responsibilities in the household. >> headline, dnc chairman, socialize boys. congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz, thank you all. that is all for this evening. "the rachel maddow show" begins right now. good evening, rachel. >> way to stir it up, chris. >> we got our takeaway. >> see if she ever comes back. thanks to you at home as well for staying with us for the next hour. we're going to start tonight with some breaking news. "the new york times" is reporting tonight that president obama has chosen a new director for the fbi. and if "the new york times," if their reporting on this is correct, this choice is going to be a very big, hairy, political deal. all right, the fbi became the fbi in 1935. in all of those years it has existed, in all of that time, you want to know how many people have had the job of running the fbi? six. six guys in total have ever had the job of running that agency in nearly 80 years. we've had lots and lots and lots

more presidents than that since then, but only six fbi directors, and that is mostly because j. edgar hoover was in charge of the fbi for almost 50 of those years. after j. edgar hoover was there for half a century, congress decided in its wisdom that maybe fbi directors should have term limits. so they are term limited to ten years. ten years. ten years! that's still a really long time, right? in our government, nobody has a ten-year term. that's a really long time for anybody to be in office. and, even with that incredibly and unusually long term that fbi directors can stay in office now, for the current director of the fbi, congress decided that they were going to stretch it even further than ten years for him. robert mueller was apoupointed run the fbi by president george w. bush in 2001. bob mueller took office exactly one week before 9/11 happened. but he was appointed in 2001, so the end of his ten-year term came up in 2011, and that should

have been it for him, but the obama administration and the senate decided that they would keep bob mueller on at the fbi for another couple of years, anyway. most of the reporting at the time said it was essentially because the head of the cia was leaving a to the time and the head of the pentagon was leaving a to the time and it was thought that the fbi and the cia and the military all transitioning to brand-new leadership, all at the exact same time might be a dangerous national security situation for the country. so there ended up being a unanimous vote in the senate to give bob mueller another couple of years after his ten years was up. but that is even up now. and it is time for a new director of the fbi. there's been a lot of speculation on who it might be. today, in a surprise move, "the new york times" is reporting that president obama has picked to run the fbi the guy who was at the middle of the bizarre, late-night hospital room drama that led the guy whose currently running the fbi to threaten to quit his job in protest when it happened.

this was one of the weirdest and most dramatic stories that was ever told about something that happened inside the bush administration. it was march 2004, the attorney general was john ashcroft, and as attorney general, john ashcroft is being asked to sign off on some bush administration surveillance program. he was supposed to sign off, as to whether or not he thought that program was legal. and he thought that program was not legal. and so he was not going to sign off on it. and that led to the late-night car chase, hospital-room swearing standoff that was up with of the most dramatic things ever described in a congressional hearing, on tape, ever. and this is the guy now. watch. >> this was a very memorable period in my life, probably the most difficult time in my entire professional life. and that night was probably the most difficult night of my professional life. so it's not something i forget.

>> okay. were you present when alberto gonzales visited attorney general ashcroft's bedside? >> yes. >> and am i correct that the conduct of mr. gonzalez and mr. card on that evening troubled you greatly? >> yes. >> okay. let me go back and take it from the top. you rushed to the hospital that evening, why? >> i'm only hesitating because i need to explain why. >> please. i'll give you all the time you need. >> i've thought quite a bit over the last three years as to how i would answer that question if it was ever asked, because i assumed at some point i would have to testify about it. >> james comey, then at this point in the hearing explains that he will not explain what this classified program is, that caused this standoff in the hospital room that he's about to

describe. he says he will not describe the classified program itself, because he's in an open hearing. and he will not say what his legal advice was as a deputy attorney general. bus nevertheless, even though he won't describe those two things, he is going to tell the senate and tell the country, the story of what happened on that insane night. listen. >> i remember the precise date. the program had to be renewed by march the 11th, which was a thursday of 2004. and we were engaged in a very intensive re-evaluation of the matter. and a week before that march 11th deadline, i had a private meeting with the attorney general for an hour, just the two of us, and i laid out for him what we had learned and what our analysis was of this particular matter. and at the end of this hour-long private session, he and i agreed on a course of action. and within hours, he was stricken and taken very, very ill -- >> you thought something was wrong with how it was being operated or administered or

overseen? >> yes, we had concerns, as to our ability to certify its legality, which was our obligation for the program to be renewed. the attorney general was taken that very afternoon to george washington hospital, where he went into intensive care and remained there for over a week. and i became the acting attorney general. and over the next week, particularly the following week, on tuesday, we communicated to the relevant party that the white house and elsewhere, our decision that as acting attorney general, i would not certify the program, as to its legality. and explained our reasoning in detail, which i will not go into here, nor am i confirming it's any particular program. that was tuesday that we communicated that. the next day was wednesday, march the 10th. and i had the hospital incident. and i was headed home at about 8:00 that evening. my security detail was driving me. and i remember exactly where i

was, on constitution avenue, and got a call from attorney general ashcroft's chief of staff, telling me that he had got -- >> what's his name? >> david ayers. that he had gotten a call from mrs. ashcroft, from the hospital. she had banned all visitors and all phone calls. so i hadn't seen him or talked to him, because he was very ill. and mrs. ashcroft reported that a call had come through and that as a result of that call, mr. ka card and mr. gonzalez were on their way to the hospital to see mr. ashcroft. >> do you have any idea who that call was from? >> i have some recollection that the call was from the president himself, but i don't know that for sure. it came from the white house, and it came through and the call was taken in the hospital. so i hung up the phone, immediately called my chief of staff, told him to get as many of my people as possible to the hospital immediately. i hung up, called director

mueller, and with whom i'd been discussing this particular matter, and who'd been a great help to me over that week, and told him what was happening. he said, i'll meet you at the hospital right now. told my security detail that i need to get to george washington hospital immediately. they turned on the emergency equipment and drove very quickly to the hospital. i got out of the car and ran up -- literally ran up the stairs with my security detail. >> what was your concern? you were in, obviously, a huge hurry. >> i was concerned that, given how ill i know the attorney general was, that there might be an effort to ask him to overrule me when he was in no condition to do that. >> right. okay. >> i was worried about him, frankly. so i raced to the hospital room, entered, and mrs. ashcroft was standing by the hospital bed, mr. ashcroft was lying down in the bed. the room was darkened. and i immediately began speaking to him, trying to orient him as

to time and place, and try to see if he could focus on what was happening. and it wasn't clear to me that he could. he seemed pretty bad off. >> and at that point, it was you, mrs. ashcroft, and attorney general, and maybe medical personnel in the room. no other justice department -- >> just the three of us at that point. i tried to see if i could help him get oriented. as i said, it wasn't clear that i had succeeded. i went out in the hallway, spoke to director mueller by phone. he was on his way. i handed the phone to the head of the security detail and director mueller instructed the fbi agents present not to allow me to be removed from the room under any circumstances, and i went back in the room. i was shortly joined by the head of the office of legal counsel, assistant attorney general, jack goldsmith, and a senior staffer of mine, who had worked on this matter, and associate deputy attorney general. so the three of us justice department people went in the room -- >> can you give us the names of

the two other people? >> jack goldsmith, who was the assistant attorney general and patrick philbin, who was associate deputy attorney general. i sat down in an armchair by the head of the attorney general's bed. the two other justice department people stood behind me. and mrs. ashcroft stood by the bed, holding her husband's arm. and we waited. and it was only a matter of minutes that the door opened and in walked mr. gonzalez, carrying an envelope, and mr. card, they came over and stood by the bed, greeted the attorney general very briefly, and mr. gonzalez began to discuss why they were there, to seek his approval for a matter. and explain what the matter was, which i will not do. and attorney general ashcroft then stunned me. he lifted his head off the pillow, and in very strong terms expressed his view of the

matter, rich in both substance and fact, which stunned me, drawn from the hour-long meeting we'd had a week earlier. and in very strong terms expressed himself. and then laid his head back down on the pillow, seemed spent, and said to them, but that doesn't matter, because i'm not the attorney general. >> but he expressed his reluctance or he would not sign the statement that -- give the organization that he had asked. is that right? >> yes. and as he laid back down, he said, but that doesn't matter, because i'm not the attorney general. there is the attorney general, and he pointed to me, and i was just to his left. the two men did not acknowledge me. they turned and walked from the room. >> and then they tried to say that the program was approved, even without the attorney general signing off on it. do you believe that happened? and james comey, the man you just saw testifying there, wrote his letter of resignation.

he was the counterterrorism guy, essentially, in the justice department. he'd been a counterterrorism prosecutor. that day he wrote the letter of resignation was the day of the madrid bombings. he wanted to resign anyway. he wrote his letter of resignation and prepared it, if the white house was going to go through with this. and the fbi director at the time, robert mueller, said that he, too, would resign if the white house was going to go through with this. and there was a threat that there were going to be mass resignations at the top levels of the justice department if the white house went through with this, in protest of the bush white house acting in a way that its own attorney general said was illegal. but these guys stopped it, in part with a car chase and that standoff in the hospital room. and now, today, james comey, 6'8", former terrorism prosecutor, deputy attorney general under john ashcroft, the man who sat in an armchair at the head of the bed in that hospital room where john ashcroft was laying there sick with acute pancreaticitis, who

sat there and said to the white house, no, you cannot do this, it is illegal, i will stop it, tonight "the new york times" just reported that president obama is about to pick him to run the fbi. anybody else looking forward to that confirmation hearing? we'll be right back. all stations come over to mission a for a final go. this is for real this time. step seven point two one two. verify and lock. command is locked. five seconds. three, two, one. standing by for capture. the most innovative software on the planet... dragon is captured. is connecting today's leading companies to places beyond it. siemens. answers. for every year you don't have a claim, you'll get money off your home insurance policy. put it towards... [ glass shatters ] [ girl ] dad! [ girl screams ]

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bespectacled one, is senator reid smoot. senator smooth was a republican senator from utah for 30 years, starting in 1903. standing next to senator smoot is a congressman named willis holly, a republican from oregon. and together, these two handsome devils sponsored something called the smoot/holly tariff act in 1930. it raised taxes on somethings the u.s. wanted to import. it was a big tariff signed into law by the president at the time, herbert hoover, who was also a republican. president hoover signed the smooth/holly act in 1930 and pretty much everybody agrees now in hindsight that it was a really bad idea. but it was republican president herbert hoover who sign eed smoot/holly into law. >> the recession that fdr had to deal with wasn't as bad as the recession coolidge had to deal with in the early '20s. yet, the prescription that coolidge put on that from history is lower taxes, lower

regulatory burden, and we saw the roaring '20s, where we saw markets and growth in the economy like we'd never seen before in the history of the country. fdr applied just the opposite formula. the hoot/smalley act, which was a tremendous burden on tariff restrictions. >> wait, wait, wait, what was the name of the act there and who did it? what? >> fdr applied just the opposite formula. the hoot/smalley act. >> hoot/smally. known to everybody else as smoot/holly. signed actually by hoover, but, hey, call it fdr, what the heck. in 1976, there was a swine flu epidemic in the united states. there were mass vaccination campaigns, the head of the cdc that year asked congress to fund enough swine flu vaccine to cover 80% of the population in the united states. one of the most memorable images from that epidemic was this picture of then president jerold ford himself cheer fly participating in the swine flu

vaccination program, trying to encourage everybody in the country to get their swine flu shot, because there was a swine flu epidemic. in 1976, under republican president jerold ford. >> i find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another democratic party, jimmy carter. i'm not blaming this on president obama, i just think it was an interesting question. >> it was gerald ford, actually, but whatever. this was the battle of concord in the revolutionary war, the big fight against the british. the battles of lexington and concord were fought in 1775 in the great state of massachusetts. here's michele bachmann campaigning for president in the state of new hampshire. >> you're the state where the shot was heard around the world at lexington and concord. >> lexington and concord, massachusetts. michele bachmann there, speaking

in new hampshire. on the left here, that is oscar-winning beloved american film icon, john wayne. on the right there, that is serial killer, john wayne gacy, who was convicted of killing more than 30 people throughout the 1970s in chicago. john wayne gacy, the one on the right, he's the serial killer. and he's the one from waterloo, iowa. >> what i want them to know is, just like john wayne was from waterloo, iowa, that's the kind of spirit i have too. >> there's a very important difference between john wayne gacy and john wayne, but still, you think that it might matter more to waterloo than anybody else. this is the outside wall of the former united states embassy in tehran. that lady is walking past a mural of the statue of liberty that's painted to look like a death's head. this is what the american embassy in tehran lacks like today, because it is closed and it has been for a long time. the american embassy in iran was part of that whole hostage

crisis thing that we had with iran back in the late '70s and early '80s during the iranian revolution. iranian revolutionaries storming the embassy, holding americans hostage for 444 days. we closed our embassy in tehran after that. we have not had an embassy in iran since 1980. here's michele bachmann speaking in 2011. >> you may have heard that there's a break-in at the british embassy and the british had to pull their people out. that's exactly what i would do. we wouldn't have an american embassy in iran. >> if i were president, she would close the u.s. embassy in iran! that hasn't been there since the 1970s. that's a very bold move. here's the thing. as amazing as michele bachmann is, and she is amazing, as amazing as she is to watch in american politics, she is also on the intelligence committee in congress. the intelligence committee whose job it is to oversee the cia and the military intelligence

program and a bunch of parts of our government. it is part of michele bachmann's job in congress, as a sign by the republican leadership in congress, to oversee those very sensitive parts of our government. it is easy to not just dismiss michele bachmann, but to enjoy michele bachmann as the sort of living, breathing embodiment of the crazy in american politics. it is almost a national pastime to watch michele bachmann do her thing. that's what news wee"newsweek" getting at with the infamous crazy-eyed cover story that they did on michele bachmann during the campaign. but i always feel like it's always worth keeping in mind these words from matt taibbi's "rolling stone" profile on bachmann when she was at the height of her presidential prospects. quote, you will want to laugh, but don't, because the secret of michele bachmann's success is that every time you laugh at her, she gets stronger. matt taibbi was making that argument in the context of her run for president last year. remember, she won the iowa straw poll. michele bachmann forced tim pawlenty out of the republican presidential race, by winning

that straw poll and him not getting anywhere in it. she did great at the first republican major debate. for a while, it was not inconceivable that she might do well in the long run nar republican nomination. and matt taibbi was writing that profile of her, essentially trying to say, don't laugh so hard at michele bachmann that you underestimate her effect, that you fail to notice that she's kind of popular and this might be possible. ultimately, of course, michele bachmann's presidential campaign did not go anywhere. she ended up coming in very poorly in the iowa caucuses, even though she did well in the iowa straw poll and it was sort of all over. but for all of the making fun of michele bachmann, the thing that is maybe the most important thing about her, and that is worth noting, on the day that she announced that she will no longer run for re-election in congress, that this is her last term, it's that she's more influential than she gets credit for, in her own party. and particularly, in the conservative media, which so often sets the agenda for her own party. michele bachmann may look like a

kooky also ran all the time, but she also has a way of saying things that stick. >> we heard from russia, china, south america -- or south africa, brazil, india. we've heard from a number of different countries -- >> france, georgia. >> france calling for this expansion of the international monetary fund, removing the dollar as the standard of exchange. >> michele bachmann speaking in march 2009 about this conspiracy theory she had that not only was the world going to drop the dollar as an international standard currency, but the united states was going to drop the dollar because of it. that president obama was going to abolish the dollar. very shortly after she repeated that conspiracy theory, about how we are abandoning the dollar, fox news's then white house correspondent asked president obama about it at the white house. >> is there a need for a global currency? >> i don't believe there's a need for a global currency. >> we don't need to go to a one

world currency to get rid of the dollar? no, there's not going to be a global currency, thank you for asking, fox news. there was also michele bachmann's made up from thin air assertion that the irs will now keep conservatives from going to the doctor. michele bachmann explaining on fox. >> there's a huge national database that's being created right now. your health care, my health care, all the fox viewer health care, their personal, intimate, most close to the vest secrets will be in that database. and the irs is in charge of that database. so the irs will have the ability, potentially, will they, to deny health care? to deny access, to delay health care. this is serious, based upon our political beliefs? >> the obama administration is going to block you from going to the doctor if you're a conservative. it's crazy cookville michele bachmann land, right? just a die later, look, it's spreading. >> just imagine, okay, so you go

in and you're trying to get a doctor's appointment, right? and they go, oh, we see from your tax records -- how would that possibly be possible -- we see from your tax records that you support the tea party or conservative groups, you want a doctor's visit? three weeks. you want a hip replacement? four years. >> we're not taking out the planner's work. >> because you support the tea party. michele bachmann was the one who pioneered the idea that in addition to the republican party response to the state of the union, there should also be a tea party response to the state of the union. and while that was an audacious move, you might think subverting the authority of her own party, putting herself front and center at a time when people should be looking to republicans for leadership of one kind rather than two, and it was a little crazy looking, because she wasn't looking at the camera, that didn't end up just being a michele bachmann thing. the republicans still do it. they still do an alternate address. and they have figured out how to look, at least, slightly closer

to the camera now. over here, senator! there was also michele bachmann's weird beef with the census back in 2009, when she said that her family would refuse to answer most of the questions on the census, and that if you don't also refuse to answer census questions, well, the government might round you up and put you in an internment camp. >> between 1942 and 1947, the data that was collected by the census bureau was handed over to the fbi and other organizations at the request of president roosevelt and that's how the japanese were rounded up and put into the internment camps. i'm not saying that that's what the administration is planning to do, but i am saying that private, personal information that was given to the census bureau in the 1940s was used against americans to round them up, in a violation of their constitutional -- >> yeah, but we've had a lot of good years since then. >> filling out the census will

eventually lead to the government putting you in internment camps. so it's a census year, but what are you going to do, america? that's michele bachmann world. kind of crazy, right? except that republicans have now introduced legislation to drastically limit the census bureau from collecting a lot of the information nah it collects to figure out things like the unemployment rate and stuff like that. this is actual legislation that republicans have now introduced in the united states congress. michele bachmann, over the course of her career in congress, has been like an exploratory probe to find the edge of the possible in republican party politics. she goes out there, she finds the end of the atmosphere, and she knows that you'll think that what she says is kooky and bordering on just plain nutty, but it doesn't hurt her when she says the census bureau is going to put americans in an internment camp, or when she says the irs is going to distribute health care on the basis of political ideology for

patients. she knows that it doesn't hurt her. of all the republican members of congress, she's number four in terms of campaign cash. pretty good for somebody who doesn't even run a subcommittee. she has a huge fan base out there. and the more she is made fun of, the more money she has been able to raise. and even though it seems like she is constantly failing or making a fool out of herself, what she's actually been doing all of this time is clearing ideological space behind her for other, less-kooky-seeming republicans to come along and take the same stands that she takes without the winky, winky eyes. and maybe they're not sayi inin these things in exactly as strange and factually incorrect and mispronounced ways that she is saying them, but in a lot of cases, they're making the same points. and that says more about the party and it says more about republican politics and the rewards of conservative rhetoric today than it does about michele bachmann as an individual. as of today, we know that she is going to be gone from the congress. but all of those other dynamics are still there. joining us now is frank rich, "new york" magazine writer at

large. his column is called "ancient gay history." thanks very much for being here. >> delighted to be here, as always. >> i have never talked about michele bachmann very much on this show, when she was running for president, we covered here as a presidential candidate, but when she does weird stuff on fox and in congress, we haven't much talked about her. now that she's leaving, i feel like i can find trails of her influence throughout the republican party, and a lot of really mainstream places. >> well, that's exactly right. i think what we have to remember is that there's a radical right contingent in the republican party, started to ascend, and she's an example of, of course, sarah palin is another one, with the rise of obama. they're lit by right-wing ideology dating back to the '60s and the john birch society and the goldwater movement, also, huge obama hatred. and that really is the base of the party. and i think in the aftermath of the defeat last year, they're happy to see someone like bachmann go, who sort of gives away the game too much and says,

as you said, with crazy facts and stuff that's sort of silly and kooky, it gives away that ideology, so now they have slicker people, even rand paul, who's a real rising star in that party, his views are pretty similar, but she's slicker, he's more, you know, well-spoken, somewhat -- anyone would be better spoken than michele bachmann. >> yes. and you know, mario rubio, marco rubio, who is fundamentally a tea party guy, but smooths out the edges, says that he's sort of a moderate on immigration. then you have someone like ted cruz, who's sort of a harvard-educated, smarter version of exactly her views. but that is the basis -- that is a radical party that we're dealing with now. >> do you think that somebody like a ted cruz or a marco rubio or a rand paul can perform the same function that she does, which is to test the boundaries, to see how far you can get out there? i almost feel like -- i said

exploratory probes. i think that's maybe the right metaphor. it's almost like she's a heat shield. there's nothing that can hurt her. her political career itself is somewhat disposable. but she goes forward as a test case to see how far others can push safely. can senators and other people who have more credibility than she has, not push as hard as she could? >> i think so, but i think, first of all, anyone who's running for president is smart enough in that party not to push, at least in public, until someone catches them in a phrasing, small dinner or something, not to say this stuff in public. i think people who don't have those national aspirations, the next michele bachmann, alan west, whoever -- they'll surface, and they will keep pushing it. for one thing, it's a huge magnet for raising money. as you said, look how much money she raised. she's someone who seems like a flake in real terms, but, you know, there's dollars in those hills, and a lot of it from fat cats and people like the koch brothers. >> does -- what i think about

the louie gohmert, steve king, michele bachmann, that of wing of house republicans, to me, that's very -- and alan west, i would put there too, before he's gone. to me, that is sort of the entertainment wing -- and i don't mean this in a devicive way, but there's a lot of crossover between sort of one-liner stand-up style comedy, very entertaining politics that i think does raise at of money, that does get people to their feet at speeches, that can actually function very well at debates and sometimes at presidential-style campaign events. is there always a need for people who can do that in conservative politics? and how come democrats don't have a cadre like that? >> you would think the democrats, wasn't al franken supposed to be that, but he turned out to be -- >> the driest senator in the world. >> and given the ties between the entertainment industry and liberalism in the democratic party, but democrats somehow just don't seem to produce them. and republicans do.

>> anthony weiner was close for a while there, before the immolation. >> but even he wasn't a lot of laughs, until he went off the deep end, and then it was -- >> not laughing with. >> exactly, exactly. >> but the truth is, it's strange. when there has been kind of whit in the democratic party, it's been very dry. jack kennedy, eugene mccarthy. and not a lot lately. i mean, obama can be amusing, but it's not this kind of firebrand, surefire entertainment, stand-up comedy club type of shtick. >> alan gracen needs to get like a zillion-dollar pac where legrows people who will say stuff. >> he was the closest, was even he wasn't as sharp. michele bachmann, as uninformed as she was, she was a really good performer when she figured out how to look at the camera. always a plus. >> if she ever forms a hoot/smally pac, i might have to

break nbc rules and contribute. frank rich, it's always great to have you here. thanks a lot. appreciate it. lots more to come tonight, including some groundbreaking news out of colorado from the never thought i'd live to see the day file. and also, chart imitates life. it's all coming up, stay with us. bayer back & body are proven to be effective pain relievers tylenol works by blocking pain signals to your brain bayer back & body's dual action formula includes aspirin, which blocks pain at the site. try the power of bayer back & body. it's delicious. so now we've turned her toffee into a business. my goal was to take an idea and make it happen. i'm janet long and i formed my toffee company through legalzoom. i never really thought i would make money doing what i love. [ robert ] we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. go to legalzoom.com today and make your business dream a reality. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side.

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we have some more breaking news to report tonight. law enforcement officials are telling nbc news tonight that two anonymous letters sent to new york city mayor michael bloomberg and the group mayors against illegal guns that he heads up have preliminary tested positive for ricin. both of letters, we're told, originated in louisiana. one of them was received and

opened in new york city on was, d.c., at the headquarters of mayors against illegal guns. law enforcement officials are telling us that the letters were identical in nature,cohaained t mayor's support for gun control legislation. but the bottom line, breaking news, law enforcement officials are telling nbc news that two letters have preliminary tested positive for ricin, sent to mayor bloomberg and mayors against illegal guns. further testing on those letters is underway. we're told that the fbi joint terrorism task force and the nypd are investigating these threats. we will have more on this story as it develops. ♪

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rules. and the same goes for pot. not everywhere, not even in most places, but as of today, officially, in the state of colorado, we now know the rules that that state is setting up to regulate the legal use of marijuana by colorado residents. in november, colorado along with washington state, passed a statewide ballot measure to legalize pot, to amendment the state constitution, to allow nor the regulation of pot to be more like alcohol and less like what it is everywhere, an illegal drug that can send you to prison if you get caught using or selling it. the colorado measure passed by more ten points, and even though the state's democratic governor did not support the measure, it did pass by a lot, and now governor hickenlooper has signed into law the legal framework for how colorado wants to handle legal pot smoking in that state. thooe here's the basics. first, you have to be 21 years old. colorado residents over age 21 will legally be allowed to

possess up to an ounce of pot. if you want to sell pot, you will have to be licensed by the state. sellers have to verify that a person they're selling to is a colorado resident. if the person they're selling to is not a colorado resident, you can still sell to them, but you're limited in how much you can sell. you can only sell them a quarter ounce of pot. pot sellers have to allow the state to lab test the product that they are selling. no, you cannot sell pot brownies or other pot-infused food alongside other normal food in your restaurant. and if you do sell pot-infused food, it has to be to go and not for here, for some reason. no business selling pot can be within a thousand feet of schools or drug treatment centers or child care facilities. there's going to be a new state limit for thc in your system, the active ingredient in pot. the new state limit for that in your system, for assessing whether or not you are driving while stoned. and that standard will coexist alongside the blood alcohol level that's used to assess whether you are driving while drunk. pot will come in containers that are child resistant and the

labels have to tell you how potent that pot is. also, this is kind of a weird one, magazines that are about the pleasures and wonders of smoking pot, magazines like "high times" or whatever, they will now have to be kept behind the counter and out of sight, the way that porn is. and that thing about the magazines is, honestly, kind of weird, but a lot of states have weird laws about booze too. it's kind of a nature of the beast. in utah, bartenders have to pour cocktails behind a curtain. people are weird about prohibition stuff. but the big kahuna of all of this in colorado is the tax issue. if pot is going to be legal in colorado, then pot, like alcohol, like cigarettes, like lots of the things that the state doesn't necessarily endorse you using, but recognizes that you can, marijuana as a legal product in colorado is going to be taxed up the wazoo. the normal colorado state also tax is 2.9%, but the plan in colorado now is that the sales of pot in the state are not going to be taxed at 2.9%, they're going to be taxed at a

10% sales tax, and on top of that 10% sales tax, they're also going to add, or they want to add, at least, a 15% excise tax on top of the sales tax. and on top of that, local cities and towns can then decide if they want to add their own taxes on as well. so it's going to raise a lot of money. the first $40 million in revenue raised on pot in colorado is slated to pay for school construction. that was in the ballot measure that everybody voted for in november. beyond that, the revenue is also slated to pay for enforcing these new pot regulations and for new educational efforts to let kids know that smoking spot makes you boring. presumably, the educational effort from the state will be a little more broad than that, but maybe that is where they will start. the idea of regulating and taxing marijuana the way we do for alcohol has been a hypothetical discussion for so long now, that it's almost hard to believe that it is coming true. but it is coming true in colorado, with one major caveat. pot is still illegal federally.

no matter what happens in that state or any state. look, there it is, in the controlled substances act in federal law. it's actually listed right between lsd and mescalin. and marijuana has been listed so long, they spell it with an "h" instead of a "j." colorado is moving the ahead with the practice of treating pot as a legal drug like alcohol. colorado is going ahead, but as you can see, the federal government is not going ahead. so what happens next here? reguy with an irregular heartbeat. the usual, bob? not today. [ male announcer ] bob has afib: atrial fibrillation not caused by a heart valve problem, a condition that puts him at greater risk for a stroke. [ gps ] turn left. i don't think so. [ male announcer ] for years, bob took warfarin, and made a monthly trip to the clinic to get his blood tested. but not anymore. bob's doctor recommended a different option: once-a-day xarelto®. xarelto® is the first and only

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colorado governor john hickenlooper signing into law his state's new rules and regulations governing the legal sale of marijuana in the state of colorado. joining us now for the interview is neil franklin. he served as a narcotics officer with the maryland state police and is commander of training for the baltimore police department. he's now executive director of law enforcement against prohibition. thank you very much for being here. it's nice to have you with us. >> hey, rachel. it's great to be back. >> so this has been a hypothetical for so long. states treating marijuana, basically, more like alcohol than like a scheduled one drug. how do you think colorado has done in drafting these regulations? >> i think they've done a wonderful job. the people of colorado have done

a wonderful job. the pateam that was put in plac to craft these regulations have done a wonderful job. now the governor has done a wonderful job, moving this policy forward. it's a great day. >> if everything proceeds as expected, people can start to seek licenses to sell pot in october, people can be open for business in january. individual towns and cities in colorado can on tpt out. you can decide in your town, there can be no legal places to purchase marijuana. what do you think is going to happen first? there is a question of what's going to happen with the federal government? but if they're allowed to proceed, how do you think this is going to change crime and safety and drug use in the state? >> well, you ask a number of things there, and this is going to be very similar to alcohol. you're going to see different policies in different communities. and they have the option to do that. from a public safety perspective, this is really what's needed. we, the police, need to get back to violent crime. we need to get back to focusing on violent crime.

it's a great day that we're not out there chasing marijuana users in colorado and the state of washington. thousands or fewer arrests and more focus on those people who are committing the robberies, the rapes, the murders, the burglaries, and that's where we should be. this is a great opportunity for the police to get back in touch with the community. >> what do you make of the argument that marijuana is a gateway drug? that it may be something that doesn't itself cause much more harm in people's life than alcohol does, which can be misused in its own ways, but it leads people into harder drugs that really have no role in our society and that we should be more tougher on, i guess, by prohibiting marijuana as well. >> there are no valid studies that indicate such. as a matter of fact, it is the environment that is the gateway into the things that cause us problems in society. so it's the environment of the drug dealer on the corner.

now, with these policies of legalization for marijuana, that environment will go away for those who choose to use marijuana. >> in terms of the federal government here, obviously, your role as an advocate, not just as a police veteran, you've been advocating on these issues for a long time, what do you think the federal government is going to do in terms of whether or not colorado is going to be allowed to go ahead with this experiment? >> personally, i think they'll be allowed to go forward. i think this is a wonderful opportunity for the obama administration, the department of justice. it's an opportunity for them to do what they said they're going to do. they want more of a health-centered focus on our drug policies in this country. so this is a great consult. they've said, we can't arrest our way out of this problem. and if you're not going to arrest your way out of this problem, there's only one way to go. and that's legalization. so it's an excellent opportunity for them. we have, you know, colorado and washington state, two states for experimentation, to see how it's

going to go. and if they follow the alcohol models we have across the country, it's going to be a great success. not that alcohol is, uh better than prohibition. >> neil franken, thank you very much for your time tonight. >> thanks, rachel. >> we'll be right back. stay with us . the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need. siemens. answers.

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obama care. in public opinion about health reform, both parties think they have the upper hand. so it is therefore weird that the facts about what americans actually think about health reform are so poorly understand. the majority of americans still oppose the nation's new health care measure. 54% of those questioned say they oppose it. 54% opposed. in the red there, we have the graph, and 43 -- 54% opposed, 43% more obama care. so clearly, most americans hate obama care. this is the headline out of the cnn poll. but if you were willing to commit long enough to read past the lead, you might want to tweak that headline. in what sense are people opposed to health reform? of that 54% opposed, 35% are legitimately against it. they think it's too liberal. but the other 16% say the reason they're against it is because it doesn't go far enough. they want a more liberal policy. this is what public opinion actually looks like on obama care. 43% flat-out support it, in blue. the red is the minority who oppose it, because they think it's too liberal. but the green is folks who want

even more. so if when you read the headlines and you think that everybody's against it, it wouldn't be wrong, because that is what the headline said. but the headlines, themselves, are wrong. the real results are more like this. that does it for us. time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." have a great night. the tea party is at a cross roads in the house of representatives because today their not so fearless leader decided to surrender. >> tea party champion, conservative congresswoman, michele bachmann. >> tea party darling michele bachmann. >> won't run for re-election next year. >> what? >> michele bachmann is out. >> she will not seek a fifth term in office.