for your unique insights into this subject. that will do it for this tuesday edition of "countdown." i'm lawrence o'donnell in for keith olbermann. our msnbc coverage continues now with "the rachel maddow show." good evening, rachel. >> good evening, lawrence. tonight the republican party tries some novel strategies to score political points on the issue of health reform. even as their opposition of the bill fails to stop it from becoming law. governor ed rendell of pennsylvania and senator amy klobuchar of minnesota join us. the congressman who admits to screaming "baby killer" on the floor of the house apologizes for having done it and immediately tries to fund raise off the fact that he did it. another texas congressman proposes ending your right to vote for your united states senate. senator scott brown's best available fund-raising weapon turns out to be a big surprise. apparently senator scott brown

best available fund-raising weapon, um, is me. he is trying to raise money using me. that very strange story tonight will make me a guest on my own show for the first time ever. that is all coming up. we begin with an historic day in washington. today president barack obama did what generations of presidents before him only dreamed of doing. he put his pen to legislation which officially made health reform the law of the land. mr. obama joined by a huge audience of democratic members of congress and a celebratory ceremony marking a year's worth of legislative wrangling and a century's worth of aspiration finally coming true. vice president joe biden allowed his excitement to show when he swore a little too close to an open microphone while congratulating the president on the enormity of this accomplishment. that was what was going on above

the surface in politics today. hugely consequential legislative win, an accomplishment that would be part of the paragraph 1 definition of barack obama's presidency no matter what else he does in this term or a potential second term that is the huge news going on above the surface visibly in american politics right now. what is going on below the surface in american politics is something very different. last night on this show, we reported on three separate incidents across the country in which it seems people opposed to health reform abandoned the debate and decided to express their opposition to health reform through violence and intimidation. we described last night incidents at two democratically elected official offices in new york state and one in arizona. all three were attacked over the weekend. today we are updating our reporting on what is turning out to be a much more serious story. it wasn't just the three incidents we described last night. it was more. here's what we know.

sometime on friday a brick was thrown through a window after louise slaughter's district office in niagara falls, new york. also, late on friday or early saturday another brick was thrown through a window at the sedgwick county democratic party office in wichita, kansas. that brick was reported to have anti-obama and anti-health reform messages on it. a day later on saturday or early sunday, another brick shattered glass doors at the democratic party headquarters in rochester, new york. shortly after the health reform vote on sunday a fifth rock was a fist-sized rock was reportedly thrown through the hamilton democratic party in pleasant ridge, ohio. a few hours after the health care vote, the front door and front panel were smashed out of gabrielle gifford's office in tucson, arizona.

compiling all those, niagara falls, new york, rochester, pleasant, ohio, wichita, kansas, and arizona, five separate attacks on democratic party offices in the span of four days. since the initial reports we have learned that the fbi is now investigating threats reportedly left at congresswoman louise slaughter's campaign office. a recorded message threatening to assassinate the children of lawmakers who voted yes on health reform. the fbi now reportedly investigating that reported death threat against louise slaughter's children. we can show you what was used to smash out the door in rochester, new york. the brick had a note wrapped around it. it reads extremism in defense of liberty is no device. presuming they meant extremism, not "exremism,"

quoting conservative u.s. senator barry goldwater when he accepted the nomination for president in 1964. in last night's report on this show on some of those incidents we said that nobody yet had taken responsibility for any of those incidents. that is the one thing i said in reporting on this i would have most guessed wouldn't change over 24 hours. well, that's changed. "the rochester democrat and chronicle" nub reporting after their initial story on the attack on the monroe county office somebody did contact the newspaper to happily claim credit for that incident. his name is mike vanderboegh, the former leader of a group called the alabama constitutional militia. he has been advocating specifically that people throw bricks through the windows of democratic party headquarters all over the country and he wants credit when anyone follows his advice. on his blog last week he wrote an anti-democrat manifesto. that included this call to action --

we can break their windows before we have to resort to rifles to resist their well-intentioned tyranny. these windows are not far away from where you are right now in virtually every city and county there is a local headquarters of pelosi's party. the democrat party. these headquarters invariably have winds, so if you wish to send a message that pelosi and her party cannot hear, break their windows, break them now, and run, break then again in broad daylight, break them in aregs in willful principled disobedience. break them with rocks, break them with slingshots, break them with baseball bats, but break them. the time has come to take your life and liberty and that of your children and grandchildren into your own two hands and act. it is more humane than shooting them in self-defense. if we do a proper job, break the windows of hundreds of thousands of democrat party headquarters across the country we might wake up enough of them to make defending ourselves at the muzzle of a rifle unnecessary. break their windows, break them

now. he made this solicitation from pinsen, alabama, a suburb of birmingham, alabama, where he resides and expounds online about the federal government's secret plot to assert control over your life and kill you. it's worth noting he is an ex-militia guy anti-government enough to call for this type of crime and physical intimidation. targeting politicians. he is anti-government enough to promote this sort of thing and claim credit for it. he is not so anti-government that he is turning down the social security disability insurance checks that the montgomery advertiser reports that he lives on. maybe he could throw a rock through his government check and see how that goes over at the bank. mr. vanderboegh's action led by his belief he leads millions of people who think the same things he does. >> we are 3% of american gun owners. that is the muzzles of 3 million

rifles who can be if required pointed directly at the hearts of anyone who wants to be a tyrant in this country. >> define "tyrant," mister. from his vantage point in alabama, he is also calling on like-minded antigovernment people prepare themselves for a new civil war. >> folks, you need to be getting ready. you need to be forming neighborhood defense organizations. you need to be looking to your larders. you need to be looking to your arsenals. you need to be looking to your physical fitness. you need to be looking toward your neighbors and who can you count on, and how do you build small fire teams and things like that. these are the things you must be doing now because events will overtake you if you do not. >> while claiming credit for the recent attacks on democratic

offices around the country, mr. vanderboegh offered this not very veiled threat today during a radio interview. >> there are rifles being cleaned right now. do you folks understand this? >> being what? claimed from where? >> there are rifles being taken out of the closet and cleaned. >> organized attacks on democratic offices across the country are crimes designed to intimidate political actors into changing their policies. that is pretty close to the legal definition of domestic terrorism. mr. vanderboegh is comfortable with that. he wants this attention quite desperately. he obviously can't claim credit for bricks that flew or threats made before he made his blog post. who knows if he is just tooting his horn to get famous, but it should be noted he is tied into an organized movement. he is a featured speaker at a forthcoming event, the restore the constitution open carry rally. this is a gun rights rally scheduled for april 19th at ft. hunter national park in virginia.

why ft. hunter national park, according to the rally's organizers, they believe that is the closest location to washington, d.c. in which they can legally openly carry their firearms. again, what these people are doing is very explicit. they are trying to get publicity. they admit they are just trying to get media attention. the other goal is to try to intimidate the political process in this country. it's a means of intimidating our national politics and their fellow citizens along the way. this has been a consistent thread through the past year. this tea party sign we kept seeing. we came unarmed this time. remember the people showing up at politics events last year with guns strapped to their side? you might remember the guy in new hampshire, who showed up at one of president obama's town hall events brandishing a nine millimeter

pistol and the t-shirt with the sign with the quote on it about replenishing the tree of liberty with blood. this gun fervor we've seen, this effort to intimidate through the show of force carried on this past weekend in the lead-up to the big health reform vote. this sign showed up at the capitol dome, warning, if brown can't stop it a browning can. the armed and dangerous theme isn't just in the streets and the protests. it is now the vernacular now by which mainstream conservative politicians address their followers. sarah palin tweeted today commonsense conservatives and lovers of america don't retreat and instead reload. please see my facebook page. what she was directing people to on her facebook page was this message from her political action committee -- 20 districts she is targeting with rifle scope images over each of them. one other thing to note about

what is going on at the edge of politics and why this is a big deal. show your guns rally on april 19th, where the throw your bricks through the window of democratic party headquarters guy is going to be speaking, a listed speaker at that event. it is symbolic in its timing. april 19th isn't just some convenient date for these folks to get together. it is not a random monday in april. we mentioned before that mike vanderboegh is a former militia leader of the alabama constitutional militia back in the ' 0s, a heyday for the militia movement, gun rights movement in the country. april 19th is like christmas day for the militia movement. overshadowing it was the first day of the american revolution, the battle of lexington and concord, it is the anniversary of the branch davidian siege in waco, texas, in 1993 which these groups see

as a call to arms against the american government. it is not a coincidence that april 19th is the day timothy mcveigh deliberately chose for his bombing of the murrah federal building in oklahoma city. april 19th, that is when the guest speaker is throw bricks through political office windows guy at the bring your guns to washington rally. we'll be right back. ( whistling ) ( sniffing ) missing something? now at sears optical, get 2 pairs of glasses for $99.99.

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this is what it looks like when a state attorney general gets famous. at least this is one way to be famous as a state attorney general. you are looking at protesters at virginia's george mason university. they are protesting their state attorney general ken cuccinelli who was speaking at an event at george mason inside. when virginia's new governor was elected in november, the party treated him as a candidate with hope for the future with instant national stature. who could appeal to moderates not anything he did or stood for but he looks very moderate or something.

since taken office in january, governor mcdonnell and his attorney general have worked hand in hand to drag virginia back, back, back out of the 21st century. between them, they have rolled back protections against discrimination against state workers. the attorney general has tried to force colleges and universities to drop anti-discrimination policies and same-sex workers could not get health benefits in virginia. and now they are teaming up to kill health reform for rest of virginians. mr. couch necessarily -- cuccinelli seems to be intent in getting famous over these activities. mr. cuccinelli is filing his own lawsuit for which he has sought and received lots and lots of press attention, and doing this with the full backing of, guess who, the partner in turning back time, governor bob mcdonnell. the relationship between an attorney general and the

governor is fascinating. it is sometimes funny, sometime prickly, sometimes fascinating, it is fascinating between ed rendell and his state's attorney general tom corbett. get this. mr. corbett, the pennsylvania attorney general signed pennsylvania on to that multistate lawsuit against health reform even though the governor of pennsylvania mr. rendell, is totally opposed to what mr. corbett is doing. must make for interesting cabinet meetings. joining us is pennsylvania governor ed rendell. nice to see you. >> hi, rachel. i was listening to your story and happened to be on another network when the vote was being taken. the governor's residence was bombarded with calls attacking me for supporting the health care bill, bitching because i was smiling as the bill passed, and suggesting that i perform some obscene acts on myself and others.

it was a very -- the trooper on duty had an interesting night. it is shocking what is going on. tom corbett is independently elected. let me start out by saying i like tom corbett. we have had a good working relationship. he is a good lawyer and too good of a lawyer to have filed this suit. any good lawyer knows the federal supremacy clause dominates here. we don't have separate passports. each state doesn't have separate passport or immigration laws. there are some things the federal government has the absolute power to do. this is one of them. this is a waste of taxpayers money and done for political purposes. as i said, tom corbett is too good of a lawyer to have joined this suit. >> when you say he is doing it for political purposes. he is running for the republican nomination for governor. do you think this is about the primary fight to run for governor? >> he doesn't have a major primary opponent.

there's a very active state representative running against him, but he has no money. tom is a slam dunk to be the republican nominee, and frankly, at this stage, probably the favorite to become the next governor. he's always been a fairly moderate person in his approach to things. again, he is too good a lawyer to file this suit. i will tell you that i think this tactic that the republicans are taking, filing the suits, people promising, former congressmen toome said he vowed to repeal the health care reform act. as you said i think last night, they would have to pick up 113 seats to have the power to repeal the health care reform act to be veto proof. it is not going to happen. they are looking, i think, mean spirited and irrational. do they want to reform the rule that says you cannot be denied health care if you have a preexisting condition? do they want to take that back? do they want to repeal that? do they want to repeal the rule that says your health care company can't drop you if you become sick?

i think the republicans should think again about this strategy, because i think this is a strategy that could turn what looks like a good year for them into a pretty bad year. >> i wonder what you think about the specific thing you've identified there, the futility of this. nobody really seriously thinks any of these lawsuits, the one in virginia or the one your attorney general in pennsylvania has joined. nobody thinks these suits are going to go anywhere. it seems like an open and shut constitutional case. same for repeal. even if repeal was wildly popular it is not going to happen. they are futile cases they are making. in the political calculus, why do you run on something you know you are never going to achieve? >> because it feeds the base. as far as the lawsuits are concerned i wouldn't care about the lawsuits, because they are futile except they waste taxpayer dollars there are petition drives, as you said in pennsylvania signing a petition

to urge attorney general corbett not to go forward with this suit and not to waste taxpayers' dollars. i hope he listens, as i said, tom corbett is a decent guy. he has been a moderate before. he doesn't need to do this to win the primary. he is pretty home free. i think the republicans are making a big mistake. i think the mean spiritedness -- i happened to be on the air and listened to ever minute of the boehner speech and the pelosi speech, and that mean-spiritedness, the american people don't like that. even if they agree with you substantive, they don't want mean-spiritedness in politics, they don't want extremism in the way you express yourself. i think it's going to backfire dramatically. in a sad way it is the best thing that happened to the democratic party but a sad commentary of the state of politics in the country. >> governor, did you lobby? did you call members of congress to vote for this? in pure political terms but not

in terms of the policy, how do you make the political argument to members of congress when in some cases this is a difficult vote for them? >> i said basically two things, rachel. number one, i want, look, i'm going to support you whatever you do. i know this is a difficult decision for you. my support is not contingent upon your voting one way or the other, but i said, number one, this is good policy. as people understand what's in this act it is going to become more and more popular between now and november. number two, hey, all of us and i'm an elected official and lost two elections, all of us got elected to do something. if we are going to lose let's lose doing something that will change the fate of 32 million americans. there are some things risking losing is about. that's why we are here, to do something, to change people's lives, to protect the most vulnerable citizens, to give people opportunity. go ahead, don't be afraid. if you lose you are losing for the best of all possible reasons.

>> pennsylvania governor, ed rendell, thank you for your time. really appreciate it. >> thank you, rachel. the scariest thing you can say about the fate of a piece of any legislation is and now it goes to the senate. dysfunction junction. next stop. our guest is minnesota senator amy klobuchar. please stay with us. powered by the wind on the plains. there's a hospital where technology has a healing touch. there's a factory giving old industries new life. and there's a train that got a whole city moving again. somewhere in america, the toughest questions are answered every day. because somewhere in america, more than sixty thousand people spend every day answering them. siemens. answers.

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the president signed sweeping health reform legislation into law today.

the job still is not quite done. the senate promised the house a majority of senators would vote to pass a package of fixes to the health reform bill, fixes the house demanded as a condition of their passing the senate's version of health reform. senate majority leader harry reid has a letter signed by 52 senate democrats who agreed to pass those fixes through the budget reconciliation process, that's the process that's under way right now. the debate over the house fixes kicked off in the senate this afternoon. if, indeed, senator reid has those 52 votes it should be a matter of time before the fixes are passed and health reform is completely and once and for all or until next time done. it is inevitable if he has the 52 votes. the health reform is already law and the house fixes, those tweaks will soon become law as well. however, republicans are taking every opportunity they can to show themselves off as very opposed to health reform. they are very excited about

their senate strategy about obstructing further progress. republicans in the senate know they are going to lose on this issue essentially. they decided they want to look good losing. they want to stake their reputation and image as a party as being seen opposing health reform every single step of the way no matter how futile. they decided to flood the senate with amendments to the package of house fixes. the problem is when you combine futility with desperate showiness, you tend to get awkward results. case in point, it's time for the republicans' last stand against health reform now. they want all eyes on them. time to unleash the amendments. they really want to be seen doing this. so who among them leads the charge at this critical moment when they want the nation's attention on them as they demonstrate the opposition on health reform. even in the face of certain defeat? who is first up for the republicans snj moment in the sun? >> this fight is not over by a long shot.

i'll be on the floor regularly all this week fighting the separate reconciliation bill. >> i can't tell you how happy democrats are about that. for some reason it's senate david vitter of louisiana and d.c. madam phone list fame who has been given the privilege of introducing the first two symbolic republican stall tactics show-off amendments to the reconciliation package. one is a repeal the bill thing, which, of course, in the near term would mean letting insurance companies deny kids health coverage because of pre-existing conditions. good luck selling that one. the other amendment that senator vitter introduced was about a.c.o.r.n. seriously, that was the second amendment he introduced. an amendment aimed at prohibition on funding for a.c.o.r.n., which you might have heard doesn't really exist anymore. that is the republicans' big high-profile rollout of last

ditch anti-health reform strategy that is what they want america to see them doing, because they think it makes them look great. senator vitter, lead the way against a.c.o.r.n. or whatever. joining us now is senator amy klobuchar, democrat of minnesota. it is very nice to have you back on the program. thank you for being here. >> well, thank you, rachel. i did want to report, what is it that you called us, i'm live from dysfunction junction? a nice way to introduce me. >> do you deny the senate is where legislation goes to die now? >> could i point out that, in the last month, we passed that major jobs package? remember, with some bipartisan report. we got the faa reauthorization passed, which actually is a big deal, for getting our air traffic modernized. we are starting to get things done in a big way. you will see a big thing with health care. as you pointed out, they are going to delay and obstruct every step of the way.

you can call it the voter-rama-drama. it will be going on into the night. our people, despite what you may poke fun at us, we will not waver and we will get it done. you saw this in december when we got every single one of us together to vote about that bill. you can't say that actually about the house. harry reid, dick durbin, our leadership were able to unite our caucus on that bill and you're going to see that again as we go forward. we are going to be hit with difficult amendments. the most important thing is to get health care done for the people of this country. i was looking at our letters in the office to get me going. and inspire me for this week. the one that sticks out is a woman who wrote from minnesota named sherry. she was writing for her daughter, mickey. mickey just called me, sobbing so hard i couldn't hear what she said. her husband's company just cut them off their health insurance, it is a small business. they couldn't afford it.

here's the deal. she said, my daughter, mickey, has cystic fibrosis and won't be able to get insurance anymore. she has been fighting her whole life and we need someone to fight for her. we need to get this done. and so all of us that go to the floor this week that have to vote on these just horrific amendments that are just meant to hurt us politically are meant to delay things are going to have one thing for our guiding light, the people of this country that need health care but people who have health care that see it gets astronomically more costly. and want to see these costs under control and make it more affordable, something in minnesota that's been my major focus from the beginning. half the bills is about cost controls and reduces the deficit by $130 billion for the first ten years. that's what we'll be focused on. >> senator, let me ask you about one, not altogether procedural, but whether the fixes will pass. i know the idea originally the senate would pass the house fixes exactly as is.

so after the senate vote, health reform would go to the president and be done including this package still pending. senator baucus said there might be changes to the reconciliation package in the senate. that would mean it would have to go back to the house again which opens up another can of worms and opens up to republican delaying tactics in both houses. are you worried about that? >> you always have to worry about that. but really, the hope here is to not have that happen, to pass this bill pure. we have made some major fixes in this bill that needed to be made. from the left to the right people agreed that nebraska deal should get out of there. that's what one of the major fixes is, to extend the same benefits to the people of this country. some of the changes to the excise tax and some other things that were necessary to be made. from the senate perspective we are simply taking a bill that had some very good things in it, making it better, fixing the bill that is what reconciliation is done.

as you have done so beautifully on your program pointed out reconciliation has been used 22 times, 16 times by republican congresses and gives you an ability to fix a bill. >> senator amy klobuchar from minnesota. thank you for your time tonight. it's been too long since we've had you on the show, and i promise not to use the dysfunction junction next time. >> it was a nice rhyme, i have to tell you. see you soon, rachel. >> i'll use the vote-arama one. >> i gave you one. vote harama drama. super conservative texas congressman louie gohmert is famous because he is the guy who made an overt toilet joke about the health reform bill. we like bathroom humor. the good congressman has one upped even himself now. that's next. ou buy a car, what are you really buying? a shiny coat of paint? a list of features? what about the strength of the steel? the integrity of its design... or how it responds... in extreme situations? the deeper you look,

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supper." stay with us. that is all coming up first a couple of holy mackerel stories in today's news. when congressman "you lie" joe wilson screamed at president obama during a joint address to congress last year what did you think the effect of that outburst would be on joe wilson's career? his outburst was roundly criticized by everyone in mainstream politics, but on the far right, joe wilson became a hero for screaming at the president during a joint congressional session from the floor of congress. that lesson has not gone unnoticed by the latest very conservative member of congress to have shrieked out an epithet at the top of his lungs in the middle of someone else's speech. texas congressman randy neugebauer admitted he screamed the words "baby killer" at congressman bart stupak on during the house votes on health reform sunday night. >> those who were shouting out are out of order.

>> common wisdom holds that the person who screamed "baby killer" in congress would look back on the incident with regret, he or she would be embarrassed. that common wisdom would be totally wrong. congressman neugebauer trying to use it to raise money for himself. >> hello. i'm randy neugebauer. this is my wife. last night a very historic vote took place on the floor of the house of representatives. not only did we see the government take over your health care, but we saw the lives of unborn children used as a bargaining chip to get the needed votes to pass this legislation. i spoke very passionately, because i believe what was going on was not right for america. you know what? i'm never going to quit speaking on behalf of the unborn. i'm never going to quit speaking on behalf of the people of texas and the people of the united states of america who find this policy up acceptable. unacceptable. i will continue to speak with the same passion that i spoke last night, maybe in a bit different forum, but with the same intensity.

i want to thank you for the tremendous outpouring of support and more importantly for the opportunity and honor of representing you in the united states congress. >> i'm randy neugebauer. if you want more screaming baby killer on the house floor, you can donate right here. oh, and also i'm really sorry for the screaming. the congressman vote for me i'm the screaming baby killer on the house floor randy neugebauer is not the only member of the texas delegation making news. louie gohmert is genius enough to combine his vitriolic fervor against health reform with the theme of a deservedly very popular children's book. it is hard to make health reform fit the book but if anyone can do it, louie gohmert can. >> this should not be passed by anyone unless they eat it. if they eat it i'm in favor of them passing it. otherwise, don't pass it.

>> to recap, if you can eat it, you can pass it. it took me all day to practice saying that without turning beet red as i am now and losing my composure. since his go ahead eat it and then pass it contribution to the debate, mr. gohmert has decided that the democratically elected senate is the actual problem. his proposed solution is we don't democratically elect senators. he's proposing now to repeal the 17th amendment to the constitution, so state legislatures would pick senators from here on out instead of letting the regular citizen riffraff in the states choose their own senators by voting. >> the 17th amendment took out the last check and balance on usurpation of states rights. it's time to get the balance back in place. we have 39 states upset, wanting to do something and not have another unfunded federal mandate coming down their throats.

this will do it. let's get an amendment that gets the balance back into the country and the constitution before this congress destroys what's left. >> in other words take the 17th amendment to the constitution, chew on it for a while, swallow, allow it to travel through the narrow passage of the legislative process where it is broken down to smaller molecules, wait 24 to 27 hours and dump it out. then and only then will you have a real louie gohmert style democracy where democratically elected legislators never again take majority votes in favor of something they campaign to do-do.

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for the first and probably the last time i hereby recuse myself from hosting this segment. >> good evening. good evening i'm bill wolf the . good evening i'm bill wolfe the executive producer of the rachel maddow show e block. scott brown isn't up for

re-election until 2012, but he's taking nothing about his perceived mega power in the u.s. senate for granted. senator brown has begun raising money in ernest to motivate his base, he chose this single most fright thing potential opponent the democratic party could produce, a possibility so disastrous in its consequences as to scare cash money right out of massachusetts wallets and into scott brown's war chest. who or what could inning still that sort of populous mania? tv's rachel maddow. mad dpou hosts an hour of cable ne news, and scott brown just sent this urgent communication. you will not believe who they are supposedly trying to recruit, liberal rachel maddow.

recently it was reported that the chairman of the state democratic party had tried to reach out to her in an attempt to coax her into a race against me. the democratic party bosses in massachusetts want a rubber stamp who will vote for their plans to expand government, increase debt and lower taxes. i don't think america can afford her liberal politics. she has a nightly platform to push her far left agenda. what about you? it's not entirely clear, senator brown's rational for playing the maddow card likely derives from this tweet by john walsh on march 5th. some of you are talking about you running versus brown in '12. i'm the chair of ma dem party. mr. walsh did not specify who you was in that tweet, though there was internet speculation he meant rachel maddow.

of course, anything about which some are talking is presumed to be absolutely true as is everything on twitter, and all internet speculation. joining me now in studio for the interview is is the host of the rachel maddow show, the rachel maddow. thanks for making time to do this. >> i didn't know i was going to be the interview. that's awesome. >> yes. we appreciate you making time, we know you're busy. in his e-mail to supporters he says, i'm sure she's a nice person. is senator brown right? are you a nice person? >> i am a bewildered person. supposedly the massachusetts democratic party trying to recruit maddow. why didn't they just call and ask me if it was true, before sending out the fund-raising letter. >> let me clear some things up, to what degree is the democratic

machine in massachusetts recruiting you to be the democratic candidate for senate in 2012? >> if they are doing so, it's a silent invisible machine that hasn't yet contacted me through any means. >> that happens more often than you think. >> there's a facebook page, my friend bill did it. >> a different friend bill. >> yes. there's a facebook page for a lot of things. if that's the basis for making me a fund-raising pitch, it surprises me. >> you know me well enough for me to be able to answer this question, what do i think about my current job? >> she's left some wiggle room, folks. >> no, i have the best job in the world. i'm not ready for office, i never said i would run for office. scott brown didn't ask me if i was planning on running for office before deciding to write a fund-raising letter to raise

money for him. it's completely married up by him. >> what's most interesting to the staff is that you are the scariest possibility you could think of. >> absolutely. you think about all the things he has to run on and the fear of rachel maddow is what he's raising money on in massachusetts. open your wallets, maddow's coming. >> sounds like an effective campaign. quickly, any plans for your noncampaign. >> yes, we've made up a t-shirt so far, it says, i'm raising money for my nude model u.s. senator right now, ask me how. >> that's very grassroots of you. >> we only have one so far, but we're thinking about branching out. >> thank you, julia. appreciate it. >> thank you, julia, excellently done. we'll put something extra in your noncheck. >> rachel you are the host of the rachel maddow show every week night on msnbc. >> this is so weird, thanks, bill. >> i find it to be extremely

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one lesser known part of the health reform bill that president obama signed into law this morning requires restaurants with 20 or more locations nationwide to display nutritional information on their menus. that means you'll be able to see the exact number of calories in that burger or pizza before you put it in your mouth. new york city restaurants have already been displaying this information in an attempt to

help people make healthier choices when they order. expect to see newumerological plots soon. art has been no help at all in this fight against the fat. kent has the story. hi, kent. >> good evening, senator. art looks at life and then says back to us, eat more carbs. here's the proof. >> we live in the golden age of big, stupid food. portion sizes have ballooned and ballooned until we are absolutely flabulous. one professor wanted to know if this craving for more and more food was a new phenomenon or something that's been expanding over time like we have. so he analyzed the food shown in 52 of the best known paintings

of the last supper, from 1,000 a.d. until today. >> the size of the food, the size of the plates, the bread. we indexed them based on the size of people's heads. >> the main courses showed in the paintings grew by 69%. the plate size by 66%. and the bread size by 23%. as it was written in the gospel according to olive garden. i think people assume that increased serving sizes are portion distorsion is a recent phenomenon. this research indicates it's a general trend for at least the last millennium. so basically, more food in the real world, means more food in the paintings, and that means more food for jesus and the apost apostles. it's a miracle. amen. >> i love that they based