dug abuse ♪ ♪ no surprise you would try a glass pipe ♪ ♪ all these people love you for you, dog, it's all lies ♪ ♪ don't be surprised if you end up in a holding cell because someone tells ♪ ♪ welcome to my lonely hell the president is getting it from all sides. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm michael in for chris matthews. leading off tonight, getting it from the left as well as the right. senate democrats are mad at president obama, they plame him for losing the message war. here is what they want him to

do. lose all that bipartisan talk, put on the boxing gloves and cast republicans as the party beholding to special interests. ohio senator sharon brown will be here to offer his advice on how the president can regain the upper hand. plus, a militiaus, so fist cased krooip cyber worm was designed to sabotage the country's nuclear program. all signs point to israel. this may be the new way to take out iran's nuclear facilities. arepublicans are pushing fo tax cuts for the rich and won't sign for new unemployment benefits. president obama is meeting with leaders in portugal to map out the way forward. he previously set july 11 as the start of the draw down, but today, vice president biden called 2014 the drop dead day.

let's start with democrats unhappy with president obama. is he become ago lightning rod for his own party? senator sharon brown is a democrat from ohio. thank you for joining us, sir. >> good. good to be with you. >> i want to show you some of the reportage from politico about that caucus that you attended last night. they report nelson told colleagues, oba obama-on-unpopularity has become a serious liability for democrats in his state and blamed the president for creating a toxic political environment for democrats nationwide according to two democrats familiar with his remarks. is that an accurate report? can you paint the picture of what went on behind closed doors? >> well, i don't want to talk about a meeting that was held in private that was not open to the public. but i will say that, of course, the president is controversial, but among senate democrats, we want the president to stand strong.

as you just said, republicans want to block unemployment, but at the same time, republicans wanted to $700 billion in tax cuts for the 2% wealthiest people in the country. we want the president to make those distinctions sharply because that clearly will win the message and will help us govern the way we ought the govern. >> to what extent does that then limit his ability to deal with the right, particularly to these new republican house members if he gives those on the left what he's looking for? can he have it both ways? >> that's not giving people what they're looking for. what 80%, 90% of the country would prefer, if it's a choice, you maintain unemployment benefits rather than giving tax benefits to the wealthiest people in the country who have had a very good ten years, anyway. you know 90% of the country, the broad middle class has seen wages flat or worse in the last ten years while the wealthiest

the% or 5% have done very, very well. why do we give a tax break to those that have done so well and have our grandchildren pay for it with an even bigger budget deficit? that's not a left-right thing 37 that's a good government fight to the middle class, fight to the people that aspire to the middle class thing. >> senator brown, as another indicator of what's going on with problems in the president's own party, i want to show you james carvell. is he being a wimp or is he sounding the right tone or being on the right chiropractors? >> i don't know. i'm the guy in the campaign that said -- i don't know. >> indicative of what's going on within the democratic apparatus or an old wound let me tell over from what went on in the primary season of the last presidential cycle? >> i don't know. i don't comment on people who comment on us that way.

i look at it this way. the president of the united states -- i'm sorry, tren leader in the senate has said on at least one occasion that his goal for the next two years speaking for his republican colleagues in the senate, his number one goal is to make sure that barack obama fails and is that he is only a one-term president. this same republican leader, we're seeing this same kind of behavior. they wouldn't -- he refused to meet with the president this week, boehner and mcconnell, the two republican leaders refused to meet with the president of the united states. someone in the washington post wrote that when the democrats move to the center, the republicans moved the center. and that's really what boehner and mcconnell are trying to do. the president, for instance, in ohio in 2008, the president got 2.9 million votes. all the republican candidates for congress this election and this wave election got only a total of 2 million, i believe 11,000 votes. obama got 900,000 votes, 20 to

30 million votes nationally more than the republicans got this year. so there's no mandate to do tax cuts for the rich and deregulation and more of these outsourcing free trade agreements. that's not what the country needs to do. >> how much of the problem within the democratic party is his problem, the president's problem, as compared to driven by senate leaders? i'm wondering how much of the angst was self-directed. was there intro inspection? >> intro inspection all the time, of course. and there's always some difficulty times after a losing election. i mean, the republicans went through it in '06. the republicans went through it in '08. they decided immediately in january 2008, even though you could argue president obama had a mandate, they said no, no, no, they gave him a good day on january 20th, 2009, the republicans cooperate rated. by the next day they were saying

no and have been saying no for the next two years. i'm not saying no to the republicans, but i'm not saying we're going to do more tax cuts for the rich, more deregulation of wall street, more job killing outsourcing free trade agreements. those thingts don't work for the american public. they don't work in cleveland or toledo or dayton and they don't work for the center of the country. >> senator brown, i'm giving you two examples of what was going on with the president and his own party. sam stein reported in the huffington post that geororchblo ro os the old said we have just lost this election. we need to draw a line. the and if this president can't do what we need, it is time to start looking somewhere else. does he face a threat within his own party? >> no. i expect none. there are always -- whenever you lose an election, there's second-guessing, there's disappointment, there's anger,

there's anxiety, there's how are we going to face the next few months? the president is strong, the president needs to step up and make the distinction better. >> senator sherrod brown, many thanks for your time. >> glad to be with you. >> with me now is "time magazine"'s michael crowley. i asked the senator if he gives progressives what they're looking for, what does he do relative to make any deals with the republicans? >> i think there's no ability to make deals with republicans right now. what i think the left wants is clearer, as they say messaging. senator brown hit on what is probably the most profitable theme available to the white house right now. which is this issue of the tax cuts. i would say, you know, it's interesting because you hear this grousing among democrats, but they have handled the tax cut issue terribly. they had a chance to press this before the midterm elections, to force republicans to defend cutting taxes for the wealthiest, which is a really

unpopular position that republicans defend because it's built into the infrastructure of their ideology right now. and senate democrats and the house couldn't get it to a vote, couldn't get consensus on it. i think this is a place where obama can start to hammer, but he has not done so thus far. but it's not like senate democrats have been a model of strategy on this issue. >> but weren't senate democrats equally culpable? no one ran on health care who was seeking re-election. it seems like everyone just hid on the issue. wouldn't they have been better served if they said yeah, this is exactly what we did and here is why and tried to sell it to the american people? >> you mean on the obama agenda broadly. >> yeah. i i'm why is all culpability at his end of pennsylvania avenue? >> right. no, i see what you're saying. i think the tax cut fight is a good example where they didn't force the issue in the right way. there were some candidates in particular who tried to ride -- tried to own his agenda, tried

to run proudly on it. tom periello in virginia is an example. he outperformed what would have been the baseline expectations in his district. it wasn't enough for him to win. i think russ feingold tried to do the same thing. i'm not sure i see the evidence that the handful of people who tried that strategy were able to win. but at the end of the day, unemployment is close to 10%. to some degree, i think all the talk about messaging is overstated. there's only so much democrats can do running into the gale force head winds of an economy like this. >> michael crowley, thank you. >> thank you. >> coming up, who is behind the computer worm? experts now say the computer program was designed to speed up and destroy the centrifuges which iran is using to enrich uranium. hey, babe. oh, hi, honey! so i went to the doctor today, then picked up a few extra things for the baby.

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welcome back to "hardball" a computer warm found in iran earlier this year was likely a state-sponsored cyber attack aimed as destroying the country'nuclear program. it was designed to rapidly speed up the rotation of centrifuges used to enrich uranium. clues found in the coding of the virus point to israel. for more on this, let's turn to terrorism analyst roger cressi, a former national security council staffer and bob behr, now the intelligence columnist for time.com. bob, is this a substitute for an aerial attack? >> oh, i think absolutely. if we look at the archaeology of this, four years ago, israel was

pressing the united states to attack the nuclear facilities in iran. the bush administration refused, it was too dangerous. and i think what's happened is israel has turned to these indirect attacks, if you like. we had the case of a nuclear scientist killed in tehran and now we have the case of this virus, this trojan horse. we see the israelis rereferring to these indirect attacks. >> no. it was very directed. it was a complicated trojan horse. they knew exactly what they're doing. i understand they're very expensive to make. in this case like this, in an intelligence operation, you have to see who benefits and it's the state of israel who does. >> roger, how does it actually work?

hopefully you can explain it to me in lay terms that i'll follow. >> it was targeting industrial control systems, michael, and it was going after the programable logic control. so you think of a control system that's used in gas pipelines, power plants, all sorts of critical infrastructure. what happened here was somebody was able to get this into the -- into the infrastructure, probably on a programable thumb drive, a usb drive. and then it started ex mroilting vulnerabilities, four of which were never exploited before and it compromised and compromised to the point where it got to its target and then began, as you described, start to spin these electric converters in a way that took the centrifuges well beyond the speed of what they were supposed to do. so that type of sophisticated approach, this is what i would call a precision guided initiative. >> something more than touching the key. i'm consistently bombarded with e-mails that i know i shouldn't open, something more sophisticated than that? >> absolutely. this is not a group of

16-year-olds in a basement with time on their hands. there were over 4,000 programable functions in that, there were multiple layers to it. it was very, very complex and one of the most impressive pieces of mal wear that we've seen. that's why i think it was state sponsored and one of the reasons it was so effective. >> today's "new york times" reports that in recent weeks, officials in israel have broken into wide smiles when asked whether israel was behind the attack or knew who was. bob baer, what about the u.s. role, do you think the united states was involved in this? >> the israelis could do this on their own. i'm sure the administration was supportive of this attack. it's better than going to war with iran. the israelis aren't admitting it. for the iranians, they want to remain a mysterious force. and i think it was a brilliant operation, absolutely brilliant. >> roger, i hope i'm not catching you cold with this, but

to the extent we were playing a role, would it be legal? >> whatever role we were playing would be legal because it was done under covert authorities. the issue is always whenever you launch an attack in cyberspace, the traditional way that we do covert action doesn't pertain. i said this was a cyber precision guided mutation. that is true. but there is collateral damage associated with it. you can't control things when they're launched into cyberspace. i guarantee you if you u.s. government did have a role, and i wouldn't be surprised if it did, that this was covered under existing authorities. >> on one hand that this is the way it played out and if it was successful and spared the united states or israel from launching an aerial attack, then i applaud it. on the other hand, it raises questions as to our vulnerability. roger, what's your thoughts on that? i know you and richard clark have published extensively. >> the difference between

offense and defense is often the click of a key stroke. what you're now seeing is the department of homeland security and others in the united states are looking at the performance of this worm and saying, with our critical infrastructure, are there vulnerabilities that could be exploited the same way? and i think the real concern, michael, is that you're going to see some people out there who will take the code, work it on the edges and launch it in a different way. once something is shot into cyberspace, you can never bring it back and that's why you have that problem. >> on that question, i also read that it's extended beyond iran. india, by way of example. so how do we prevent this from entering the united states? >> well, the biggest issue is what it's going after. it's going after electric converters in the centrifuges. you could have a computer that's infected with stucksnet but it's not going to impact its performance unless it's a computer associated with those types of functions. in terms of what it's hurting, it's only those things that it was originally targeted, the

programable logic controllers. >> bob, it reminds me, as well, as the taking out of that hamas leader january of this year in dubai, something else widely attributed to the israelis and to the masad. they seem to relish in the reputation that they're enhancing, that they can carry out such attacks. >> oh, they want to inb tim date, there's no question about it. now, in dubai, i don't think they wanted to get caught as they did. but in this case, it's -- the israelis sometimes are very good and sometimes their operations don't work. they're like any other intelligence agency. >> roger, is this a short-term fix in iran, to the extent we've been successful in the centrifuges are now running haywire? for how long will that be the case? is it a permanent fix? >> no, it's not a permanent fix, michael. this is a cool operation, whoever did it. and it buys us and the israelis and the west time, time to continue to work this issue in a nonmilitary means. it was extremely successful and demonstrates there will be other

attempts to set back iran's nuclear program through cyberspace and nonmilitary means. secretary gates said last week he does not think the military solution is viability. you'll see other programs like this. >> i appreciate your time very much. thank you for being here. up next, vice president joe biden gave a very diplomatic response after listening to sarah palin say she could beat barack obama. stick around for the side show. [ male announcer ] for fastidious librarian emily skinner,

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welcome back to "hardball." first up, the tsa body scan, nobody it seems escapes a patdown. >> what's up? what's all this extra security about tonight? >> we have president bush on the program, so everybody gets

patted down. even you? this is your show. >> makes no sense at all. >> tell me about it. >> my problem is after one of those, i'm all for it. if there's a guy walking around with a bomb in his -- i want to know about that. i don't mind the excessive groping and the probing. my problem is when it's done, i don't know how much to tip the guy. i never know. >> and today, the tsa announced one group of people who will not have to go through the body scanners or the pat-downs, pilots. now to vice president joe biden who found himself in an unfamiliar situation today, momentarily speechless. here he is on ""morning joe."" >> if you ran for president, could you beat barack obama? >> i believe so.

>> well, i -- look, you're going to get me in trouble. i don't think she could beat president obama, but, you know, you -- she's always und underestablishme underestablishmented, so, you know, i think -- i think i shouldn't say any more. >> speaking of 2012, the des moines register gives a blunt assessment of newt gingerich's chances. the paper's political columnist writes, he may be intellectually gifted, but he's no rock star. he's 67 and looks his age, but he can't match palin or even mississippi governor haley barber when it comes to charisma. ouch. knew for tonight's 2012 related big number, how much will it cost to run for president? republicans leaders establishmeest mate $35

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