Categorical Aperitif

Yesterday's Democracy Now! has a nice segment on Alex Gibney's new film about shameless überlobbyist Jack Abramoff and his astonishing record of greed, mendacity, and right-wing activism. Excerpt:

NEIL VOLZ [former Congressional staffer and Abramoff associate]: The first time I met Jack Abramoff was in the Majority Whip’s office at an event. Jack is one of a kind. I mean, Jack Abramoff could sweet talk a dog off a meat truck. He’s that persuasive. And he’s the king of K Street. This is the guy. And he comes in for five minutes, sits down next to somebody who’s willing to spend millions of dollars, you know, to lobby Washington, and then he leaves in five minutes. And the guy or the woman thinks that Jack’s talking to the President, but he’s probably playing solitaire on his computer. And then he comes back in, and it’s like, “Hey, you know, sorry about that, but you got two more minutes. And by the way, I need about $250,000 a month,” and then walks out the door. One of a kind. One of a kind.

// posted by nash @ 8:51 AM