessert could be crow." Countdown on MSNBC reported it almost exactly the same way-crow reference and all. Was there a memo? So anyway, we know the story here: the legislation has essentially died because the Senate can't agree and now Bush is trying to breath life back into it to save what is suppose to be his domestic accomplishment. The republicans are blaming Harry Reid and the fact that he rushed the bill to a vote. One republican strategist says, "It's like a chef. It's like Hell's Kitchen. You got to get all the soup right. It wasn't ready yet, and Senator Reid really prematurely served it." What the hell with the food references? Ed then reminds us that the president always says he doesn't govern based on polls yet there's Tony Snow saying, "If you take a look, again, at the key provisions in this bill, and you simply ask the public opinion polling question, do you support it or not, you get very high public approval for them." "Oh, really," say Ed. Ed Henry, getting snarky. I like it. What the rest of the piece boils down to is this is just a big old mess of gridlock. Don't expect to see anything actually solved anytime soon. So, you know, life goes on as normal.

Next up we have a Candy Crowley piece on polls. Hey, what have you done with Bill Schneider? This time we're dealing with the republicans. It seems Mitt Romney was the real winner of the last debate and Fred Thompson is now in the double digits even though he wasn't even there...and isn't even officially running yet. McCain and Giuliani? They're both down. It's believed that Romney is doing well because he's poured a bunch of dough into ads, but I have to say those are some of the cheesiest spots I've ever seen. The first time it aired here I initially thought it was a parody. Also, I'm not in New Hampshire, so...why are they even running here? Anyway, Romney shouldn't get too excited because most primary voters haven't made up their minds yet.

Moving on now to some political discussion with Candy and David Gergen. The Gerg is all surprised about Romney's showing and notes this means continued trouble for John McCain. John brings up how McCain and Giuliani are skipping the Iowa straw poll and wonders if that means Romney definitely comes out on top or he's vulnarable to being taken over by someone from a lower tier. Candy thinks basically with the other two out it just means the straw poll becomes fairly unimportant in terms of a victory for Romney. She also states that New Hampshire voters seem to be drawn by the likeability factor right now. They then turn to the current president and John asks if he has any capital left. The Gerg doesn't think he has much. "About the only thing he has got to trade something in private, and that is called Gonzales and Libby. And he seems in no hurry to trade them either," he says. No pardon for Libby. That's all I have to say.

Transitioning now to a Gary Tuchman piece on the ongoing violence in Chicago. He speaks with the mother of Enrique Chavez, the 29th student killed so far this school year. Unfortunately, since then there's been a 30th and 31st. In the piece Gary points out a viaduct near Enrique's neighborhood and notes that parents "tell their kids they are never to go on the other side of this viaduct. They tell their children there are gangs there who will want to hurt or try to kill them. Not so surprisingly, the parents on that side of the viaduct say the same thing about this neighborhood." Some parents won't even let their kids go outside. Stuck inside is a sucky way to spend your youth, but I guess the parents figure it's better than being dead. So sad. After the piece Gary tells us that there have been three arrests in Enrique's murder. "I asked a police officer what was the motivation, and he said, it looks like general indifference to life," he says. General indifference to life. Wow.

On now to some "Raw Politics" with Tom Foreman. We begin with pork-the wasted tax dollars kind. Democrats promised to clean it up, but the republicans are whining that they're backtracking on that promise. However, Democrats say it's going to take them some time to clean up the big old mess the Republicans left. Meanwhile, your tax dollars? Totally wasted. In immigration news, by a small margin, Americans don't want Bush's immigration reform saved. We really can't agree on anything in this country, can we? We also learn Howard Dean wants to court evangelicals, Libby wants to stay out of jail unti his appeal, and a fight is a-brewing in Congress over energy. Finally, Tom tells us those crazy Bush-loving Albanians may really have been watch thiefs. Wha? Luckily "Raw Politics" investigators have gotten to the bottom of the almost-international incident and have discovered that nope, he just put it in his pocket. Several things crack me up here. First off, again, Countdown on MSNBC did almost exactly the same thing, getting at the heart of the matter with a "Countdown Investigation." Second, how funny is it that Albanians stealing his watch is something that people hear and think, "yeah, I could see that happening." And third, what is up with letting the Albanians get so close?! They keep liberals in cages around him, but with the Albanians it's like a rave.

Tonight's "What Were They Thinking" involves $54 million pants. You may have heard about this idiot judge that's suing a dry cleaner for $54 million dollars because he says they lost his pants. Pants that were apparently made of diamonds and gold. Erica does a breakdown of where he got the figure, which includes $500,000 in emotional damages. And I guess he has been emotionally damaged because he totally cried about it in court. Good Lord. Moving on to another Sanjay Gupta piece from Nigeria's Lake Chad. We learned yesterday that the lake is disappearing and today Sanjay shows us a fishing boat that was abandoned 40 years ago. Now there's no lake there. Sanjay then goes for a boat ride and takes a little dip in the lake himself. It only comes up to his waist where it used to be 25 feet high. Local fisherman are not at all happy with the dwindling lake, "while they blame natural forces for the loss of Lake Chad, several of the younger fishermen became angry. Their livelihood, their future, their lives threatened." The lake has shrunk before back when there were no greenhouse gases, so I guess we'll see.

Next up we have an Ed Lavandera piece on illegal immigration. Hey, you know how we're trying so hard to keep the illegal immigrants out? Well guess what. We've got National Guardsmen helping to smuggle them in. Unbelievable. John King tells us, the three "accused belong to a unit assigned to "Operation Jump Start", President Bush's initiative for beefing up the border." Bwah! Man, I quit. After Ed's piece we have an interview Anderson taped with Tina Brown on Princess Diana. I really don't get the fascination with her. I liked her humanitarian efforts, but other than that,...eh. But a lot of people are into her life-so much so apparently that Soledad O'Brien is preparing a whole special to air in August. Really, Soledad? Princess Diana? Well, at least it's not Paris Hilton. Speaking of she who Anderson will not name, Erica brings us the headlines and tells us Paris has been ditched by her agent. "Tough time. In the same week she loses her pride and her agent. Woo! Life goes on," says John. Ha!

The Shot tonight is a blue lobster from the Thames River. The odds of finding one of those suckers is 3 million to 1. So, wow. And I love the "Rock Lobster" soundtrack we've got going on. So okay, I'm not even going to blog the second hour because it was chock full of Princess Diana stuff. What's up with that? There was a nice Joe Johns piece on farm subsidies though. B-