fight pictures you don't like movies, this might be, by the way, one the best of them all up with "the boxer." great with newman and clint eastwood's "dynamite" and "million dollar baby." aaron sorkin's dark success in bringing cinematic sympathy to one extremely odd duck and the town, ben affleck's wildly entertaining success in making bank robbery appearing to be a positive social statement. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. right now it's time for "the ed show" with ed schultz. good evening, america, welcome to "the ed show." i'm in for ed schultz. these are the stories that are hot tonight. the man who tried to kill the 9/11 first responders bill is talking about sacrifice. sacrifice. republican obstructionist tom coburn is lecturing americans about the need to sacrifice to fix the deficit. he's warning the growing deficit will lead to apocalyptic pain.

i wonder why the senator wasn't making apocalyptic threats when his party was fighting tooth and nail to extend a deficit exploding tax cuts for the rich. my commentary on that in just a moment. you don't want to miss it. and a high-profile evangelical leader comes out in favor in legalizing marijuana. we'll tell you why pat robertson think it's such a good day. is he dating mary jane? and the crazy berthers have met their match. hawaii's new governor is furious about the birth certificate lies about president obama. he says he can disprove them. we'll tell you how that's all coming up. but we start tonight with the frauds in the republican party. yeah, i said frauds. remember the rest of the media. the republicans are not honest actors. stop treating them like they are. they're a wholly-owned subsidiary of the rich and the powerful. case in point is senator tom coburn of oklahoma. he had the nerve to talk about

shared pain, cutting our deficit after the republicans just gave the rich hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts. >> if we didn't take some pain now, we're going to experience apocalyptic pain. and it's going to be -- >> let's talk -- let's talk -- >> the idea is that we should control it. >> who is he kidding? after the giant, mammoth, enormous tax cuts for the rich, now it's time for shared pain? which of course is code words for making you take your share of the pain. look, i'm not a monday morning quarterback on this. i told you from the get-go that they were going to cut the deficit off your back as soon as they pass the tax cuts for the rich. >> so later when we do austerity programs you're going to demand that the pain is shared equally, right? so the rich will also have to pay and not just the middle class. >> right and oh yeah of course, in true to form, that's exactly what they're going to get, ready to do right now, which is not to share that pain.

this was the gop strategy all along. look out for the wealthy first and then blame the economic problems on the middle class. you want to help balance the budget, then go get the $400 billion and the tax cuts that we just gave to the top 2% back for us. period. end of discussion. until they do that, we shouldn't cut a dime from the middle class. coburn who voted against the tax cut deal, not because he gave away too much of the rich, but because he did too much with the unemployed. then had the nerve to talk about sacrifice. >> we could certainly cut $100 to $200 billion and help ourselves. there cannot be anything that's not put on the table. there will not be one american that will not be called to sacrifice. those that are more well-to-do will be called to sacrifice to a greater extent. >> i don't believe that for a second. they just gave them $400 billion. are you kidding me?

also, this is the guy who just cut down the 9/11 first responders bill, remember that was to cover the health expenses for those workers who worked down there and now they only get coverage for five years instead of ten, and thanks to senator coburn the responders lost $3.1 billion in health care coverage, it went from originally being a $7.4 billion in the house to ending up with $3.4 billion in the end. 70% of those guys have respiratory illness because they sacrificed for our country. there was no bigger sacrifice, but coburn cut their lengths out, and now he wants to talk about sacrifice? these are not honest actors. the entire republican party has one and only one mission -- help the rich and the powerful, and everyone else be damned. at least one guy admitted it. >> this is an impressive crowd the haves and the have mores. some people call you the elite,

i call you my base. >> and when you look at the numbers, you realize that george bush actually wasn't kidding. since 1980 the share the nation's income that goes to the top 1% has gone from 9% to 23.5%. it hasn't been that high since, well, right before the great depression. the income of that top bracket has also gone up 281% since that time. the rich have gotten much richer, that's the reagan revolution. revolution for and on behalf of the rich. now, coburn has the nerve to talk about the destruction of the middle class. >> i think that you'll see a 15% to 18% unememployment rate, a 9% to 8% decline in gdp. i think that you'll see the middle class just destroyed if we don't do this. and the people that it'll harm the most will be the poorest of the poor. >> that's a good one!

so let me get this right, we're going to balance the budget off of the back of the poor and the middle class and not the rich, but somehow in republican logic, that's supposed to help the poor. the realities that you and your party, senator coburn, destroyed the middle class by giving tax breaks to the companies who outsource their jobs, and by the way, the republican party blockade bill that would take away those subsidies earlier in year. also made them disappear by giving every conceivable tax advantage to the rich, including dividend and capital gains taxes of only 15%. you made them disappear by crushing their unions and the ability to negotiate with multinational corporations that are making them work longer hours for less pay. and how about balancing the budget? when's the last time the republican party has done that in the last 30 years? oh, right, never. reagan giant, recordbreaking deficits.

goerjts h.w. bush huge deficits. george bush even larger deficits than reagan. the gop never balances the budget, never. am i clear enough. because they're too busy giving tax breaks to the top 1%. leave surpluses like the one democratic president bill clinton gave them as a piggybank for the rich. here's how much credibility the gop has on deficits, none, zero, zilch, nada, not one iota. no one should ever take them seriously on that topic. no, the republican party doesn't get to talk about the middle class or shared sacrifice or the deficit. they've never given a damn about any of those things. they're the ones who created the problems in the first place and we'd have to be crazy to try to let them put all of the pain on the middle class again. so dr. no, are we going to let you balance the budget off the back of the average american after you just helped to give your rich buddies another giant

tax break? in language that you can understand, mr. coburn, hell no we're not. all right, now get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. i think is very clear. tonight's text survey is, do you think the republican party really cares about the middle class? text "a" for yes, text "b" for no to 622639. for more, let me turn to reverend jesse jackson, president of the rainbow/push coalition. reverend jackson, great to have you here. now -- >> to you, sir. >> i want to ask you here, is this just a matter of disagreement? the gop has this wonderful, brilliant plan for the poor, the middle class that we just can't understand, or is it that they just don't give a damn? >> well, that is a view of looking at the world from the mange up. in the military there's not shared sacrifice because of

unknown drafts. the most threatened have face to begun while the others will benefit. i wish would make that speech in appalachian with the coal minors. or when jessica lynch the first american soldier, female, taken captivity who graduated from high school with good grades but couldn't afford to go to college and didn't have a job and went to the military as kind of a backdoor draft, a coal minor dies every six hours a day from black lung disease and they voted against health benefits for the coal minors and yet voted far extending the budget for karzai in afghanistan, it's not right and it's confusinconf >> you know, reverend jackson, is -- people keep getting confused. they just won the house, right? so why did that happen? and if those coal miners and the people that you just mentioned knew what was going on they would never vote for them. >> it's mass inception. >> that's it, though.

that's one the answers that i come up with the rest of the media to be honest with you. >> voting in the interest and not their fears you know? 59 million americans have no health insurance. and those numbers are rising while the insurance company's fee are rising and we bailout the banks and now wallowing in profits they're not lending at home foreclosure are on the rise. 4 out of 9 million americans are in poverty. can't pay their house, their rent, can't keep their children in clerg. 4 million are now on food stamps and so there's this need to fight to build our economy, bottom up, not just top/down, because you will have to pen up on those who trickle down. >> but, part of the problem in my opinion, is the media calls everything even. so whether the republicans actually push for taxes or they try to help the middle class, it doesn't really matter because the media's going to call it even anyway. let me take that a little further -- >> that's kind of like ham and

egg justice, you know? you come in the house and you smell ham and eggs and it blends perfectly. it seems like it's one, but whenever there's a vote the hog votes against it and the chicken votes for it. the chicken drops a leg -- an egg, the hog drops a leg. so it looks even, but it's not even. and the fact is that one sacrifices much more and in this case those who work hardest and in fact pay the most taxes will spill the most blood in the military and in fact now you have the tax cut for the wealth nedecember which means we'll have job cuts and health and education cuts come february and march, unfortunately. >> you know, i already love this show because jesse jackson just said ham and eggs on air. i can't get enough of that. all right, so reverend, one more thing here, i want to put up a graphic here. think progress came up with a list of things that they could cut if they actual liemented shared sacrifice. cut $100 billion in defense. $45 billion in subsidies to oil

companies. a billion whiches in tax expenditures for big agricultural firms. $2 billion in unnecessary stock incentives for the rich and the list goes on and on. what's going on with the democrat here? for example the oil subsidy and say we're going to stick to this. >> well, should. the irony is you have billionaires who have met, trying to give money back, saying they had too much. going to try to give it to them and they're resisting it so even the wealthy know that they appear at the point now of such exploitation and such wealth that it's not even helping them or the nation so i would hope that the president goes to the well, as it were, and speaks when he goes to the congress in january, there will be some renewed commitment to have a revive -- why on poverty. i'm with the homeless shelter in san francisco a month ago and most the women and children, they work every day, but couldn't afford rent. or some of them working whose

husbands are in iraq or afghanistan, so it's time for -- our economy bottom up. because the very top are drowning in wealth, it's paper driven, not even productivity driven and working for to find themselves. 4 million more foreclosures coming in the coming year. >> the democrats don't stand up and fight for the oil subsidies. i don't know who will do it. because we know that the republicans aren't going to do it. reverend jackson, real quick, last question for you. are you satisfied with what president obama has done before or not fighting these guys enough like with that tax cut deal? >> i think that he's raised the right questions but he finds himself often alone once he raises the right question. i mean he's a runner who needs blocking, who needs protection. he raised the issue to bail out banks to stop a global recession, it was the right thing for him to do. when he raised the issue of a health care plan for all americans basically on the health needs not just based upon money it was the right question

but he was demagogued as being some socialistic force that's un-american. i really think that we must keep driving him toward the -- than not. that's a little incentive. >> all right, reverend jesse jackson, thanks so much for joining us. really appreciate it. >> yes, sir. >> all right, merry christmas to you as well, by the way. all right, now coming up jon stewart is being credited for shaming republicans in the passing of the 9/11 responders bill but that's making the fox news crew very unhappy. what was their ironic attack against stewart? and look at orly. the new governor of hawaii is going on an all-out offensive against crazy berthers like you. i'll explain how ahead. and plus, the rent too damn high party. the president backs michael vick. why did he do that? we'll explain. you're watching "the ed show" on msnbc.

coming up, team obama is talking about his new game plan for 2012. they're going on a listening tour. wasn't that hillary clinton's strategy? does he actually care to listen to us, or is this a way to start the 2012 campaign a year early? most importantly, do you believe him when he says he cares what you think? we'll have that discussion or possibly debate with jonathan possibly debate with jonathan altar next. o's your someone? campbell's healthy request can help. low cholesterol, zero grams trans fat, and a healthy level of sodium. it's amazing what soup can do. whoa! with a diamondweave texture at's soft and more durable, no wonder it holds up better. fewer pieces left behind. charmin ultra strong.

top presidential advisory valerie just announce nad president obama would be hitting the road a lot more often over the next two years almost like the listening tour made famous by hillary clinton. she claims it's because the president wants to hear more from average americans.

>> he said it right before he left for vacation, he said when i get back, i really want to figure out a way that i can spend more time outside of washington, listening, learning and engaging from the american people. and it's what really gives him his energy and his strenghts. we're determined in the next year that his schedule reflects that priority. >> come on let's keep it real. this isn't about listening to anybody, this is about politics. when was the last time a politician listen to anybody on those tours? here's who the president is listening to, wall street. the person who's going to replace larry summers as the president's top economic adviser is believed to be another wall street supporter. did he get the advice to hire that person from an average american? i don't think so. look, i don't mind politicians politicking, that's their job, just don't insult our intelligence by pretending that you're doing it to listen to us. joining me now is jonathan altar "newsweek" national columnist, msnbc political analyst and the

author of au author. am i being too cynical? he was not listening to people. >> both. yes you're being too cynical and running for office. but look people's motivations are complicated and to draw with such a broad brush i think is not just unfair to obama, it's unfair to the subtlety of these situations. he does believe in what his hero, abraham lincoln called, public opinion baths. where you go out, you meet the people, and you do learn things. you hear about what's on their minds, and it helps you make more sophisticated political judgments. and i think everybody, including the president knows, that one of his failures over the last couple of years is that he fell out of touch with the american middle class. he lost that connection. so i think that it's good that he wants to try to get that connection back. it's not only good for the kinds of decisions that he might make, but as you indicated, it's good

for him politically. >> yeah, you know, john, you love you, but i can't agree with that. listen, look, for example, the top economic adviser that we're talking, but likely to be their gene sperling or roger altman. two huge wall street guys. >> gene spurling's never worked on wall street. >> no, no. >> he comes out of the clinton administration, come on. >> no, no he's got a lot of money from speaking and from consulting wall street. >> come on, come on, you know better than this. >> put the regulation on it in the first place. >> gene spurling is a policy -- and a very creative and talented one. gene spurling is the exact kind of guy we want in government. he has some experience from the clinton administration. >> not we. >> he has some creative policy. he's not bound by some stupid ideology from the left or the right, he's a problematic problem-solver who is more knowledgeable about the federal budget than anybody that you could think of. to get some, somebody who says a lot of populist things on tv, and oh let's put him in there,

he likes to punch wall street, get him in there. >> jonathan, get out of here. >> that's not smart. >> first of all, there's no such thing, right. >> so who do you want in here? >> i want joe stiglitz. only won about two nobel prizes right? that guy doesn't punch anybody, he's probably one of the most brilliant economist in the country but obama would never put him in because he's not pro-wall street enough and you know it. >> joe stiglitz was -- i was interested to learn -- because obama did through larry summers stupid lie snub joe stiglitz from 2009, recently he spent a fair amount of time with stiglitz and apparently has more time for him now. better late than ever. and spurling was one of those people in the clinton administration when he was head of the national economic council who routinely brought stiglitz in to see clinton. when it is done right which i don't think that summers did is to facilitate a conversation

with a lot of different creative, smart advisers and the people who won that job, whatever their background, is somebody who's going to give the president a broad range of advice. one of the big criticisms i had of obama in the promise was that in his first year he didn't have a broad enough range of advice, but don't say well we've got have somebody -- you know we can't have anybody with anybody -- who's ever given a speech to anybody on wall street. we can't have them anywhere near the president, that's just silly. >> no, jonathan it's not that, he pushed for the deregulation along with summers and rubin in the first place. >> that's not clear at all about -- >> made all of those giant, giant mistakes. but here's one thing that we could end on, on note of agreement, if stiglitz is part of the listening tour i'll be ecstatic and it sounds like you'll be happy. >> yeah listen to stiglitz and a lot of other people, not a lot of creativity in the policy development, that's the main thing. >> let's hope so. thank you, jonathan, appreciate it. coming up, fox news takes on jon stewart. they tell him to leave serious

news to the professionals. now that's funny. i'll give you the exact quotes. and who's tougher on the terrorists? president obama or president bush? you might be surprised that one former bush security chief is saying.

in "psycho talk" tonight, our palless at fox & friends are taking some shots at jon stewart. "the daily show" host is being credited for pressing republicans into passing the

9/11 responders bill. stewart did that by putting a sign to comedy for one night, and simply talking with first responders, letting them share their stories. and that's not sitting well with gretchen carlson. >> i think it's interesting when you have jon stewart, who apparently decided to get really serious on this topic, and have a serious show about it, you can't really -- that's like mixing apples and oranges, come on? people already think that his show is real news which is a problem. but -- so then when you have comedy and then one day you decide that you are getting totally serious -- >> he's an activist. >> but i don't know if that works in the mind of the american people. >> activists, and don't think that it works? it totally worked. the bill passed and the list of people praising stewart for his effort begins with the white house, goes through new york mayor mikhail bloomberg and most importantly includes the 9/11 responders themselves. but, hey, glitchen, i know that uria just saying leave the real news to the professionals. like the dedicated journalists of fox news scouring the globe to find the most serious stories and checking every last detail

out, very thoroughly. >> pay attention because the jet pack is ready for liftoff now. it's called the martin. it should be called the brian. and will soon be available to the public. the city of los angeles already ordering 10,000 jet packs for its solis paramedics and fire departments. >> are you kidding. >> you'll be shocked to find out that that story was entirely bogus. l.a. is not going to buy one of those let alone 10,000 of them. that's more supermarket tabloid fiction that made real news over at fox. they're this close to alien landings over there. actually they say that obama was the alien, the illegal alien, like he was from kenya and doesn't have a law informed birth certificate over here or something crazy like that. they would never do anything like that, tell me? now tell me again how jon stewart doesn't understand what real news is? so gretchen instead of worrying about a comedy show that makes people occasionally think how

about producing a newscast that doesn't make us laugh? for you to take a shot over jon stewart over news is hilarious "psycho talk." now, coming up, how much does it take to buy a politician? some new numbers we'll show you and it shows you exactly how much politicians made by selling us out. david soroda will join us to tell us why our political system allows for politicians to be bought like this. president obama is on michael vick's side, is that the right thing to do, and is it politically smart or not? i'll get rapid-fire response. plus, president obama gets an unlikely challenger for 2012. and the governor of hawaii takes aim at the berthers. we'll tell you how, you're watching "the ed show" on msnbc.

welcome back to "the ed show." i'm cenk in for ed schultz. a lot of us have the sense that our politicians are bought and sold by the lobbyists. now there are some numbers to back that up, about the most

recent congress. according to "washington post" anal lifts by the numbers provided by the nonpartisan groups and the sun life foundation 35 members of the drafting committee handling the financial reform bill took $440,000 in donations in the three weeks that they were putting together that bill. you'll never guess which industry gave them all of that money, yes, shocking, but it was the financial industry. ah i didn't see that coming. the lawmakers wrote an incredibly soft financial reform bill that left most of the major problems completely unaddressed. weird how that works, huh? and then when the senate was considering a $30 billion bill to help smaller community banks, what's sweerd that there was another payday. $469,000 rained in this time, again in a wild coincidence, it was the financial industry who poured in the money into three days surrounding that vote. the realities, the system is

deeply and institutionally corrupt. designed for payoffs on every bill. the problem isn't individual politicians, though they really don't help much, the problem is the system itself. our representatives don't represent us. they represent the people who pay them, the lobbyists. joining me now to talk more about this is david soroda a radio show host, nationally syndicated columnist and author of "the uprising" which sounds pretty good to me now. david, is our system broken? >> it's absolutely broken, and it goes to the very question that you've raised, which is who do these politicians work for? and really who's paying for them to go to work? and now they get paid a taxpayer salary, but their re-election is oftentimes based on how much money they can raise. and the vast majority of the money that they raise comes from extremely wealthy people from lobbyists, from special interests with issues before congress. so we have a system of legalized bribery in this -- in this

country. and it gets what it pays for. and what is being paid for are votes on major issues that affect these special interests. >> you know in that "washington post" story her ay reid was asked and he said oh no, the money didn't affect me at all and it was weird when they asked every single politician and they all said no, no the money never affects me and again back to this theme of the media. is part of the problem is the media, are they too credulous. oh, her ay reid said it doesn't affect them so that must be the case. >> plipgzs will say that the money didn't affect them so what else would they say? yeah my vote was bought. they can't admit that truth but it's a truth that we all know and the question is, what is going to be done about it, right? that's the question that is rarely ever asked by the media. if politicians continue to deny that money has a corrosive effect has an influential effect on their votes and the media continues to accept that and oftentime right out of their stories of the influence of money, right? at least the "washington

post" piece was a story about money. typically you see in "washington post," "the new york times," the "washington journal" doesn't does not factor into a vote. the question is not who is buying what because we know that almost every vote being bought it's what can actually be done about this, and nobody in washington wants that question asked. >> yeah not mentioning the money is goofy. it's not one of the factors, it's at least 90% of the factor when these bills -- i mean, when was the last time they went and did a speech on the senate -- or the floor of the house and another senator or congresswoman went oh that's a great idea, i will change my vote. no their votes are already decided based on the money. so, david, let's go to the heart of it, how do we fix it? what's the magic bullet to make it so it's not based on the money but actually in our democracy it's actually based on our votes? >> the magic bullet is what arizona and maine have done and other municipalities which is public financing of elections where taxpayers start saying,

all right, listen, we're going to get the government that we pay for. we're going to basically fund our elections. we're not going to allow private special interests to fund our elections. we're not going to allow private special interests to fund our politicians. that if politicians qualify for the ballot, they're entitled to a certain amount of public financing. that's we the taxpayers being willing to invest in our own political system. until we're willing to do that, we're going to get the best system that private special interests have paid for. >> yeah, if we pay them, they work for us. if the lobbyists pay for them they work for lobbyists. that's that simple. great conversation and appreciate it. >> thank you. >> yeah, thank you, man. now let's get some rapid-fire response from our panel on these other stories. republicans have been hammering president obama for two years, saying he's too soft on terrorists, and saying that he hasn't done enough to keep our country safe and now bush's former director of national intelligence says that president obama is just as aggressive in pursuing terror threats.

and here's a shocker, peter king of "sports illustrated" and nbc sports reported president obama called the owner of the philadelphia eagles to congratulate him on hiring michael vick. the president talked about the importance of giving ex-cons a second chance. now with us tonight michael sure, political correspondent and guest host for a wonderful program called "the young turks" and heidi harris a conservative radio show host in las vegas who i am sure you were also has a lovely program. >> yes, of course. >> let me pitch to a clip first. let's take a look at mike mcconnell had to say. >> my observation is that the new administration has been as aggressive if not more aggressive in pursuing these issues because they're real and regardless of which side of the political spectrum -- >> and you commend them for that. >> i do commend them for that. >> i am sure that you agree with him that president obama's done a great job on in. >> absolutely. there's no way to actually

quantify? when bush kept us safer eight years nobody gave him the credit. that's the government's job is to make sure that you don't know about credible threats. and when james clapper last week didn't even know about arrests in the uk, don't we need to know about terror arrests and other countries? he didn't even know that, that's obama's intelligence chief, not so sure. >> michael, is this a different way of mcconnell, though, kind of high-stepping here, going, hey, we got you to do the same exact civil rights violations that bush was doing so haha. >> i mean it is a double edged sword in that way. you know heidi says the obama administration kept us safer eight years, the bush administration you know ignored some pretty important memorandums that came across their desk from richard clarke and others so there's a question as to whether or not this administration's actually keeping us safer because as far as we know at this point they're paying attention to everything. but further to what you just asked, yeah, i mean, there are some things that have gone on that have left liberals, that have left democrats

uncomfortable that have continued from the bush era. you know, intelligence gathering strategies but the other problem is that you know for republicans is you can now see that without waterboarding, without torture, you can still have solid security, at least according to former bush administration officials. >> heidi, one last quick question on the wireless wiretapping you are ecstattake obama is breaking the law like bush was? >> i don't like anybody breaking laws but i'll tell you what you've got to do what you've got to do to get the information so you know what, if you have got credible information, i have no problem with it at all times, if it keeps us safe. you see the whole point is if they keep us safe we're not supposed to ever know how close we've really come whether it's the local police department or whether it's our national intelligence, that's the whole point. >> i like the fourth amendment so i rather they didn't do that but we move onto the next issue. peter king reporting that president obama called the eagles' owner in saying, hey, you know what, good job on hiring michael vick. heidi, what do you think? is that politically smart, and are you in favor of that move?

>> i think obama should have stayed out of it. listen, i have got five rescued dogs in my house, several of them have been abused by the people of the likes of michael vick, all right? so i have no patience for him. he's a solis monster who abused animals. i would have never given him a shot to the nfl. he lied to roger goodall and the people in atlanta until he lied about it and until he was caught and his back was up against the wall. i don't know if he's ever have regrets. the best who ever happened to him is tony dungwho is by the way a class-act who took him under his wing. hopefully he's got him on the straight and narrow. i don't know if he's really changed his attitude towards dogs. you wouldn't let him clean up my backyard grass for my dogs okay that's how i feel about michael. >> heidi is very clear on it. michael, what do you think. >> i only have two dogs only one of whom i am afraid to say it was a rescue but i think that this is the american system. you go to jail. he served 2 1/2 years in prison, and what's supposed to happen to

prisoners when they come out? this is why there's so much recidivism. he comes out and he gets a job because he served good at something but it's his punishment which is exactly what is supposed to happen. he went through the penal system and came out and now he's doing extraordinarily well and i would guess that you know -- i mean, i would love to know what heidi's feeling about what people who go to jail should do when they get out of jail? >> yeah, you know -- >> i'm -- listen i'm not saying the nfl doesn't have a right to give him another job. that's the decision that roger goodell and the team owners make and that's okay. it's their game, they could play it the way they want to but i think that it's disgusting that we in america will applaud a guy just because he's good looking and can throw a football regardless of character. i mean it's so sad to me and it happens in athletes, it happens in entertainers. i think we have the wrong heroes. and that's what bothers me about it. >> guys, we've got to leave it right to, unfortunately. but you know, obama, it's a fascinating thing that he did, maybe it's pennsylvania votes. remember they play you know an important state. so think about that, too. all right, michael and heidi, thank you. and by the way the guy who came

up with that was not me, it was one of our followers twitter. i think that it was spike rogan, so nice point made by him. coming up, what do pat robertson and i agree on? let's just put it this way. if there was ever a time that we'd agree, it would be at 420. and an old friend is running for president. he knows one thing about 1600 pennsylvania avenue. the rent is too damn high. the "playbook" is next. campbell's healthy request can help. low cholesterol, zero grams trans fat, and a healthy level of sodium. it's amazing what soup can do. ♪

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the crazy right-wing televangelist just came now the favor in legalizing marijuana. that's right. the christian conservative preacher who once said that hurricane katrina was god's way of punishing america for abortion, wants to legalize pot. >> i'm not exactly for the use of drugs, don't get me wrong, but i just believe that criminalizing marijuana, criminalizing the possession of a few ounces of pot and that kind of thing, i mean it's -- it's costing us a fortune and it's ruining young people. >> legalize it, amen, brother pat! i say, welcome aboard. in order to get legalization through, you need both sides to join the fight. so this is a great development in my opinion and as a result of this story hell has just frozen over because i just agreed with pat robertson. just to remain consistent robertson freezed -- on the gays.

jane launched a campaign to support marijuana legalization and influenced ballot measures like california's prop 19. jane, actually, pat robertson's spokesperson came out and said this is not a call for decriminalizing marijuana. are we supposed to believe him or our lying eyes? it sounded like it, didn't it. >> yeah, it kind of did. i mean what can i say? i think that there was a lot of desire on the right to have some moral leadership on the issue. because the republicans need an issue that appeals to young people and this sort of libertarian streak that says let me do what i want with my own body is you know something that is appealing to young men of both political persuasions. however they were trapped by their own decades' worth of cultural conservatism the cultural wars so they needed someone with his moral authority to come out and say, look, ten years, you shouldn't get ten years for spomoking a fatty, right? it's something that they want on the right but it'll take a long time to turn the ship around.

>> so do you think that this is planned or is he going off of the reservation there? i mean when we did this story, some people said that he had kind of glassy eyes. is this just pat robertson being crazy or is this part of a right-wing strategy or an evangelical strategy? >> just in passing i would note that if jonathan altar thinks that gene spurling is not a wall street guy that he has a passing familiarity with the 420 club, too. but be that as it may, i think that he's actually, pat robertson, is actually speaking what a lot of people on the right or are thinking behind closed doors but they're afraid of their own base. they don't know what to do. they're afraid that all of the people that they've been launching it with pitchforks and tortures in the culture wars for years will turn on them and they're probably right so pat robertson, whether planned or not planned, is sort of a safe first voice but a lot of the people in the republican party would very much like to get behind this. we know, we've heard, they're just afraid to admit it in public so he's kind of giving them a little bit of a license to do that intentionally or unintentionally.

>> jane, is it realistic that we'd ever get republican-elected senators, congressmen to decriminalize marijuana, is that realistic? >> oh, sure, if the democrats decide that they want to criminalize it it'll be the republicans' next issue, isn't that how it works? >> i suppose that's how it works but -- so we've got to get the democrats to accidentally propose criminalizing it, i suppose? >> you know eric holder's been doing his part. he's been saying that they would have tried to challenge prop 19 if it had passed and it was goings to cause people who were stoned to be driving. i don't know. all kinds of ridiculousness and i think that's one the reasons that it opened up things up on the right was because the obama administration was sort of aggressively against it. >> all right, let's see where it takes us. i mean it seems impossible in washington these days but maybe state by state that we can do it so, jane, thanks for joining us. really appreciate it. >> my pleasure. and now some final pages in the playbook, joe miller is finally backing down. the tea partier from alaska says he'll stop trying to block lisa murkowski from being certified as the winner their u.s. senate

ballot but miller is vowing to continue his legal challenge over the vote count which he argues was flawed, allowing voters, for example, to misspell murkowski on the ballot. how dare they, that's so easy to spell. claimed to be against frivolous lawsuits earlier until of course he tried to pursue one. with that kind of hypocrisy no wonder he won the primary. note to joe miller, you lost. in a quote, de niro, clean up, go home. clean up, go home. i love the head motion. all righty jimmy mcmillen of the rent is too damn high party just gave everyone in the media a great christmas present. in the interview with revolution radio he slammed president obama on the auto bailout and then he asked the president to serve in the administration and then he took it over the top. >> if you don't do your job right i'm coming at you. i know barack obama is an internet hog. i know he know that i'm out there but what he haven't heard yet is that jimmy mcmillen is

running for the president of the united states of america. i'm coming after his black ass. >> oh, damn. i can't wait for those debates. can you hear the people? i can and they're saying the rent is too damn high. on the upside, if he makes it to the white house, he won't have to pay any rent. and now coming up, hawaii's new governor is declaring war on the birthers and birther queen orly tie it's wants to take her conspiracy theories to broadway of all places. lionel will settle who is right and wrong on this when we come back. [ coughing ]

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the birthers better watch out. their crazy theories of president obama is a secret kenyan and was part of a prenatal conspiracy to capture the white house, i've been mocked by most americans, rightfully so and largely ignored by government authorities but not anymore the new governor of hawaii, neil abercrombie, has declared war on birthers. governor abercrombie told "the new york times," quote it's an insult to his mother and father. i knew his mother and father, they were my friends. president obama's a big boy. he can take sticks and stones but there's foe reason on earth to have the memories of his parents insulted by people whose motivation is solely political. governor abercrombie say that he did not only know the president's parents but he also

saw baby barack obama soon after he was born in kenya, i mean hawaii, hawaii. for more, i want to turn to lionel of lionel media. he's also a new york pix 11 commentator. all right, lionel, how does the governor seeing baby obama in hawaii play into the conspiracy? did they bring from kenya to see him. >> cenk, by the way long time no see. first, i don't understand why in supposed friend of the president is bringing this up. this thing had been watered down pretty much slowed to a crawl in terms of the interest, whatever interest there was. i don't understand any of this. why would this governor abercrombie right now bring up this issue when we've all forgotten about it? number two, everybody has accused the president from a socialist to a muslim to a venution, if there was anything to this possibility of his being born elsewhere, i think it would had been vetted by now. number three, there had been court after court after court who has dismissed this

accusation. today i was watching chris matthews and clarence page, and chris had a good point. he said, they keep talking about a long for him. i thought taxes i didn't know but apparently a law for him. chris asked why doesn't he show it and clarence page says well he doesn't have to. i don't understand why people don't say listen this i can prove. and you would think that why doesn't our cia with all of its ability to forge or somebody just make whatever document somebody wants just to shut people up about this. i mean isn't it moot -- you're a lawyer, is it moot, statute of limitations? i mean how long is this very minuscule conspiracy theory going to be resurrected before it finally goes away? i mean, two years into it, it's a bit late right now. this does nothing but to fuel these four, five people who even care about this issue in the first place. >> all right, lionel, we're out of time, but governor says, by the way, the reason that he brought it up is because according to privacy laws he can't