Oscar Preview: American Hustle-- An Incidental Indictment Of Our Political Elites

I don't go to many movies, especially not movies that wind up nominated for Oscars. This year I saw The Wolf of Wall Street and complained ever since that the movie whitewashed the real life story about how the antihero, Jordan Belfort, bribed New York's crooked Senator Al D'Amato and the Republican Party. Last night a friend wanted to "do something." I suggested Lucha VaVoom, street mixed martial arts or one of the dollar-a-dance joints downtown. That all scared my friend-- he's from the East Coast-- so we went to see American Hustle, the dramatization of the Abscam sting in the late '70s that netted bribery convictions for Senator Harrison Williams (D-NJ) and 6 congressmen, John Jenrette (D-SC), Michael "Ozzie" Myers (D-PA), Richard Kelly (R-FL), Frank Thompson (D-NJ), Ray Lederer (D-PA), and Jack Murphy (D-NY) as well as the Mayor of Camden and 3 members of the Philadelphia City Council. Jack Murtha wasn't indicted or charged because he kept insisting that the bribes he was interested in were for investments in his district and not for his own pocket, as you can see on the actual FBI video below.

The film didn't deal too deeply with the political aspect of Abscam. It was more about the relationships between the characters in the movie-- romance, sex, drugs, disco, dysfunctional family interactions, petty crime… The movie starts with a disclaimer plastered across the screen: "Some of this actually happened." I can't imagine it's going to win any Oscars tomorrow… but what do I know? I don;t go out much.

Last cycle it seemed unlikely that the Mafia's corrupt Staten Island congressman, Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm ®-- already enmeshed in half a dozen serious scandals after just one term-- could be reelected. But who did the Democrats find to oppose him? Mark Murphy, whose father, Jack Murphy, was the Staten Island congressman convicted of taking a $50,000 "gratuity" in the Abscam scandal. He served nearly 2 years in prison. Voters did a lot of ticket-splitting and while Obama beat Romney 67,524 (50%) to 66,420 (49%), Grimm prevailed over Murphy 72,102 (55%) to 58,193 (44%).

The real-time footage of Murtha (below) was more interesting to me than the movie, especially in light of how high up the Democratic leadership ranks he climbed. Pelosi picked him to be her #2 when she became Speaker, although House Democrats defeated his bad and picked the even shadier K Street whore Steny Hoyer. More recently, House Dems elected another egregiously corrupt Member, JOe Crowley, fresh from a Wall Street bribery escapade for a top Caucus position. That's Beltway politics and it's more revolting than anything portrayed in the film.