Review by Library Journal Review
Capitol Crimes, from Bill Moyers's PBS series Moyers on America, reports on conservative Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff (b. 1959). In league with powerful individuals such as Ralph Reed, Grover Norquist, and former House speaker Tom DeLay, Abramoff endeavored to establish and maintain a Republican majority in Congress. A significant part of the plan revolved around finding new avenues for obtaining campaign funds, for example, by lobbying for Native American casinos, Chinese government-owned garment factories in the Mariana Islands, and Russian energy oligopolies. These strategies made Abramoff wealthy, but infighting among the conservatives and investigations by journalists, Congressional committees, and the U.S. Department of Justice led to his downfall. The film includes lengthy interviews with historian Andrew J. Bacevich, Kevin Drum and David Corn of Mother Jones, and political commentators Thomas Frank and Norman Ornstein. The documentary covers much the same ground as Casino Jack and the United States of Money (LJ 12/10) and The Big Buy: Tom DeLay's Stolen Congress (2006), and while it fleshes out many small details, it offers no major revelations. Among the bonus features is the film Buying the War, on how the Washington print and broadcast media failed to provide critical coverage of claims made by President George W. Bush's administration of the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq prior to the 2003 invasion of that country. VERDICT This film provides excellent insight into important, recent events concerning American government and a warning against relaxing our vigilance on the fourth estate and the citizenry.-Stephen L. Hupp, West Virginia Univ. Parkersburg Lib. (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
