Abramoff: Hero or Villain?
In her recent book, Third World America, columnist Arianna Huffington observed, "Some people look at laws and say, 'Why' or "Why not?' I look at a law and say, 'Who PAID for it?'"
That line might just as well have been the opening quote to the new Kevin Spacey feature Casino Jack, a scripted and somewhat fictionalized retelling of the tawdry corruption under Jack Abramoff's reign as the chief bellman in Washington's lobbying community. (There is also an almost concurrent documentary called Casino Jack and the United States of Money, directed by Alex Gibney, coming out on DVD. And since Casino Jack, the scripted film, is still in very limited "art house" release, if you live outside a major metropolitan area, you might want to make note of this one for your OnDemand or Netflix queue.)
Liberals--do you want to know why Obama flip-flopped on the public option and made Romneycare, instead of Canada or Great Britain, into his chief model for healthcare? Conservatives, do you want to know why there was no bailout for Main Street, with Wall Street's record corporate profits amidst outsourcing and recession? Care to guess how our supposedly "conservative" Supreme Court appointees effectively told Wal-Mart and Donald Trump (in 2005's Kelo v. New London) that they can take my own home away from me under eminent domain if they promise that their privatized "redevelopment" scheme will bring in more local tax revenue "to benefit the public interest"?
As Mark Felt philosophized during Watergate, "Follow the money." Indeed, it is this cynicism about government -- how it seems that even the best and most important laws (civil rights, food and environmental protection) almost invariably get corrupted and perverted--that has animated domestic conservatism since Barry Goldwater.
In many ways, Casino Jack is a more upscale, Internet 2.0 version of a 1970s existentialist curio like Charley Varrick or Electra Glide in Blue or Five Easy Pieces, or perhaps a No Country for Old Men in a Huge Boss suit. There is no one to really root for in a good-guy vs. bad-guy point of view -- the people are all uniformly disgusting to various degrees -- so we root for the most colorful. Actually, not even that is strictly true: in dramatic terms, some of the most "colorful" characters are the most off-putting of all. An entertaining Jon Lovitz devours the scenery whole as the ultra-sleazy, mobbed-up collaborator of Jack's, Adam Kidan. Abramoff sees Kidan as his initial ticket into becoming a real "Casino Jack" by taking over a crude, stereotypical Greek restauranteur and land developer's Florida "SunCruz" casino cruise ship operation, called "SunSail" in the film. (Obviously, Casino Jack sees the floating casino as more than just a cash cow, but as a personal pleasure palace to lure and bribe politicians on. The original owner, Gus Boulis, was actually killed in real life as he was in the film -- apparently on Kidan's orders.)
So we find ourselves rooting for Abramoff (up to a point), even though he's the "bad guy," for the same reason we wonder if the villain in a Hitchcock movie or a classic Columbo can "pull it off." The movie is carried by Kevin Spacey as Abramoff. He has all the charm (and smarm) of a Robert Wagner in his prime, with the postmodern good sense to subtly satirize himself and his performance without ever letting his character know it. Indeed, both in real life and the film, the bullying Abramoff sincerely wanted to pave a veritable freeway of goodwill with his ill-gotten gains, opening restaurants (one a kosher deli), giving money away to charity, and even planning to found a private Hebrew prep school (naturally, with a full sports program for other Jewish jocks like himself. As the former football hero often smirkingly threatens his quarries, "I work out -- every day!")
In some ways, it's an old story: People who claim to be men of deep religious faith -- people who go "davening" and wear yarmulkes and insist on kosher fare, along with their fundamentalist, Bible-believing, charismatic Christian brothers -- can go straight from somber prayer breakfasts to wallowing in the nastiest sex and payoff shenanigans from 9 to 5 without even missing a step. (Spencer Garrett's comic-buffoonery as disgraced, allegedly Christian majority leader Tom DeLay is not to be missed.) A lot of the movie is a guessing game -- does this surfacely observant Jewish man, who violates the major moral tenets of that very admirable faith of his fathers on a daily basis, really believe the sh*t he's saying? We never really know, since he's so gleeful when he manipulates and BS's people knowingly, but we're left with the unsettling sense that he does really believe, when it comes to his self-righteous, totally disconnected defenses of his faith and family.
With Spacey more often absent from the big screen than most stars of his stature (largely due to his pursuing stage projects, including directing London's ultra-prestigious Old Vic playhouse), it's nice to see him back in the saddle again, even if he is just playing a variant of his sardonic signature role in American Beauty. (Speaking of political themes, one of his last major roles was in the HBO movie Recount, on the 2000 election catastrophe, and his next film, playing at Sundance currently, is Margin Call, a snapshot of the Sept 15, 2008 financial meltdown.) Barry Pepper is deliciously lizardly as Abramoff's right-hand man, Michael Scanlon. And even though the female characters aren't given much to do besides whine about their husbands and boyfriends (and they have the right, considering), Kelly Preston as Mrs. Abramoff adds some needed pathos and grounding for her larger-than-life hubby, and Rachelle Lefevre is too smart for the room as Scanlon's possessive girlfriend.
The movie is also the cinematic swan song to it's relatively young director, George Hickenlooper, who died just before Casino Jack's premiere in November at age 47 (some sources say 53) of an accidental overdose of painkillers. It also boasts the final performance of character acting royalty Maury Chaykin, who died in July of a heart attack (induced by a valve infection), at age 61. (Although miscast as an old-school Italian mob boss, Chaykin makes the most of his small part as an aging, obese, pasta-mumbling mafiosi who deals with Lovitz's sultan of scuzz.)
Casino Jack certainly presents a great satirical indictment of lobbying and the people who practice it, but as with so many of the questions raised by the Abramoff case, there are no easy answers. Some people might leave the theater crying out for stricter laws and abolitions against lobbying as we know it, and thanks to people like Abramoff, the world "lobbyist" has become a dirty word, synonymous with political prostitution. But let's have a look at a world (and a Washington) without them: Business conservatives, how would you like to see the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers' Association, the US Chamber of Commerce, or the Club for Growth put to sleep? Liberal readers, wanna see the lobbyists for green/solar energy -- or how about the NAACP or the AIDS lobby -- get thrown out with the trash? Religious conservatives, want to see Focus on the Family or Ralph Reed get their licenses yanked, just as gay marriage is about to possibly become legalized, with Roe vs. Wade still fabulous at nearly 40? Or for the most extreme kind of example: Erin Runnion's seven-year-old daughter Samantha was savagely raped and murdered in 2002 by a sex criminal. Today, she works as a lobbyist for children's issues and victim's rights. How many of you (of any political stripe) want to see her put out of business?
Jack Abramoff, as sweaty and sleazy and crude and rude as he was, was right. Without lobbyists, and the money that greases their wheels, the business of today's Washington -- both good and not-so-good -- would probably grind to a halt. When it comes to our political leaders, and the laws they write and the judges and officials they appoint, it would seem grandpa's old bromide is right. "You get what you pay for." Though after watching Casino Jack, my first thought ran to another old consumer warning: "Let the buyer beware."