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NBC Justice Correspondent Pete Williams In was in church last October that William Rehnquist first realized somet hing might be wrong with him, his minister told over 1,000 people gather ed today in Washington for the funeral of the chief justice. "He was the most spirited singer in my congregation," said the Reverend G eorge Evans. "And after services, he told me he knew something was wrong when he couldn't sing with his usual range." Though Rehnquist often projected a stern demeanor in the courtroom, he wa s remembered today for his sense of humor, keen ability as a poker playe r, and readiness to bet on almost anything. He spent the whole summer trying to win that five dollars back," s he said. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who met the future chief justice when they w ere students at Stanford University in 1946, said he was a "hasher" at a university dining hall. "We were all so impressed with him because he carried such heavy loads of dishes." O'Connor, who grew up on a ranch, said Rehnquist ran the Supreme Court wi th the skill of an expert horseman. "He kept the reins loose and seldom used his spurs," she said. Evans said Rehnquist hoped as recently as the week before he die d that he would be strong enough to return to his seat on the Supreme Co urt bench next month. "I think he bet he'd be back at cou rt for another term, but he lost that bet.
Anchor & Managing Editor We are just back from the French Quarter... and most of the landmarks tha t people would remember visiting from even a single Convention-attending visit to New Orleans. We are happy to report that the Quarter is slowly drying out (while the Ritz Carlton hotel, for example, remains surround ed by rancid water that appears to be 30 percent oil) and cleaning up. It will be a long time before it resembles anything close to New Orleans. An interesting dynamic is taking shape in this city, not altogether posit ive: after days of rampant lawlessness (making for what I think most wou ld agree was an impossible job for the New Orleans Police Department dur ing those first few crucial days of rising water, pitch-black nights and looting of stores) the city has now reached a near-saturation level of military and law enforcement. In the areas we visited, the red berets of the 82nd Airborne are visible on just about every block. At one fire scene, I counted law enforcement p ersonnel (who I presume were on hand to guarantee the safety of the fire fighters) from four separate jurisdictions, as far away as Connecticut a nd Illinois. While we were attempting to ta ke pictures of the National Guard (a unit from Oklahoma) taking up posit ions outside a Brooks Brothers on the edge of the Quarter, the sergeant ordered us to the other side of the boulevard. The short version is: the re won't be any pictures of this particular group of guard soldiers on o ur newscast tonight. Rules (or I suspect in this case an order on a whim ) like those do not HELP the palpable feeling that this area is somehow separate from the United States. At that same fire scene, a police officer from out of town raised the muz zle of her weapon and aimed it at members of the media... Her actions (apparently beca use she thought reporters were encroaching on the scene) were over the t op and she was told. There are automatic weapons and shotguns everywhere you look. It's a stance that perhaps would have been appropriate during the open lawlessness that has long since ended on most of these streets . Someone else points out on television as I post this: the fact that th e National Guard now bars entry (by journalists) to the very places wher e people last week were barred from LEAVING (The Convention Center and S uperdome) is a kind of perverse and perfectly backward postscript to thi s awful chapter in American history.
Cain/Storm my colleague Heather Allan blogs abou t below. They are often the last to be evacuated and the last to hold on . On any walk through this region you will see dogs without owners. then again, there's a lot of that going around here these days.
We were at the Superdome in this absolutely pouring down, squalling rain. Most of the thousands o f people who were trying to get into the Superdome had already managed t o get in. They were just about to close the doors and lock down for the night. That's when I saw a man walking down and talking to cop cars and National Guard people all along the way in the pouring rain. They said to him, "you can go in, but you can't take your dog w ith you." So I looked at Tom Baer, our satellite truck operator, and I said, "Tom, we gotta do it." So I went out into the rain and I said, "We'll look after your dog for you." In the pouring rain, he gave me his name, Joe Torres, and I gave him our numbers, and he went into the Superdome and we took the puppy.
Bob Zajko / NBC News Tom Baer holds "Cain/Storm" inside the NBC satellite truck in New Orleans . He actually sat it out in "Swampboy," the name of our big satellit e truck. He is part-pit bull, part-Labrador, with a golden color. In the eight days we've had him, we've all just fell in love with him. Tom is this big, 6'6", heavily-built, wonderful, kind-hearted man. He has been all over the world with me in the most terrible places. As a matter of fact, having the puppy with us through these terrible days was the one thing that kep t a lot of us going. Tom made elaborate plans to keep him and take him off to Miami and give h im a good life. But we always knew in our heart of hearts that if the ow ner came back, we'd have to give him back because we were just caretaker s Tom took the truck out for emergency repairs and got him all checked out and got him all his shots. Then, yesterday, we got a call from a little church in Duncanville, Texas , near Dallas, which is where Joe Torres finally ended up. We were the f irst call that he made to see if he could get his puppy back. We were all heart broken, because we had started to hope that Tom could k eep the dog. We did tell Joe that since he was in strange circumstances, we would be happy to keep the dog and make sure he has a wonderful home for the rest of his life. Then I spoke to a lovely lady named Polly, who has eight New Orleans peop le staying with her in her little church in Duncanville. She said, "I know that it's going to break Tom's hear t, but Joe has nothing else in the whole world except his puppy." She said I know he looks like a bit of a vagabond, but she said that they found him a job. Joe starts his new job and his new life in Duncanville today. So we had a little cry, Tom Baer and I Tom will drive the puppy to Dalla s and see that he gets there properly, back to his family, back to Joe. The one thing Tom said to me was, "It shows me that you need something e lse in your life other than a satellite truck."
Chief White House Correspondent David Gregory I ran into a member of the cabinet Tuesday outside the White House who wa s asking me what the administration should be doing to recover from the political crisis that has enveloped this administration since Katrina hi t In the nearly six years I have covered this President, I'm not sure I 've seen him at such a critical impasse. Tuesday we saw day one of a Whi te House trying to match the level of engagement it had after the 9/11 a ttacks. This time, however, there is no rallying around the flag. Instea d, the President is on the defensive and under pressure to fire those re sponsible for managing a crisis of this dimension. Even more frightening is the question on every American's mind: Could the government handle a massive terror strike - the kind that Vice President Cheney and others warn us about? The President raised the same point Tuesday, but at the s ame time insisted on avoiding a blame game - pointing fingers when so mu ch work is left to be done. Today, Mr Bush will convene a meeting of hi s top counter-terror officials to remind them to be vigilant at a time w hen America is exposed - and vulnerable.
Anchor & Managing Editor Returning to New Orleans after a four-day absence (which included time in the suburb of Metarie and the relief hub of Baton Rouge), the differenc e was striking. ...
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