>> abramoff gave up movieay.ducing to become a lobbyist. a republican in washington, jack was the right man attthe right time. >> his credentials with the conservative movement gave him access and entree with the new leadership, and instantly, he saw how he could build a client base and then that client ase in turn could fund the leadership politically with campaign contributions. it became sort of symbiotic relationship. >> the relationship became ever more important. his campaign costs began to soaa. >> theecost of campaigns went through the roof in the modern era in the last 35 years. it's just a staggering increase. -pthe trouble is the new technology of politics, commercials on television, polls and focus groups to design the commercials for television, are just very expensive. and no serious candidate or incumbent can say, no, i'm not going to do that, that's beneath me, i'm not going to put myself into 30-second spots. they all do it. one of the dirty little secrets in washington today is how much time mem

until jack abramoff became involved. then they became ideologically conservative. >> abramoff is a little older than i am, but i was a college republican in the early 1980's. when the college republicans took that sharp turn to the right, that's the same direction i was going in. a lot of the same heroes. i thought ronald reagan was the greatest man who ever lived. >> in this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. government is the problem. >> where do you find things like that clip of karl rove or dan rohrabacher? >> oh, man, we just dig and dig+ and dig. about my job. the fun things%- you start looking and you start believing that stuff is out there that hasn't been seen before and you usually find something. >> how do you find it? if i were sitting in your shoes, who would you call to find something like that? >> well, the first place you start is you go to the networks and you say, you know, send me all your material that has stuff about either jack abramoff or karl rove or others, and sometim

he starts to work for jack abramoff. then even though he's not supposed to, he starts immediately lobbying his former boss, bob nay. and it's the use -- it's the corrupt use of those personal relationships that lobbyists excel at. and so it was very important to have in the midst of the story. in terms of how i got him to talk, i mean, i went to neil right after he had been sentenced and just said, look, let's go ouu and have a beer and let's talk off the record, let's just talk. and i told them about what i was trying to do. i said i was interested in him. and would he be interested in talking to me in sort of a broad way about his own experience, but with a largee connext involved. and i think after a number of conversations, we got to a kind of trust level whhre he felt that would be a good idea. i think the same thing happened withhbob naa. when i initially wrote him, i wrote him in prison. he tried to shred my letters. he was very scared. prison is a scary place. if you do things that the prison offfcials don't like

when abramoff was first charged or when the story first broke about abramoff, i started mining that thread. it just seemed like an interesting relationship to help. >> did she talk about that relationship to you? >> no. >> michael married the 24-year- old waitress. >> they were out on the eastern shore. they have probably taken a hit on all their real-estate holdings. michael scanlon has been the big winner. >> was there a lesson in this whole abramoff story? there is a documentary and also a movie with kevin spacey coming out. >> right. the only lesson has been for staffers to watch out. a lot of the rules that were in place before are similar to rules that are in place now. the rules in place now are stricter. young staffers would be on capitol hill and sort of do what everyone else did. before there was a rule that you could not accept more than $50 in gifts or meals or sports tickets. people would routinely exceed that limit. that was just the culture. that is the way it was. now that these guys have been prosecuted and some are going to jail, some are walking around with guilty pleas,

go work for jack abramoff and kind of watch this operation get built, right? and jack was going from really big to the top. >> neil morphed from the original neil who wanted to be the press secretary to the guy who wanted to be part of the abramoff family. >> now, was it unusual to lose a staffer? >> i've had staffers come and go like a revolving door. >> i'm the poster child for the revolving door. >> the revolving door between government ann k street is an essential part of the washington game. >> there's a law that states you're not allowed to lobby your around the one-year ban and then i just flat out violated it. . signup for our scheduler e-mails @ c-span 2 or -- at c-span.org. >> white is interesting about what happened over the last 13 years is that elections used to be determined by a few officials in the home office. now they spend millions of pounds every yeer and employs dozens of people, hold huge and greg reviews, spends gobs of money on advertising. >> from london's, the prime minister's questioos from the british house of commons. this week, da

. >> i've seen friends go over to go work for jack abramoff and kind of watch this operation get built, right? and jack was going from really big to the top. >> neil morphed from the original neil who wanted to be who wanted to be part of theuy abramoff family. >> now, was it unusual to lose a staffer? >> i've had staafers come and go like a revolving door. >> i'm the poster child for the revolving door. >> the revolving door betteen government and k street is an essential part of the washington game. you're not allowed to lobby your former bosses, and i tiptoed around the one-year ban and then i just flat out . ú? >> what's interesting about what happened over the last 30 years is elections used to be determined by a few. we now have the vast electoral commission spending billions of pounds every year, employing dozens of people on huge reviews, spends far too much on advertising, and then -- [cheers] >> now from london, prime minister's questions from the british house of commons. this week british prime minister david cameron fielded questions on election reform and the british miss

the life and times of convicted lobbyist jack abramoff," sunday on span span's "q&a." >> this morning we'll talk with the former reporter with the "anchorage daily news" during the exxon valdez oil spill about the federal response to the oil spill in the gulf. then reporter christopher rugaber discusses the survey of the nation's on

at that time, jack abramoff, grover norquist and they are considered patton freaks and the or psychoticwhere communists were in the government. but now it has switched from russia to obama query have seen3 socialist marxist. you have beck on television calling him a marxist and a socialist. then i need to correct, is actually a fascist. maybe something else. but it is the end of the world as we know it. what it has led to part is coming joining what we call sore loser voters. conservatives who are upset because they lost the election. for the first time in history, you have a news outlets that helped make and opposition party to a newly elected president which i don't believe that that happened before. what proceeds that is in the '90s, we had all of the black helicopter groups which are white supremacists and your patriot movement, the militia movement. but what happens is they were more in the shadows. but because of fox news and the tea party, they're able to expose themseeves and they get transmitted into the mainstream. all the sudden, there is a wreck sanchez interweaving emission

hill in his new documentary, casino jack and the united states oo mooey, the life and times of jack abramoff >> now, remarks from actress ashley judd on the practice of mountaintop removal call money in the appalachian region, where she was raised as a child. this has an impact oo surrounding valleys and waterways. this is about an hour. >> good afternoon. i am the president of the national press club. welcome to the national press club. we are the world's leading national organization for journalists. future by fostering a free press world. for more information about the national press club, please visit our website at www.press.org. to donate to our programs, please visit www.press.org/library. on behalf of our members worldwide, we would like to welcome our speaker as well as our attendees at the day's event, which include guests of our speaker as well as working journalists. we would also like to welcome our c-span and public radio audiences. after the speech concludes, i will ask as many audience questions as time permits. i would now like to briefly introduce our head table guests. fro

new documentary, "casino jack and the united states of money: the life and times of convicted jack abramoff," sunday on c-span. >> we have three new c-span books. abraham lincoln, the supreme court, and who is buried in grant's tomb, each with the contemporary perspective and something new to you about lincoln, the nation's highest court, and a great lives of america's presidents. each is also a great good -- great gift idea for father's day. >> the second is to continue giving access to new supplies to the world. that is drilling wells into the deepwater gulf of mexico. that is beginning to explore under the ice in the arctic. >> the c.e.o. of bp on global energy policy this past january, before the gulf oil spill. thursday, you testified on capitol hill. see what other industry and officials have said about the spill with briefings and hearings and call-in programs on c-span's video library, washington your way. now remarks from actors ashley judd on mount top pull money removal and the abolition not. from the national press club, this is about one hour. >> good afternoon.3 national press

. >> alex gibney, what was your reaction when you heard that jack abramoff had just been released from to a halfway houseein baltimore this week? >> well, i knew it was going to happen. and frankly, you know, i thought he had spent enough time in a stir. there were some other people who might well have gone to prison but didn't. jack has paid the price. he's out in a halfway house. i think that's all right. >> when was the first time that you thought about doing your documentary, brand-new, called "casino jack and the united states of money"? >> well, i heard some of the stories in "the washington post," and i was astounded really by sorttof the audacity of the story and how colorful it was. so i thought it would make a good movie because i'm always interested in stories per se, and jackkis a fascinating character. very colorful, very outrageous. at the same time, the other thing about it that was really interesting to me was it was a story that seemed to me to point out the most fundamental problem in our democracy right now, which is the way that money rules our democracy. it's becom

about corruption on capitol hill in his new book, about the life and times of convicted lobbyist, abramoff> coming up next, president obama's testifying before the committee. discussed was improvement to the airport screening process and the terrorist watch list. the third person to be nominated for this position. this lasts an hour and a half. >> good morning, eb. the two most important members of the committee are here and trod work. we are theory consider the administrator of the t.s.a. it's embarrassing. such an enormous undertaking doesn't have the leadership that it needs. i am quinsed that you can provide that leadership on the basis of work we've done in the intelligence committee and the conversations we have had on this topic. there's no question in my mind about it. we can't ignore we've been without one for far too long and we've fade price for it. this country has endured an attempted christmas day attack, an attempted times square bombing. and where the terrorist pulled off the plane was about to take off for dubai. and they pulled him off. and just this weekend two men were