Strongarm dictator Fulgencio Batista ruled Cuba until the revolution, or as the highly-paid Jeff Jacoby would have it - until Fidel Castro "seized power". Seizing power from ruthless corrupt dictators was the American job description, last I heard. Batista was in every respect but the moustache the Saddam Hussein of Cuba, and possibly less moral generally.
Meyer Lansky ran Batista's vice franchises until Castro drove all the crooks out of Cuba, or as many as he got around to, or the ones that bothered him. Whatever. The point is for years I haven't been able to understand how a handful of semi-literate, but wealthy, Cubans could exercize so much power in American politics.
Meyer Lansky was not Italian but he was probably at or near the top of the organized criminal underworld for most of his maturity. This never got to the big screen or the public eye the way all those godfathers and goodfellas did.
Lansky. Now Abramoff.
Abramoff is a prince among men. Gambling. Vice. Murder. Whatever it takes.
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