captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. arizona's governor says yes to the toughest anti-immigration law in the united states. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the "newshour" tonight: president obama said the measure could violate civil rights. we debate the new law and what it means for national immigration policy. >> woodruff: then, dave iverson of public tv's kqed san francisco updates relief efforts in haiti, 101 days after the earthquake. >> so not everyone here has the tents? >> no, no, no... >> do you have enough to eat? mangez?

>> no, no, no... >> brown: margaret warner reports from the vatican on the church's growing sex abuse scandals. including the resignation of another bishop today. >> woodruff: we get the weekly analysis of mark shields and david brooks. >> brown: and, we profile an online cartoonist, winner of a pulitzer prize for stinging political satire. >> we tackle war, warming, health care, torture, spying and the impact of the great economic implosion. >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

>> this is the engine that connects abundant grain from the american heartland to haran's best selling whole wheat, while keeping 60 billion pounds of carbon out of the atmosphere every year. bnsf, the engine that connects us.

the national science foundation. supporting education and research across all fields of science and engineering. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> brown: immigration law was in the spotlight today. in washington, where the president called national policy "broken," and in arizona where the governor approved a tough new law aimed at illegal immigrants.

every arizona citizen here unlawfully and it does so ensuring that the constitutional rights of all in arizona remain solid, stable and steadfast. >> that announcement came just hours after president obama attended a naturalization ceremony for 24 members of the u.s. military. from the rose garden he called arizona's effort misguided and raised concerns that other states could follow if congress doesn't take up national immigration reform soon. >> our failure to act responsibleably at the federal level will only open the door to irresponsibility by others. and that includes, for example, the recent efforts in arizona which threaten to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as americans, as well as the trust between police and their communities that is so

crucial to keeping us safe. >> reporter: the president said his administration would examine the arizona measure to see if it violates federal civil rights statutes. among other provisions, the law calls on police to question someone's immigration status if, quote, reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the united states. arizona is believed to have some 460,000 illegal immigrants with the most illegal border crossings in the country. the immigration issue came to a head here last month when rancher bob krentz was shot to death in southeastern arizona. authorities believe he was killed by an illegal migrant. she faces a tough primary battle against an opponent who came out in favor of the bill.

the laws in senate bill 210 mirror the laws of the federal government. police officers are going to be respectful. they understand what their jobs are. they've taken an oath. and raise profiling is illegal-- raix profiling is illegal. >> reporter: the law will go into effect 90-- 90 days after arizona legislative session ends. and joining us for more on today's develops are congressman grijalva, a democrat representing arizona 7th district which shares a 300 mile board we are mexico and michael hethmon, general counsel for the immigration law reform institute. he helped write the arizona bill. mr. hethmon you worked with the people in arizona. why did they feel this bill was-- this law was necessary? >> well, this is 9 cumulation of an effort by senator pierce and other legislators since 2004 to deal with the federal government's failure to develop a viable, sustainable immigration policy which means control

of the illegal immigration and the reduction of legal immigration to sustainable levels. they have-- are tired of waiting and believe that the crisis has reached a point in arizona that they had no choice but to continue in the direction that they've been going. >> reporter: congress i want to go into the merits but first what about this argument that the action of federal action sort of gave arizona a place to need to go ahead with something. >> i would generally agree with that. but the absence of federal action is kind of ironic that senator pierce, the father of this legislation has opposed any federal initiative whether it is the strife act, whether it is the dream act, whether it is ag jobs bill. any path to legalization has been opposed. so you know, it's a convenient excuse to say we want to control immigration and we want to limit immigration.

and at the same time provide no reasonable, raise approach to it. i think this legislation is a harbinger for very bad things. i think-- it is unconstitutional and when you talk about profiling, i thought the governor as executive order was kind of interesting. russell pierce will be driving down the street without his wallet. a policeman will stop him, pat him on the hand and send him home. i will be driving down the street without a wallet and i stand a chance of geting arested, put in jail and fined $500. that is where the profiling will happen. and that's the discriminatory aspect that has got so many of us in arizona completely opposed to this bill, just on the punitive nature of it. and isolating a group of people because of who they are, as opposed to applying the law equally to everyone. >> reporter: i should say we are referring to russell pierce as the state senator in arizona who is largely one of the main backers here.

so mr. hethmon on that issue, the profiling issue that has galvanized so much of the controversy here, the language is reasonable suspicion for an officer to feel that he -- he or she should check on the immigration status. why is that okay as a legal standard? >> well, actually, the standard in the arizona bill, reasonable suspicion that a person is unlawfully in the country is much more modest than the federal standard established by the supreme court which says that an officer in a lawful stop does not need any reasonable suspicion at all to query the person about their immigration status. so what we are seeing in arizona is a much more modest measure which is designed to be practical and to deal with these wild claims that mr. grijalva is making. >> reporter: but as a practical matter as the congressman says, if mr. pierce is sitting there -- >> as a practical matter, if

representative grijalva is pulled over for driving through a red light and the officer stops him and says sir, what is your immigration status and mr. grijalva says i'm a united states citizen and proud of it, that's the end of-- that's the end of the inquirery in this situation unless the officer has a reasonable suspicion that mr. grijalva is making a false claim to u.s. citizens. so u.s. citizens and legal residents are very well protected in this bill. a lot of thought has gone into what happens in that scenario. >> reporter: and congressman, we heard your governor today said that there would be more training for law enforcement people just to make sure that there are no abuses here. >> well, that's going to be the crux of the legal challenge. not only the racial profiling. i think the president is correct. it's misguided and it needs to-- we need to investigate what its effect on civil rights is going to be.

and on this profiling issue, the fact that the governor has to do an executive order to set up a training program for officers to make sure there are no basic fundamental constitutional violations and violation of the anti-profiling federal law begs the question about whether this is reasonable and moderate as the gentleman just said. >> mr. hethmon, we saw the governor said today actually that the eyes of the nation are watching arizona. is she right? are there efforts or would you be intending to push this approach in other states? >> there have been over 1,000 immigration related measures according to the national council state legislatures introduced just this year in the 2010 session. there were 1500 estimated in '09, 1500 in '08. this is not something that came out of a vacuum. the senator has been working on this with the citizens of the state since the passage

of prop 200 in 2004. every time this issue has been put to the electorate down there it has passed by majoritys in the 60s to 70%. this is clearly, you know, the will and the intention of the voters in that state. and it is something that has been developed in legal terms in an incremental fashion over the past fair or six years and the courts have upheld it. >> and congressman that was the fear that you heard president obama talk about today, that other states would begin to take action. >> i couldn't agree more with that fear. but you know, the majority rule. and i understand that. i understand that concept and that is the concept of democracy. but there is also the protection of the minority, that is part and parcel of our rule of law in this country. and this bill, 1070 completely violates that protection of the minority. and i would suggest that we're talking about not just the legal issue here in arizona. we have had many dark shadows over the state.

politically speaking and this is not only the most recent one but probably the one with the most affect on the nationalization of this issue. and it has to be nationalized. it's a federal law and a federal law is what needs to be reformed in this country, in allowing. you know what if russell beast tomorrow morning decided it that the voting rights act is not something he liked. that maybe some people shouldn't vote. you get the legislature to vote for it, gets the governor to sign it and now what. we are now going to have that as the rule of the state superseding the federal law? i don't think so. that's going to be the constitutional challenge that has to occur. >> congressman just briefly, do you think this will give a big push toward a new national policy? >> i hope it adds urgency to it. and i hope it adds a push. unfortunately members of congress tend to run away from the issue of immigration because they are afraid of it. or they tend to exploit it because it helps them politically as we've seen in arizona.

it's time for a little bit of spying and a lot of will to reform this law in a humane, secure and legal manner unlike what is happening in arizona right now. >> reporter: what do you think, mr. hethmon about the prospects for this affecting the national debate, national policy. >> that was the intention of the legislators, i believe, when they enacted this process from the very beginning. the only difference i would have with representative grijalva is that somehow the idea that passing an amnesty bill is going to be the solution. we have 200, 300 million people worldwide that want to come to this country. amnesty won't work. if they pass an amnesty bill f he gets everything he wants, 18 months later we're going to be back in the same situation just like 1986. >> reporter: we'll see what happens. >> the law needs to be reformed. and using boogyman buzzwords

like amnesty for all, open borders, that's been the cache for anybody that doesn't want immigration. it's time to deal with it rationally and realistically. >> reporter: thank you. we will have to leave it there. congressman grijalva and michel-- michael hethmon, thank you very much. >> you're very welcome. >> thank you. >> woodruff: now, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan in our newsroom. >> sreenivasan: greece officially asked the european union and the international monetary fund for a bailout from its debt crisis. the request triggers an emergency loan plan, with $40 billion from euro-zone partners and $20 billion from the i.m.f. but german chancellor angela merkel said greece has to establish a "credible" savings program before the money is paid out. >> i made clear that a decision on how and how much aid athens will receive as well as other questions cannot be answered until the austerity plan is on the table. at the same time a judgement by the european central bank and the international monetary fund should make clear that it is all about

the stability of the euro zone. >> sreenivasan: but in washington, the head of the i.m.f. vowed to "move expeditiously" on the request. finance leaders from 20 nations were meeting at i.m.f. headquarters, and discussed ways to stop future debt crises. a new wave of bombings swept across iraq today, killing at least 69 people. as many as 10 of the blasts happened in baghdad, targeting shi-ite worshippers as they gathered for friday prayers. the deadliest attack was near the main office of the shi-ite cleric muqtada al-sadr. the string of bombings comes just days after u.s. and iraqi forces killed the top two al qaeda leaders in iraq. a u.s. military judge cleared a second navy seal of charges that he beat an iraqi prisoner in 2004. petty officer second class jonathan keefe was the second of three seals to face trial. the iraqi man allegedly organized an attack in fallujah that brutally killed four american security guards. nato ministers agreed to begin the process of handing over security duties to afghan forces this year. foreign ministers met today in estonia and decided the process

would be gradual, and based on conditions on the ground. the group also appealed to allies for more personnel to train afghan forces. at a news conference in estonia, u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton said the taliban insurgency would not make that process easy. >> we believe that with sufficient attention, training and mentoring the afghans themselves are perfectly capable of defending themselves against insurgents. now does that mean that it will be smooth saling? >> i don't think so. >> sreenivasan: president obama has set a target date of july 2011 to start bringing u.s. troops home. also today, nato officials in afghanistan announced the deaths of two u.s. troops. they were killed in a gunbattle with insurgents in the east. a new york man pleaded guilty today to plotting to bomb new york city's subway system last september. zarein ahmedzay admitted to conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction, and providing material support to al-qaeda. he is a former high school

classmate of najibullah zazi, who pleaded guilty last month to his role in the same foiled terror plot. a third classmate is facing similar charges. no oil appeared to be leaking from a drilling platform that exploded and sank in the gulf coast off louisiana. that was the conclusion of coast guard officials today. crews tried to contain a 10- mile-by-10-mile oil slick near where the platform sank yesterday. and b.p., which leased the oil rig, worked to contain the spill. meanwhile, the coast guard's search for 11 missing workers went on, but hope dimmed that they would be found alive. new home sales skyrocketed last month by 27%. commerce department figures for march showed it was the largest monthly increase in more than 40 years. much of the surge was likely from home buyers trying to qualify for federal tax credits that expire next week. the home sales news sent stocks up on wall street. the dow jones industrial average gained 70 points to close at 11,204. the nasdaq rose 11 points to close at 2,530.

for the week, the dow gained 1.7%. the nasdaq rose 2%. those are some of the day's main stories. i'll be back at the end of the program with a preview of what you'll find tonight on the newshour's web site. but for now, back to jeff. >> brown: still to come on the "newshour": another catholic bishop steps down; shields and brooks and a pulitzer for an online cartoonist. but first our update on haiti and its struggle to recover from the earthquake. from port-au-prince, we have a report by dave iverson of public station kqed, san francisco. >> more than three months since the earthquake devastated haiti there's life on the streets of port au prince-- port-au-prince. yet 1.7 million people are still without homes in the capitol city. some 900 separate tent camps have sprouted up amidst the destruction. the largest with the population approaching 50,000.

three months in and still life is far from easy. >> not everyone here has a -- >> this is a camp for 5,000 people. tracy is directing today's red cross distribution. >> you cannot come to live in tents for months and months and months with without issues coming up like health, like sanitation. >> thousands are already lining up, a thousand families already lined up. >> it is approaching noon and the temperature is over 90°. people are pressed together awaiting whatever the red cross has to offer. the needs are basic. not everyone has enough to eat. >> do you have enough to eat? >> no ! >> reporter: today people will get cooking you tense ils, buckets and mosquito nets because the biggest worry is the coming rain. relief agencies have handed out enough tarps and tents

to shelter a million people. yet no one feels safe. >> any worries about the rain, staying dry. >> yes . >> as challenging as these conditions are, people here aren't as threatened as the thousands who are camped along the hillsides and steep ravines of port-au-prince. one of the most vulnerable camps occupies part of the country club, haiti's only golf course. roughly 50,000 people are camped here, many at the bottom of a hill along the edge of a dry river bed. a few weeks ago heavy rains floods parted of the site and some camp residents nearly drowned. >> we all had to run and physically take people from drowning out of their tents. anyone in a valley were in imminent danger of death. >> trenchs have been dug to try and protect camp residents but with the rainy

season about to begin, relief agencies calculated that thousands of golf course residents had to be moved to a safer location. like the one you can see from the top of this former fairway, a place called -- carai. sesalise. for the past 12 days caravans have ferried nearly 12,000 people from the golf course to this 11 acre site, flat and dry. >> 5,000 people is 5,000 lives saved. what i see is a life saved, a family saved. in the hundreds each day. >> reporter: the new camp is miles from schools and stores and yet the families we talked to were happy to at least be out of danger. >> we were really scared because it was raining and the wind was blow the tarp. we were really scared. >> reporter: as people from today's last caravan headed off to their new tents, we passed a young woman singing. it was a song about safe and

being saved. >> reporter: the people who will soon fill this camp will be saved from the coming rains. and relief agencies say the larger goal of moving 50,000 people nationwide to save sites is within range. and yet, of course, there is still such a long ways to go before people here have more than a dry tent. before they can call someplace home . >> and now to dave iverson in port-au-prince, i spoke with him yesterday. dave iverson, thank you very much for talking with us. i know you just said that people there will be spared the worst affects of the rain. but what are the expectations about when the rainy season begins. how much time do they really have? >> well, all along people have said here, judy, that this is a kind of race of time. what relief agencies are feeling good about right now is that they feel like they've got a handle on

moving the most vulnerable people in the camps that are most in danger to these dryer sites that you saw in the story. that doesn't mean they're over the hump though because they are at least another 40 or 50,000 people who are also in danger, just not quite as endangered. so there is still a long ways to go. as for when the rain starts, you know, the official beginning of the rainy season, some say april 15th, some say may 1st. we haven't had lots of rain yet, fortunately for everyone here but everyone feels like it could be just around the corner. >> woodruff: dave, you did talk to the health minister. what picture are you getting of what the health challenges are there now in haiti. >> i did talk to the governments minister of health, dr. alex larson yesterday. and of course there is worry about the possibility of infectious disease if the rains come and there's lots of problems, there is the potential, of course, with problems for malaria, didissent ary and a variety of other health concerns. they have some optimism that the vaccination programs they've done in the past will be helpful. and he's also quick to

remind everyone that a lot of people thought that there would be huge health problems in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. and those sorts of epidemics did not occur. so there is at least some hope that people will be spared at least that. >> and dave, what's your sense of who is truly in charge, who is running things, how is it working organizationally there? >> well, it's a terrific question. because there is great uncertainty about that. there is a feeling in the haitian government and to a degree certainly among haitian people themselves that there is not enough input from haitian people. that there isn't a sense that this is there in charge of what is going to happen next. certainly if you go to the camps and i visited three over the last day and a half, it's not the government that is in charge it is a variety of ngos whether that is the red cross or of course the united nations. so there is a huge question going forward about whether or not more can be done so that there isn't just great releaf provided and everyone realizes great work has been done by ngos and government organizations but of course

in the long run what has to be figured out is how more can be done that will sustain haitian independence so there won't be people who are dependent but rather independent. >> woodruff: at the same time you were telling us that for all the bad things that are happening there, you are seeing some signs of stability, that it's not all bleak. >> no, i think that's really important to note. if you drive around port-au-prince as we have over the last two days, you see a lot of street life it seems odd, i know, to say that port-au-prince has a degree of vibrancy, that it is a vibrant city. but to a degree it is true. there are tens of thousands of people on the street making a living anyway they can. thousands of street vendors. schoolchildren are beginning to at least be able to go back to school. you see kids in those shiny new uniforms and neatly shined shoes going off to school. so there is that part of the story too. and you get certainly a sense here of great hope and

faith that in time, in time, that haiti will see a better day. >> woodruff: dave iverson, public television station kqed in haiti, thank you very much. >> thank you, judy. >> brown: dave reports it's still hot and dry there with no rain yet. his next report will look at the role of the u.n. and aid groups in the relief effort. >> woodruff: next, the resignation of another bishop has capped off a tumultuous week for the vatican and the pope. margaret warner is in rome tonight. >> warner: news of the resignation splashed across newspaper headlines in belgium today-- "a sex scandal in bruges" "belgian bishop resigns" 73-year-old roger vangheluwe served as bishop of bruges since 1984. he's the first belgian priest to resign in the latest scandal. a spokesman for the diocese read his statement. >> ( translated ): when i was not yet a bishop, and some times after, i sexually abused a young person from within my close entourage.

this has marked the victim forever. >> warner: the bishop's resignation was immediately accepted by pope benedict the 16th. it wasn't the first. yesterday, the pope accepted the resignation another bishop-- james moriarty of kildare, ireland. he is the third irish bishop to step down since december. and there are growing calls for the country's top prelate, cardinal sean brady's resignation. also yesterday, the head of the church in england and wales, archbishop of westminster vincent nichols, apologized for the scandal. he said: "these terrible crimes, and the inadequate response by some church leaders, grieve us all." the pope has been under growing pressure to respond to hundreds of accusations of child sexual abuse by priests across europe. on sunday, in malta, the pope addressed thousands of the faithful in an open air mass. he made no mention of the scandal there. but afterwards, he met with 8

alleged victims-- all men now in their '30s and '40s. the meeting-- the first since the european scandal erupted-- was tearful. laurence grech was among the victims. >> he listened to us. you know, he told me, "i am very proud and i pray for you to have the courage to tell your story out. you know, i am very proud of you." >> warner: back in rome, at his mass on wednesday in st. peter's square, the pope addressed the controversy and seemed to promise an additional response. he spoke about his meetings in malta. >> ( translated ): after the >> ( translated ): i share their suffering and i prayed with them with emotion, assuring them of church action. >> warner: this european scandal is also reverberating in the u.s. catholic church, which saw an explosion of sexual abuse cases in 2002.

yesterday, attorney jeff anderson, who has filed thousands lawsuits alleging sex abuse by priests in the last decade, brought another federal suit-- this time against the pope. >> it is the vatican, it is the current pope and his predecessors. >> warner: anderson and other victims advocates in both the u.s. and europe assert that the vatican mishandled claims of abuse and that "all roads lead to rome." >> brown: a short time ago, i talked with margaret in rome. it was another very difficult week for the church and the pope but also one where they took some steps to publicly address the criticisms. >> warner: that's right, jeff. after weeks and weeks of really public silence on the issue, in the face of growing criticism not only of the vatican but of his own role in the way he's handled some sex abuse cases, the pope this week did take steps to demonstrate not only concern but emotion in that meeting with the victims in malta.

now the defenders of the church here say it is not a moment too soon. that really the vatican has appeared to be completely behind the curve, lost control of the conversation and debate as these cases have mushroomed throughout europe. but the victims advocates groups say, of course, he hasn't done nearly enough. an they're looking for much firmer steps including making not just abusive priests accountable, but also abusive, i mean also bishops who transferred some of these beasts from-- priests from parish to parish. that's item resignations of the irish and belgium priest this week, rather the pope's acceptance of them was so significant. because in the past sometimes the vatican has not wanted to accept those resignations. and in fact, there are still two other irish bishops who have asked to resign or offered their resignations that still haven't been accepted. >> reporter: now in your report we heard the pope talking about that meeting you just referred to with the sex abuse victims in malta. and he said, quote, he was

assuring them of church action. now what might that mean. what are people telling you? >> that is a very, the answer to that is completely murky, jeff. nobody seems to know. and the vatican won't put meat on the bones of that. now the victims groups advocates want him to issue say some kind of a worldwide decollaration or instruction to bishops all over the world about how they should handle charges like this. or they should have a zero tolerance policy. i talked to the lawyer for the vatican in the u.s. today, jeffrey lynna and he said, you know, that is a fundamental misunderstanding of the power relationship between the pope and the bishops on administrative matters. whatever the truth, wherever the truth lies on that, i did speak to the pope's spokesman and in terms of just explaining to the public what it means, i asked him well why did the pope say what he said on wednesday which was much ballyhooed in the united states as a major step forward.

and he said oh, well, the pope always reports on his recent trips and he was reporting on his trip to malta. so so far it's fair to say the vatican has not expanded on what the pope meant or what he intends. >> and just briefly, margaret, what about, it's early in your visit, but what about the atmosphere, do you get the sense from people you talked to that they feel embattled? how emotionally charged is it. >> they feel very embattled. we went today to a press conference for lawyers for some abuse victims here in a parish church in rome who insist they went to the vatican in 2007 to tell them about this particular priest. they say the vatican did nothing and by the time the italian authorities arrested this priest in '08 that he had abused more little boys. we went from there, i went to see the head of a seminary here in rome who said he faulted the vatican for the way it handled it but said it is so emotional now that whatever any of us say, he said just adds fuels to the fire. and he said most of us feel as if we're being sucked

into a swamp. so it is a very emotional issue, completely unresolved and it really feels like the early early days of the sex abuse scandal in the united states. >> margaret warner in rome for us, and we'll hear a lot more from you next week. thanks a lot. >> thanks, jeff >> woodruff: and to the analysis of shields and brooks. syndicated columnist mark shields and "new york times" columnist david brooks. gentlemen, good to see you both. we'll start with immigration. the governor of arizona today signed into law what they are saying is the toughest anti-immigration law in the country. this is just a few hours after president obama called it misguided. he called it irresponsible. what do you make of the law, how serious a divide is this? >> well, the reason we have a president in and a congress is to write immigration law and to set immigration law.

and i think to some degree it's a reflection of the failure of the congress to address what is a major problem. that said, the bitterness and vindictiveness of the law in arizona is remarkable . roger mahoney in los angeles, probably one of the leading voices in immigration says we hold up-to-signs at the border. one is help wanted. and the second is no trespassing. and that is it. i mean that's the mixed message. and sort of the presumption in this law is that these people come to the united states to rob, to plunder, to commit all sorts of acts to get on social programs. they come for essentially the reasons that people have come for hundreds of years. that is for a better life. and this really is deputized,

makes responsible police to turn in anybody and to face litigation if they don't. that they suspect. and i think the chief of police opposed it for a very good reason and that is, judy, it freezes, inhibities anybody who is an undocumented immigrant here from reporting a crime whether he or she is a victim of a crime. i think the law itself just has incredible defects. but it's a reality. >> woodruff: already a big divide. does this bring everything to a boil. >> i don't think so i think the law is an invitation to a with us wouldment you have a law that has disparity enforcement dependent on skin color and you put the level of discretion at the coupon the street in the worst circumstances. and so it's an invitation for abuse. as for whether this creates a big national debate, well, we've had a debate. i think the immigration issue has dropped as immigration has dropped with the recession and if people are sitting around waiting for a remedy in washington,

i think they will have a long wait. >> woodruff: you don't think the white house is going to -- >> there is a lot of talk in the senate and promises have been made and vows have been made. but you know when we got sort of close to immigration a couple of years ago, first you had cabinet secretaries devoting themselves almost full-time to it up on capitol hill getting ready to get a bill. and then you had people like ted kennedy and john mccain and others working for months and months and months to hammer out a bill. and so there's just a lot of work that has to be done. as far as i know there has been some work done by chuck schumer and lindsay graham and others but i don't think there has been that level of work and the political climate couldn't be worse. >> woodruff: do you see the white house taking this on. >> i think the white house made a pledge, the president did during his campaign that he would do it in the first year of his presidency. we're well into the second year. and i think david is right. the agreement is if anything happens the senate has to act first. the house is not going to act. the house has repeatedly

acted first on the president's program and waited in many cases in vein for the senate to act. i don't think-- and harry reid, the senate leader who represents nevada who is embattled running for re-election has a large latino population there, very practically speaking, judy, democrats need to energize the latino constituency which voted 2 to 1 for barack obama and which now expresses next to very little interest in the election of 2010. so they bring it up and say look, the republicans sabotaged it because are you going to invite immediately ugly amendments, english only amendments and that on the senate floor, i don't think the prospects are bright. >> woodruff: we'll move to another subject where there is already a lot of disagreement. financial regulatory reform. president obama david went into the belly of the beast. he went to wall street yesterday. how does that play and how

is this different, do you think than the administration's perspective from the way-- from the way they handled health care. >> health-care reform i think the two parties had fundamentally different philosophies of how to reform the health care testimony. and there was almost no point of contact and so you had a very polarized debate. this is different. in part nobody understands financial regulation so that makes it easier. they didn't understand health care either but they thought they did so that made it a little easier. but on the regulation of the financial industry, i think there's general agreement that what happened on wall street, there is somewhat agreement that we need to regulation derivatives so they look like other instruments. and so there is some commonality or at least some common confusion about what to do. now there are differences of practicality. there is republican skepticism about the degree to regulation. there other skepticism about whether you want to constitutionalize really a ransom on the bailout fund. and so there are levels of skepticism there is level of

difference but it's not the polarized philosophical difference you had with health care and as a result i think it is more likely they will come out with something next week. >> i agree. it's more likely, judy. in wall street and the actions, malfeasance that brought the nation to its knees and much of the world to its knees, it's activities, and rob people of their future, of their savings, of their livelihoods in many instances, you finally found an institution or a political entity that serves the purpose of making used car dealers look ethical and making the congress look popular by spar son. and-- by comparison. so they are not going let this go. the republicans don't want to be seen as the defenders of the status quo. you could make the case in health care and it was paid that this, bringing the government between you and your doctor. nobody seems to be concerned about bringing the government between you and your hedge fund manager. i don't think-- i don't think that -- >> and we all have a hedge fund manager.

>> that's right, well david has two. >> smith and barney. >> woodruff: but so you still, david, have republicans out there very up set about this. saying what the democrats are really doing is they're bailing out the bank. >> well, and you know, to be fair, i think there is some legitimacy to that. they do agree on some things but there are other things, first politically they have done some polls it is politically popular to say they are bailing out the banks. nobody likes the bailout, the bailouts of leeman brothers or goldman sachs but it is true if you have a fund that is going to be used, a $50 billion fund or whatever it would be, if you have that fund that within used to bail out the banks it does create a moral hazard and experts say if you have the fund it will be used. it's like having a ransom fund. if you have a ransom fund sitting there someone will kidnap your people so that say legitimate problem. the other problem is just the level of regulation. the bill doesn't necessitate there will be a vastly overregulated intrusion into wall street but it certainly opens up the avenue.

so it hands a lot of potential power to federal regulators. and i think that always makes republican nervous. >> i don't think the bailout worked for the republicans. >> as an argue. >> no, they didn't. and i think reminding people in the political world that the word doctor, the creative republican poll terr had come up with this as the argue to use, the $50 billion fund is really a liquidation fund. i mean it's not to restore and reville i few a failed institution. it's to put it out of its missery but to do it, the stockholders will, in fact, suffer from it. so i think it is different and i think the republicans understand that. and i think this will pass with big votes. >> if i could quickly, the $50 billion fund may be a myth but if we have another crisis we will bail them out. we will spend $800 billion if we have to again there is something fictional about this whole thing. >> i disagree. i don't think the will is

there. >> woodruff: all right, you are on record. speaking of anger, of arguments and anger, i want to ask you both quickly about this pew poll out this week showing rising distrust in government, anger at government, and as i ask you about it i want to actually use a graphic. there's an organization called patchwork nation that the newshour is collaborating with. they look at the country congressional district by district. one of the things they looked at was the tea party and where it has a lot of members. and the darker, the dark between areas you see are where there are more tea party members. but whether, you know, whether it's tea party or not, mark, what do you make of the sense of anger. i mean is it, what's it coming from, where is it going. is it bound to influence the election. >> well, i mean, we came off 25 rather remarkable years of low inflation and low unemployment. you know, it was really

prosperity and i think there was a sense for a wol generation of people that that was the norm. and there is an anger and a disappointment. i think at what has happened, at large institutions, at the federal government, at the administration. it is real t is palpable. as far as the tea party folks are concerned, there a great concentration of them in boomtowns, that places that have grown exponentially and then have suffered, new growth, and then have suffered disproportionately. arizona for example, second in the country in foreclosures. nevada is first in the country in foreclosures. and you look at the-- . >> woodruff: you can understand that. >> yeah. >> they are also enterprisers, individualists who are often self-made, small businesspeople. so they don't believe in government help. they believe much more individualistic initiative. i have to say the tea party movement is fascinating an worth talking about. but the pew poll you mentioned and many of the

other polls show the real action is in the center of the electorate. the big thing that happened in the last couple of months or years is that the independents have moved to the republican party in large number. so the democratic party advantage which was 11 points is gone. the democratic favor ability rating is down 22%. so the big povment is in the center. >> woodruff: we're going to leave it there. we're glad to have the two of you in the center with us. >> one of the two of us . >> woodruff: david brooks, mark shields, thank you. >> brown: finally tonight, a pulitzer prize for pointed political satire that's drawn online. "newshour" correspondent spencer michels has the story produced in conjunction with kqed san francisco's arts program, "spark." >> reporter: from new york to san francisco comes word across the wires of a pulitzer on the mark. what's the story, ink-stained fiore? >> reporter: the story is that

40-year-old mark fiore is the first internet animator to win a pulitzer prize for political cartooning. his work appears only on line, on his own web site, plus that of the "san francisco chronicle," national public radio and other outlets. fiore's range is broad, his perspective left of center. >> we tackle war, warming, health care, torture, spying and the impact of the great economic implosion. his cartoons were among the first to go on-line, but today there's a growing body of animated internet satire with their roots in print. >> first year in high school, i drew a little cartoon in class, and it was politically oriented, and the teacher looked at it and he said, "oh, that's a political cartoon. you know, there are jobs like that." >> reporter: 25 years later, his pulitzer is the first for an animated cartoon, and signals a new acceptance of on-line

material. >> i like to think that i won not because it's new and different, and because it uses media in a different way, but because it has a message and it says something and it packs a punch. >> reporter: fiore diligently reads and watches the news for something that gets him angry. >> it starts by getting worked up about an issue and then researching it more; drilling down and then trying to simplify that into a message. >> reporter: at first, fiore says, that anger really showed in his cartoons. >> there was a lot of you know, ham-fisted, heavy handed cartooning and after a while, it gets really old and boring. i still get angry, but that's internally, the cartoons may get that anger out more, much more, through humor and through a little more of a finessing. you know, you open a place in

peoples' minds when you start the little humor engine going and you can get in there with a little more opinion and pointed satire if it's funny. >> you socialist organ harvesters pushed through the health care bill. >> oh, mr. dan, that's wonderful; 32 million uninsured people will now have health coverage. what did you say about organ harvesting? >> your obama-care tyranny has just begun. i'm talking about freedom- killing death panel loving totalitarianism. >> you mean the part of the bill that means you can't cancel someone's insurance if they get sick. >> health care reform was kind a of boring cartoon topic, because really when you think of healthcare reform, it only got exciting because of all the battling and fighting and tea party and the back and forth between the conservatives and the liberals. >> reporter: fiore makes no bones about being liberal. >> i've gone pretty heavy after

the tea party crew, mainly because there's a lot of people in the tea party movement that are just saying insanely extreme things that aren't true. >> you can be fluent in conversational tea bag in just a few short minutes. use tea bag's stronger, more descriptive words. >> nazi, nazi, nazi... >> perfect. >> i don't want obamist disembowlatron to come between me and my doctor. >> reporter: but he finds plenty to satirize in the democratic white house. >> i've criticized obama for his stance on domestic spying and for continuing some of the same things the bush administration was doing. >> to implement the least worst plan of terribleness, i have the difficult duty of ordering an additional 30,000 young service men and women to war. we will de-escalate by escalating, exit by entering. this is not a time for party crashers and reality tv shows. president karzai's brother, please do not sell drugs on

stage. >> reporter: fiore grew up the san francisco bay area, got a degree in political science from colorado college, and then a job doing print cartoons at "the san jose mercury news." ten years ago, he began freelancing his animated political cartoons, which don't sit well with everyone. he gets plenty of criticism, and puts a lot of it on his web site. >> are we supposed to take you seriously, mark fiore? >> i want to say to you, you-re an idiot. >> you, sir, remind me of something one vomits up after they've had a bad meal. >> you know there's a big push these days to represent both sides, and it's very hard for anybody in journalism to represent both sides when one side is not based in fact or reality, let alone for a cartoonist to represent that.

because i don't think, political cartoonists particularly, should always represent both sides. >> reporter: fiore wanted to put his cartoons into an application for the iphone, but last december apple turned him down, and he later read the company didn't allow ridicule of public figures. and behold i win the pulitzer, this article comes out and that same day i get a call from apple saying, hey maybe you should resubmit that app. so i'm in the process of resubmitting, and i hope they basically just take that part out of the contract and realize that satire and political discourse is important and should be accepted. >> reporter: this month, after the pulitzers were announced, apple relented. despite his prize, fiore still has deadlines to meet. the target this time: goldman sachs and the fund it allegedly set up to lose money.

>> goldman sachs has been, you know, just an insane cartoonist's dream over this last year. you know, from god's work to the devils' work. so it's perfect, perfect cartoon material. >> reporter: the prestige that comes with the pulitzer has not only boosted the number of hits mark fiore's work gets, but he's convinced it will encourage the entire field of internet political cartooning. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day: the goveror of arizona signed a tough new immigration bill into law. president obama called it "misguided" and asked the department of justice to look into whether it violates civil rights. and, a new wave of bombings swept across iraq, killing at least 69 people. they targeted shi-ite worshippers at friday prayers. the "newshour" is always online. the coast guard called off its search for 11 works

missing after an oil rig blast off the louisiana coast. the "newshour" is always online. hari sreenivasan, in our newsroom, previews what's there. hari? >> sreenivasan: find more of spencer's interview with cartoonist fiore. jim lehrer is still on the road, but we caught up with him via skype today as he visits pbs stations and continues his book tour. on "art beat," jeff talks to pbs president paula kerger about a new push to bring more arts programming to public media both on air and online. plus, two takes on science-- a report on a new exhibit at the smithsonian exploring early human origins and a slideshow of 20 years of dazzling images of space from the hubble telescope. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. judy? >> woodruff: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. "washington week" can be seen later this evening on most pbs stations. we'll see you on-line and again here monday evening. have a nice weekend. thank you and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

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what did you do that for?

i've been wondering whether i'd like it. what's the decision? i don't know yet. you can have another c you know what they are?