08/22/12 08/22/12 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] >> from pacifica, this is "democracy now!" >> we have got to put america back contract by taking the senate, winning the white house, in keeping the house in republican hands. we need your help. america's future is literally at stake. let's get this done. >> loss rove: inside karl rove's secret kingdom of power. will spend the hour with craig unger examining the return of karl rove -- the man who masterminded the rise of george w. bush from governor of texas to the presidency, advised bush

during the two wars in iraq and afghanistan, who some claim helped seize the 2004 election and for bush and who was at the center of two of the biggest scandals of the bush ministration. today, how karl rove went from almost indicted to becoming the most powerful political operative in america. all of that and more coming up. this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. republican congress member todd akin has refused to drop out of missouri senate race, defying calls from leaders of his own party who say he could hurt republican chances this november. he sparked a national controversy over the weekend after he told an interviewer that women are somehow capable of blocking pregnancy during what he called a legitimate rape. republicans from presidential candidate mitt romney to crowe wrote to senate leaders urged akin to withdraw before a

tuesday deadline for missouri candidates. but on tuesday, a controlled radio host and former arkansas governor mike huckabee he plans to continue his bid. >> it is certainly the institutional side of the party is very lined up. i do receive continuing calls from people who are supportive of what we're trying to do. my question is, is there a matter of some justice here? i misspoke one word in one sentence in one day and all of the sudden, overnight, everybody decides, well, akin cannot possibly win. i don't agree with that. the people i know in missouri, when you make a mistake, nobody expects us to get every word perfectly. you tell them your story, look them in the eyes. i did not really mean to hurt anyone. on the other hand, there is a cause. there is a cause about the heart of what america is. >> in a message posted to his

twitter account tuesday night, higgens said -- despite calls from two top republicans for todd akin to drop out, the party has further entrenched its stance on abortion and its vote on its platform for next week's convention in tampa. on tuesday, the republican platform committee approved language backing a constitutional ban on abortion without calling for exceptions for rape or incest. the platform declares "the unborn child is of fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed." appeals court has overturned and burned a protection agency's effort to reduce emissions of dangerous chemicals from coal burning power plants. on tuesday, the u.s. court of appeals for the d.c. circuit struck down the epa's cross state air pollution rule, which would have sharply limited

emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide at plants in 28 states. the epa has said it could set up to 34,000 lives per year and result in tens of billions of dollars in health benefits. but after a major push by utilities and corporate groups, the appeals court ruled in a two to one decision the regulation 60 the epa's authority. in a statement, the natural resources defense council urged the epa to appeal the ruling saying -- in afghanistan, an aircraft uses of staff, martin dempsey, was damaged tuesday when militants fired on u.s. base. a nato spokesperson said dempsey was not on board when the attack took place. >> last night, two rounds hit

the bagram airfield. they caused damage to a helicopter and a transport airplane of dempsey. he was already in his room by that time. he was not affected at all. some of the shrapnel of the rounds damaged the plane for dempsey, so he took another plant in order to continue his trip out of afghanistan. >> dempsey was in afghanistan for talks following the recent spate of attacks on nato soldiers by afghan troops. shortly after the attack, he left afghanistan on a different aircraft. >> at least eight people reportedly have been killed and 75 wounded after fighting broke out in the lebanese city of tripoli between groups with opposing views of the conflict in syria. violence erupted monday night between sunnis in tripoli who oppose the syrian regime and alawites loyal to syrian president bashar al-assad. activists in syria say government troops backed by

tanks have attacked a damascus neighborhood, killing at least 11 suspected rebels. and footage filmed by japanese journalist in the hours leading up to her death in syria has been released. gunfire can be heard in what is believed to be the last image captured by her before she was shot and fatally wounded in aleppo. the ecuadorean president rafael correa has called for talks with the british government on the state of wikileaks founder julian assange. britain has threatened to enter the ecuadorean embassy in london to seize assange after ecuador granted his asylum bid last week. assange is seeking to of what extradition to sweden and ultimately, he says, to the u.s. on tuesday, president correa maintained ecuador remains open to dialogue and said a deal could be reached if sweden assures assange he won't be extradited to a third country. >> what we have requested is

that he is not extradited to a third country. if that assurances given, i am sure he would refuse the asylum and would return to sweden to collaborate with the investigation in courts. >> south africa's defense minister has apologized for the police killing of 34 striking workers at a mine last week. the victims were killed more than a week after walking off the job at the marikana platinum mine and a call for higher pay. police said they opened fire after workers tried to attack them with machetes, but the miners have accused the police of committing a massacre. south africa's minister of police initially defended the killings, sparking outrage. in a visit to the mine on tuesday, the south african defense minister issued an apology, saying it -- "i beg and i apologize, may you find forgiveness in your heart."

the head of the opposition party congress of the people call for the top officials to be held accountable. >> [unintelligible] who has the authority to decide this right to life will be suspended today? for this moment? therefore, shoot. >> the shooting marked the worst mass killing in south africa since the end of apartheid. south african president jacob zuma has announced a week of national mourning, as well as the formation of a commission of inquiry. the obama administration will temporarily lift sanctions for u.s.-based groups the with the san financial for the earthquake relief in iran. more than 300 people were killed, thousands wounded when the earthquakes struck earlier this month in iran. iranian american groups had warned harsh u.s. sanctions on iran will greatly hinder international donations for victims. on tuesday, the treasury

department issued an order saying it will allow u.s.-based groups to donate money to iran until early october. a federal appeals court has upheld texas' effort to defund planned parenthood and excluding it from a government-funded health program for low-income women simply because they also provide abortions. the decision tuesday reverses a lower-court ruling that temporarily blocked the ban. the texas program offers cancer and health screenings as well as birth control services to some 130,000 low-income women, about 40% of whom are served through planned parenthood. in a court filing defending the ban earlier this year, texas attorney general greg abbott had compared planned parenthood to a terrorist organization, writing -- in a statement, plant and the president cecile richards said --

new york police department has cemented its a lever is cia- aided efforts to spy on muslim neighborhoods over more than six years failed to yield a terrorism investigation or even a single lead. the nypd spy program included efforts to infiltrate the muslim student groups, send informants into mosques, eavesdropped on conversations, and create databases showing where muslims lived, worked, and prayed. the associated press won a pulitzer prize for its series revealing how the new york police department conducted widespread spying on muslim americans throughout the eastern united states without evidence of wrongdoing. the ap now reports court records unsealed monday show information collected by the nypd secret

demographics unit did not spark a single investigation. a warning to our tv audience, the following images are graphic. the department of agriculture has shut down a slaughterhouse in california following the emergence of graphic video showing the flagrant abuse of cows. the animal rights group compassion over killing posted videos showing the cows of the central valley each company being dragged by one leg on their way to being slaughtered as well as being electrically crowded and shot in the head. a new study claims u.s. residents are wasting nearly every other bite of food they consume. according to the natural resources defense council, americans are wasting up to 40% of the nation's food supply to the tune of $165 billion per year. wasted food is said to account for up to one-quarter of all fresh water consumed and 23% of

the missions of methane gas. those are some of the headlines. this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. >> welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. as the 2012 presidential elections heats up in the republican national convention is set to take place next to in tampa, florida, we look at the man many consider the de facto leader of the republican party: karl rove, a political strategist who masterminded the rise of george w. bush from governor of texas bank to the presidency. he advised bush during two wars in iraq and afghanistan. some claim helped seize the 2004 election for bush. he was at the center of two of the biggest scandals of the bush administration -- the valerie plan wilson affair and u.s. attorneys scandal. what karl rove was almost indicted for the valerie plame affair, he has reinvented them sought to become the most powerful political operative in america. heading of the american

crossroads super pac and the affiliated non-profit crossroads gps, he built up a war chest that has given mitt romney a significant cash advantage in the fundraising race with president obama. his power was on display monday when he threatened to pull $5 million in funding from the super pac american crossroads for ads for congressman todd akin's race for senate in missouri because of his comments about "legitimate rape." >> if he remains on the ballot, a crossroads gps will not spend any money on the race. after those damaging statements, to try to differentiate between what is legitimate and illegitimate rape and leaving some how a woman's body would reject a pregnancy if it was an illegitimate rate, these were reprehensible and deplorable commons and there's no way he can recover, in my opinion. our group decided if he remains a nominee, there's no reason to throw good money after bad by

trying to win the seat. >> in addition to raising billions of dollars for republicans, karl rove is a commentator for fox news and a columnist for "wall street journal." his work to restore republican control of washington is examined in "boss rove: inside karl rove's secret kingdom of power." a new book by investigative journalist craig unger their rights rove's conditions represent "and far more grandiose vision -- the forging of a historic realignment of america's political landscape, the transformation of america into effectively a one-party state." is also contributing editor at vanity fair, author of the new york times bestselling book, "house of bush, house of saud." he also wrote, "the fall of the house of bush: the untold story of how a band of true believers seized the executive branch, started the iraq war, and still imperils america's future." craig unger, welcome back to "democracy now!" let's start with congressman

akin who has refused to step down from the race against clear mccaskill of missouri, despite the major powers in republican party threatening him, saying he should pull back. from mitt romney to -- well, karl rove said he would withdraw how much money? >> i think it means todd akin is one stubborn, stubborn guy. here you see the schism over which rove is presiding, and is very much the party boss. he has put in or rather his super pac has put in more than $5 million into the akin campaign, which is twice as much as the akin campaign itself had put in. he was responsible for todd akin's lead over mccaskill. rove was the anti-christ.

the bush era had been spendthrift republicans, headed by the tea party. rove faced the challenge of his 19 these branches. he seemed to reach accommodation with them, now you have exploding thanks to todd akin. >> do you think karl rove is akin today? prexy is hurting. this is this nightmare. he is doing everything he could to pull the plug immediately. he instantly when on the air with the clip you just saw. those are brutal words. it is not just from a political commentator, but the party boss pulling the plug. akin did not get out. we will have to see what plays out. >> i want to play part of the new ad from todd akin apologizing. >> i am todd akin and i approve this message. rape is an evil act. i used the wrong words in the wrong way and for that i

apologize. as the father of two daughters, i want tough justice for predators. i have a compassionate heart for victims of sexual assault, and i pray for them ridrape to lead to pregnancy. the truth is, rape has many victims. the mistake was in the words i said, not in the heart i hold. i ask for your forgiveness. >> craig unger, your comments? >> this does not solve anything for the republicans but if anything, it makes it worse. it is not just the science fiction medical argument he has made. he turned the conversation, should the national conversation be america's big problem is we want to force rape victims to bear the child of the rapist? that is not a conversation they want. >> we're not just talking about todd akin and missouri, paul ryan, a co-sponsor of the sanctity of life bill which

many call the personhood bill, and you just have, yesterday, in tampa, where the convention will be, the platform hammered out presided over by virginia governor mcdonald, who is known as the vaginal ultrasound guy. many feel he was so ridiculous, he could of been the vice- presidential candidate, but for that. the plant being hammered out for it once again, they have said in the case of rape or incest, abortion is not allowed. >> it is a party that does not want government intruding into your personal life. it is a nightmare for the republicans and rove. >> how much power does he have over the republican platform, over the republican party? >> the power he has had has been money. he has the purse strings. in creating these super pacs and reaching accommodation with the funders of the tea parties, and sheldon adelson and the koch

brothers' etc., he has had an enormous amount of power. you cannot account for any one individual like todd akin and this seems to not want to get out and keeping the conversation live, and rove wants to stop it immediately. it is a crisis point for the republicans because it is just before they go into their convention. >> i want to turn to an interview that flash reports jon fleischman did with karl rove. rove defends his fundraising tactics and their comparable to those of liberals. >> a lot of liberal groups which were 501 (c) (4)'s, never revealing the donors for it if it was good for them and worked, we ought to have one on our side regrets that was karl rove in 2010 speaking to jon fleischman. >> the only grain of truth,

there have been groups and people that have funded democratic groups in the past, but in general, it is nonsense. it is worth understanding rove's tactic, and going back to the 1980's, is that he has created shot a political action committees that respond or are responsible to him said that he has power outside the republican party. right now the kind of power he has announced to really roughly $1 billion in super pac money, which is extraordinary. if you go to the 2008 campaign to make a comparable, john mccain spent around $275 million on his campaign. rove has three times that under his control. >> we will talk about that empire, how he became or powerful than the republican national committee, perhaps more than the republican party itself, when we come back from break.

the final comment on todd akin, will run against, pasco, at least at this point in missouri for the senate seat, he sent out a tweet saying -- donations are pouring in. thank you for standing up against the liberal elite. do you think there was a reference to two elites here? he is talking about the democrats and all of that, but also referring to rove and romley as the liberal elites? >> absolutely. the enormous resentment against rove. the lead editorial is, we cannot allow karl rove, and specifically names karl rove, to change or undo the will of missouri voters. in part you see todd akin saying as a backlash against karl rove, the tea party saying, we're not going to do anything. we're completely uncompromising. >> we're talking to craig unger for this hour.

his new book is called, "boss rove: inside karl rove's secret kingdom of power." how did karl rove go from being almost indicted to the most powerful republican in the united states today? we will continue to follow his life. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

>> this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. our guest for the hour is craig unger, who has written "boss rove: inside karl rove's secret kingdom of power." in it, he writes "and dinapoli,

he's back." craig unger, lay out his rise to power, his fall, and his rise again. >> i think a lot of people saw him as a creature of the bush family and it was all over in 2008 when bush left the white house. that was not the case at all. how we got hardback in the 1980's, there was not much texas republican party in that era, because texas had conservative democrats that are powerful like lloyd bentsen and john conley. the big business people who normally would give to the republican said, "why bother? we're getting what we want." rove got around the by creating

political action committees and took issue the scene to skirt at the time -- his tort reform, giving the rights of people to collect and product-liability cases. he went to philip morris to put him on his payroll, and too big pharmaceutical companies and so forth and said, you guys spend billions and billions of dollars of product liability. give a few million to my candidate, and we will take over the texas supreme court and legislature and but george w. bush and as governor, and we will save billions of dollars. he did precisely that. he ended up -- he flipped the texas supreme court was completely dominated by democrats and become completely republican. he had some loyal campaign contributors like bob perry, no relation to rick perry, harold

simmons and so forth, texas billionaires. they have stuck with them for about 30 years. that is the first phase. the key moment came in 2010, and this was the republican party was in crisis as it appears to be again today. michael steele was chairman of the rnc. you may remember in early 2010, there was an episode where republican donors were being entertained at a lesbian bondage-themed strip club. >> in california. >> exactly. partly as a result of that and other things, big money people refused to give anything to the republican party. >> and this is when the currency was broke. >> absolutely. it was after a landmark supreme court decision, citizens united.

this opened the gate way for people to give unlimited contributions to super pacs. karl rove had a luncheon at his home in washington, d.c. he had about two dozen people there. these were the big wigs, co- sponsored by ed gillespie, former chairman of the rnc, and he came away with millions and millions of dollars. this represented the birth of the super pac of american crossroads, crossroads gps, and so forth. >> before we go on, i want to go back further to show karl rove's power during the bush years both in 2000 and then you devote an entire chapter to what happened in ohio in 2004. a lot of people may not remember

this or had even and to begin with. >> rove did a lot of things sort of under the radar. i think they have enduring consequences and represent real threats to democracy. one of them was the u.s. attorneys scandal. it was widely misunderstood. this became best known went 8 united states attorney's were fired for sort of not telling the republican line. to make, the real question is not what happened, the unjust firing of those eight people, but what about the other u.s. attorneys who were appointed by the bush a ministration and were towing the party line, what were they doing? what we see happening is there were prosecuting democrats, essentially.

it came through best -- i think most egregious case is in alabama, the case of former democratic governor don siegelman who will probably in early september face going to jail for eight years. i think this is one of the most egregious, unjust acts we have seen from the justice department. >> i want to turn a former alabama governor siegelman who was found guilty in a 2006 corruption case. critics say he was the target of a political witch hunt orchestrated in part by karl rove. "democracy now!" spoke to him about his case in early 2009. let's go to his response. >> i was brought to trial one month before the democratic primary by rove's best friend's wife was a u.s. attorney in the

middle district of alabama and charges the new york times said have never been a crime in america woods is or was the republican attorney general from arizona who said they could not be settled fair and square, so they targeted him with this prosecution. we have sworn testimony from a republican political operative, jill simpson, who said she was on a conversation with a prosecutors has been who said that he had talked to karl rove and rove had spoken to the department of justice and everything was wired in to the department of justice to pursue me. >> that is former alabama governor don siegelman speaking to "democracy now!" in 2006. he is appealing his prison sentence three weeks before his scheduled to report to federal prison to complete a more than six-year sentence. >> i think he is absolutely right. it is out there pretty as part of the american political system, but is sort of standard operating procedure that

sometimes campaign contributors get political appointments. in suleiman's case, he personally bought $0, appointed a contributor to a non-paying state appointed position, and if he is to go to jail, and george w. bush gave a promise to over 100 campaign contributors and was not prosecuted on any one of those. hundreds of ambassadors throughout the years and one administration after another have been campaign contributors. and this is really under -- what ec happening, selective prosecution. i think there is nothing more damaging democracy than when laws are applied only to one group. as i began to research this, i saw that you may notice a mayor of alabama was indicted or

investigated or the mayor of honolulu was investigated just before an election, the mayor of miami, the mayor of san francisco. i found mayors of 12 major cities, cleveland, detroit, new orleans, chicago, philadelphia, pittsburgh, memphis, and dallas. they are democrats. they are governors and lieutenant governors from five states, and on and on, over 200 politicians. 85% of them are democrats. i think there is no data suggests the democratic party is seven times more corrupt than the republicans. >> but how you tie this to karl rove? >> there is the testimony as don siegelman said, of the former republican operative chill simpson who testified before the house judiciary committee. rove in "gq" said she did not

dare mention his name. i went back to the testimony. his name is in it at least 50 times. she explicitly makes it clear that he was involved. what happened with the don siegelman prosecution is a colleague of rove's named bill canary, was sort of the karl rove of alabama, handling the republican gubernatorial candidate, senatorial candidate, and so forth, and who was appointed u.s. attorney in alabama, but canary's wife. he was in this wonderful position. his wife would indyk the democratic opponent while he was running his campaign. >> let's go back to ohio. in fact, ohio and smartech, the one chance to ever had to

question karl rove about that. >> exactly. i met karl rove and alabama. he said smartech looks bad, i've never heard of it. well, smartech is a high-tech company in chattanooga. what you see with rove's methodology, he manages to have things happen in his benefit, and there are no fingerprints. i traced the ownership of smartech and its precursors, and the original company was funded by two -- rather, its precursor was funded by two republicans grille. one raised about a quarter of a billion dollars for the bush- cheney campaign. in the 1980's, they had bailed out george w. bush and his will ventures, dewitt and reynolds

had. this company started off as a legitimate high-tech company in chattanooga during the dot-com boomed. it later reform under a different name and different ownership, but by then it had become a political operation. this was a highly, highly partisan republican high-tech company. its biggest clients included the bush-cheney campaign, jeb bush, republican national committee, streamed live the convention -- the republican convention. somehow or other in 2004, in the state of ohio, which was the single most crucial state in the electoral college, when it came to the actual voting, the secretary of state of ohio, a guy named ken blackwell, and the secretary of state's job is to

tell-part is to ensure fair, nonpartisan elections -- happened to the co-chair of the bush campaign. there is no conflict there. he gave a contract to host the film oversight for the republican the last brother for the votes in 2004, to another than smartech. this is where things went a little crazy. >> how is that even allow to happen? >> i think it is a huge conflict of interest on the face of it for the secretary of state of a party to be affiliated with one campaign or another. as we saw in 2004 in florida. >> 2004, election night, tell us the story. >> about 11:14 p.m., things started to happen, exactly. as the votes came in, it was

clear it was going to be an all- nighter in terms of the results. around 11:00, florida was called for bush. that meant the entire fate of the election hinged on ohio. suddenly -- excuse me. the servers for the secretary of state's computers were -- >> ohio secretary of state. >> exactly. they needed to lock into the fail oversight in chattanooga with smartech. this is went results went crazy. suddenly, an enormous number of their regular returns can in and the vote shifted. the exit polls had shown john kerry winning ohio, therefore, the election. it looked like he won the presidential election. i remember the day vividly. i went around telling people

look like john kerry had one. but there was a 6.7% difference between the exit polls and the actual results. as a result, the election ended up going to bush. that was the entire story. >> in writing about what happened in ohio and alabama, one of the things to say about karl rove is a case can be made that for the last three decades his been putting a systematic attempt to gain the american electoral system by whatever means necessary. what kind of vision does karl rove have for the republican party and for american politics? >> i don't think he is an ideologue. he often has been compared to a guy named mark hanna who more than a century ago was a political mind behind president william mckinley, a senator from

ohio, but also a political operative of mckinley in the white house. he forged a realignment. there is always been this talk of a permanent republican majority that rove is trying to forge, and he sees the nation as being entirely republican. line,t, that is rove's and i don't buy it he and the republican party faces an extraordinary challenge with the hispanic boom, now 50 million hispanics in the u.s. and in 2020 at the credit growth, there be 70 million. if they start to vote, they tend to lean heavily democratic. you'll start to see states like texas and arizona flip from red to blue. rove is trying to stop that. one campaign he supported is what as known as campaign fighting voter fraud.

as i found out, i think the fraud -- the brennan center add nyu school of law says the fraud -- voter fraud itself is fraud. their only been 10 documented cases of people voting under false names in the first decade of this century. why in response to that minuscule number there are campaigns and more than 30 states to have required voter id and so forth, this will inhibit voting from minorities and immigrants and the elderly and so forth, who again, lean heavily democratic. >> i want to go one more time back to ohio. you really focus on these issues in the book. michael connell, who he was, and what his death meant. >> he was known as rove's cyber

guru. he had a company media that posted all of its work at smartech. what you see there is a highly partisan republican operative who gets involved in what are supposed to be nonpartisan activities. there were a number of things going on there. what first struck my attention is he got contracts to host the house judiciary committee, the house intelligence committee, a lot of government committees, which included emails and so forth of democrats. i thought back to watergate, of course, with republicans broken to get one file from the watergate office. here they presumably have access to thousands and thousands of files for many, many years,

whether they use that are not, i don't really know. they were also -- one of the things that is interesting is how evidence disappeared again and again in this case. what you saw it is and all of these scandals, the attorney scandal and valerie plame scandal, rove's emails were subpoenaed and hosted at smartech. oops, millions of them disappear. supposedly, this was protected by the president to preservation records act and the destruction of government documents is a very serious crime. every attempt to investigate turns up naught. mike connell became

increasingly important witness in this case. he was subpoenaed once. there was the case investigating the 2004 election and he was supposed to testify again and finally, before he could testify again, he died in a plane crash, and a solo private plane. >> i want to ask about stephen spoonamore, former john mccain supporter. in 2008 he named mike connell and his company as having played a crucial role in the electronic subversion of the vote in ohio in 2004. i want to ask more about spoonamore, but first, a 2000 interview "democracy now!" did with the media scholar mark crispin miller, shortly after mike connell die. he says he asked spoonamore how one would go about destroying white house emails. >> is a conservative republican, former john mccain supporter, and a very prominent expert at

the detection of computer fraud. he is the star witness in the ohio lawsuit, right, in which mike, was involved. he has done extensive work of this kind involving computer security and therefore, worked with connell and impersonally, and a lot of the people involved in a sort of cyber security and of the bush operation. despite his conservatism, or some say because of it, he is a man of principle and he believes in the constitution and believes elections should be honest, he is the one who can afford -- came forward and named connell. connell asked spoonamore how one would go about destroying white house emails. spoonamore said, you're asking me to do something illegal. this conversation is over. clearly, mike connell was up past his eyeballs in the most

sensitive and explosive aspects of this crime family that has been masquerading as a political party. >> that was mark crispin miller speaking to "democracy now!" do you think ohio in 2004 was stolen and you think it is possible something like that could happen in the 2012 election? what's there is no question there was fraud. it is unfortunate to count the votes because such evidence was destroyed. that is what mike connell was such an important witness. i spoke to his sister who said their only two possibilities, really, that's connell was murdered, and i don't see any evidence of that, or that he was in an accident in which case rove is the luckiest man alive. could this happen again?

i think electronic voting is very, very dangerous and very easy to manipulate. but i also found evidence in ohio of extraordinary kinds of fraud that could happen with a punch card ballots as well through very elaborate means of -- known as cross voting. i think a lot of people don't realize when you go into a voting booth and you see another voting booth nearby, if you vote in the same way in the adjoining booth, in the wrong group, or if your punch card is countered by the different computer, it would registered to a different vote. we saw this happened -- >> [inaudible] >> in ohio, it is what is known as rotation of ballots. they decide whoever the top of the ballot has roughly a 2% advantage over the candidate below him. so to compensate for that, they rotate the ballot sequence from

one precinct to another, which makes a certain amount of sense that the voter does not know that. >> so you might have romney on top and one ballot and obama on top of another. >> right. precinct one has romney on top. if it is counted by precinct 2, the vote goes to the wrong person. we saw a lot of that in ohio. the giveaway was in an african- american precinct where there were third-party people on the ballot there, including a white supremacist or some linked to white supremacist party. suddenly in this african- american precinct, and african- americans tend to be very, very disciplined democratic voters, 95% democratic in the past, suddenly this man linked to a white supremacist got 40% of the vote. you could see exactly what had

happened. >> we're talking to craig unger, whose new book is, "boss rove: inside karl rove's secret kingdom of power." when we come back from the break, how karl rove barely escaped indictment and rose to be the biggest powerhouse, political powerhouse in america today. ♪ [music break]

>> "mc rove" with nbc's david gregory, karl rove, a money back up dancers.

this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. we are speaking with craig unger whose new book is, "boss rove: inside karl rove's secret kingdom of power." we will turn to another scandal involving karl rove, the outing of former cia agent valerie plame. the bush and ministration out of her in retaliation for her husband joe wilson's opposition that president bush lied about their right -- iraq's effort to purchase uranium. let's begin by telling the famous comet of joe wilson in 2003. >> at the end of the day, he is of keen interest to me to see whether or not we can get karl rove from marched out of the white house and handcuffs. >> what is the finest comment of joe wilson, frog arching karl rove out of the white house in handcuffs. craig unger, explain what the

valerie plame scandal was, and what karl rove had to do with it. >> valerie plame scandal was joe wilson had been an ambassador to african countries and sent to check out allegations the republican niger had sold or was trying to sell uranium to saddam hussein. this became part of the 16-words of president bush's state of the union address that called for war against and launched the war against iraq. the allegations of course were not just false, but based on forged documents and worse than that, the forged documents had been revealed as forgeries. i found at least 14 times within the the administration before bush's speech, they still got in in the war went ahead.

since wilson had discovered the allegations were false, he later wrote a very famous colorado, an op-ed piece in "the new york times," about what he found in africa. this was destroying the bush the ministrations narrative. in retaliation, they added his wife, joe wilson's wife, valerie plame, who was a cia agent and expose turbot that is what it was all about. this shows they would stop at nothing to maintain their narrative. they were trying to discredit joe wilson. i think they sort of did not realize exactly how far they were going. this was intentionally a crime to the started whole valerie plame investigation. bush said he would fire anyone who was responsible for the

leak. one thing that is absolutely clear is rove, though he is not the only one, scooter al-libi was also indicted and convicted later on, rove played a very key role in this. he did the valerie plame's name, rather, her identity, that she was the wife -- the 120 said, "i did not say her name." he said this is joe wilson's wife is a cj agent. he told that to "time" magazine reporter. rove went on to lie about it again and again. all the and that there's a link in those two clips you just showed of mc rove dancing with the press and joe wilson. what is important in some way is the press's complicity with this. what you see -- when karl rove

is your source, you are beholden to him. whoad bob novak's memoir was the man who first printed valerie plame's name. he says rather telling me that karl rove is by a-plus source for many, many years. he was sort of know that's mail ticket. he went on to say, when that happens of course, you never write a critical word about him. a lot of the press was like that. you see in that clip, a lot of the correspondence dancing with rove. >> how did rove escaped indictment question scooter liddy went down, judith miller. >> a share stroke of luck. one reporter at "time," would have drink occasionally with

rove's lawyer obelisk in and occasionally -- with his lawyer and occasionally during one conversation, rove's lawyer said that he was in danger from at cooper at "time." she let it slip that, yes, he was. so suddenly, rove was being called before the grand jury, i think it was a total of five times, and said again and again he had not leaked to anyone. he said he did not recall any conversation with matt cooper. it turned out to be alive. he had told this to scott mcclelland, the white house press secretary, told a to president bush. this had been the story again and again. he was finally caught in a light in his attorney realized it now. rove willingly asked to go back

to the grand jury and correct the information. on that basis alone, i believe he escaped a perjury indictment. >> you also talk in your book thet rove's relationship to judiciary. you say no other political strategist in history has ever been so deeply indebted to the u.s. supreme court, and you talk about a couple of key decisions that went along with white rove was lobbying for. >> exactly. when i say supreme court decisions, there are the most to controversial in history. one of course is in 2000vbush v gore. the supreme court effectively appointed rove's kennedy president of the united states. again in 2010, also by 5 to 4 majority, the citizens united decision open the way for super pacs and the billion dollars

broken -- wrote controls today. in texas and the 1980's, started taking over the texas supreme court and flipped it from heavily democratic to have a republican and did the same -- heavily republican and the same and alabama. he played a key role of u.s. attorneys. one of his clients was john ashcroft of missouri and rove got him appointed attorney general of the united states. >> and he was one of the names mentioned if todd akin were to pull out. >> right. >> we only have a minute. as he wrote this book, what most surprised you? what we think is most important to understand about this man who has now become perhaps the most powerful political operative? >> the enduring aspect of the

changes -- we see it in the don siegelman going to jail. this started over 10 years ago with don siegelman. now he is going to jail perhaps for eight years. i think it is an absolute travesty. don siegelman is just one example out of dozens and dozens. you have, what i think our real threats to democracy and lasting power with things like the voter suppression drive the a lot of these issues are real threats to democracy. >> craig unger, thank you for being with us, author of, "boss rove: inside karl rove's secret kingdom of power." it hits the bookshelves on september 4. his contracting editor at vanity fair or you can read an excerpt of the book. the we will be broadcasting to

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