Defense Secretary Leon Panetta responded on Sunday to Mitt Romney’s criticism of the administration's drawdown plan in Afghanistan, saying that the plan to remove most troops by 2014 is working. 
 
 “I think you’ve got 50 nations in NATO that agree to a plan in Afghanistan,” Panetta said on ABC’s "This Week." “It’s the Lisbon agreement, an agreement that, you know, others, President [George W.] Bush, President [Barack] Obama, everyone has agreed is the direction that we go in Afghanistan.” 
 
 “That is the plan that has been agreed to. And it’s a plan that is working,” Panetta added. 
 
 Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has called Obama’s strategy to draw down troops in Afghanistan by the end of 2014 “naive” and “misguided." 
 
 Panetta called the Romney comments “campaign rhetoric” and defended the administration’s timeline. 
 
 “Very frankly, the only way to get this accomplished in terms of the transition that we have to go through is to be able to set the kind of timelines that have been set here in order to ensure that we fulfill the mission of an Afghanistan that governs and secures itself,” Panetta said. “That’s what this is about.” 
 
 Read more about: Afghanistan, Leon Panetta, Mitt Romney 

 Sen. John McCain had strong words Sunday for President Barack Obama’s foreign policy and his handling of the human rights crisis in Syria. 
 
 The Arizona Republican called the U.S.’s response to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s killing of civilians a “shameful episode in American history.” 
 
 “Nearly 10,000 people have died. This is a brutal regime of incredible proportions,” McCain said on "Fox News Sunday." “This administration has a feckless foreign policy that abandons American leadership.” 
 
 “It cries out for American leadership; American leadership is not there,” he added. 
 
 McCain, who was Obama’s Republican opponent in 2008, revived a common critique of candidate Obama insisting that he does not have a strategy for victory in Afghanistan. 
 
 “This all has to do with a policy led by a president who does not believe in American exceptionalism,” McCain said. “The only conclusion you can draw is that this president wants to kick the can down the road on all of these issues until after the election.” 
 
 “It’s really an abdication of everything America stands for,” he said. 
 
 Read more about: Barack Obama, John McCain, Afghanistan, Syria 

 Ousted Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar admits that his age (80) and his failure to work local party dinners cost him the primary — but he sees a much bigger problem with the Hoosier GOP and the national party. 
 
 "A large part of the Republican Party of Indiana believed, apparently, in the idea of individualism as opposed to community, a sense of no compromise as opposed to talking across the aisle," he said Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation." 
 
 Lugar said he had no plans to campaign for nominee Richard Mourdock but has been giving his former opponent advice. 
 
 And he blamed outside groups by name — "FreedomWorks, Club for Growth, Grover Norquist" — for turning his state into a negative ad "playground." 
 
 Lugar, a six-term Republican, was defeated this month by Mourdock, who will face Democrat Joe Donnelly in November. 
 
 Read more about: Richard Mourdock, Dick Lugar, Grover Norquist, Indiana Senate 

 Sometimes the guests get the sound bites; sometimes the hosts do. 
 
 CBS "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer kicked off the show Sunday with: "One of the refreshing changes when the president was elected -- he talked about hope and change. Whatever happened to hope and change? Now, it seems he's coming right out of the box with these old-fashioned negative ads." 
 
 Robert Gibbs was the lucky recipient of that query. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: Schieffer on Bain: Romney 'started this') 
 
 "There's gonna be a choice in this election," said Gibbs, a senior adviser for President Barack Obama's campaign. "Mitt Romney has been running for president many years of his life and [has] been very critical of this president's policies. ... People of this country will reject the sort of speculation-type gains Mitt Romney is quite good at for himself and his investors." 
 
 Schieffer wasn't done. He quoted Tom Friedman's column Sunday claiming Obama is the "worst president I've ever seen when it comes to explaining his achievements, putting them in context, connecting with people on a gut level through repetition." 
 
 Gibbs thanked Tom for the "free advice." 
 
 Read more about: Robert Gibbs, Bob Schieffer, Tom Friedman 

 Memo to both campaigns: Beware deploying Northeast mayors as surrogates on the Sunday shows. 
 
 This morning's Cory Booker performance comes courtesy of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who harshly criticized Mitt Romney's record of job creation in Massachusetts four years ago when he was seeking the Republican presidential nomination himself. 
 
 "He's the perfect choice" at a time when we need to be reviving the economy, Giuliani told Candy Crowley on CNN's "State of the Union." 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: Romney's a 'formal person,' Rudy says) 
 
 Then this: 
 
 "Well, I mean, there's a certain amount of personal ego in that — at that point, I was probably comparing his record to my record," he said about his dings at Romney. "And maybe it was circumstances or whatever, but I had massive reductions in unemployment. He had a reduction in unemployment of about 8,10 percent — I think it was 15 percent. I had a reduction of unemployment of 50 percent. He had a growth of jobs of about 40,000; we had a growth of jobs of about 500,000. So I was comparing what I thought was my far superior record to his otherwise decent record. ... That's all part of campaigning." 
 
 But, he added, Romney is much better than President Barack Obama. 
 
 "I think Gov. Romney has the better chance" of winning, Giuliani said. 
 
 But, he added, Obama isn't exactly out of it: "If [Obama] gets an economy that's improving, then it's anybody's ballgame." 
 
 Read more about: Barack Obama, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Cory Booker 

 Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray said, "We believe veterans' benefits" won't be slashed as part of automatic cuts included in the debt ceiling sequestration deal, in an interview with CNN's Candy Crowley on "State of the Union." 
 
 The Washington state Democrat did, however, express apprehension about the long-term funding prospects for VA as troops leave Afghanistan and the recent wars fade from public memory. 
 
 "We have sent our troops to war without paying for it. Now, we are bringing them home without saying how we are paying for it," Murray said in an interview that aired Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." 
 
 Murray said a one-year waiting list for some veterans' benefits is "unacceptable" but cited complex classifications of injuries as a potential explanation for backlog. 
 
 Read more about: Patty Murray, Veterans, Defense Spending
– Rudy Giuliani meant to raise up GOP standardbearer Mitt Romney today, but his ego slipped into the monologue and he ended up damning his onetime rival with faint praise, reports Politico. First calling Romney "the perfect choice," Giuliani then defended his attacks on Romney during the 2008 campaign: "I was probably comparing his record to my record. I had massive reductions in unemployment. He had a reduction in unemployment of about 8, 10%—I think it was 15%. I had a reduction of unemployment of 50%. He had a growth of jobs of about 40,000, we had a growth of jobs of about 500,000. So I was comparing what I thought was my far superior record to his otherwise decent record." Elsewhere on your Sunday dial: Robert Gibbs on going negative on Bain: "People have a visceral reaction to Mitt Romney's time as head of Bain Capital. This is a criticism—and a good criticism, quite honestly—of Mitt Romney's only thesis for being president of the United States, that he's some kind of economic savior. He's very good at making money for his partners. He's not so good at creating jobs." John McCain on Syria: “Nearly 10,000 people have died. This is a brutal regime of incredible proportions. This administration has a feckless foreign policy that abandons American leadership. It cries out for American leadership, American leadership is not there." Leon Panetta on Romney's attack on the Afghanistan drawdown: “I think you’ve got 50 nations in NATO that agree to a plan in Afghanistan. It’s the Lisbon agreement, an agreement that, you know, others, President [George W.] Bush, President Obama, everyone has agreed is the direction that we go in Afghanistan. That is the plan that has been agreed to. And it’s a plan that is working." Sen. Patty Murray says veterans' benefits won't be cut during sequestration, but: "We have sent our troops to war without paying for it, now we are bringing them home without saying how we are paying for it." Sen. Dick Lugar on his ouster: "A large part of the Republican Party of Indiana believed, apparently, in the idea of individualism as opposed to community, a sense of no compromise as opposed to talking across the aisle."