The Best Government Money Can Buy?

An entire documentary full of smooth-talking hardcore K-Street lobbyists yammering about how their dealings on Capitol Hill are critical to the functionality of our U.S. government? Writer and director Francis Megahy's The Best Government Money Can Buy? serves up an effective combination of insider testimony and irrefutable facts while exploring the relationship between lobbyists and politicians. Washington, D.C. welcomes about 14,000 lobbyists into its hallowed sphere, all of whom descend like a horde of ravenous wild dogs on the 500 or so members of Congress. Of course, not all lobbyists are depicted as evil: Megahy takes care to point out that the ACLU has its lobbyists, as does the International Poker Players Association. But when the film focuses on special interest lobbyists for the oil and pharmaceutical industries, the inevitable “Who's really controlling our government?” questions arise. Of course, the notion of oil company lobbyists making hundreds of thousands of dollars and writing actual energy policy sounds like business as usual under the George W. Bush administration. But Megahy adroitly presents this special interest domination as non-partisan, with the corruption spread out equally among both Democrats and Republicans. A rare sky-is-falling documentary that's much too credible to be dismissed as activist paranoia, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (M. Sandlin)