On November 6, 2011, the intrepid 60 Minutes correspondent, Leslie Stahl, sat down with Jack Abramoff, to talk about how he bought off a whole bunch of people in Washington, D.C. and bilked Indian tribes out of millions of dollars with trumped up casino gambling deals. The title of the program was THE LOBBYIST’S PLAYBOOK. And you guessed it! Abramoff is writing a book about his corrupt career and what Washington needs to do to clean up its act!
Abramoff’s arrogant attitude during the interview was a bit disgusting to me. Although he admitted that he’s ashamed of his behavior, which brought him millions of dollars, he frequently commented about how broken the congressional system is and how easy it is to bribe some people with expensive gifts while bilking other people, like the Indian Tribes and their casinos, out of millions of dollars and do it legally.
Since he has such an insider’s view on corrupt lobbyists, Abramoff probably at some point in the near future will get his own TV talk show and get on the lecture circuit where he will make $10,000 or more each time he tells his story and gives advice about what needs to be fixed so that crooks like him won’t get away so easily. Of course, he has to pay restitution, but being the really smart guy that he is, I’m sure he’s got some money, and lots of it, stashed away somewhere on the planet.
Jack Abramoff served a three and a half year term in a minimum security prison for his crimes, not a long time considering the magnitude of his rip-offs. Which brings me to the story of the Unfortunate Nun.
Sister Marie Thornton was the Vice President of Finance at Iona College in New Rochelle, New York, when she fell victim to a serious addiction to slot machine gambling. She managed to embezzle a million dollars from the school before she was caught and arrested in 2009. Instead of serving a jail term, she was given three years probation and required to do 2,000 hours of community service. She also was committed to solitary confinement by her convent.
The New York Post recently published a very unsympathetic article about her under the title, “Twisted Sister in Nun Jail.”
An Op Ed by Monica Bugajski in an online journal titled Sympathico ca., while not as harshly worded as the Post article, argued that this punishment is too lenient for Sister Marie Thornton, since she violated the public’s trust.
So did Abramoff, and in a much more dramatic way, but he only served three years in prison and hardly seemed contrite about his actions, at least not on the 60 Minutes show.
Sister Marie Thornton is one of an increasing number of ordinary people who are committing crimes of theft and embezzlement as a result of the becoming addicted to the slot machines that now proliferate in every nook and cranny of this country.
I hope that as other victims of our country’s elected officials’ ill conceived ideas about generating more revenues by building more casinos and filling them with even more addictive slot machines, are brought before the criminal justice system, other judges will practice merciful sentencing and order rehabilitation rather than incarceration for people like the Unfortunate Sister Maria Thornton. That way we will have space to put the real crooks, like Jack Abramoff and his crew, in prison and keep them there a bit longer than three and a half years.
Sandra Adell, Author, CONFESSIONS OF A SLOT MACHINE QUEEN.
