for himself. he's not elected to any office. >> he's not elected to any ofoffice even within the republican party. he -- >> yet, he's the boss as you said. >> 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%, he will destroy you. there are republican, other strategists who were with him 95% 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. >> 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? >> 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. >> the book is, "boss rove: inside karl rove's secret kingdom of power." craig unger, thanks for being with me.g avinbme, il>>l.thanks.

>> that's it for now. next week we'll consider some ways to get our democracy back from the plutocrats with our guest trevor potter, the noted lawyer who helped stephen colbert set up his own super-pac and still stay out of jail. that's next week's broadcast. meanwhile, go to billmoyers.com. you'll find an exclusive advance look at articles from "the nation's" special issue on "the 1% court." that's at billmoyers.com. see you there, and see you here next time. don't wait a week to get more moyers. visit billmoyers.com for exclusive blogs, essays and video features.

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