i'm matt miller in for dylan ratigan. new developments this afternoon in some major setbacks for the u.s. mission in afghanistan. afghan president karzai is demanding all u.s. troops out of local villages now. he wants his country in full control of his security in 2013. that's a year ahead of schedule. this is karzai meeting with leon panetta today. the u.s. has maintained no change in strategy is necessary, but half of americans agree with karzai. in the meantime, the american soldier has been flown out of afghanistan and is being held in kuwait. afghans are demanding he be tried within their borders. and the taliban have backed out of any possible peace talks with karzai and the the u.s. over the killings. after ten and a half years and massive losses, is it time to accommodate karzai and his request? let's bring in the mega panel.

let's start with afghanistan. you see what's going on. we have had over ten years there. they don't trust us. we have these awful things like the tragedy of this rogue soldier obviously killing these innocent civil yans. a civilians. and we're going to end obama's term with more troops than we had in at the beginning. karen finney, what are we possibly achieving there? isn't it time to pull out? >> well, i think that's the question that's probably being discussed and debated behind closed doors. you know, a lot of times -- essentially what happens, there are multiple plans being developed at any given time. i assume what's happening at this point, can we continue to be effective? if these were our mission goals, can we still accomplish those goals? does it make sense to do training if we have force protection there to be able to

do the training. those are the kinds of questions that get asked. they look at if we were going to get out, how do we do that? it's not just military forces, but we have civilian workers there on the ground as well. so hopefully, that's part of the conversation they are having. >> now, susan, i still feel like in some ways we're a victim of obama's 2008 campaign where he supported afghanistan as the war he could be for as opposed to iraq. are we a victim of this if almost four years later with what's happening now on the ground? >> i think right now four years later, we don't know what our troop goals are in afghanistan. that's why you see the poll numbers. i think karen brought up a good point. there's always multiple plans, but i don't think they can withdraw any faster unless they readjust their plan and

short-term goal will be. >> jimmy, your quick take on the latest in afghanistan? >> a couple thoughts. first, you've got karzai saying not in the villages. only on the bases. so he's saying to the rest of the country, head into civil war. taliban doesn't want to deal with him. obama has to figure out whether or not he wants to get troops out tweeb now and election day. the more he does that, the country goes into chaos. the country goes to hell in a hand basket. it's a no-win situation. >> the panel is going to sit tight. we have senator brown with us to talk a whole host of issues. welcome, senator. good to be with you. let's start with afghanistan. given what's going on on the ground now, you know the story. ten years in. so much blood and treasure. they don't trust us. the awful things happening.

what can we still accomplish? >> i think we accelerate withdrawal. i don't quite buy that the president speeds up withdrawal, we bring the troops home, forget about the election. but accelerate the schedule. i don't buy that it's going to hurt him politically if bad things happen. this has been a president who has had a successful foreign policy. by any measurement, what he's he's done to al qaeda, what he's done with osama bin laden, what he's done generally around the world, the world feels better about the united states than it did when he took office and our trade policy has gotten better. how we interact with the world has made him look better. there's some problems in some countries that's not going to affect the election in any way. >> the shame is there's so much in the decision making.

it seems to be based on the objects. i know you're very concerned about the veterans. we have so many folks who have done multiple tours of duty. they have higher unemployment now as they try to get back into the economy here. many of them with not only physical injuries and damage, but real post-traumatic stress disorder. are we doing right by our vets? >> of course, we're falling short. there's m plenty of people in congress that will send a blank check when it comes to spending money on defense and war, but are a little more hesitant on spending money on the actual veterans when they come home. that means we don't greet them well enough in terms of getting them the right testing when they are home. it means we are not providing the services. we're doing some pretty good things, but we're not doing enough. the lines are too long. it's one of the most effective

health care delivery systems in the country. we just don't funding it enough. we have a lot of work to do. congress needs a little better attitude about what we do with veteran services. >> let's shift to the home front for a minute. gas prices, obviously, in the news. the republicans trying to make hay with that. even talking about possibly tapping the strategic petroleum reserve. how do you assess how gas prices are hurting the president? is there anything the president can do in the near term? >> there's some things he can do like what he did 13 months ago with releasing oil from the strategic petroleum reserve. prices can stabilize. he did it back in january of 2011. they'll say it's a political thing, but he's doing it because it affects our recovery and individual motorists. we also know and we're urging the president to move a little

more aggressively on this. we gave the tools to the commodities future trading commission under the reform bill to go after speculation. a new study says 66 cents a gallon is added to each gallon of gasoline at the pump in dayton or springfield, ohio, because of speculation. we have the tools now to fight that. the administration needs to step up and do that. just the threat of the administration doing that can cause them to back off a little bit and maybe stabilize prices. those are some more meet things the white house can do. we know we are producing more oil in this country than we were at any time in the last seven years. demand is pretty stagnant, but every time there's a refinery fire or an outage of a pipeline or trouble in the middle east, oil companies and wall street use it as a chance to spike

prices. the government needs to fight back on that. >> you have fighting for jobs in ohio. your by america amendment that closes some of the loopholes just passed the senate. tell us the significance of that. >> passed on a voice vote. it just simply says if taxpayers are going to spend money building bridges like the oakland bridge that we know about with a lot of chinese steel, but if we're going to spend taxpayer dollars on bridges and highways, it's not just american workers doing the construction. it should be products made by u.s. products. other countries do that all the time to buy domestically. it's better for the environment. it's better for building support for the infrastructure projects. it's directly american jobs with american taxpayer dollars being spent. it's a no brainer. >> senator brown, in our waning

moments, goldman sachs in the news. all the fuss over the resignation by that executive talking about the corruption of their culture. what do you make of that? is that a touch stone moment? is this one disgruntled investment banker who is going to have a tougher time finding a new job? >> i don't worry about him. i think it's not surprising. i guess the subject of what he wrote isn't surprise iing. to me what matters is 30 years ago, 25% of our gdp was manufacturing and only 10% was financial services. today that's almost flipped. that's one reason wages for the middle class are stagnant. we know how to make things in this country. we do it in an advanced way now. we need more of a focus on making things. not just in states like ohio, which are big manufacturing states, but everywhere making things matter. whether it's clean energy or

food processing or oil production or building cars. >> senator brown, a voice for the people. my "washington post" colleagues are saying you're a main targeted came pain for the gop. keep up the good fight. >> thank you. coming up, a dylan ratigan show exclusive. bradley manning back in court today. we're one on one with his friend. plus a look back at an era of turmoil and sweeping change. a real life scene from it could happen to you that ended in a courtroom. stay with us. as a chef we are always committed to our suppliers... you know, those farmers, those foragers, those fishermen...

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places you can get to a in wisconsin na bego, go to santorum. places a require a jet or a yacht, go to romney. why won't gingrich quit? because if you think about it, he's actually kind of winning. >> the fact is in both states the conservative candidate has 70% of the vote. between santorum and myself, we'll get that. >> you don't get to add santorum's stuff to yours to make it sound impressive. that's like saying between me and lebron james last night, we scored 36 points.

>> the fallies of auction 2012. jon stewart having fun there. but with romney being the closest to clinch the nomination, the fight won't be over any time soon. the more it drags on, the more is it seems to hurt the nominee. the images taking a hit and their favorability dropping. the party is struggling with key voting blocs. our mega panel is back with answers. that's karen, susan, and jimmy. it's like madonna, cher, karen, jimmy. let me start with you. all these polls are showing the longer the race goes on, the more these guys favorability tanks. the negatives go up. they kind of continue to take each other down. am i missing something? >> no, you're exactly right.

i wrote about this this week. in 2008 in the contest between clinton and obama, we saw enthusiasm going up. even though it was a tough race for the democrats, we saw turnout going up and voter registration going up. and both were able to maintain high favorability by the end of that race. with this contest, because these guys are having to go after each other so hard, or that's the strategy they are employing, it's driving up their negatives, which drives down their favorability. but it shows not one of these guys is really able to win a majority of the full swath of the republican electorate. >> before i get susan in, you still have obama stuck at 45%. it's not like he's really benefitting right now. >> i don't think the president is going to benefit. i don't think we get an accurate picture. i have said this before. until we have a head to head,

making an argument about whatever the issue is, it's still a bit abstract i think. >> susan, joe biden is on the campaign trail today. i want to play a piece of sound we have from him and get your reaction. give joe biden a listen. >> they started the mention that said we would make auto companies wards of the state was their phrase. governor romney was more direct. let detroit go bankrupt. newt gingrich said "ia mistake." the guy i work with every day, the president, he didn't flinch. >> now susan, apart from joe biden's very mysterious tan, he's making some good points about the gop. the idea that blue collar workers are going to say these guys would have let the auto industry go down with a million

jobs. isn't that going to bite? >> i think at the end of the day the only chance of republicans winning is making the reference to president obama. just to go back to the numbers you pointed out earlier on the president. while he may be at 45% approval rating, his likability numbers are still around 50% or higher. that's the big problem that the republican nominee, whoever it may be, is facing because their negatives are going through the roof. so as we go forward, republicans are tired of this primary. they all believe romney is going to be the eventual nominee of 9 party. the rest is just noise. >> the process starts to play a little more in his favor. we have a lot of winner take all states coming up. is he going to have a chance to kind of run the table pretty soon and put this to bed? >> he would if gingrich and santorum would get the hell out.

but neither want to do that. the people are telling me that they are going to go all the way to the convention. despite the fact that romney has won delegates, many of those are unbound. here's what we do know. what we do know is that a majority of republicans, republican voters that have voted so far in all the caucuses, don't like mitt romney. so what does that say about the rest of the republican voters in the upcoming primaries? he may win them but not by a majority or by 50%. so with that said, i think the gingrich and santorum folks have to have a calculated decision. if they get closer and closer to the convention and romney has a decent number, will those people leave romney on the floor and go to one of the conservatives. i don't know that's the case or not the case, but they have to make that decision. >> let's segway from a candidate that nobody seems to relate to

to a story everyone can relate to. i love this lotto story. there were five construction workers where one of the workers -- they all used to pool money and buy lotto tickets. there was a $38 million pot. one of the lotto winners didn't tell his colleagues. he was the one who placed the bets, took the $17 million, quit his job and then it turns out they find out and sue him and a judge has said he's got to share the pot. karen, does this mean the kind of lack of ethics that we see at the top has affected real americans? >> maybe so. that's the kind of activity you expect to see on wall street. especially from goldman sachs. but look. it's just wrong. and of course, the judge said you've got to share with

everybody. i mean can you imagine? and by the way, foot surgery? that's really the best you could come up with? >> susan, this is going to affect any workplace group. what if the mega pant was placing bets together for years on these lottos. let me put you on the spot. who would be most likely to try to take the money and run? >> it wouldn't happen. but i have to say one thing about this guy. you have to say it. he's truly a greedy bastard. >> yes, he is. >> the gratuitous plug. jimmy, any words of wisdom on this shameless mess? >> i put on my blog that women rule the world. and let me be clear. if i bought a lottery ticket with these ladies, i would absolutely share with them or i'd get my butt kicked. >> total mega panel honesty and integrity. this group is going to stay

around. after this, photo graphs from a different time in american history. the controversial presidency of lbj and the lessons we can apply today. everyone in america depends on the postal service. i get my cancer medications through the mail. now washington, they're looking at shutting down post offices coast to coast. closing plants is not the answer. they want to cut 100,000 jobs. it's gonna cost us more, and the service is gonna be less. we could lose clientele because of increased mailing times. the ripple effect is going to be devastating. congress created the problem. and if our legislators get on the ball, they can make the right decisions. not in this economy. we also have zero free time, and my dad moving in. so we went to fidelity. we looked at our family's goals and some ways to help us get there. they helped me fix my economy,

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there are good folks in all organizations. you'll get things done. if you work through different organizations and get things done, it's the proper way to go forward. >> that's president of austin's naacp chapter. from the civil rights to voting rights, president lyndon johnson faced great challenges and created coalitions to address many of our nation's problems. it's something our specialist

says lawmakers can learn from that president. mark grove is the director of the presidential library in austin, texas. welcome, mark. i downloaded your book on kindell. the striking thing when you showcase his quotes from his former aids is how complex and contradictory this outsized man was. all his aids talking about caring, yet brutal. crafty, yet almost innocent and naive. what's the right way for us to think about him today? >> that's right. he was a bundle of contradictions. that's the reason i wrote this this. all the people who knew him as well as johnson himself to tell the story of lyndon johnson and

his presidency. you get different perspectives everywhere. my goal was to have a balanced perspective of who this man was and what he means to this country today. >> jimmy has a question for you. >> so mark, i have read the master edit. i will read the book. but if you were in washington today and you were sitting in the senate as a top staffer or senator and you had the thought and knowledge of lbj and his presence, what would you do differently? how would you make washington better? >> what very few people realize today is the legislative achievements of lbj. as we look at the stagnant that's washington in 2012, we can learn a lot from lbj. it happens to be the first of a

craftiness. you have to work around and outmaneuver opponents you might have and obstacles you might have towards pursuing your goals. second is cleej y'allty. the senate and house are places of cleej y'allty. you have to reach across the aisle effectively to get things done. you can't demonize opponents and expect to do business with them. the third is compromise. you might not get the law you want, but by getting something on the books, you have to compromise with your opponents in many cases in order to turn a bill into law. lbj understood those things. that's the reason he has such a formidable legislative record. >> before i get karen in, to be fair to the challenges obama had, it makes a huge difference. >> in some cases, he had big majorities but also enormous

obstacles. so did john f. kennedy. but they did not get legislation passed. lbj did because he understood those things. >> karen finney? >> just to pick up on that, though, when we look at the civil rights legislation, i was in selma for the march. bloody sunday is remembered as a turning point. wasn't johnson also part of that? he also understood the times and how to take advantage of the outside climate and the activism. certainly the civil rights legislation, i don't think we would have got than done had it not just been for him but for the work going on by so many organizations and so many in this country. >> there's a full conversation in the book. it's between lbj and martin luther king. lbj says to king, if you go down to selma and show americans how difficult it is for people of

color to register to vote and you get that in the media and the newspapers that there suspect a man who drives a tractor who won't say that isn't right. he understood the importance of working outside of the beltway as well. but looking at that legislation, the civil rights act of 1964, the reason he got it passed was by reaching across the aisle and getting the support of the senate minority leader. that was the key to getting civil rights passed in 1964. so he understood both of those things very well. >> susan? >> mark, when we talk about president obama, we know he didn't have the background in washington. so he wasn't able to be very crafty during his first term. he didn't like legislators. so he wasn't congenial with him. he was willing to compromise on several issues. i'm wondering, without those two traits, do you think an lbj who

had all three would be able to breakthrough this gridlock today? >> i think you have to have that across the aisle too. i think obama has shown a willingness to compromise. i don't think that's been reciprocated by the opposition party. i was in a conference last weekend where barbara bush said that compromise in washington has become a dirty word. compromise is the only way to get things done in washington. it seems like there's an inability for some on both sides of the aisle to reach out. that's the way things get done. >> mark, talk a little bit about the role of the media in presidential effectiveness. he was kind of as we look back, he's not a compelling figure on tv and the media has become such an indispensable tool. would lbj be as effective today? >> that's difficult to say, but remember the media is extraordinary important.

we have a 24/7 news cycle which we didn't have back then. he didn't present the best face on camera. but again, lbj understood how to get things done. people who mattered to say yes. that's still vitally important in american politics. it was then. it is now. >> well, it does -- just a couple seconds left. it does suggest there's a rage in politics for people to present themselves as the outsider, the most effective president was the deepest insider of insiders who was the master of the senate and everything else in ways that none of our presidents have since matched. also none of the candidates who seek the office try and make a credenti credential. >> he did understand the way that washington worked and that was important. he also understood human psychology. and again, human psychology was figuring out what it would take to get who was saying no to change their minds and say yes.

that he understood well. that's a vital skill today just as it was inniester year. >> there still was the vietnam obviously. led him not to seek a second term. what's the right way to view that tragedy in the way that mars so much of what you argue are his incredible achievements? >> he was an extraordinary ambivalent about vietnam. he didn't want to get into vietnam, but he didn't see a way out either. he thought it was consequential. we would have a world war iii that would be created just as we have in europe in world war ii. if you did not take a stand, you would have a bigger battle in the fight of the cold war. >> all right. the book is "lbj and the

presidency." hard to imagine a better title. thanks for taking the time to share that with us today. and thanks as always to our long-serving mega panel, karen, susan, and jimmy. thanks as always. straight ahead, the the madness begins. will you skip work to watch the games? we'll explain right after this. ♪ you are my sunshine, my only sunshine ♪ ♪ you make me happy when skies are gray ♪

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660 days now. an investigator deeming his treatment both cruel and inhumane. those comments likely to fuel the fire storm. he was accused of downloading a half million battlefield sensitive materials. he could face life in prison. back with us is david house, a friend of mannings. welcome. what did you hear about what actually happened in court today? >> so from the reports i'm getting, it it looks like his attorney filed a motion today to dismiss all charges against manning with prejudice on the basis that the government prosecution is not providing the defense with documents that are critical since defenses argument in court. of course, the u.s. government is saying that evidence that may be used by manning's attorney

are classified and therefore, cannot be given to a defense. this is a report from court today. this is consistent with david's earlier pointing out last december. there was a conflict of interest in the presiding officer in this court. so there's been some stumbling blocks. hopefully this will change and he'll have a fair trial soon. >> do you have any sense on where that decision is going to head? or any indication from your sources? >> it's hard to say. the u.s. government has a history of using things like state secrets act in order to stop the wireless tapping stuff that happened. so this is something that has some kind of validity, i guess. at least in the media. right now and much to the public outcry that says, no, you can't have a man being brought up on

espionage charges and refuse to give the evidence. it's an issue that requires a lot of public knowledge and support. they do hope to have a fair shot at getting due process. >> the other big dromt this week is the u.n. report by the investigator who looks into torture stuff. i want to read one court from the u.n. torture chief. he says imposing seriously punitive conditions of someone who hasn't been found guilty is a violation as well as of his presumption of innocence. what do you make of the u.n. report and what its impact will be? >> the u.n. report was vindicating to the activists who have been calling for his conditions to be changed. i imagine it's also vindicating for crowley, the u.s. state department's head that was forced to resign. this recent report by the u.n.

finding that the u.s. government and the obama administration have violated the united nations conventions on torture and treatment of manning is in line also with the human rights watch support last year saying the same thing. in some ways, you could say this incident embodies the fill jury of the obama administration. what we have is an administration who came into office promising transparency. instead we have seen the most prosecutions of whistle blowers of any president in u.s. history as well as seeing the torture, judging by the u.n., of a whistle blower here on u.s. soil. it sounds like the kind of thing that would happen in china. as a young man and political eigh activist, i'm worried about these developments. >> is there any standing in this military? any kpa chance it has an impact? >> my understanding is that the

united nations went half way. however, the members of this trial, the people in the upcoming jury, i think should consider what's been going on the last two years. in the wikileaks investigation, we have seen the torture of an alleged whistle blower. state officials have said this man is being tortured and it's ridiculous. we have had activists unfairly targeted. had computers seized. myself included. we have seen him suffering trauma. now from the defense attorney, we're hearing stumbling blocks are being thrown in the way for a defense effort. in my mind, this is similar to the elsburg incident that happened in the 1960s with richard nixon. using his plumbers to go in and

look at psychiatric reports. of course, the case against elsburg was dismissed based on the government's wrong doing. at this point, i think the u.s. government should drop the charges against manning. >> now, what would you say to people who are outraged by his treatment? what should they do if they want to protest that in some way that's tangible? >> it's hard to say now. the question is how do we actually impact our politicians? how do we make them know when we have an issue we care about. no normal methods of writing a letter or giving a phone call may not work. and the reason for that is that in the revelations from wikilea wikileaks, there were many political careers that were scuttled. many are upset at whistle blowing in general. so in this particular circumstance, i'm not really sure how you convince politicians that opening government up and protecting whistle l blowers and not

torturing them is a good idea. it looks like it's a battle people are going to have to fight some other way. >> there are critics of manning who put aside the obviously inhumane treatment na that the u.n. is calling out. what's your reply to critics putting treatment aside, what he did was wrong and put at risk and exposed to potentially being killed lots of sources of u.s. intelligence, lots of sensitive information about military operations and that was wrong even if it's wrong the way he's being treated in this murky military pretrial phase? >> it's a good thing you asked because one document that is in contention is the wikileaks impact report. this report was compiled by the wikileaks task force set up by the u.s. government to deal with

these. the task force findings were relative to nbc last summer who published an article going through the task force, going through the impact report and summarizing it in a sense there being no national security problems in the releases. no people were targeted as a result of the wikileaks releases. and a large part of the fury on capitol hill trying to prosecute manning being due to peoples' political aspirations being inhibited. so if the impact assessment if the report says they were not indeed happening, it makes me wonder where this propaganda is coming from. personally, i think all the markets firms working for federal security contractors are spinning out these talking points about a national security issue. when you come down to it, not a single person has been injured. this is nato talking.

in kabul or in iraq based on the releases of these documents. and in exchange, we have had more news and revelations about the deceptive practices of both parties in washington in the last two years we have ever seen. so in my mind, i think the critics should consider the source of their information and study more about the impact assessment. you can find it online. >> what message do you want the world to hear on behalf of your friend and where this is headed? >> we live in very difficult times right now. the u.s. government has for the last decade been at least building this larger and larger federal presence, which may threaten our liberty and national security more than any other threat we may face. i think if we allow the government to imprison whistle blowers and torture whistle

bloblo blowe blowers, then we are no better than any other country on the planet. i know we live in a better country than that. we live in an honorable country. every american should think about what our real american values are and think that protecting whistle blowers is definitely one of them. >> david house, loyal friend and eloquent advocate on behalf of his friend bradly manning. thanks for sharing your thoughts and perspectives on this today. >> thanks for having me. coming up on "hardball," vice president joe biden comes out swinging. chris matthews with the day's political action. but next, a former classmate, mrs. assad. oh dear... oh dear! ohh dear... i'm not sure exactly what happened here last night. i was out helping people save money on their car insurance. 2 more!

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while president assad has been cracking down on protesters, he's also been busy on itunes. several harry potter apps, and a country tune by black shelton. here with insight on her former classmate is imogen lloyd webber. take it away. >> thank you. today is a one-year anniversary of the uprising in syria. president assad's regime has slaughtered thousands. his wife has stood by her man. i was at school with her. we weren't brought up to marry monsters. what happened? she was queens college in

central london. it comes from a vast range of backgrounds, but we are open minded, feisty, feminist. she was a couple years above me. we weren't friends but we shared tea teachers, hallways, by all accounts she was typical of our school. london-born to syrian parents her father a surgeon and her mother a diplomat still live there under siege. ironic. some speculated that she was unaware of syria's current situation, but just released hacked e-mails allegedly between the assads indicate that she knows. i believe it. she's too bright not to. she speaks four languages, top honors at university, worked at jp morgan, why marry assad?

love. he was destined to be an eye surgeon, not president. his elder brother died. she was from a different sector. her new wider family hated her. yet she blossomed into the role of president's wife. traveled around syria learning about the people and their problems. embraced causes, ran companies, and designed clothes. was the good work all a front? in recent months, she's accused of spending tens of thousands of dollars online while the country starved. her people are in homes. but now she can avoid being lady macbeth. she and her children may be prisoners, but she can plead with her husband behind closed doors.

the man supposedly sent her an itunes file of "god gave me you." tell your husband to do what others urged you to do. leave syria so the bloodshed stops. no more blood on your hands. matt? >> that's very passionate and so important, imogen. she's like this tragic figure at this point because this wasn't what she signed up for, but it's hard not to think she's not evil if she's a conspirator with this, but what's a wife's duty? what's your message to her? she's got to get this out. >> i mean, she's just got to talk to him and get out and get him into exile. those e-mails are very revealing. they've got to go. >> very thoughtful about a difficult situation. that does