Jack Abramoff

Casino Jack Delivers Sweeping View Of Abramoff Scandal

Justin Elliott | April 22, 2010, 1:14PM

Early in the new documentary Casino Jack, a young Ralph Reed appears wearing a camouflage trucker hat, overcome with anti-Communist fervor at a rally in support of the Nicaraguan contras. Later on there is a beturbaned Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) posing with his mujahideen friends in Afghanistan in the late 1980s. And there is Jack Abramoff at a meeting of freedom fighters hosted by rebel leader (and human rights abuser) Jonas Savimbi in Angola.

The best part of Casino Jack is the archival footage that puts the disgraced super-lobbyist in the context of the conservative movement stretching back to his years at the helm of the College Republicans in the early 1980s.

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