Author of 'Bush's Brain': Rove 'is pathological ... in absolute denial' David Edwards and Muriel Kane

Author of 'Bush's Brain': Rove 'is pathological ... in absolute denial'

Keith Olbermann on Monday recalled for viewers an incident "34 years ago last Friday, when a story appeared in the Washington Post detailing a Republican National Committee probe" of then-22 year old Karl Rove, who'd been teaching political dirty tricks to his fellow College Republicans. As a result of that probe, Rove was hired by RNC head George H.W. Bush and made the acquaintance of then-27 year old George W. Bush.

Olbermann then welcomed James Moore, author of Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential, and asked him, "What does Mr. Bush become when he has to operate without Rove for the first time in his political life."

"He goes from lame duck to lame brain," said Moore. "This presidency is going to achieve nothing. ... There's nothing left that he can accomplish domestically, the war is a mess, and Karl is radioactive."

When Olbermann asked if Rove was really going to stay out of the 2008 campaign, Moore replied, "Even a shark gets a full belly every now and then. And this is a chance for this guy to cash in on his reputation. ... I think the most important thing that this guy wants to do is to set down and to write his first draft, his version of history so that he can put his definitive spin on the 8 years of the Bush administration, in hopes that history will judge them a bit more kindly than everybody expects history to judge them."

Olbermann then asked whether people might "start coming out of the woodwork and filling in the blanks" of Rove's career.

"You like to believe that we're all -- at least have a shred of humanity and will have a moment of atonement," said Moore. "I don't think Karl does. I think that there's a certain part of this guy that is pathological, and he has a happy little movie in his head that he's watching and he creates a reality that he refers to. And that's what sustains him and the people who support him, and they're in absolute denial. ... I don't know that these people are going to talk any time in the near future."

"If Rove's so smart, how come they did lose Congress?" asked Olbermann.

"What Karl has done throughout the years is to turn everything political," said Moore. "Federal agencies are used to accumulate political power. Everything they did was to accumulate political power. And eventually, what happened was that when those agencies were called upon to serve the constituencies that elected people to Washington, when they were unable to do that, the public finally said, 'Okay, we've had enough.'"

The following video is from MSNBC's Countdown, broadcast on August 13.