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Saturday's Rundown

Despite the talk here at home about trying to provide security to the people of Iraq... there was more violence in that country today.  President Bush is facing some big decisions about the war in the coming week.  He's under pressure to change strategy in Iraq.  But what course will he take? NBC's Jim Maceda and NBC's Kevin Corke have our reports.

Also tonight, the story of a young American on the front lines in Iraq... he tells us what it's like "In His Own Words."

NBC's John Larson has the sad story of the Oregon family stranded in the wilderness... and why years ago someone else was stranded in just about the same place.

NBC's Natalie Morales reports tonight on a new movie coming out about diamonds... and the message it's sending to people who buy and sell the gems.

It's all coming up tonight.  We hope you'll join us.

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THE WEEK THAT WAS, UNLESS IT WASN'T

It is so hard to predict what will become of the paperback document (and the nine months of work by 10 public servants that went into it) and tonight we'll look back on the week and try to look forward to what might come next. Given the seemingly insatiable desire among some in Washington to reflexively attack anything new -- insisting on finding party lines to define it -- the odds might be longer than some might think.

Also tonight, and in no particular order: Taco Bell, hand grenades, jobs, housing, and foul shots. The latter refers to our Friday night "Making a Difference" segment. And, as Andrea Mitchell has done so beautifully on this blog today, we'll remember Jeane Kirkpatrick.

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Cowed by Kirkpatrick

Jeane Kirkpatrick was remarkable, an Iron Lady of U.S. diplomacy who took no prisoners. I should know: I was dumb enough to challenge her - clumsily - during a live interview 22 years ago and I barely survived the encounter. At the time, Kirkpatrick was the Reagan administration's uncompromising United Nations ambassador and, among other things, a fierce defender of the Contra war in Central America. I was co-anchoring an NBC prime time news magazine show with Linda Ellerbee, a program that was memorable only for occasional moments of unintentional hilarity. During a live interview in the summer of 1984, I asked Kirkpatrick to react to a report from Fred Francis, our correspondent in the field, who had evidence that the CIA was secretly mining the Nicaraguan harbor. In what was clearly intended as a "gotcha" moment, I played Fred's report and asked Kirkpatrick to respond. Instead, she sat across from me, studying her nails and swiveling in her chair, saying nothing. Clearly flustered, I repeated the question. All I got was stony silence from the ambassador. Finally, I pressed her again to answer. That's when she put me away by saying, "I don't respond to lies."

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Early Nightly is up

Brian anchors tonight from New York to close the week. The lead story is up in the air at this hour, as he explains in today's vlog.

Click here or on the image to watch.

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Hoops of Hope

I first heard about Austin Gutwein from a friend of mine, John Yeager, a fine reporter who put down his reporter's notebook a few years back, and now works for World Vision, the worldwide relief organization in Washington State. I called John looking for story ideas and he said, "You've got to meet this kid, he's like Buddha."

He was right, as you'll see in tonight's "Making a Difference" report on Nightly News.

It is easy to like Austin; he is a fun loving and easy going 12-year-old kid. He also is a bit unsettling -- unlike most 12-year-olds, he seems to not only know where he's going, but how to get there and have fun in the process. His father Dan, a salesman for Intel, says that Austin started showing an unusual sensitivity for others at a young age. "The first thing I remember was when he was six, and he heard about a program for the homeless," says Dan.

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The day after

Back from Washington and tonight we'll examine the ramifications and reverberations from yesterday's Iraq Study Group findings. Our reporting will come from David Gregory, Jim Miklaszewski and Dawna Friesen. Jane Arraf will report from the streets of Baghdad. There's an interesting update on the spy story in London (are we all going to end up involved in this in some fashion before this is over?), and Dr. Nancy Snyderman will have an important report on the intersection of autism... and legislation.

THE AFTERGLOW/THE AFTERMATH
Last night before leaving our studios on Capitol Hill in Washington, I literally ran into retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and retired Sen. Chuck Robb. Like many ISG members, they were on a media tour of sorts. We had a very pleasant conversation. I told them I had interviewed the ISG creator Frank Wolf, R-Va., and they explained they'd been unable to find him to ask him how he felt about how it all went. As she did at the news conference, Justice O'Connor said to me, "It really is up to you people (in the media) to take this before the public so the people will pay attention." I told them both that all three broadcast networks had carried the event live, and would anchor from Washington last night, and I related the non-stop cable coverage all day yesterday.

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Early Nightly is up

Brian anchors the broadcast from New York tonight, but David Gregory brings you today's early view of the stories we're working on. Click here or on the image to watch.

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Read all about it!

The Iraq Study Group's book is a slim volume: 142 pages, only 96 if you ignore the appendices. The paperback version could easily slip into a Christmas stocking. We were all surprised to see how small it was. 

Take a gander at the picture on the left. At the far left, the smallest volume, that's the Iraq Study Group book; it's about a half inch thick. Next: the report of the 9/11 Commission. It's 1.5 inches thick. (And, yes, we remember it was nominated for a National Book Award.) Third from the left, the Tower Commission Report on Iran Contra: two volumes totaling two inches. What about the Clinton investigation? When you add up the Starr Report and the Committee on the Judiciary's report, we're talking nine inches of prose. (And you can't even read parts of it aloud at a family gathering.)

Photo caption: Four recent commission reports from the NBC News Washington library. Photo by Daily Nightly editor Rob Merrill.

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Here on the Hill

I am just back from spending some time with Secretary Baker and Congressman Hamilton. On days like this, at events like this, the networks draw lots for major interviews. The last time we did this was to interview Congresswoman Pelosi, the day after the election. Today, NBC was fourth in the order -- a place in the batting order which really amounted to a chance to see some colleagues. Charlie Gibson was exiting the Hart Senate Office building as we drove up. Then I saw Brit Hume, who had just finished his interview. Anderson Cooper next, as he was walking out. Katie and I waited in a holding room, and she followed our interview slot. Luckily, we all get along very well (of the group, I've spent the most time and flown the most miles with Brit, who covered the Clinton White House for ABC while I covered for NBC). As quarters are close, we go to so many of the same events, and we all see each other often.

I came away very pleased with our conversation with Messrs. Baker and Hamilton. I found their answers (as I did watching the press conference earlier) very candid and quite emotional. Speaking only as a citizen, it is so pleasing to see our very best public servants -- true patriots who have already given so much for their country -- come together and answer the call for what they see as the common good. The alliance between Presidents Bush (41) and Clinton is a wonderful example, as is the friendship forged between former rivals Ford and Carter. I think a huge percentage of the American people crave this kind of cooperation -- and today was a stark example of it.

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Studying the study group

Convening a bipartisan "study" group is the oldest trick in the Washington playbook, but that doesn't mean it's a bad thing. Most recently, the 9/11 Commission helped us find our way out of the paralysis resulting from the attack on our homeland. Two decades earlier, the Tower Report rescued Ronald Reagan from the Iran-Contra mess. In 1968, the Kerner Commission helped Lyndon Johnson find solutions to the race riots inflaming America's cities. Less successfully, the Warren Commission tried - and failed - in 1964 to bring the nation together behind a single theory of the assassination of John F. Kennedy a year earlier. And FDR used the Roberts Commission to investigate America's failure to prevent the attack at Pearl Harbor.

Watching today's news conference, and reading this report, I wondered whether this would in fact be one of those special moments of conciliation, whether today's blunt prescription could bridge the partisan divide between both parties in Congress and the White House. Certainly that's the obvious yearning of most voters in the midterm elections.

Contrary to selective leaks, the report is very detailed. The staff work was done primarily by the U.S. Institute of Peace, one of the lesser known but more effective Washington think tanks.

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