tough sledding ahead. new jersey senator robert menendez chairs the national democratic campaign committee and joins from new york. senator, i'll bet you took the job this year, this cycle. some heavy lifting. >> i got drafted by harry reid, andrea, but it's an important one it. >> is indeed. harry reid's, one of his toughest races. let's go to new york where you are now. blumenthal being challenged by mcmahon. that's down to single digits. what do you do to try to compete against the money, the millions of dollars she's pouring into this race? >> well, other polls have us up by double digits but let me just simply say i think the debate showed it the other night, a hard fighting attorney general who stood up to the consumers and people of connecticut versus someone who ran a business that was replete with all of the wrong values, including, you know, trying to hide steroids in that -- in her industry, trying to talk about her views that maybe we have to reduce the minimum wage and not even knowing what the minimum wage is. so it's funny to see you in a commercial with a lunch pail box talking about creating jobs and then at the same time talking about reducing the minimum wage. so, yes, she's spent millions, but millions won't buy you the type of reputation and work that dick blumenthal has done in connecticut. let me take you next to west virginia where he's having trouble with another popular candidate. he's got a new website, trying to seize on comments by his opponent opposing the minimum wage in the past and supporting a national sales tax, but man chin is having problems. >> he's the one who's on the ballot. he has a 70% approval rating, one of the highest of any gov really lives in florida is not going to serve west virginia well, and i think the voters of west virginia are going to look beyond whatever they think of president obama and look at governor manchin and say let's vote for west virginia, let's vote for a guy who's increased jobs in villanueva in the face of difficult economic times in our country, let's send him to washington to do the same thing. >> going to washington where in some of the latest polls i guess russ feingold is up burke that is by many observers in the democratic party going be one of the tightest races and one of the most endangered democrat. you have a tea party candidate rob johnson. he's one of the most independent democrat you guys have in the ka was. how are you going to save him? >> he's going to drive the difference. you know, against the minimum wage. russ feingold is probably the most independent member on either side of the aisle in the united states senate. that's why they've sent him to the senate. and as they continue to look at the differences between these two candidates, you know, again, here we have a self funder who doesn't understand the hardships of working men and women in wisconsin. russ feingold does and that independent is going do help him win on election day. >> now, if president obama is challenge and facing re-election as having problems in2012, what the idea of a job swat, joe biden becoming the secretary of state and hillary clinton on the ticket? >> i think they're both doing a great job. >> would she be a big boost, though, for the president in a re-election bid? >> i think they're both doing a great job in the positions they're in. people love joe biden throughout the country. he's campaigning for our candidates throughout the country. he's incredibly well receive and hillary clinton has changed the way we're viewed in the world. they're both doing good for the president. and michael steele being asked his word on what the minimum wage is, take a listen. >> what is the minimum wage, michael? >> you really like the middle wage, don't you? >> i -- >> whether minimum wage is $7, $10, or whatever it happens to be in whatever part of the country you live in, the fact is if you don't have a job, that number is irrelevant until you get one. >> the minimum wage is notñr $7r $10, but let's move on to jobs snow that will be your headline. that will be the headline, lawrence, you still don't know the minimum wage. >> he's right about that. it's $7.25 and it's the same in every state. >> what's that? i'm sorry. don't know if you heard michael steele but what about the fact that there is a federal minimum wage. it's $7.25. >> right. it's the -- it's more than just not knowing the number that it's $7.25. it's really that you're not in touch with working men and women. the republican party, the reason we have $38 million of corporate non we don't know who they are or who's expending it against our candidates in senate races so far, so far money that i think is dirty, money that i think is totally untraceable, money that i think could even come from foreign corporations is because they stand up with big business, big insurance, big banks, big oil, and it pays off for them. so i'm not surprised they don't understand what the minimum wage is and why so many americans having that baseline is so important. >> senator, thank you very much. appreciate you joining us today. as we've been discussing, democrats are losing the money wars, not to the republican party but to the real players in the race, independent conservative leaning groups operating with very little or no oversight pouring millions into republican by some estimates they're outspending their democratic counterparts by a 5-1 margin. eugene robinson is the author of the new book, disintegration/the splintering of america. i want to ask you about a column that you've written. you've boiled down the numbers and the way the independent groups, because of the supreme court overturning those of feingold, to just spend willy, nilly. >> right. the independent groups, one of them best known as the american crossroads. >> they all have nice-sounding names. >> they have wonderful names. americans for future fund. >> americans for motherhood. >> who doesn't want america to have a future. >> right. >> so they have these antedime sweep-sounding name bus that can raise any corporation or association or individual can give an unlimited amount of money to these groups, and they can spend as much as they want. they have to maintain a kind of technical independence from the candidates themselves. so they can't act in concert with, say, aka a candidate in a particular congressional districtern but they can pile in as much money as they want on behalf of that candidate. they just do it independently, and they say that, well, gee, we support so-and-so's position and we oppose the other guy, and that's exactly what they're doing. they're picking out races and pouring huge amounts of money into them. >> this could be determinative. i want to get to your book. you write about president obama's election and you say we could not expect to convince anyone that all of black america still suffered equally from american history not when black americans were plainly visible in positions of supreme power and influence. it was increasingly clear to me that there was no one black america. you see the divide clearly. >> you do. if you think back to when we were kids, you could generalize about black america and you could say, number one, most black americans has reached the middle class, the group i call abandoned who did not reach the middle class who were too large a minority and who aren't going to climb that ladder because the rungs are now missing, the rungs that have traditionally been used to pull oneself up out of poverty and then the small tiny group that i refer to as transcend ent which includes obviously president obama. but people like oprah winfrey and richard parsons. african-americans who have a pow over society, that would have been impossible decades ago. >> is the divide greater in these two groups or does one empower the other? >> well, i think the two main groups, the mainstream and the abandoned, think if you look at the figures and look at what's happening, in fact, the distance is increasing. the distance geographical because people move to other neighborhoods, economic and socially and culture rally, the gap is widening, and i kind of wanted to do this resurvey of black america as a way of focusing attention and saying, you know, there's a big group of people who are being forgotten and the danger of being left behind for many generations more. >> well, it's powerful reporting and we thank you. >> thank you so much. >> i love the cover. it's wonderfully graphic way of symbolizing what you're talking about. thank you, as always, gene robinson. coming up the latest on the terror threats overseas. plus two dozen more nato trucks fire bombed today. trucks fire bombed today. we'll be live from islamabad. and should there be a two-month moratorium on home foreclosures. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." 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(announcer) are u gellin'? dr. scholl how are you getting to a happier place? running there? dancing there? how about eating soup to get there? campbell's soups fill you with good nutrition, farm-grown ingredients, and can help you keep a healthy weight. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. for the sixth time in less than a week, a nato convoy has been attacked again today by militants in pakistan. this time more than two dozen nato trucks were ambush and burned as they waited to cross over the border. ian, tell us about the latest incident and what they're doing to try to protect these convoys? >> reporter: andrea, we're, in fact, getting reports of yet another attack on a con i have, this time between the capital of islamabad. details are sketchy, but it seems once again to involve gunmen firing on fuel tankers and trying to set alight the wheels. this morning it happened in the southwest of this country, again, a gunmen attacking a convoy of tankers, 25 of which were set ablaze. now, this really seem eseemeds this. without security really sitting there like sitting ducks with no immediate indication of when pakistan will reopen that border crossing. andrea. >> thank you very much. ian williams with that breaking news from pakistan. meanwhile in yemen a car carrying five british dip pllom had rockets launched. and the french foreign ministry has warned that french tourists should be worrying about terrorism. the risk of an attack is very likely. with all of the we have a very special guest. jack is ahead of the british armed forces and is in washington for a visit. thank you very much for joining us. first let me ask you about the nato convoys going into pakistan, the fact that first of all their access was blocked and they are sitting ducks. what does this say about our forces and the supply line? >> well, it's an very important issue, and the first thing to say is it's a serious issue as are the attacks on the fuel tankers. need to talk the and act on the authorities to provide appropriate security through the country. >> that brings us to what pakistan is or is not doing. first of all they've closed some of the other access to afghanistan. they are uncertain allies according to the white house report, the civilian government certainly has been very, very much weakened by the floods, by the bizarre behavior, all of the problems that have been well catalogued. but the military is not challenging al qaeda, not challenging them in whiz zero stan. for whatever reason they're not taking on the bad guys oochz. >> that's truly. i think they've come a long way over the past couple of years. one of the key concerns for the gentleman in charge of the pakistani army is the overall reputation. so he's always very conscious of what public opinion would allow. it shifted dramatically in pakistan after the infamous swap deal fell apart and he was able to move his troops into that area. now, they've had some success. that's come to a grinding halt because of the response that was necessary due to floods, but the much more important issue is that whatever the military does, there it's sort of like afghanistan. unless there's a civilian follow-up, this will not have an enduring effect. so frankly it comes back to the civil government in the end. >> and in that light i just want to also play for you something that the head of our intelligence, general clapper, who you may well know, our new director of national intelligence complained today about the leaks, about all of the intelligence and what that -- the toll that that takes over our operations in the field. this is what he had to say about the president's complaints and a meeting with counterterror officials just yesterday. let's watch. >> i was ashamed to have to sit there and listen to the president express his great angst about the leaking that's going on here in this town. and as the president remarked, the irony here is people engaged in intelligence who turn around and talk about it publicly. >> general clapper obviously showing a little bit of heat today, but apparently the president showed some heat yesterday in that meeting saying that future operations may be jeopardized by press reports. do you think the press reports help or hurt? >> it all depends on the circumstances. this is a very difficult issue because we live in democratic open societies where the public wants to have information, wants to know what's going on with the government. but the key thing about intelligence is it needs to be secret, otherwise it loose as great deal of its effect. >> i want to ask you again about pakistan because that's our chief concern today. without a strong government will the military be able to take on the terrorists, or are they going to continue to look toward india and toward more traditional foes and nout put the resources they need? >> the military will be able to take on the insurgents and terrorists but they won't be able to spread an enduring effect. they've been without it for far too long. for example tribal areas will have an enduring effect. they need to get the eight programs going, get the roads reconstructed. all of this was truly before the floods. after the floods, of course, the problem has been raised many degrees. >> now do you have any reporting from yemen as to the attack against your colleagues, the briti british? >> we had one person slightly injured in the back, but thank heavens that was the sum toe total of it. yemen is a dangerous place. we face huge risks in somalia. it's important we take a wider view and bear in mind all of the dangers that exist in this very uncertain world. should ask you. is there a very likely threat of a terror attack in the uk as the french foreign ministry has warned today? >> there is always concerning terror attacks on the mainland and the united kingdom and i think at the moment we're at a particularly heightened alert because of the number of things going on, but, again, i would hesitate in saying too much because as i referred earlier, the secret intelligence needs to stay secret. >> thank you for your service. you're close to retirement. for all of your service during four long years, several wars, we thank you as a nato ally and a friend. >> thank you. bients a great pleasure being here with you. coming up next, the e-mail war, not friendly there between todd pay lynn and joe miller. what's going on. what does it tell us about sarah palin's plans for 2012. re an ex. what? 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>> there's been e-mail exchange and it's been authenticated. there is a little there there. we don't get many glimpses inside palin's inner circle. she's quite opaque in terms of who are her advisers, how does that work? so this is a nice glimpse of irritation and sensitivity on her part about joe miller's rather tepid response when asked if she was prepared to be president. >> let's share it. >> pardon? >> i want to read it. i think as you point out it really takes you behind the scenes in a wonderful way, quote, this is from todd palin, of course, hold off on any letter for joe. sarah put her blank on the line for joe and yet he can't answer a simple question, is sarah palin qualified to be president. doimgt know if she is. joe, please explain how this endorsement stuff works. is it to be completely one sided? sarah spent all morning working on a facebook post for joe. she won't use it, not now. just found this in my inbox. this is what we're dealing with. note the date and complete misconstruction of what i said. holy cow. first as joe scarborough pointed out, does it really take all day to write a facebook page if that's what sarah palin is doing to keep busy, but anyway, it tells you about the future, and they're thinking about politics. >> it definitely tells me that they are like most politicians, very sensitive about their public image, and they keep score, and i don't blame the palins for feeling a little bit aggrieved when they clearly had a major -- were a major impetus behind joe's victory. that sort of tepid comment would make anyone angry. we haven't seen much of todd pay lynn or no palin. clearly as you put it, an degree ya, he sees himself as the enforcer. >> john harris, thank you so much. >> okay. see you soon. >> and coming up, the push to halt home foreclosures. that's gaining steam amid allegations of fraud. on my refi, or pay me $1,000? 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>> i love that. yeah. he's an expert at foreign policy. man, he'd be a terrific secretary of state. look, my ears picked up, too, andrea when i heard that. i still think this is the kind of stuff that is just -- i will admit, being part of it -- candy for people like me saying, oh, my gosh, a vice-presidential swap. it comes around every once in a while this is going to happen. during the 2008 campaign there was talk at the last minute he would sub in hillary clinton. remember back with bush, there was speculation he should sub out dan quayle in his 1992 re-election. i don't think that's going to happen. that said, to your point, in a statement in which you were clearly trying to knock down speculation that a switch is going to happen might not accomplish the desired goal. >> and knowing you were going to get the question, it's not as though she is new to any of this. >> no. >> this is what happened when i asked bob woodward about it yesterday. it was based on talking to someone in tinner circle who did not discount this, in fact, led me to ask this question of bob woodward yesterday. >> if he seeks re-election as they expect him to, he could be in trouble like he is now and need the support of the groups that hillary clinton did very well with in the primary elections, bring her on the ticket and they'd all go out there and be delight and happy, and it might help obama politically. >> and, chris, the fact is it's not truly until it's truly. back in 1992 i was around. jim baker wanted that to happen. >> yep. >> and the president resisted and he was too loyal and a lot of people think if dan quayle had been dumped, perhaps the '92 election would have turned out differently. you never know what's going to happen closer to 2012. >> andrea, bob is right clearly about one thing. hillary clinton is strongest along rural white working-class voters. there's lots and lots of them in ohio, michigan, pennsylvania. those are the states that we're going to be talking about in 2012. president obama carriy eied all them in 2008. his numbers are not nearly as good in november of 2012. could it help him? yes. i wonder if it doesn't look too chaotic. not to say it couldn't happen but i still think it's very unlikely. >> exactly right. thank you very much. house speaker nancy pelosi asking the justice department to investigate mortgage lenders to see if they have committed fraud after a growing number of states have halted foreclosures. ail lied financial and other mortgage giants are only the latest to put thousands of evictions on hold. now lawmakers and the afl-cio want a 60-day voluntary foreclosure moratorium. congressman elijah cummings is here now. great to see you. a frequent guest but not always here. what is your concerning the foreclosures? the lenders say the paperwork was more complicated and that they realized and they were protecting some of these clients as well by moving more quickly burke are you concern ed -- you're concerned about fraud obvious obviously. >> i'm extremely concerned about fraud. believe me, andreandrea. come on. you've got big banks,alli, georgia p morgan chase and bank of america admitting they did not address the paperwork, affidavits properly. now, keep in mind. these affidavits tested two very important things, one, that he actually owned the proper and he had a right to fore cloerse, an two, that they were in default. you even got them admitting they were in all kinds of errors. i'm not talking about 100 or 150. we're talking hundreds of thousands when we add them all up. so, no, we want to make sure the process is fair to the person being foreclosed upon. we're not saying don't foreclose if you're doing it right. we're just saying there's a process, and you need to go by the process. >> if this investigation take place and everything sheld up, what about the effect on the credit squeeze and some of the borrowers themselves? could this have a negative effect on some of the most vulnerable people? >> no, not so much. i think the people it would hurt the most are folks trying to buy property. a quarter of all the sales right now 50rks% rather are foreclosed properties, but it is important that we do things right and doing them according to the laws. >> i'm just saying could you slow down the recovery if you put a bigger freeze on the -- >> we're only talking about two months. and keep in mind, these companies have done these kinds of things, that is, done moratoriums from, say, thanksgiving to the beginning of the year before. simply because they didn't want to put people out of their houses. all we're saying is check your process. if your process is fine, there's no problem. butthese are companies that have already admitted -- i think it's systemic. i think it's throughout the entire industry. >> have you heard back from justice? >> not yet, but i'm sure they'll be looking into it. we've got to be fair. keep in mind, we've given these banks a lot of money, alli and jpmorgan. now they've got to do right. one of the reasons why we have this problem, andrea, is because these banks have not stamped up. they do not have sufficient staff to address the issues. all we're saying is let's be fair to those people who may be losing their houses and keep in mind a house is someone's usually number one investment. >> thank you. coming up, a new documentary on a peace movement in the middle east. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. i said " "well, let's grow some algae." and that's what started it. exxonmobil and synthetic genomics have built a new facility to identify the most productive strains of algae. algae are amazing little critters. they secrete oil, which we could turn into biofuels. they also absorb co2. we're hoping to supplement the fuels that we use in our vehicles, and to do this at a large enough scale to someday help meet the world's energy demands. rheumatoid arthritis going? 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[ woman ] ask your rheumatologist about simponi®. just one dose, once a month. i don't know. i just know the soldiers, but i went many times to my father in the prison and all i can say is the men were very, very bad. but now i know that not all israelis are the same. some of them think we should live together and be -- >> that's a clip from a new documentary which tells the story of a non-violent protest movement in the west bank. in the movie members of feuding palestinian political factions join together along with palestinian women and israeli activists to protest. with us now the queen of jordan who believes the film could have an impact and the film's director. thank you both for joining us. first let's talk about where we stand today because we have negotiations that are -- have been frozen by israel's refusal to extend the settlement freeze, the palestinians' walkout, the administration failing to make concessions and bring them together. what does it tell you about the state of failure, again, in the region? >> well, it speaks to the fact that there has been a consistent deterioration on the ground, and you will see this in the film, "budros" very clearly. twice as many settlements from 250,000 to 500,000 today and 20,000 outposts and eating up the land and preventing palestinians and others from believing there is the israeli political will to achieve a peace settlement because that won't be possible if there is no land vialablele for a palestinian state. these are illegal under international law and they have been for american administrations that go back to 1967 and since for almost all of american administrations for whom these have been illegal and yet somehow they have continued to grow and prosper at the expense of palestinians' economic and social and political routes. >> but julia, here you were trying to show that there's a nonviolent side to the protest. at the same time only today the hamas leaders in gaza warned the palestinian fatah leaders in the west bank that if they try to crack down on hamas violence in the west bank that there will be an all-out conflagration. so you've got it on both sides. >> what we show in the documentary film "budrus" though, despite the grass roots level there are many activists from hamas, from fatah, from islamic jihad, from the wide diversity of political groups that are working together to use nonviolent strategies. this is a documentary film opening this friday in new york and opening all across the country. you will see that on the grassroots level things look a little different than what we see on the mainstream level every day and there's a lot more information that we're getting. >> that's very much the case just from having been on the ground. i know how difficult it is to get attention on what is happening day in, day out in the territories, in gaza, and also in israel politically. this is what secretary clinton had to say today. i want to ask you about this coming up. >> i'm convinced that both prime minister bett ten ya huh and has want to do. they have the naysayer voices and the legitimate concerns about what the future would brink. >> queen noor, do you believe there's good will on both sides? >> i know -- "budrus" shows very clearly there's good will on both sides at the grassroots level. i've felt it and seen it through my work over a number of different initiatives over the years, but, yes, i think the vast majority of people on both sides are looking and capable of collaborating together as we see them working together in the film "budrus" to see an injustice, correct the injustice, and succeed in doing so. so, yes, i know it's there. i felt that i've seen it. there's a political disconnect between parties and the people on the ground, the vast majority of people on the ground on both sides. >> thank you so much julia basha and queen noor. we look very much forward to seeing the documentary when it opens here in washington. you said it's opening in new york and around the country as well. thank you for your work. we'll talk politics with headlines in the next 24 hours. k on the top of every box to let people know that their cereals have healthy whole grain, and they're the right choice... 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[ printer whirs ] done. ♪ thanks. do you work here? not yet. from tax info to debunking myths, the field guide to evolving your workforce has everything you need. download it now at thinkbeyondthelabel.com. and right now, president obama is awarding the nation's highest honor, the medal of honor, postmousily to an army green beret killed in the line of duty. >> in an era that prizes celebrity and status, they are quiet professionals, never seeking the spotlight. in a time of war, they have born a burden far beyond their small numbers. training foreign militaries to stand on their own, bringing schools and medicine to remote villages, and taking to the terrorists an ad insurgents who plot against us. few americans ever see their service, but all americans are safer because of it, and our hearts swell with pride just hearing their names. including the legendary green berets. today, it is my privilege to present our nation's highest military declaration, the medal of honor, to one of those remarkable soldiers, staff sergeant robert j. miller. to do so, we are joined by vice president biden and from the miller family's home state of florida, a leader who helped make this day possible, congresswoman suzanne cosmos. we are joined by leaders from across my administration, including secretary of defense robert gates, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, admiral mike mullin, and leaders from our armed forces, including army secretary job mccue and chief of staff general george casey as well as commander of special operations command, admiral eric olson. we are honored to be joined by rob's fellow soldiers. his teammates from alpha company, third battalion, third special forces group from ft. bragg. and those who now welcome him into their ranks, members of the medal of honor society. most of all, we welcome more than 100 of rob's friends and family, especially his father, phil, his mother, maureen, and his money brothers and sisters. it has been said that courage is not simply one of the virtus but the form of every virtue at the testing point. for rob miller, the testing point came nearly three years ago, deep in a snowy afghan valley. but the courage he displayed that day reflects every virtue that defined his life. rob was wise beyond his years. growing up in wheaten, illinois, outside of chicago, he was the boy in school who penned a poem about american gis in world war ii, men like the soldier rob would become himself, who he said fought day and night, fighting for what they thought was right. rob was born to lead. the high school gymnast who trained so hard, his coach had to kick him out at night so they could close the gym. he was the army recruit who pushed himself to his limits, physically and mentally, to earn the title green beret. he was the special forces soldier who, on his first tour in afghanistan, earned two army commendation medals for his valor. devotion to duty, an abiding sense of honor, a profound love of country. these were the virtus that found their ultimate expression when rob, just 24 years old and on his second tour, met his testing point on january 25th, 2008. rob and his team were in the remote northwest of afghanistan. their mission, clear a valley of insurgents who had been attacking afghan forces and terrorizing villagers. when they came upon an insurgeant compound, rob and his men made their move, ubleashing their fire and calling in air strikes. now, they were on foot, headb over to that destroyed compound to assess the damage and gather intelligence. it was still dark. just before dawn. it was freezing cold and silent, except for the crackle of the radios and the crunch of snow under their boots. like so many times before, rob was up front, leading a patrol of two dozen afghans and americans on a narrow trail along the valley floor. the steep mountains towering over them. at first, it was just a single insurgent, jumping out from behind a boulder. then the whole family seemed to explode with gunfire. within seconds, rob and his patrol were pinned down with almost no cover. bullets and rocket propelled grenades raining down from every direction. and when enemy reenforcements poured in, the odds were overwhelming. rob's small patrol of two dozen men was nearly surrounded by almost 150 insurgents. with the enemy just feet away, some so close he could see their faces, rob held his ground. despite the chaos around him, he radioed back enemy positions. as he organized the afghan soldiers around him, the incoming fire in the worlds of one soldier was simply astounding. rob made a decision. he called for his team to fall back. and then he did something extraordinary. rob moved in the other direction, toward the enemy, drawing their guns away from his team and bringing the fire of all those insurgents down upon himself. the fighting was ferocious. rob seemed to disappear into clouds of dust and debris. but his team could hear him on the radio, still calling out the enemy's position. they could hear his weapon still firing as he provided cover for his men. and then over the radio, they heard his voice. he had been hit. but still he kept calling out enemy positions. still, he kept firing. still, he kept throwing his grenades. and then they heard it, rob's weapon fell silent. this is the story of what one american soldier did for his team, but it's also a story of what they did for him. two of his teammates braved the bullets and rushed to rob's aid. in those final moments, they were there at his side. american soldiers there for each other. the relentless fire forced them back. but they refused to leave their fallen comrade. when reenforcements arrived, these

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