good morning. terrifying ride. a california highway patrol officer uses his own car to help stop a toyota prius hurdling down a busy interstate at more than 90 miles an hour. the driver claims it accelerated on its own and now he's speaking out. ultimate insider. president bush's top adviser, karl rove, opens up about the most controversial moments in the bush white house, the war in iraq, the response to hurricane katrina and the leaking of a cia operative's name. karl rove writes about it all in a new memoir, and he's talking about it to us in an exclusive, live interview. and look, mom, no paddle. it's part kayaking, part sky diving, and totally crazy. the thrill-seeking darevil behind the newest extreme sport, skyaking, today, tuesday, march 9th, 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and good morning. welcome to "today" on a tuesday morning. i'm matt lauer. >> and i'm ann curry, in for meredith, who's still sleeping off her oscar all-nighter. meantime, boy, before we get to the skyaking, let's talk about this prius news. more bad news for toyota. >> certainly nothing they needed. we need to say, luckily, nobody was injured. it happened on monday, a driver says he was passing another car in his toyota prius, when he claims his accelerator became stuck, his brakes would not engage. the car climbed to speeds over 90 miles an hour, whizzing in and out of traffic for 30 miles. the driver managed to call 911 and was eventually stopped with the help of a fast-thinking state trooper. we're going to hear from that driver and find out what toyota has to say about all this, just ahead. and speaking of dangerous, check this out. a powerful tornado caught on tape on monday by storm chasers in oklahoma. you don't see this every day. it looks like a scene out of "the wizard of oz." no one, luckily, was injured, but several homes were destroyed. we're going to get more on this scary moment, coming up. also ahead, little is known to the outside world about the church of scientology, but this woman, kristi colbren, defected from a controversial leadership group within that church, and now she's speaking out about how it operates. she says members of the elite corps are pushed not to have children and must pledge to earthquake a scientologist for a llion ars. we'll talk to her about that in an exclusive, live interview. but we begin with the wild ride involving a runaway toyota prius on a highway in california. miguel almaguer has more details. >> reporter: the 61-year-old driver who has a heart condition says he did everything he could to slow down that prius, but he says the car kept going faster and faster. wedged behind a california highway patrol cruiser, the 2008 prius sat idle after a terrifying 30-mile ride that nearly cost james sikes his life. >> still shook up. >> reporter: it began when he tried to pass another driver and his car accelerated out of control. as he dodged other vehicles, sikes says the brakes didn't work. soon, he was doing 90. he called 911. >> i was on the brakes pretty healthy. it wasn't stopping, wasn't doing anything to it, and just kept speeding up. >> reporter: the patrol car pulled alongside using the p.a. system to relay instructions -- keep pressure on the brake, try to shut the car off. >> when i saw him, i could smell the brakes. i saw his brake lights coming on. >> i was standing on the brake pedal, looking out the window at him, and he said, "push the emergency brake, too," and i laid on both of them. >> reporter: suddenly, the car began to slow down, dropping to 55 miles per hour. the chp cruiser moved in front of the hybrid, guiding the prius to a stop on the interstate. sikes just had his car serviced at a local dealer. mechanics told him his car wasn't a part of any recall, but eventually, some prius models were recalled for floor mats or brake problems. toyota's recalled 8.5 million vehicles worldwide and 6 million here in the u.s. now the company says it's investigating is latest incident. >> do you solemnly swear -- >> reporter: just last month, congress held hearings on the toyota recalls after the government received complaints of over 30 deaths linked to sudden acceleration since 2000. >> it's really starting to feed in and fuel a sense that possibly toyota really doesn't know what the situation is and it's a mystery that we're all going to have to discover together. >> reporter: the investigation into what happened in this case could take weeks, but damage to toyota's reputation may already be done. >> i won't drive that car again, period. >> reporter: this morning, both the california highway patrol and toyota say they are investigating the incident. in fact, toyota officials say they're sending a representative here to southern california to take a look at that car. matt? >> hey, miguel, the highway patrolman said he told the driver to turn the ignition off. the driver did not do that, though, correct? why? >> reporter: the driver said he did everything he could to turn off that car, matt, and of course, remember, these priuses dot have those key switch ignitions, thehave those buttons, and the driver may have had some concern that he would have lost his power steering at speeds up to 90 miles per hour, but he does say he did everything he could to turn off that car. >> all right, miguel almaguer for us this morning. miguel, thanks very much. it's now five after the hour. here's ann. >> matt, thanks. washington is buzzing this morning over why new york democrat eric massa stepped down from congress. his resignation took effect on monday afternoon, shortly after he gave his third explanation, and this time, massa placed blame squarely on fellow democrats. nbc's kelly o'donnell is now joining us from capitol hill with more on this story. kelly, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, ann. any sudden resignation from congress is controversy enough, but the story here is full of twists. congressman massa first said cancer would force him to leave and now says a high-level conspiracy pushed him out. >> i'm a direct, salty kind of guy. >> reporter: and boy, did he pass the salt around. on a local radio station, congressman eric massa denied harassing a male staffer. he blamed lots of drinking at a wedding reception where massa said there was guy talk about chasing the bride's maids, and he responded -- >> and i grabbed the staff member sitting next to me and said, "well, what i really ought to be doing is --." >> reporter: massa then made a remark. >> and then tousled the guy's hair and then left. >> reporter: massa quickly turned to fellow democrats in the interview, aiming at the president's chief of staff. >> rahm emanuel is son of the devil's spawn. >> reporter: massa then recounted what could only be called a shower scene in the gym. >> and i'm sitting there showering, making as a jaybird, and here comes rahm emanuel, not even with a towel wrapped around his turn, poking his finger in my chest, yelling at me because i wasn't going to vote for the president's budget. do you know how awkward it is to have a political argument with a naked man? >> reporter: last week he said he would not run for a second term because cancer had returned. almost instantly, the harassment allegation and an ethics investigation leaked. speaker pelosi said she didn't know any details. >> this is rumor city. every single day there are rumors. >> reporter: prompting massa to go after pelosi and house democratic leaders, accusing them of conspiring to force him out because he was a no-vote on health care reform. >> mine is now the deciding vote on the health care bill, and this administration and this house leadership have said, quote/unquote --, they will stop at nothing to pass this health care bill. and now they've gotten rid of me and it will pass. >> reporter: and massa's opposition was from the more liberal side of the democratic party. he didn't think there was a sufficient public option, so that's why he was against it. now, i've talked to senior democratic aides who say there was no basis, in fact, in his allegation, and they say it's as absurd as it gets. ann? >> kelly o'donnell, kelly, thanks. you get the feeling that's not the end of what we're going to hear from that. >> probably not. let's get a check of the other headlines of the morning. ann's here, so natalie's at the news desk. good morning to you. >> good morning to you. forecasters say there's a possibility of severe weather today from missouri to alabama. on monday, tornadoes hit parts of oklahoma. this one caught on tape by storm chasers at severestudios.com. the storms damaged several buildings, but fortunately, caused no injuries, no serious injuries. today, president obama goes to st. louis to push for health care reform. on monday, he took his health care pitch to pennsylvania. nbc's chief white house correspondent chuck todd joins us, and chuck, the president appearing to be fired up. >> reporter: it was, natalie. it was the return of candidate obama. believe it or not, it had been six months since the president had done an event outside of washington totally focused on health care. well, that's what yesterday was about and that's what wednesday's going to be about. yesterday he rolled up the sleeves, he got rid of the jacket and he did two things. number one, he railed against the insurance industry in the health care situation. in fact, he used the word insurance some 54 times. only used the phrase health care 27 times to show the focus that they're trying to make that this is about insurance companies, insurance companies, insurance companies. second, he rallied democrats, trying to make it sort of a democrats versus republicans. if they stop us here, he was trying to imply, then that's it, he's not going to be able to get other things done. democrats on capitol hill were very happy with the tone, natalie. >> chuck todd live for us at the white house. thanks so much, chuck. police in southern california say a registered sex offender charged with killing chelsea king is the focus of the investigation into the death of 14-year-old amber dubois. last night, 1,000 people turned out at a vigil for amber, who disappeared a year ago. her remains were found on saturday. the u.s. government wants nigeria to investigate and prosecute those responsible for massacring more than 200 people sunday in renewed violence between muslims and christians. many of the victims in sunday's attacks were christian women and children. one of the two remaining american missionaries held in haiti for more than a month was released on monday. charisa coulter is now back in the u.s. the other american remains jailed, accused of trying to take children out of haiti after the earthquake. overseas markets are mostly lower this morning. as for wall street, cnbc's melissa francis is at the new york sto exchange for us again this morning. melissa, what are you watching there? >> reporter: good morning, natalie. it is the one-year anniversary of those multiyear lows we saw last march 9th, and since then stocks have really been on a tear. the s&p is up 68%, the nasdaq up 83%, the dow up 61%. crude oil up 75% in the past year. that's not good for consumers. and some of the most troubled stocks are the ones that have had the biggest gains. bank of america up almost 350% since this time last year. and texas instruments showing signs that the economy is recovering, said after the bell yesterday they can't keep up with demand. natalie, back to you. >> all right, melissa francis at the new york stock exchange, thank you. and a record-breaking milestone last night for the uconn women's basketball team. the huskies won their 71st consecutive game, an ncaa record. they beat notre dame 59-44. huge congratulations to them. there is a way to celebrate. 7:11 right now. let's turn it back over to matt, ann and al. they are a force to be reckoned with. >> i like that outfit with the basketball. >> that's a good outfit if you're winning. ifou lose the gamethat feels foolish. >> yeah. >> bill karins is in with a first look at the weather for al. >> the tornado got my attention yesterday and other people's, too. it's that time of year. as the spring arrives and the warmer weather, so does the severe weather. this is one of the first tornadoes we've seen in months throughout the middle of the country. five homes were severely damaged and some people would even say these storm chasers were too close, almost endangering themselves. speaking of severe weather, we don't have much this morning. we have lines of rain going from st. louis down to memphis, also from little rock, just outside of shreveport. and a cold rain, at that, from north platte northwards up through the dakotas. it will be a slow-moving storm system. yesterday, with 62, today it's going to be just as warm. another very nice spring day. not so nice tomorrow, because rain will arrive. 42 degrees is your temperature right now. tenleytown and in the district, reston at 30 and leesburg at two. high clouds coming in late. clouds and a few light showers tomorrow. there's just a slight chance th a better chance of rain for thursday, friday, and right through the upcoming weekend. u' highs there from portland to seattle. the warm spot on the map, go down there into texas, deep south, 83 degrees. that's a look at your tuesday forecast. matt? >> all right, bill, thank you very much. now to a man who is no stranger to controversy in washington. republican strategist karl rove served as president george w. bush's closest adviser for two terms. during some of the most trying times ever faced by an american president. rove opens up about that experience in his new book, "courage and consequence: my life as a conservative in the fight." he is with us exclusively and we should mention he is now a fox news contributor. karl, good morning. good to see you. >> thanks for having me. >> the book only comes out today. already the critics have gotten a hold of it. and some are saying this is 500 pages of you rewriting history, that this is putting the bes possible spin on some very controversial episodes. dana millbank, who wrote about the bush white house for "the washington post" writes "that business about president george w. bush misleading the nation about iraq? didn't happen." >> let's stop right there. >> go ahead. >> let's stop right there. he said one sentence. i devote an entire chapter to showing that bush did not lie about iraq. in fact, i quote democrats. there were 110 democrats who voted for the iraq war resolution. 67 of those democrats, including john kerry, john edwards, hillary clinton, on the floor of the congress said iraq had weapons of mass destruction. so, he may be able to dismiss it in one snarky line, but i have the facts in here. >> what you write in the book is that the president, president bush, would not have invaded iraq if he had known there were no weapons of mass destruction. and what you write is, "would the iraq w have occurred without wmd? i doubt it. congress was very unlikely to have supported the use-of-force resolution without evidence of wmd." but people have come forward saying there was intelligence pointing that saddam did have weapons of mass destruction, but there was also intelligence pointing in the other direction and there were voices of dissent, and those were ignored so the president could make his case. >> the intelligence was worldwide agreed that he had wmd. he had ignored 14 resolutions following his surrender after kuwait to account for his wmd. he had spent 12 years stiffing the international community. we now know because of two international reports by two international weapons inspectors, kay and doefler, that he was diverted tens of millions of dollars a year from the oil for food program to keep together the necessary -- >> but the agreement was not worldwide. this is from bob woodward's book "state of denial." in october of 2002, the top intelligence officer, major general james spider marks, in charge of looking for wmd in iraq looked at 146 wmd sites and said "he couldn't find with confidence there were necessary weapons of mass destruction or stockpiles at a single site." >> well, that's one, but there were many intelligence -- >> but you said it was worldwide. there was disagreement. >> there was a consensus. it doesn't imply that everybody agreed, but it implies that the preponderance of evidence and the majority of agreement was that there were wmd. and look, this is a bipartisan agreement. it was al gore and bill clinton, as well as republicans who said he had wmd. >> even former british prime minister tony blair in a memo in 2002 wrote "president bush had made up his mind to take military action even if the timing was not yet decided, but the case was thin." >> well, he agreed with the decision. and again, the british intelligence also believed that he had wmd. in fact -- again, it's a worldwide consensus. you can go back and try to rewrite history, but at that moment, we as a nation were faced with the belief that he had wmd, that he was a threat to the stability of the region, and in the aftermath of 9/11, the calculus changed, and it was, i repeat, a bipartisan agreement. >> you say if e president -- >> so, if president bush lied, then president clinton lied, senator clinton lied, senator kerry lied, senator edwards lied, senator kennedy lied. >> did the president share all of the information with the american public, all the intelligence, all of the dissenting voices? because if you go back to your assertion that congress wouldn't have voted for the use-of-force resolution without the threat of wmd, you don't have to be too big a cynic to say, of course they beat the drums about wmd. >> well, this will be surprising to you. the president was restrained. the president said i don't -- you know, if therere things that we don't have confidence in, we're not going to say them. in fact, you know, secretary powell, for example, went out to the cia to review the evidence for several days, literally 24 hours a day, talking to the experts, reviewing the evidence to come to his own conclusion. the president encouraged that kind of review. we made the information available to congress. congress had access to that intelligence as well. >> you write in the book that one of the biggest mistakes you think you made was not staying on the offensive against the critics of president bush after this thing started to fall apart. so, the mistake wasn't saying, hey, we made a mistake, we got bad intelligence or we acted on the wrong intelligence -- you were worried more about the political damage to the president? >> you know what i was worried about was this -- and let's be clear about what it was in the book that i talked about, and that is that in july of 2003, on one day, senator ted kennedy goes out and says bush lied about wmd. this is a man who two days after the vote -- which he voted against the iraq war resolution -- nonetheless, went out and made a speech saying iraq has wmd, there are other ways besides war that we can use to restrain that. the same day, senator tom daschle, leader of the senate democrats, went out and said the president is misleading the american people. the next day, senator john kerry and senator john edwards in separate appearances say the president misled the american people, was lying about wmd. they're joined by jane harman. when you have five major democrats in two days pick up the same line, which they know is incorrect, that bush lied about wmd, it was a political attack aimed at the heart of the administration and we should have responded more than we did. >> let me move on because we've got a lot to cover. hurricane katrina, by all accounts, the federal response, the federal government's response in the first couple of days, few days after hurricane katrina was a disaster, and there w