CNN NEWSNIGHT WITH AARON BROWN (11-14-02)

AARON BROWN: We're about to be joined from Los Angeles by the always interesting syndicated columnist Arianna Huffington, who along with some friends and colleagues is about to make a pair of TV commercials, more like public service spots, denouncing what she and her partners believe is one of the great menaces currently facing the country.

You've all heard the three initials Miss Huffington believes should strike fear in our hearts. That's right, three initials: SUV. Really? We're always glad when she joins us. Nice to you have with us tonight.

OK. Make your argument. Actually, you did this in a column the other day that's basically they use so much gas that it finances the people who finance the people who do the terrorism, right?

ARIANNA HUFFINGTON, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: Well, actually, the idea came to me after I've been watching all the ads the Bush administration has on the air, the drug war ads that actually link taking drugs to financing terrorism.

So I thought if this is legitimate logic when it comes to drug war, what about turning the tables on the administration and ask them to answer the question, then why isn't it putting the kind of money that we put into our cars and the gas that they consume supporting terrorism since clearly there is a link between the amount of money we give to countries like Saudi Arabia and indeed Iraq and the kind of terrorism that they support?

BROWN: I was thinking that the script from one of the ads today. In fact, it is a parity, pretty much of the drug ads, which I'm not sure people believe or not.

HUFFINGTON: Well, I don't believe the drug ad myself. Because consuming drugs is an addiction. It takes tremendous determination to get rid of the habit.

But driving SUVs is a lifestyle choice. If we are at war, if indeed we are being called to be patriotic, isn't this one of the most patriotic things we can do immediately at our disposal? You know, it's quite amazing, but when I gave up my SUV, which I was driving up until a year ago and started driving a hybrid car, a little Prius, a Toyota Prius, my life didn't change.

But I went from driving car consuming 13 miles per gallon to driving a car consuming 52 miles per gallon. My kids, 11 and 13 are perfectly content to be driven in a Prius rather than an SUV.

BROWN: The -- and you raise this in the column too -- the underlying issue here is a pretty complicated one. We are in perhaps the most important war of our lifetime. The stakes are high, thousands of Americans have died, thousands of others are overseas defending freedom and that the country itself has not been asked to sacrifice anything.

HUFFINGTON: Exactly. That is really at the heart of what we are trying to say. In the second world war, we are constantly being asked to sacrifice. In fact, we could not consume more than three gallons per week, which is about what it takes to go to Starbucks as few times in an SUV.

Now we're being asked to shop, we're being asked to lead normal life but we're not being asked to do anything for the war effort yet we're being constantly told that we are at at war.

And you know what is amazing Aaron? People are ready to sacrifice. I mean, this response to this column, and it starts as a rhetorical question saying, Are we willing to pay for an ad campaign to jolt our leaders into reality? And the response was overwhelming. We got thousands of e-mails. We got thousands of little checks from $10, $20, enough to finance those ads at cost. And if anybody wants to contribute, they can go to my Web site, arrianaonline.com and contribute $5, $10. It's a people's ad campaign and it proves once again that the people are ready to be involved in this war effort in a more real way than simply shopping.

BROWN: Just -- we got literally about 20 seconds left.

Do you really expect that people will give up their SUVs or would you at least be happy if they thought about both the specific issue of how much their car uses and the broad issue of sacrifice?

HUFFINGTON: We want both people to give up their SUVs and we want car makers to put on hybrid SUVs on the road and we want our leaders to think seriously about energy conservation and raising fuel efficiency standards.

BROWN: Arriana, yet again, provocative ideas. Thank you and thanks for joining us.

HUFFINGTON: Thank you.

BROWN: Very much.