Politics

FOCUS | Four Reasons Romney Might Still Win

Thursday, 20 September 2012 10:26

Excerpt: "Can Romney possibly recover? ... Don't for a moment believe 'Romney's dead,' and don't be complacent. The hard work lies ahead, in the next seven weeks."

Portrait, Robert Reich, 08/16/09. (photo: Perian Flaherty)

Four Reasons Romney Might Still Win

By Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog

20 September 12

an Romney possibly recover? A survey conducted between Sept. 12 and Sept. 16 by the Pew Research Center - before the "47 percent victim" video came to light - showed Obama ahead of Romney 51% to 43% among likely voters.

That's the biggest margin in the September survey prior to a presidential election since Bill Clinton led Bob Dole, 50% to 38% in 1996.

And, remember, this recent poll was done before America watched Romney belittle almost half the nation.

For the last several days I've been deluged with calls from my inside-the-beltway friends telling me "Romney's dead."

Hold it. Rumors of Romney's demise are premature for at least four reasons:

Between now and Election Day come two jobs reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics - October 5 and November 2. If they're as bad as the last report, showing only 96,000 jobs added in August (125,000 are needed just to keep up with population growth) and the lowest percentage of employed adults since 1981, Romney's claim the economy is off track becomes more credible, and Obama's that it's on the mend harder to defend.

With gas prices rising, corporate profits shrinking, most of Europe in recession, Japan still a basket case, and the Chinese economy slowing, the upcoming job reports are unlikely to be stellar.

Also between now and Election Day are three presidential debates, starting October 3. It's commonly thought Obama will win them handily but that expectation may be very wrong - and could work against him. Yes, Romney is an automaton - but when the dials are set properly he can give a good imitation of a human engaged in sharp debate. He did well in the Republican primary debates.

Obama, by contrast, can come off slow and ponderous. Recall how he stuttered and stumbled during the 2008 Democratic primary debates. And he hasn't been in a real-live debate for four years; Romney recently emerged from almost a year of them.

During the next 7 final weeks of the campaign, the anti-Obama forces will be spending a gigantic amount of money. Not just the Romney campaign and Romney's super PACs, but other super PACS aligned with Romney, billionaires spending their own fortunes, and non-profit "social welfare" organizations like the Chamber of Commerce, Karl Rove's "Crossroads," and various Koch-brothers political fronts - all will dump hundreds of millions on TV and radio spots, much of it spreading lies and distortions. Some of this money will be devoted to get-out-the-vote drives - to phone banks and door-to-door canvassing to identify favorable voters, and vans to bring them to the polling stations.

It's an easy bet they'll far outspend Obama and his allies. I've heard two-to-one. The race is still close enough that a comparative handful of voters in swing states can make the difference - which means gobs of money used to motivate voters to polling stations can be critical.

As they've displayed before, the Republican Party will do whatever it can to win - even if it means disenfranchising certain voters. To date, 11 states have enacted voter identification laws, all designed by Republican legislatures and governors to dampen Democratic turnout.

The GOP is also encouraging what can only be termed "voter vigilante" groups to "monitor polling stations to prevent fraud" - which means intimidating minorities who have every right to vote. We can't know at this point how successful these efforts may be but it's a dangerous wildcard. And what about those Diebold voting machines?

So don't for a moment believe "Romney's dead," and don't be complacent. The hard work lies ahead, in the next seven weeks.

And even if Obama is reelected, more hard work begins after Inauguration Day - when we must push him to be tougher on the Republicans than he was in his first term, and do what the nation needs.

Robert B. Reich, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock" and "The Work of Nations." His latest is an e-book, "Beyond Outrage." He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause.

131 comments

Jesus And the Wife

Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=11104">Charles Pierce, Esquire</a>

Wednesday, 19 September 2012 14:45

Pierce writes: "Another text has come to light that is likely to set folks to birthing cows all over the place."

This scroll, according to Harvard's Karen King, contains the passage: 'Jesus said to them, 'My wife �'' (photo: Karen L. King)

Jesus And the Wife

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

19 September 12

�

ack in the day, when I was in pursuit of the college degree that eluded (among other people) Scott Walker, I was required to take 12 class hours of theology as part of my core curriculum. I'd had a taste of all those lugubrious German dudes in high school and had no desire to spend dark Milwaukee winter afternoons reacquainting myself with them. However, I did find one guy, and I'm ashamed to say I don't remember his name, who taught Scripture history. The Dead Sea Scrolls. The Gnostic texts from Nag Hammadi. Some of the work of the various Coptic fathers. Now, this was cool. This was theology that was half-archaeology. I took every course the guy offered. Among other things, this resulted in my being insufferably blase when the whole DaVinci Code thing blew up. The Gospel of Thomas? Honky, please. I was on that bad boy back in '73.

I developed a lifelong sweet-tooth for this kind of thing, largely because citing the undeniable proof that early Christianity was anything but a stable orthodoxy � and that Christian orthodoxy was first established on the point of the Emperor Constantine's sword � can make all the right heads explode. Now, though, another text has come to light that is likely to set folks to birthing cows all over the place....

She repeatedly cautioned that this fragment should not be taken as proof that Jesus, the historical person, was actually married. The text was probably written centuries after Jesus lived, and all other early, historically reliable Christian literature is silent on the question, she said. But the discovery is exciting, Dr. King said, because it is the first known statement from antiquity that refers to Jesus speaking of a wife. It provides further evidence that there was an active discussion among early Christians about whether Jesus was celibate or married, and which path his followers should choose.

Karen King is a serious scholar and is clearly trying not to overstate what she has found here, saying only that early Christians may have argued about whether Jesus was married as much as they argued about practically everything else. It's also possible that this latest bit of documentation may allow us to trace back further how the essential misogyny of the Christian church first embedded itself.

170 comments

FOCUS: Obama vs. Romney: A Clear Choice

Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=15792">Barbra Streisand, Reader Supported News</a>

Wednesday, 19 September 2012 13:17

Streisand writes: "The question voters need to ask themselves when they walk into the voting booth on November 6th is: 'Will the country be better off returning to the policies of George W. Bush's Administration?'"

Singer, actress, director, composer and activist Barbra Streisand. (photo: AP)

Obama vs. Romney: A Clear Choice

By Barbra Streisand, Reader Supported News

19 September 12

�

n this election, the people of America have to make a choice between two candidates with very different values, visions and solutions to the most pressing problems facing our country. The question voters need to ask themselves when they walk into the voting booth on November 6th is: "Will the country be better off returning to the policies of George W. Bush's Administration?"

Like Bush, Governor Romney believes we need more tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% and fewer rules for Wall Street. He wants to roll back financial reform and set Wall Street free to write its own rules again. He wants to repeal health care reform and leave 30 million people without a safety net. And the trillions in tax cuts he wants to give to millionaires and billionaires will only force more devastating cuts to critical programs that serve the middle-class.

It's hard to believe that Mitt Romney would campaign on policies that nearly destroyed the country and virtually eliminated so much of America's middle-class. With stagnant wages, escalating medical costs, foreclosures, rampant unemployment, loss of good paying jobs and the disappearance of retirement savings due to deregulation and manipulation by Wall Street, Mitt Romney and the Republican narrative fail to address the key concerns of everyday Americans.

Time and again, Republicans' policies put corporations, not the people, first. They challenge current regulations and try to block new regulations that help to protect the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. Just recently, House Republicans went to great lengths to block the implementation of a new food safety law, while also trying to cut the budgets of agencies that oversee food safety. And many in the party either deny the science on climate change or refuse to support legislation that will begin to help mitigate the effects of global warming.

The only budget proposal that Republicans will support is the Ryan budget, which completely disinvests in America during a time when the country desperately needs investments to spur growth and competitiveness. Our country, and the notion of the American Dream, was built on the bedrock that government must play a vital role in providing investments that ultimately afford opportunity for all. If everyone was left to fend for themselves, and government failed to take the lead in investing in schools, roads, research and development, space exploration, and the internet, we would have a very different country where the fate of a person's future would be sealed in the socio-economic status that he or she was born into. Ultimately, Mitt Romney and his party see an America where the wealth should trickle down, instead of building a strong middle class so that everyone can rise up together.

Here Are The Facts

No matter how much undisclosed money floods into Romney affiliated super PACs from the likes of Sheldon Adelson, the Koch brothers, and their friends, the things they cannot change are the facts.

It's a fact that Mitt Romney became enormously wealthy, while his company, Bain Capital, bought and bankrupted companies, laid off American workers and shipped jobs overseas.

It's a fact that Mitt Romney had the 47th worst job creation record as Governor.

It's a fact that Mitt Romney has millions of dollars in Swiss bank accounts and secretive offshore investment funds in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda in order to avoid paying his fair share of U.S. taxes. And given his refusal to release more than two years of tax returns (unprecedented for a Presidential candidate), it's clear that the Romney campaign believes that the truth about what is contained in those tax returns is far more damaging than Romney's refusal to release them.

It's a fact that Mitt Romney has taken both sides on virtually every issue important to voters. He was for and then against -- gun control, a women's right to reproductive choice, health care for all, and the economic stimulus. He once believed that people's actions contributed to global warming and now he has changed his position. He was against signing the no-tax pledge and now he is a strong supporter.

It's a fact that Mitt Romney's solution to stimulate the economy is further deregulation, a tactic that led to the growth of "too big to fail" banks, the BP oil spill, the housing crisis, and ultimately, the American and global financial and economic meltdown.

And it's a fact that Republican legislators across the country are passing new voting restrictions to disenfranchise voters, shutting down non-partisan voter registration drives, and cutting back on early voting. They hope that these shameful tactics to subvert the democratic process will have an impact on the election.

While the millions raised by Mitt Romney's super PACs to defeat President Obama may not be able to change the facts, these funds can saturate the media with misinformation and lies in order to bury the truth and persuade swing-state voters.

Here Are Truths They Will Try To Bury

When Barack Obama was elected in 2008, the primary goal of the Republican Party was not to fix the country and get Americans back to work, but to defeat the President four years later. They spent these past few years obstructing the passage of important legislation. Since 2007, the Senate Historical Office has shown that Democrats have had to end Republican filibusters more than 360 times, a historic record for what had been a very rarely used parliamentary procedure.

Compared to George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, Obama has been more fiscally conservative than any other president in recent history, with the exception of President Bill Clinton.

President Obama has been far better at creating jobs than President George W. Bush. During the 7 years and 8 months of George Bush's presidency, before the financial crash, only 2.6 million new private sector jobs were created. In the final month of George Bush's presidency, the country lost 800,000 jobs, and in the last six months of the Bush Administration, the country lost over 3.5 million jobs.

However, in the last 30 months under President Obama's leadership, nearly 4.6 million new private sector jobs were created (averaging about 150,000 new jobs per month). In President Obama's last 2 years in office, 40% more jobs were created than in nearly all of President Bush's eight years in office.

The last President who was elected amidst a severe economic crisis and high unemployment was Franklin D. Roosevelt. His policies strengthened government so that it would protect the people (creating Glass-Steagall to regulate the banks, the FDIC to insure bank depositors, the Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate the stock market, and Social Security to help people build a safety net for their retirement). FDR's strategy to spend money to create jobs and stimulate the economy is what ultimately helped pull the country out of a depression.

Even though the country's most respected economists have agreed on what history has already proven -- that MORE federal spending, not austerity, is necessary to stimulate the economy and create jobs, today's Republicans categorically reject this strategy. They are running on a platform of further deregulation and cutting spending to the bone, so that those earning millions will get more tax cuts, even though it means Americans who need a safety net won't have it.

Unlike Mitt Romney, President Obama believes we need to invest in education, energy, innovation and infrastructure and reform our tax system to create good jobs, grow our economy and pay down the debt in a reasoned way. He believes in an inclusive country where all people deserve equal protection and treatment under the law, as well as equal opportunity, whether they are gay, straight, black, brown, white, religious, atheist, old or young.

The choice is clear. Would you vote for a person who pays his taxes or someone who wiggles his way out of them? Do you want a President who has gained the respect of the world community or someone who on a recent diplomatic trip abroad provoked the ire and ridicule of other world leaders? Do we want a country where everyone is fending for themselves or where everyone is pitching in and working together? Do we want to go backward with Mitt Romney or move forward with President Obama?

On Tuesday, November 6th, the American people will have the power to make that choice. And I hope everyone, young and old, from red state to blue state, chooses progress over corporate profit. And over the course of the next four years, I hope we can all come together to re-build an America where opportunity and prosperity is once again within everyone's reach.

94 comments

The Real Mitt Revealed

Wednesday, 19 September 2012 11:40

Excerpt: 'Some of us thought Romney was without core or principle, an empty suit that would say anything to be elected. But here, evidently, is the real Mitt.'

Portrait, Robert Reich, 08/16/09. (photo: Perian Flaherty)

The Real Mitt Revealed

By Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog

19 September 12

�

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnB0NZzl5HA

�

irst are the distortions. Romney says 47 percent of Americans don't pay income taxes. That's literally true, except it's misleading because it includes every retiree who hasn't enough income to pay income taxes (most retirees), every poor and lower-income person who doesn't have enough income to pay, and a few multi-millionaires (perhaps like Romney himself - we don't know because he won't release his tax returns), who don't pay because of tax loopholes and tax-avoidance schemes. Moreover, just about all working Americans, regardless of income, pay federal payroll taxes. Everyone pays state and local sales taxes. And so on. Romney also distorts reality by purposely mixing "entitlements" with "a sense of entitlement," and lumps in all recipients of Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment benefits into his 47 percent. Even though these programs are considered "entitlement" spending, their recipients are not undeserving; they don't consider themselves entitled to handouts. They've paid into these insurance plans through their payroll taxes.

But the the most important revelation here isn't Romney's witting distortions. It's his indignant condemnation of almost half the American electorate. A president is supposed to represent all of America, not just the 51 percent who elect him, and have a modicum of sympathy for the less fortunate among us.

Yet here is the real Mitt Romney - a fabulously wealthy financier, presumably speaking to other wealthy people (note the waiters scurrying about), with a passion we haven't before seen in him - saying it isn't his "job" to worry about Americans who he describes as "irresponsible," who fail to take care of themselves, and whose neediness is presumably their own fault. Some of us thought Romney was without core or principle, an empty suit that would say anything to be elected. But here, evidently, is the real Mitt - a man whose core principle is clearly on display, and articulated with deep conviction: social Darwinism - survival of the richest, the hell with those who need a helping hand. In a subsequent news conference he attempted to make it sound as if he was talking here about political strategy, not social conviction. Watch and see for yourself.

117 comments

Bill Moyers and Craig Unger | The Continuing Power of Karl Rove

Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=15946">Bill Moyers, Moyers & Company</a>

Tuesday, 18 September 2012 15:13

Bill Moyers: "But then the five conservatives on the Supreme Court - three of whom had been appointed by Rove's two Bush patrons, Bush the First and Bush the Second - came down with the Citizens United decision, giving Karl Rove a second lease on life as a bagman - the biggest in town."

Bill Moyers interviewing Craig Unger. (photo: PBS)

Bill Moyers and Craig Unger | The Continuing Power of Karl Rove

By Bill Moyers, Moyers & Company

18 Septe

ILL MOYERS: If you want to see the personification of how the Citizens United decision is playing out in this campaign, look no further than Karl Rove. Yes, that Karl Rove, the political strategist once known as Bush's Brain. Rove was a big winner in 2000, when the court's conservative majority gave the presidency to his client, George W. Bush. Rove went with Bush to the White House as his political czar, but left seven years later as damaged goods. He was enmeshed in the president's failures and in scandals of his own, including millions of missing emails, congressional hearings, and a near indictment over leaks that outed covert CIA agent Valerie Plame and exposed her to danger.

But then the five conservatives on the Supreme Court � three of whom had been appointed by Rove's two Bush patrons, Bush the First and Bush the Second � came down with the Citizens United decision, giving Karl Rove a second lease on life as a bagman � the biggest in town.

You could see him at the Republican National Convention, backslapping and glad-handing plutocrats and politicos. He told a private breakfast meeting during the convention that the super PAC he helped create, American Crossroads, plans to spend $200 million dollars on the presidential race and another $100 million dollars on this year's Senate and House campaigns.

Then there's his affiliated nonprofit, Crossroads GPS, that's a 501(c)4 where all donations are anonymous, perfectly cozy and covert. Just a few days ago, Crossroads GPS bought $2.6 million worth of TV ads in Nevada, Ohio and Virginia, three states where Republicans hope to grab Senate seats, and bring them that much closer to the permanent GOP majority of Karl Rove's dreams.

Bush's Brain has become Boss Rove, virtuoso of what BusinessWeek calls �partisan money management,� the undisputed maestro of the politics of plutocracy.

How does he do it? Investigative journalist Craig Unger has been on the case for years. The author of two books on the Bush dynasty, he's now written this account of an astonishing comeback, "BOSS ROVE: Inside Karl Rove's Secret Kingdom of Power."

Craig, welcome to the show.

CRAIG UNGER: Thanks for having me, Bill.

BILL MOYERS: You've taken on Karl Rove in this latest book. What prompted that?

CRAIG UNGER: It was really, once the Citizens United came down, I saw him go into action. And I could see what was happening was not being followed by the mainstream press. And I thought, "Here is going to be one of the great untold stories of the 2012 election." And we saw it start to play out in 2010. And the Republicans won, I believe, with 63 seats in that. It was a tremendous victory for them.

And this was at a time when Rove was supposedly out of it. And there he was behind the scenes with these super PACs, with American Crossroads. And I could see that he was preparing himself for 2012. And not just 2012, but beyond. That he was something other than people had thought he was. Most people thought he was a creature of the Bush family. And I think he's a force that's more powerful than that.

BILL MOYERS: I actually mapped the connections where you place Rove. From the Republicans in Congress to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is the largest business lobby in America. To multibillionaires like the Koch Brothers, to the Tea Party, to the Christian Right, Ralph Reed. To Grover Norquist. To the National Rifle Association. To Rupert Murdoch, the Wall Street Journal. Fox News, to the super PACs, by which he directs multimillions of dollars. How does he hold it all together? What's his secret?

CRAIG UNGER: Well, a lot of it, you know, I go back to the early days in the '80s, when he was really sort of a nobody. And the Texan Republican party was not powerful then. The big business people in Texas said, "Well, why should we give to the Republicans. The Democrats are doing everything we need." And Rove made his entree there through the issue of tort reform.

BILL MOYERS: He was actually working for Phillip Morris back in nineteen, the late '70s, early '80s. And you say in here and outline how he, in effect, transformed the Texas State Supreme Court into a pro-corporate, anti-tort court. And that became, as you say, a cash cow. How did he turn this tort campaign into a cash cow?

CRAIG UNGER: He went to big companies and said, "Look, you risk billions and billions of dollars in product liability lawsuits. Let me help you out. All you have to do is contribute a few million dollars to political action committees for my candidates."

And he managed to get a lot of people elected to the Texas State Legislature. He managed to get George W. Bush elected governor. And in doing that, he managed to turn the Texas Supreme Court, which had been almost entirely Democratic, and flip it so it was entirely Republican.

He was getting millions of dollars in donations from these huge corporations who were benefiting from tort reform bills that were passing the Texas legislature. I mean, there were an enormous number, over 40 bills passed to Texas legislature that hindered, that were along his lines. And tort reform�

BILL MOYERS: Made it harder for average Joes to sue corporations, right?

CRAIG UNGER: Exactly. And through this, he was able to cultivate, his first donors were people like Bob Perry, who is no relation to Rick Perry, but was a billionaire Texas builder. And Harold Simmons, another Texas billionaire. And they've stuck with him. And if you look at the political action committees today, and who the big donors are, a lot of the people were with Rove back in the '80s.

BILL MOYERS As you say, the health care industry, the petrol chemical and energy industry, land developers, corporate lawyers, tobacco companies, they're the ones who supported him then and they're doing it now, right?

CRAIG UNGER: Absolutely. He's building institutions that have enduring power and can have real consequence for the future. I think if you look at some of his campaigns, like voter suppression, there are movements in dozens of states to require voters to have IDs and so forth that will suppress the vote among pop, among groups that are largely Democratic. That can have an effect for many elections to come.

BILL MOYERS: Do you find any of Rove's fingerprints on those voter ID campaigns?

CRAIG UNGER: Absolutely. You go back to 2004, and he talked about it publicly on Fox News. In a state like Ohio, there's a tactic called caging. And what the Republicans did in Ohio is they would send out hundreds of thousands of letters, and they might focus these especially in minority neighborhoods and so forth. These were letters requiring or asking for a response. And if they didn't get a response, the voters could be challenged at the polls as not having that residency. Once your voter registration's challenged, you're given a provisional ballot, which is not always counted in the case of Ohio.

But he also had deputies who were going around the country filing suits in various states, introducing bills in state legislature.

BILL MOYERS: It's clear from reading this that Karl Rove could not be doing what he's doing without Fox News and the Wall Street Journal. Is that right?

CRAIG UNGER: It is enormously helpful for a number of reasons. One, simply is, it provides him with an economic base, and a powerful platform. But Fox News is something special in American journalism, if that's the right place to put it. And I went back to the Nixon administration, and Roger Ailes was in the, who's the chairman of Fox News, was in the Nixon administration.

BILL MOYERS: He was Nixon's television advisor.

CRAIG UNGER: Absolutely. And he had a proposal back then that he called GOP TV. And today, he has it effectively. This is the Republican TV network. And at one time during this campaign there were five potential presidential candidates in the Republican party, that is, if you include people like Sarah Palin who was potentially a candidate, but never declared.

Who were on Fox News payroll. So, when you see them on TV, these are not mere commentators. These are actors in the Republican party. And Rove is being the party boss. And when he and Sarah Palin have a tiff�

KARL ROVE: She is all upset about this, saying I'm somehow trying to sabotage her, sabotage her in some way�

CRAIG UNGER: That is Karl Rove, the party boss, shutting down Sarah Palin.

BILL MOYERS: Well, let me walk you through this, because it's a fascinating part of your book. You've indicated that during the Republican primaries this spring, he'd be on TV picking off one Republican candidate after another. Palin, Cain, Bachmann, Gingrich. Rick Perry, Trump�

KARL ROVE: You know, now a, you know, a joke candidate, let him go ahead and announce for election on the apprentice. The American people aren't going to be hiring him and certainly the Republicans are not going to be hiring him in the Republican primary.

BILL MOYERS: Then he would write a column about it in the Wall Street Journal, actually fulfilling the strategy he had spelled out.

CRAIG UNGER: One by one, another Republican candidate would surge ahead of Romney. There was Rick Perry, there was Santorum and so forth. And just as they surged, Rove would strike out at them, and sometimes it was very discretely, and it would be through putting millions and millions of dollars into an anti-Santorum campaign.

BILL MOYERS: Most people have probably forgotten that the press ran with the story that Romney won the Iowa caucus, when a few days later Santorum turned out to be the real winner.

CHRIS WALLACE: Karl, you've just gotten some word from a source in the Republican National Committee. Tell us what it is.

BILL MOYERS: He was on Fox News with Chris Wallace. And he says, in fact, "Romney's going to come out the champion here," when in fact, Santorum was winning.

KARL ROVE: And that it will show an 18 vote victory in that precinct for Mitt Romney, which will give him a statewide victory of 14 votes over Rick Santorum. [�]

CHRIS WALLACE: Now, I, you know, this is obviously pretty big thing. That Romney is going to win the Iowa Caucuses by 14 votes.

KARL ROVE: By 14 votes.

CHRIS WALLACE: How solid is your evidence for your...

KARL ROVE: From a pretty good, reliable source.

CRAIG UNGER: So, he is able to almost literally count the votes, even though he's not counting correctly.

BILL MOYERS: And he then writes a column to the effect in the Wall Street Journal that Romney won, even though the votes are still not all counted. And then, he directs his super PACs to go after that candidate, after Santorum. So, in effect, he's naming the winner before the votes are counted, and then carrying his story out into the public.

CRAIG UNGER: Right. He does two things. He directs the funding, but he's also creating a narrative, and he's brilliant at crafting a narrative, and having not just Fox News, but large portions of the press run with it as well.

BILL MOYERS: Rove once personified the Republican establishment that the Tea Party detested. Now you say he's coopted them, defanged their uncontrollable elements, marginalized their leaders, and seized their resources. How did he do that?

CRAIG UNGER: Well, he did it partly because he got the candidate and they had nowhere else to turn. He also, you see it playing out in a very interesting way now with the Todd Akin case, the fiasco, really, in Missouri that's going on now. Because here you have a real Tea Party candidate and Rove was pouring money in. If you looked at the Akin campaign, and he was leading Claire McCaskill by about five points.

BILL MOYERS: Rove was pouring money behind Akin?

CAMPAIGN ADS: Here's Claire McCaskill, using special interest cash to hide the fact she's voted against what's best for Missouri. [�] Obamacare? More like Obama Claire. [�] Sorry Senator McCaskill. No more reckless spending . No new taxes. And no more blank checks.

CRAIG UNGER: Akin's campaign had about $2.2 million if I'm not mistaken. Rove's super PACs had put in more than $5 million in the campaign. So, they were crucial to its success. And now, what happened immediately after the episode came to light, Rove acted swiftly and brutally. And he said, �Akin's got a lot of explaining to do.� He immediately pulled the plug on all funding. And again, this is the party boss announcing on national TV, "You are finished, we're not giving you another dime."

BILL MOYERS: And he has no public office of, for himself. He's not elected to any office.

CRAIG UNGER: He's not elected to any office even within the Republican party. He�

BILL MOYERS: Yet, he's the boss as you said.

CRAIG UNGER: He is. Absolutely.

He's brutal, he's ruthless, he, it's a scorched earth kind of partisanship. If you're not on his side 100 percent, he will destroy you. There are Republican, other strategists who were with him 95 percent and they found their careers destroyed. And he will go after you. And he, but he's managed to retain the loyalty of these multibillionaires for decades.

BILL MOYERS: What does it mean, Craig, that a man like Karl Rove can keep secret the sources of huge sums of money coming into his control?

CRAIG UNGER: I think if there's no transparency, then there's no accountability. And here you have billionaires, really, who are funding a political party, a political candidate, and they want certain favors in return. And I think Rove is playing a very, very long game. And he's sort of in a win-win position. That is, Romney is a deeply flawed candidate.

The Republicans are probably at a disadvantage and may well not win. If Rove pulls it out of the fire, Rove, he'll be declared a genius. And if Romney loses, Rove can blame it on the undisciplined behavior of Tea Party candidates like Akin. He can blame it on their extremism. And come back in 2016 with none other than Jeb Bush.

BILL MOYERS: The book is, Boss Rove: Inside Karl Rove's Secret Kingdom of Power. Craig Unger, thanks for being with me.

CRAIG UNGER: Thanks for having me, Bill.

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