Film response to Jack Abramoff and political corruption

Capitol Crimes

In the United States, the government has had to deal with accusations of corruption and duplicity from the beginning of the nation's creation. Unfortunately, many of these accusations have been found to be true and those in positions of political power have been guilty of abusing their roles and of committing illegal acts while purportedly representing the people. In recent years, the corruption has become even more blatant and obvious. Instead of properly representing their constituents, elected officials are becoming more concerned with their political careers and with increasing their power and expanding their bank accounts. This is completely antithetical to the original purpose of the representational government system that the Founding Fathers instituted (Barbour 20). In Bill Moyer's documentary Capitol Crimes, the filmmakers explore just how bad the issue of political corruption has become and how it affects everyone who is led by that corrupt government. Examining the case of super lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the researchers show how bad the situation is and how important it is for people to be aware of what might happen to their government officials if there is not enough supervision and observation to hinder their machinations.

Lobbying is a legal practice in the United States wherein special interest groups hire people to appeal to those in the government and convince the people's representatives to vote the way that the interest desires them to. The groups which provide the most amount of money to the politicians are the ones which receive the most attention from those political leaders. According to the book Keeping the Republic by Christine Barbour, "The rules of interest group politics reward some group characteristics -- such as size, intensity, money, effective leadership, and the possession of information -- more than others (perhaps social conscience or humanitarianism)" (531). With this system, there is an inherent possibility of corruption and chicanery. The Representatives or Senators listen to the desires of the lobbyists and in return for a pledge of their vote will receive gifts such as vacations or other expensive presents. There have been cases where money has exchanged hands although this is technically illegal (Barbour 519). The lobbying system is strong and many people feel that the lobbies or Political Action Committees (PACs) control the votes in the government which makes them less trusting of their governmental leaders. There are laws in place which are designed to protect the citizens of the country and to ensure that a political action committee could not completely control the government. These laws can be moved around and loopholes can be found, as is evident by the case of Jack Abramoff.

In the early twenty-first century, a scandal of epic proportions appeared in the newspapers. Lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his colleagues confessed to using campaign contributions to bribe politicians. In October of 2006, Jack Abramoff was sentenced to more than five years in jail for his crimes, having confessed to both fraud and conspiracy. He was found to have used campaign contribution money as bribery for public officials. It was also found that he had used nonprofit organizations to give aid to his clients in exchange for financial aid and political support (Grimaldi). These groups have been accused of perpetuating fraud by selling their reputation to Abramoff. In exchange for monetary gain, several non-profit groups would support the viewpoint of Abramoff's client. For example, they would produce newspaper columns or news releases which show the client in a positive light, whether the client be an individual or a position on a legal issue. According to an article published in the Washington Post:

E-mails released by the committee show that Abramoff, often with the knowledge of the groups' leaders, exploited the tax-exempt status and leveraged the stature of the organizations to build support among conservatives for legislation or government action sought by clients including Microsoft Corp., mutual fund company DH2 Inc., Primedia Inc.'s Channel One Network, and Brown- Forman, maker of Jack Daniel's whiskey (Grimaldi).

Abramoff reportedly laundered money through the non-profits to pay for things such as vacations for Congress members. Money was traced through a wide arrange of businesses and institutions, from Indian casinos, businesses, and up to the legal sweatshops in the American-controlled Mariana Islands.

The documentary Capitol Crimes argues that the Abramoff affair is the worst political corruption scandal in the United States since the Watergate incident under the Nixon administration in the early 1970s. It is a severe and serious case which has implications that are long-lasting. Narrator Bill Moyers says, "The scale of corruption still coming to light dwarfs anything since Watergate. In one sense it's the age-old tale of greed, but greed encouraged now by the way our system works." Essentially, his argument is that the current legal system regarding special interests and lobbying allows for the kind of corruption that is visible in the Abramoff case. If the system were not designed to allow for financial contributions of special interests and if there were not so many loopholes and ways to circumvent the law, then the kind of corruption viewed in cases like this would not be possible. It is the fault of the system as much as the perpetrators of the crimes.

In the November 2006 election, anyone who had been linked to Abramoff was criticized and several politicians lost their seats in Congress because of that association, even if they were not directly involved in his illegal activities. Several of the people who had worked with Abramoff or had benefitted from his illegal actions, including high-profile politicians, also faced jail time or other ramifications for their choices. In total, eight people including former Congressional representative Robert W. Ney from Ohio (Grimaldi). Ney was found to have allowed his position on acts of legislation to be purchased by Abramoff and his clientele. In exchange for his voting the way they desired him to despite the wishes of his constituents, Ney received thousands of dollars in gifts, such as fancy vacations to foreign countries. This is not unheard of for lobbyists. Abramoff went too far in his financial crimes, but unfortunately, this is not an unusual circumstance. Many if not most lobbyists and interest groups have been involved in some sort of financial reward system which is pledged to politicians in exchange for cooperation. Instead of giving the money directly to politicians, these moneys are granted in terms of campaign contributions or honorariums (Barbour 529). Examples like Abramoff indicate how far things can go, but many groups skirt illegality and conduct behaviors which are only barely legal.

What is particularly disturbing in Capitol Crimes is the fact that Abramoff used former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to allow slave labor to continue in land under the control of the United States of America. Legislation which may have reformed the specific conditions which allowed the Marianas to remain in such squalid conditions had continually been retarded by DeLay. Because of DeLay, the Marianas were exempt from minimum wage and immigration laws which allowed Chinese-owned factories to be located on the island where they could pay their employees barely anything and did not have to provide anything in terms of benefits or even safe working conditions.