His lobbying empire took in millions of dollars by defrauding clients such as Indian tribes seeking government licenses to operate casinos and sweatshop owners in the Northern Marianas Islands looking for exemption from US federal labor laws. The Abramoff case is a complicated and potentially fascinating subject for a film.
It’s ubiquitous.… And those of us who know this, those of us who understand the disease of the dull, we do something about it.… You’re either a big leaguer or you’re a slave clawing your way onto the C train.” Hickenlooper (who died in October 2010 at the age of 47) begins his quasi-docudrama in the late 1990s at the height of Abramoff’s reign as king of K Street-the center of Washington’s powerful lobbying industry (“Everybody sells access”).Ībramoff is shown telling his mirrored reflection that “mediocrity is where most people live.
Kevin Spacey stars as Abramoff, the Washington influence peddler who bought and sold congressmen and government officials during the Bush White House era. “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog,” counsels Jack Abramoff in George Hickenlooper’s movie Casino Jack.
