SCOTT SIMON, Host:
Hello, Dan.
DANIEL SCHORR: Hi, Scott.
SIMON: Dan, record number of caucus-goers in Iowa.
SCHORR: Right.
SIMON: We've heard all kinds of analysis over the past couple of days.
SCHORR: Yes.
SIMON: Let's get to yours, and what you foresee. First, the Democratic side and Senator Obama's victory. What do you see as being responsible?
SCHORR: Secondly, I think it's quite remarkable and should be noted as perhaps a point of passage in the history that Iowa is 95 percent white. And when an African- American wins this caucus in a 95 percent white state, I think maybe we have begun to transcend race.
SIMON: On the Republican side, former Governor Mike Huckabee. Obviously, a lot of the analysis attributed the support to social conservatives and evangelicals. What do you see are some of the factors responsible for Governor Huckabee?
SCHORR: Well, I think the Huckabee factor has something in common with the Obama factor and that is that Americans and the voters - it may be only Iowa but I think somewhat more - are really wanting to shake things up and have fresh faces and fresh ideas. The word change keeps coming up, and I think the word change means something to voters in Iowa and elsewhere.
SIMON: So that their relative unfamiliarity almost became a political asset?
SCHORR: I think that's right. The word change kept coming up sop often along with the word hope, which was Obama's word. And some people think hope is a funny thing, but...
SIMON: And it's where Governor Huckabee was born in fact.
SCHORR: And it's where Governor Huckabee was - as well as Bill Clinton, was born. But it wasn't that hope. It was the, what you call, the audacity of hope as Obama called it in his book title. And his words, which may not mean much to us because we're cynical, we hear them so often, apparently they have registered in both the cases of these two winners of both parties.
SIMON: Going into New Hampshire, which happens in just a couple of days, there are many factors obviously that could still change the course of an election as we saw just a little over a week ago with the assassination in Pakistan.
SCHORR: Yes.
SIMON: But this week, oil reached $100 a barrel. New unemployment figures were released. Unemployment is at a two-year high of 5 percent. Do you project the economic issues are going to affect the campaign seriously as we go forward?
SCHORR: Well, it's not important whether I think so, but apparently President Bush thinks so. All this time, he's been talking about the fundamentals were okay and don't worry. But now, he's indicating a certain worry comes out, and now thinks maybe we need to have a stimulus package, and that maybe a stimulus package included in the state of the union address. And that it really is true. That ordinarily, the pocketbook is a deciding issue in elections. It hasn't been entirely true lately, thanks to a war and various other big stories that have intruded our land.
SIMON: This week, the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into the destruction of hundreds of hours of videotaped CIA interrogations.
SCHORR: Yes, sir.
SIMON: The attorney general appointed federal prosecutor John Durham to oversee the investigation. What do you noticed about some of the parameters and what do you foresee?
SCHORR: On the other hand, the Congress is not sitting still. And they apparently, both on the Senate and the House sides, are proceeding with wide-open investigations. They wish to call in witnesses. They have the former CIA officer Jose Rodriguez, who is the one who actually gave the order for the destruction of the tapes. He's being called up to testify. What are you going to do, take the Fifth Amendment? Stay tuned.
SIMON: Pakistan's President Musharraf announced this week that parliamentary elections that have been scheduled, of course, next week will be postponed until February 18...
SCHORR: Yes.
SIMON: ...following Mrs. Bhutto's assassination. And there is a continuing argument that may last for years over responsibility for Mrs. Bhutto's death.
SCHORR: Well, absolutely. Apparently the Musharraf government is very sensitive about that. They've called in the Scotland Yard in Britain to help them with it. And then Musharraf comes out and said, yes, fine but don't go on a wild goose chase. They seemed to be very worried about the way the public reacts to this. But it was very interesting that they have confiscated all the medical records. And all we need now is a grassy note.
SIMON: Thanks very much, Dan Schorr.
SCHORR: Sure.