aptioning sponsored by%x- acneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. oil from the outer edges of a massive ongoing spill reached land today, threatening beaches, estuaries and wildlife from louisiana to florida. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the newshour tonight, as an ecological disaster loomed, president obama directed that no new offshore drilling leases be issued. we get an update from newshour corespondent tom bearden in louisiana. plus, admiral thad allen, the commandant of the coast guard, on the latest containment and clean-up efforts, and an

assessment of the potential environmental damage to the region. >> woodruff: then, spencer michels reports from arkansas, where a senate primary fight between democrats is heating up. the senate race in arkansas is unique in that the current u.s. senator, democrat blanche lincoln is being challenged from the left. >> brown: we get the weekly analysis of mark shields and david brooks. >> woodruff: and on this 35th anniversary of the fall of saigon, ray suarez talks to james zumwalt about his new book on the vietnam war, seen through the eyes of north vietnamese and viet cong veterans. that's all ahead on tonight's newshour.

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: louisiana braced today for disaster, as high winds and waves drove the gulf of mexico oil spill toward land, and oily ooze pushed into coastal wetlands. tom bearden begins our coverage, from louisiana.

>> reporter: the leading edge of the spill appeared as a light sheen of oil lapping onto shore. by morning, ribbons of oil had already reached some of the bayou state's most sensitive areas, teeming with shrimp, oysters and other wildlife. charter boat captain william wall ventured out from south louisiana today. >> this area is home to hundred of species of birds. we have deer, we have a lot of migratory birds that summer here. it's a fragile environment to begin with, and then you start throwing oil it into the mix of everything, its very sad. >> reporter: workers had floated protective booms to shield the sensitive fisheries and nature preserves, but they were no match for choppy seas. and continued attempts to skim the oil or burn it off had to be put on hold because of the rough water. weather forecasts predicted six- to seven-foot waves through the weekend. that could push heavier coatings of oil still offshore deep into the bayous and inlets of southeastern louisiana. the slick was also expected to brush the mississippi and

alabama coasts over the weekend, and reach florida by monday. for some along the gulf, there was an air of resignation. >> it's a way of life. things happen. we just got to learn how to deal with them. next time, maybe we will be able to prevent something like this. >> reporter: in a desperate bid to contain the damage, boats scattered chemical dispersants. but out in the gulf, an estimated 200,000 gallons a day kept pumping unabated from the sunken rig that exploded and went down last week. officials calculated it could take many weeks or even months to seal the leak. if it does take that long, the spill could exceed the 1989 "exxon valdez" tanker accident, which dumped 11 million gallons of oil into alaska's prince william sound. b.p., the operator of the sunken rig in the gulf, was also running the cleanup and containment effort, under the supervision of the coast guard. >> we've so far mounted the largest response effort ever done in the world. we've utilized every technology available. we've applied every resource requested.

we continue to try to stop the source of flow. we continue to develop new options, both to address the continued flow of oil at the seabed, but also to minimize the impact to the environment. we welcome every new idea and every offer of support, both from state and federal government. >> reporter: but louisiana governor bobby jindal criticized the effort today. >> i'm certainly worried that the booms, as currently deployed, are not effective. the areas that'll be impacted first by this oil spill, therefore, are critical and fragile coastal sites. i do have concerns. i've shared these concerns that b.p.'s current resources are not adequate to meet the three challenges we face. i've urged them to seek even more help from the federal government and from others. the three challenges we face are stopping the leak, protecting our coast, preparation for a swift cleanup of our impacted areas. >> reporter: members of the obama cabinet also arrived in louisiana today to manage the worsening crisis. >> we will make sure that that response is there, that the

response is strong, coordinated, and designed to minimize the harm to our coastal lands. and we will work to make sure that british petroleum meets its financial obligations, an obligation it undertook in exchange for the ability to undertake this drilling. he say any new offshore projects will have to wait until the disaster is investigated and safeguards are in place to prevent a reoccurrence. >> i continue to believe that domestic oil production is an important part of our overall strategy for energy security. but i've always said it must be done responsibleably for the safety of our workers and our environment.

the local economies and livelihoods of the people of the gulf coast, as well as the ecology of the region, are at stake. >> reporter: in florida, governor charlie crist declared a state of emergency for the panhandle. and senator bill nelson said federal and local officials who'd pushed for offshore drilling before may now reconsider. >> this disaster and potential mega-disaster is going to pretty well determine the outcome of those officials' feelings and statements for the future. >> reporter: b.p. promised today to compensate all who present "legitimate claims" for damages, and the louisiana fishing captain william wall said that has to happen. >> ultimately, someone is going to have to be held responsible. we allow them to drill off our coastlines, and they're responsible for this. they did this in our backyard. we didn't ask for this.

they should be held accountable, responsible. >> reporter: in the meantime, the first pictures of oiled birds emerged, and volunteers began arriving in louisiana to help clean birds and beaches. >> brown: and for more from the coast, i spoke with tom a short time ago from venice, louisiana. >> so tom, give us a little more sense of the atmosphere down there, the people you're talking to. how worried are they? how fearful or-- fearful or - he worst. >> people are very fearful and very, very worried. as we told you yesterday, their worst fear has been realized; that the oilslick has come ashore. and the real concern now is how far up into these estuaries where the fish breed and oysters go this will go. there is fear there will be damage for years and if that is the case people who own charter fishing boats and who are fisherman and shrimpers will simply be out of business. >> reporter: you talk about

fisheries this is an area where two many industries, the fisheries and oil business, they are both affected here. >> that's correct. and there's also the tourism business with the charter boat operators. we spoke with one charter boat operator who has already lost several thousands of dollars of business in the last couple of days because fisherman don't want to pay a lot of money for a charter boat and fish in an oil-filled gulf of mexico. >> reporter: and of course this also is an area that was hit hard by katrina which was-- which must still be fresh in people's minds. >> the town of venice was completely destroyed by hurricane katrina. in fact just down the way here you can see a couple of fishing boats that were washed up into the trees and they are still there. they are abandoned had. there are many unrepaired buildings in this area that you can see just by driving around. >> reporter: and so what are you expecting over the weekend, tom, what are you hearing from people? what are they going to be doing? >> well, the effort to contain the spill is supposed to ramp up dramatically. the defense department is sending in more personnel. the louisiana national guard has been activated to

provide more manpower to provide trucks to move absorbent materials for disposal. the key question is the weather and as you can probably see the wind is blowing. the gulf is out there, the wind is blowing this way and that is what is pushing the oil this way. >> reporter: tom bearden, in venice, louisiana, thanks again. >> my pleasure. >> brown: as we heard, neither the government nor b.p. has been able to slow the spill, and worries over its spread have only grown in the past 24 hours. i spoke with the commandant of the coast guard, admiral thad allen, at the white house about all this just a short time ago. admiral allen, thanks for joining us. there doesn't seem to be a lot of good news today in terms of the ability to stop the spread of this, what is the biggest problem you're facing? >> well, jeff, the biggest problem we're having right now is trying to figure out exactly where the oil is going to impact shore and make sure we have the proper resources there to defend the shoreline. one of the really complicating factors in this response has been the shifting of the wind. so we have a trajectory for two or three days and then

the wind will shift and appear to go another direction. and it has appeared to be impacting either mississippi or alabama and now probably louisiana over the course of the last week or so. so i would say the largest complicating factor right now is getting a good trajectory and getting the resources in place to be able to defend the shoreline. obviously, we would like to have the spill not happen at all. and the real issue we're trying to deal with is really 5,000 feet down on the sea floor at the well head. >> reporter: well, how-- what's going on there? because at the same time as are you trying to deal with the stopping the spread at the shore, the leak continues. >> we're doing several things. first of all, i think everybody knees to understand it has probably been explained in detail there is something called a blowout preventer that is built on top of the well head that is intended to actuate and actually shut the well head down. in the event of a problem. that either partially activated or did not activate at all. when the mobile drilling unit sunk then there was leakage around the pipe that connected the mobile drilling underto the wellhead.

that is the em nation or source of the oil right now. we are attempting to do a couple of things. one is using remotely operated vehicles to try and close that blowout preventer and actually seal it temporarily. absent that we are trying to figure out a way to check the oil and pipe it to the surface through domes called coffer dams, most recently we're going to attempt to put a pipe down and actually put disbursements at the point of discharge from the pipe and see if we can't dispurse the oil before it rises to the surface. the real novell thing about the coffer dams and disbursement, this has never been tried at 5,000 feet of water but we're trying everything in our arsenal technically to top leakage. in the long term the only solution is to drill a relief will, and cap the existing well. >> reporter: there clearly a lot of anger about what happened in the first place and what seems to many people to be kind of a slow understanding of the seriousness of this. earlier today louisiana governor bobby jindal talked about whether bp has

committed enough resources to do all of this, adequate resources at work right now. do you think bp has acted responsibly in all of this? >> well, by law, bp is what is you will cad the responsible party. and it's our job to ensure that they act responsibly. they have been doing that but everybody needs to understand there is immense pressure put on them by the coast guard and entire federal government to hold up their end of this bargain. and we continue to do that. now the real issue is, what happened, and what is the cause of that. and several days ago secretary napolitano and secretary salazar signed a convening order for mineral management services and the coast guard to take apart this event from what happened on the bottom win which is minerals management purview and the coast guard who is responsible for the floating assets above. and really develop a set of facts so we can know really what happened. because the source of this entire event happened as a part of the failure of the preventer to-- blowout prevent tore perform and we need to understand how that happened. >> but to go to the ongoing

problem of containing it, on the one hand as you just said, an administration observations say you have to hold those responsible accountable. on the other hand, bp is still your working partner for all practical purposes in dealing with the problem right now, right? >> that's correct. and that may seem a little bit anomalous or a dichotomy to a lot of the folks in the united statesment but you need to understand that both minerals management service and the coast guard are regulatory bodies that oversee what goes on out there. the very advanced technology including robotics that is used to do mining on the sea bed floor is all in the private sector so there is a delicate balance of employing them in response and holding them accountable. but understanding the long run they are also accountable for whatever the source of the mishap might have been and there will be an account ability piece as we move forward in the investigation it is something we manage routinely in our oil spills. it has just never happened on this order of magnitude in our recent history. >> reporter: speaking of order of magnitude what are we really looking at. there is conjecture about whether this could reach or exceed what happened off the

coast of santa barbara in 1969. what we know happened with the exxon valdez. what, and again, also given the inability as you said to stop the leak at this point. what is the worst-case scenario are you looking at. >> let me compare and contrast the exxon valdez with this event. the exxon valdez was a vessel with a figured volume so we understood very, very clearly how much oil was there. in this case, it discharged 11 million gallons. in this particular case there is a well that goes down 18,000 feet to the reservoir of oil below the floor of the ocean. there is open connection now to the sea and to the surface. and we really won't know until we get that well capped exactly how much oil going to be released. we're working on a worst-case scenario and we're moving all resources in place to address it. >> reporter: and in the meantime as you said, the impact on the coast really depends right now, i mean in the next couple of days, on the weather, on the sea? >> it does. unfortunately mother nature gets a vote and that's one

thing we can't control but we must react to t be quick, agile, flexible and bring all assets to bear including working with our state and local partners and holding bp accountable. >> coast guard admiral thad allen, thanking for joining us. >> thank you. >> brown: and now to someone who studies the environment of the region closely. robert twilley is professor of oceanography and coastal sciences at louisiana state university. he's also a science advisor to the state's office of coastal protection and restoration. mr. twilley, tell us first a little bit more about the gulf coast-- gulf coastline, the terrain and the wildlife that's there, paint the picture for us. >> well, what are you hearing most about right now is off the coast of louisiana which is a delta. it's built by the mississippi river. it's basically a muddy coast. and it's dominated by wetlands. and it's a very fragile environment. as you move towards the east you get into mississippi, you get in the sea grasss, clear water. all along this area are some

of the most productive shellfish, the oyster grounds in the u.s. then you move farther east and you get into more sandy environment, this is one of your hot beds of tourism, it's one of the most fabulous places to visit enjoy, and recognize ree ate. and then you move-- recognize reit. then farther into florida, again the same, more of a sandy environment. so you really have a very diverse set of habitats that both provide a lot of refuge for wildlife and also are really economic engines for a lot of activities, economically. >> reporter: so when you look at that diversity, what are the keys that you look at to determine the extent of the damage? is it the amount of oil, the type of oil, the length of time it sets there? >> you know, i think the discussions leading up to my interview have been right on the mark related to the environmental impacts. and that is trajectory, where is it going to go, how much are we dealing with. you know, again, this is not a tank we are a fixed

amount. that has hit a rock or something and then floated into a very specific shoreline. we have got a very large coastline here. we've got a very complicated currents, ocean currents that are driven by wind and we have-- a trajectory of where this oil is going to go and how much oil we're going to have over the next several weeks are all going to complicate any speculation right now as far as potential impacts. >> reporter: and what is the best way right now, you are involved advicing folks down there. what is the best way to protect against the worst happening? >> what kinds of things are under way? >> well, you know, one of the first things, of course, is where will the oil that we have near our coastline make first contact. and again, as has been elude ed to we have a strong southeast wind. wind is one of the dominant

factors that forces currents and where this oil will go. and then we have the countereffect of the river and what influence the river will have of actually pushing the oil back out. and so we've been working with the physical oceanographers and working with the models and trying to point where it's going to hit. and what at those points we have as far as assets to maybe prevent, if we can, the movement of that oil farther inland. do we have gates and wiers, do we have pump stations, can we open diversion structures. all of these are some possibilities of manipulating what small, what impact we can have to try to minimize the movement of that oil farther inland in our wetlands, bays and estuaries. >> reporter: and based on past experiences and the kinds of things are you looking at now what about long-term versus short-term effects if. what do we foe about what causes long-term damage?

>> well, one thing is we're not dealing with, we don't -- preliminary analysis in the school of coast of environment at the school of lsu, we're not dealing with a toxic substance. so we're not-- what we are dealing with is, you know, hydrocarbons that biology made millions of years ago. and it hasn't been processed. so we're dealing with things that are going to really their impact is going to be basically suffocate ing what they come in contact with. so you are going to see acute affects because it's basically going to suffocate the wetland area, the soils, the ability of plants to breathe. you are going to impact nesting areas. going to suffocate as we all are very familiar in other oil spills, the impact of oil on birds. and again, the key here is what the contact is. because it has to be contact. in some spills after katrina we saw the plants actually responded fairly quickly. they have a mechanism where they can regrow after an oil

spill. but there are so many variabilitys that set up that potential long-term suffocating effect that it is pretty speculative right now until we really know the volume and we know the extent inland that this slick is going to move. >> reporter: robert twilley of lsu, thanks very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: still to come on the newshour: senate politics in arkansas; shields and brooks; and reflections of war. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan in our newsroom. >> sreenivasan: the federal government has started a criminal investigation into the wall street firm goldman sachs. it was widely reported today the justice department is acting on information from the securities and exchange commission. the s.e.c. filed civil fraud charges against goldman two weeks ago. the case involves securities deals that the investment bank arranged. news of the goldman probe helped fuel a wall street sell-off. the dow jones industrial average lost more than 158 points to close at 11,008.

the nasdaq fell 50 points to close at 2,461. for the week, the dow lost nearly 2%; the nasdaq fell more than 2.5%. and the price of oil moved back above $86 a barrel, partly on concerns about the gulf oil spill. the u.s. economy expanded at the beginning of the year, but not by enough to bring down unemployment. the commerce department reported today that the gross domestic product grew at a rate of 3.2% from january to march. president obama welcomed the news, but he acknowledged the economy still isn't generating enough jobs. >> after the single biggest economic crisis in our lifetimes, we're heading in the right direction. we're moving forward. our economy is stronger, that economic heartbeat is growing stronger am while today's gdp report is an important mile post on our road to recovery t doesn't mean much to an american who has lost his or her job and can't find another. >> sreenivasan: the unemployment rate in march stood at 9.7%. the rate for april is due out

next week. customers of anthem blue cross in california will not have to face rate hikes of up to 39%. the company canceled plans for the increase on thursday. the state insurance commissioner said anthem's original justification for raising premiums had been based on flawed data. a day earlier, anthem's parent company, wellpoint, announced first-quarter profits jumped by 50%. 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 judy. >> woodruff: now, in a volatile election year, an unexpected competitive democratic primary race in arkansas. and to newshour correspondent spencer michels. >> reporter: u.s. senator blanche lincoln seemed right at home at a farm bureau candidates' event in rural craighead county, in northeast arkansas. this is rice and soybean country, where people take time out for a good crawfish feed and

tailgating party. here, farm policy trumps almost anything else when it comes to politics. lincoln's position as chairman of the senate agriculture committee would normally put her in good stead with her constituents. >> she's getting a lot of fire from even the farming industry, but i believe she's going to help the farmers. >> reporter: but this year, lincoln is fighting for her political life. she's one of the only democratic incumbent senators facing a serious challenge in the primary election. lincoln campaigned with her mother and sisters by her side, fielding voters' questions. one woman thought the senator was swaying too far to the right. >> but i'm going to vote for you anyway. >> i appreciate that. we need you, we definitely need you. >> reporter: others were concerned she's gone too far to the left, because after being a hold-out, she voted for health care reform. >> i think you, as a citizen, failed the people of this country.

>> i'm not going to vote for her now. all my friends say she must go. >> reporter: it's a fine line lincoln is trying to walk. a conservative democrat in her second term, lincoln is fighting for re-election to a senate seat that's been in democratic hands since reconstruction. that may be a tough trick to pull off, according to "arkansas times" columnist john brummet. >> blanche lincoln's problem is that she's catching it from all sides. because the conservatives blame her for voting for the health care bill, the liberals blame her for having insisted on taking the public option out. >> reporter: lincoln's seat is one of several that are crucial to the democrats trying to keep control of the senate. hal bass, dean of social science at ouachita baptist university, thinks moderates like lincoln are facing a special challenge this year. >> i think, when you find yourself positioned in the middle in a polarized political environment like we have right

now on the national scene, you are both vulnerable and valuable. you are valued in a sense that you are in a position to influence outcomes in an extraordinary fashion, but you are vulnerable because extremists, if you will, on both sides of the spectrum are going to find less to dislike in your performance. >> is there a place for a moderate in today's political scene? >> i think so, and i hope so, for the sake of the country. i think that's where most americans are. i think most americans want us to get results, and i think they understand that you get results by finding common ground. >> reporter: even though lincoln has often disagreed with the administration, she still is vulnerable because anger at washington, d.c., and at president obama is high in arkansas. she spends much of her time on the stump and in her ads distancing herself from the president's agenda. >> i voted against giving more money to wall street; against the auto company bailout; against the cap and trade bill that would have raised energy

costs for arkansans. some in my party didn't like it very much. but i approved this message because i don't answer to my party; i answer to arkansas. >> reporter: lincoln's immediate test is to win the democratic primary election, where she is being attacked primarily from the left. her main rival is, bill halter, the lieutenant governor, a former rhodes scholar who served as a budget and social security official in the clinton administration, and who claims lincoln is not a true democrat. >> fellows, i'm running for senate, and i would love your vote. >> reporter: halter says he would reduce the influence of big money in washington, oppose tax reductions in order to fight the deficit, and support a public option in health care reform. polls say halter is trailing lincoln by about 8%, but he's pushing hard. >> this entire race is up for grabs. i like something about bill.

i like his freshness, his entrepreneurial spirit, and blanche is somewhat tested. >> reporter: halter has received financial support from labor unions that abandoned lincoln after she opposed bills that would make it easier to organize workers. union groups have paid for several anti-lincoln tv commercials. >> middle class jobs are disappearing thanks to washington politicians like blanche lincoln. for 15 years, lincoln supported bad trade deals, killing jobs in arkansas. lincoln took millions from washington special interests. she listens to them, not us. >> reporter: brummet says the race is unique in state history. >> you've got bill halter coaxed into the race, and funded in the race and energized by national labor unions, moveon.org. raising his money that way, doing so that... in a way that, in a normal circumstance, would go against all the truths that we know about arkansas politics. which is that we are a nominally

democratic culture, but only because our candidates here separate themselves from the national democratic party. this is a state that is getting redder by the minute. >> reporter: for that reason, bill halter, regarded as the liberal in the race, rejects that label. >> i have a lot of positions that people would regard as conservative. some would regard them as middle of the road, and then other positions, progressive. but to your question of why take on an incumbent senator-- the reason is that washington is not working for middle class arkansas families. people are tired of all the money in politics. >> reporter: early in the race, halter had attacked lincoln as a tool of wall street. but lincoln introduced a strict financial reform bill this month, a bill republicans and wall street don't like; a move she may have made because of halter, says brummett. >> a major national issue has been influenced by what's going on in arkansas politics, because absent this opposition from the

left, blanche lincoln would not have, i don't believe, come out with this derivatives bill that's tougher even than the white house wanted, tougher even than senate liberals had proposed. >> reporter: so bill halter is pushing her to the left. >> yes, he's pushing her to the left. >> reporter: lincoln says that's absurd. but you weren't that tough on wall street earlier. and now, you've gotten tougher on wall street, all of a sudden. >> well, now, i have the responsibility as chairman of that committee to produce a bill that, yes, is going to get the job done. before october, i didn't have that responsibility. >> reporter: but it's not because bill halter is pushing you in that direction? >> oh, heaven's no. >> reporter: in some ways, this race reflects more about the state of the nation than the state of arkansas. while republican john mccain won arkansas by 20 points in 2008, this state elects plenty of democrats, including, of course, bill clinton, and two current u.s. senators. so who it sends to the u.s.

senate this year-- a liberal, a conservative democrat or a republican-- could reflect the mood of the electorate beyond the arkansas river. ( cheers ) emotions are running high in the race. supporters of each candidate tried to grab attention before a recent televised debate in little rock between halter, lincoln, and the third democratic candidate, conservative businessman d.c. morrison. morrison paints himself as anti- washington, anti-liberal, and a democrat by birth. >> i'm not happy with either political party. i'm an american first, an arkansan, i'm a member of several hunting clubs, a christian, a father. and then way down the list, i'm a democrat. >> reporter: morrison could get enough votes-- polls show about 10%-- to force a runoff in the primary between lincoln and

halter. polls indicate either lincoln or halter will be in trouble this fall against whomever the republicans nominate. eight republicans are vying for their party's nomination on may 18. >> woodruff: and to the analysis of shields and brooks- syndicated columnist mark shields and "new york times" columnist david brooks. gentlemen, let's talk about arkansas. david, what does blanche lincoln's predictment say about democrat and republican races around the country in. >> well, it is a national, it is a couple of national trends here. one, the movements, like moveon.organize and the labor unions on the left or club for growth on the right f they can knock off somebody like blanche lincoln a moderate from in their own party they enhars their power in washington and partyor docks. so they have an incentive that may be bad for the democrats in the long-term, they have a short term thee logically to knock off moderates so is there is that anti-moderate trend and the second trend which is also national, the

candidates don't matter as much, the national trends matter. which is it's just a horrible year to be a democrat in a state mccain carried or district mccain carried. i democratic party favorable rating dropped 22% a year. they had a party advantage that is entirely gone it is a bad year. those two things are happening. one against the center and two against democrats. so that's tough for blanche lincoln if are you both. >> woodruff: so not so good to be a democrat in some places and hard to be a moderate almost anywhere. >> i agree. i just add one little-- to davids. we don't want to leave the impression that the republicans are thriving. in virtually every measure of public opinion most recently in the "washington post" abc poll, the democrats now have a double digit lead on which party is better. but they have plummeted overall in favor ability. and especially david's right in an increasingly red state. john-- point spencer michaels i think is a very, very good one.

that arc ago-- arkansas has become, even though it continues to have a democratic tradition of sending people to washington. there is only one republican in the entire arkansas delegation. only been one republican senator there, tim hutchison. so i mean it has this tradition, of being a democratic side. for the first time in 2010, there really is a sense that the republicans have a great chance of winning the senate seat. and that's why the eight people in that primary. it is going to be akoff eted. i don't think there any question that the words that blanche lincoln used, common sense, practical, common ground, results, those are traditionally words that effective, electable pragmatist, middle of the road use. but she is defending now the fact that she was one of 12 democrats in the entire senate that voted for the bush tax cuts. the only democrat in arkansas who voted for bush's medicare prescription drug so she is very much on the defensive. >> woodruff: primary. we're talking about this primary in arkansas.

and david, we were looking at a primary, republican primary in the state of florida. but governor charlie crist just yesterday announced he's not going do, in fact. when i interviewed him a few weeks ago he said i have no intention of running as an independent but that is what he is doing. >> i was stunned that he wasn't fully candid with you. that is just shocking. and it sets up an obviously interesting race. it is a party that actually doesn't have a lot of independence. among, i mean it is a state among various states t is a state where the voters are reasonably committed republican and democrat. and so it sets up this gamble for crist. which as rubio is a strong candidate and i think he is going to lock in the republican vote. meeks is a strong candidate on the democratic side. and so he's got -- crist has got to say who can i get. and he's really putting a large gamble i think that the teacher unions who he just defended with this veto will leave the democratic party and stay with him. i think that's a long shot. i doubt that's going to happen. he is abouting to have financial problems. and then the core thing, and this runs for moderates nationwide, is what exactly

is he running on. a lot of moderates, people like the idea that you are a reasonable and pragmatic but they still want an agenda and a philosophy. and i personally, i haven't seen that out of crist, like a lot of moderates. >> woodruff: can an independent win in the state of florida mark? >> sure. i think an independent in present climate giving the feels of people towards both party kos win. it's tougher for charlie crist because he's been a very successful politician. he was elected statewide education chief, he's elected attorney general, elected governor. so it's hard to say i'm an outsider, coming from that. but he is a proven quantity. >> he spent his entire adult life. >> he has. but even more than his adult life. he was elected to school board when he was still in high school. i mean so charlie was-- showed early form an has lived up to it. and but he has had a record as attorney general in particular. and i think you say as governor, that is, that has borrowed from column a and column b. he hasn't been rigid. i think it is going to be

tough. conot stay in the republican primary, judy, he is going to stay there for four months and it had become a religious ritual for national republicans to come to florida to beat up on charlie crist, to prove their conservative credentials by embracing marco rubo who most couldn't pick out of a police line-up six months ago. they are going to show how enough tough they were. he would have been a pinata for the next four months and lost the prime ar. if he was going to run he had to get out. and i just pointed out, we've had a lot of people in this country who have gotten out of parties, richard shelby, the ranking republican on the banking committee is taking a regulation, was a democrat until the republicans took over the senate in 1994. we have had two men in american history who voted four times for franklin roosevelt and once for harry truman for president, one was harry truman, the other ronald reagan who switched parties. >> woodruff: well, marco rubio who now has the republican primary all to himself, or the republican nomination, david, is one of the few republicans in the country who is criticizing that arizona anti-immigration law. and now you see the democrats in washington

coming up with an immigration reform bill, they rolled it out yesterday. what are the prospects, seriously, for immigration reform? >> i think really grim. chuck schumer has been pushing this issue. he wanted president obama to do it right away, chuk schumer, the senator from new york. he's head of the committee. and he's pushing hard. and i think he's sincere, he has been doing it for so long. nonetheless i still think the reason we're talking about it now as we mentioned last week is that latino voters are so far a little apathetic. democrats need them, especially harry reid in nevada needs them. and they are trying to get them to come out to vote by putting immigration top burner. but the prospects of it passing, a, depends on them doing the real preparatory work in the senate which has not been done. you know, think how much ted kennedy and john mccain did last time that stuff hasn't been done. and b, another change in public opinion. if you just polled publicly right now, should we put up a fence or should we do comprehensive immigration reform, well, put up the fence would win with both parties. the number of people who now want to do the comprehensive reform which involves

dealing with the millions who are already here, that is very slender. so i think the political landscape is just horrible for actually getting anything done so i think it a political ploy. >> woodruff: even with the anger over the arizona law, mark, is there the impetus to get something done nationally. >> there more conversation, there is more attention to it. but i don't think-- getting to 60 in the senate is next to impossible. i mean john mccain who was the stalwart has withdrawn from the battle. now lindsey graham-- . >> woodruff: facing a challenge. >> on the issue, in the very state that the cald ron, arizona. lindsay graham who became the successor for reasons that he expresses and i think also for internal pressure within the party is not joining chuck schumer in this effort. and i don't think there's any question, judy, that john cornyn the republican senate campaign committee said yesterday are you to the going to pass immigration reform when

there is 9.7% unemployment. it requires a certain confidence and optimism on the part of voters to take a step this large. and i don't think it's there. i think there's a hunkering down. i think there is a defensiveness. and a agree with david that just the atmosphere and the pood are not there. >> and just to flesh out the lindsey graham point, he was promised that by harry reid, that he was going to really stick his neck out on energy and climate in that stuff. and that the democrats would not throw him gration on top of that. because it's too heavy a lift. he didn't think you could ask the country or the senate, especially republicans in the senate if he was going to take these enormous personal risks on climate to also throw in immigration. and they backed out on that deal. they did not deliver the promises. sow was outraged. i think properly so. and so it's not only messing up the immigration, but it's messing up climate where there really was a greater, much greater chance of some bipartisan agreement. >> woodruff: and i do want to get to-- if we have time,

but have to ask you about on the subject of energy, david t was just what, i a month or so ago, the president announce noed he was going to live that moratorium on offshore oil drilling. look what's happened in the gulf. >> right. >> woodruff: what does that say about account administration go ahead with this? has the climate now on that issue completely changed. >> among the other to get to a climate bill is this because we achieved something important which was we -- the fight over renewables or current energy systems and i think both parties said we need it all. let's have it all. and to you because of what happened in the gulf, it's just hard to pass a bill that includes even an element of offshore drilling and cannot pass anything unless there is offshore drilling in it. so it just becomes politically tough. the only final thing i would say there is no energy source that come was business risk. we were talking about a mine disaster a couple of weeks ago. every single energy sources has risks and costs. doesn't mean you can't rely on them. >> woodruff: we are looking

at pretty bad pictures. >> terrible picture, judy. and there really was a growing confidence and that is why the resistance on the environmental left to offshore drilling, i think, had diminished at the time that president came forward. because of the advances in safety equipment and strategies. and now we have the real possibility that the rigs device to prevent a blowout did not operate properly. and this is deepwater drilling. and it has worked in the north sea. i mean, with very cold water and very rough seas. >> woodruff: you men the effort. >> they have been able to manage it. but just one of these, and it is increasingly serious. i think it is a bigger political problem because right at the outset there was well, it's contained and now it isn't contained. and i think you see people like bob menendez, the senator flu jersey, frank lautenberg who had held their fire coming out against offshore drilling, the threat to the new jersey shores.

and the real source of damage is in the eastern gulf. that is where it is. it is shallow, off the florida coast, the northern nor da coast. that requires separate legislation to approve offshore drilling there. i don't think there is any way. >> i think the white house is handling reasonably well. they put a moratorium, that is understandable. but the president came out today and still said the drilling is part of our strategy. we need that. it's not walking away. you know, we have to be able to assess risks in this country. tankers coming from saudi arabia are also a risk. coal is a risk. everything is a risk. and so we have one terrible episode but that doesn't mean we should dismiss the whole energy source. >> woodruff: all right, we're going have to dismiss both of you. but only temporarily. we want you back next friday. david brooks, mark shields. >> like rembrandt operating. >> woodruff: thank you both. >> brown: finally tonight, on

this 35th anniversary of the end of the vietnam war, a different perspective on the conflict. and to ray suarez. >> suarez: when these pictures were engraved into history 35 years ago, only half of the current u.s. population, and an even smaller segment of vietnamese, were alive-- the american departure from south vietnam, an ugly retreat after a ten-year war that killed 58,000 americans and hundreds of thousand of south and north vietnamese. but those who participated in the war continue to put their memories, and the lessons they drew from the conflict, into scores of books, movies and documentaries-- mostly, of course, from an american point of view. now, there is a new book-- "bare feet, iron will: stories from the other side of vietnam's battlefields." as its title suggests, it tells the story from the perspective of the vietnamese. the author is retired marine

corps lt. col. james zumwalt. his father, admiral elmo zumwalt, commanded u.s. naval forces in vietnam, and later was the navy's highest ranking officer. in 1984, newshour correspondent charlayne hunter-gault spoke to admiral zumwalt about the war, and his decision to step up aerial spraying of agent orange. >> you must remember that we were watching the defoliation take place at a time when, in my case, for example, my sailors were taking casualties at the rate of 6% per month. so that, on the average, my sailors and officers had about three-quarters of a... about a 75% probability of being a casualty during their year there. anything that could be done to reduce the fearsome casualties that we were taking was an intelligent thing to do. >> suarez: charlayne also spoke

to admiral zumwalt's son, elmo, jr., a naval officer who served on swift boats in the vietnam war. >> the areas around us were heavily defoliated, so defoliated that they looked like burned-out areas, many of them. you know, almost every day that you were in riverboat patrol, you were having... you were being subjected to the agent orange factor. >> suarez: the younger elmo zumwalt died from lymphoma in 1988. it's an illness associated with agent orange, which drew this reflection from his father. >> it is the case that the particular area in vietnam in which my son's boat operated a great deal of the time was an area that was sprayed upon my recommendation, and in that sense, it's particularly ironic that, in a sense, if the causal relationship can be established, i have become an instrument of my son's own tragedy.

>> suarez: but for admiral zumwalt's second son, james, the war carries its own set of memories and emotional journey, from bitterness towards the foe and the loss of a war to a special kind of healing. james zumwalt, welcome. >> thank you. >> you note in the opening pages of your book that a lot of ink has been spilled chronicling america's experience in vietnam and how it involved changed, affected americans. and how very little was written about the vietnamese. were you the guy to fix that? >> i would say that i was presented with the opportunity to fix it. and once i had face-to-face meetings with our former enemy and got a better understanding of what they went through on their side of the battlefield, i felt an obligation to record it. >> suarez: were you already in the midst of a journey, a

transition, a change in the way that you understood the war? >> i was. i-- with the loss of my brother, i felt a lot of anger and animosity towards the vietnamese. and it wasn't until i returned to vietnam in 1994 with my father to see what we could do to get the vietnamese government to do a joint study on agent orange, and i started meeting with our counterparts over there that it really was a wake-up call for me. >> suarez: here we were, a war involving a rich country and a poor country. a huge country and a small country. what were the vietnamese fighting forces working with? >> they were working with whatever they were provided by their allies, the soviets and the chinese. but many times because they simply did not have the same

kind of logistical system that we had, they had to look to other sources to be replenished with those supplies. >> your book for me provided a reminder of just how ingenuous they could be trying to withstand the attack of a much more powerful enemy. >> exactly. and as i focused more on the history of vietnam, i came to realize that it almost is something that is built into their dna. there were encounters in the past with the invading forces, most of the time with the chinese where they came up with very creative methods of defeating a superior source. >> suarez: so give us some examples of the kind of techniques and tactics the north vietnamese used successfully against a much better arm, much better equipped enemy. >> well, one that stands out in my mind is what they did

along the ho chi minute trail. it was a ljistical supply line that brought men and material from the north to the south. obviously they had to cross rivers. the only way to cross a river is with a bridge. they would build bridges for the specific purpose of having a target that we would go after. they, what they would do then is upstream or downstream of that bridge, they would come up with very clever ways of hiding bridges. well, how do you hide a bridge. one is a concept known as a submarine bridge where they actually built a bridge platform underneath the low watermark and for those who served in vietnam, they know that the water is basically brown so you cannot see from the air if there was anything under the water. but these submarine bridges were very effectively used as convoy was cross them, they would have guides stand on either side of the bridge platform guiding them as to where the edges of the platform were.

these existed for the duration of the war and we never knew about them. >> suarez: this was a people that was going to be hard to defeat by anybody. >> this was a people who, again going back to their dna, would not tolerate being invaded. could we have won the war? we hit military power and we never lost a battle in vietnam. we, if we committed ground forces in the north we could have driven them out of the cities but all that would have done was delayed the inevitable which was that they would keep eating away and eating away. and drawing the war out for as long as it took for us to get out. >> suarez: james zumwalt, thanks a lot. >> thank you so much for having me. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day: high winds and waves drove the gulf of mexico oil spill toward land, and oily ooze pushed into the coastal wetlands of louisiana. and the justice department

started a criminal investigation into goldman sachs over its mortgage securities dealings. >> brown: the newshour is always online. hari sreenivasan, in our newsroom, previews what's there. hari. >> sreenivasan: there's more on the vietnam anniversary. photographer david hume kennerly reflects on his pulitzer prize- winning images of the conflict, and we talk to andrew lam of new america media. his family fled vietnam when he was a child, and he recently visited hanoi. find blogs from tom bearden on the gulf oil spill, and from spencer michels on the arkansas senate race. plus, on this kentucky derby weekend, we have an update on the state of horse racing. jeff talked to "new york times" reporter joe drape about how the sport has hit hard times. and a final note-- pbs's charlie rose will interview goldman sachs c.e.o. lloyd blankfein on his program tonight. you can find a link to charlie's web site on ours. 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

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