David A. Keene

The sad saga of Rep. Jim Moran
July 17, 2002

Some years ago, I sent an intern to the Alexandria, Va., City Hall to take a look at the contributor filings of then-Mayor Jim Moran. The information the young man was seeking was supposedly available to the public, but as he went through it, he was grabbed from behind by hizzoner himself. Moran insisted on knowing why he was looking at the records.

It was not a pleasant confrontation. The intern didn’t know what to do and beat a hasty retreat after having been yelled at by a mayor whom he described later as out of control. He didn’t go back.

Alexandria residents who had dealings with Jim Moran in those days weren’t surprised. This was a guy who physically threatened people who disagreed with him. Some dismissed his outbursts, but most thought there was something wrong with the guy. They were right … and it wasn’t just his temper.

Jim Moran was elected mayor in spite of the fact that some years before he had been forced to resign from the City Council by a judge who put him on probation for a serious “conflict of interest.” The alternative threatened was a trial and probable conviction on bribery charges. Few thought his political career could survive.

But it did. He confounded most observers by coming back to be elected mayor and went on to win election to Congress in 1990. He’s been reelected ever since in a heavily Democratic district, has emerged as something of a leader within the Democratic Leadership Council and is often seen on various TV networks as a Democratic spokesman.

But there’s still something wrong with the guy. Since threatening my intern more than a decade ago, he’s threatened congressional colleagues and assaulted one on the House floor. He also attacked an 8-year-old child whom he claimed tried to steal his car, and the police had to be called to his house to break up a domestic fight that sent his wife scurrying off to the nearest divorce lawyer.

So the temper’s still there, but so are the ethical lapses that forced him out of politics once before. Since arriving in the House he’s played fast and loose with ethics rules as well as campaign finance laws. He’s apparently always lived beyond the means of a congressman and gotten himself into financial binds that have forced him to seek help wherever he might get it.

All too often this seemed to be from lobbyists who were courting his vote on legislation of interest to them or their clients. Instead of simply taking and pocketing cash, however, the feisty Moran has worked out ways that allow him to at least claim that he isn’t really doing anything wrong.

A couple of years ago, it was revealed that he had worked out a “friendly” loan from a drug industry lobbyist to help him out. The lobbyist, he claimed, was an “old friend.” Shortly after obtaining the loan, he introduced a bill that would directly benefit his friend’s employer. When caught, Moran declared it was a simple “coincidence.”

Last year, he was at it again, borrowing $50,000 from another “old friend.”
This time the “old friend” was Jim Kimsey, co-founder of America Online, a company that has many interests on which Moran might vote. No “quid pro quo,” Moran said, and therefore there was nothing wrong with it — regardless of appearances.

But during this same period he managed to get what can only be called a “sweetheart deal” from another “old friend” — a credit card company he owed $30,000 on maxed-out cards. The company refinanced his house after appraising it very generously. The loan he got this time was one that no one with his credit history, debts or net worth could have gotten — unless, like Moran, they were in a position to help on something the company really wanted.

What the company wanted was bankruptcy reform, which is what it got shortly after approving the loan, according to the Washington Post’s report. Moran was a feisty cosponsor willing to stand up on the House floor and demand reform of a system that lets too many Americans escape the consequences of their own profligacy.

Now, a good case can be made for bankruptcy reform, but not by a hypocrite like Moran who has constantly lived beyond his means and gamed the system to avoid personal responsibility for his actions. When he finally sold the property on which the loan was based, he was four months behind in his payments and managed to escape another $40,000 that others would have had to pay. Not bad for a congressional champion of personal responsibility.

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David Keene is chairman of the American Conservative Union and a Washington-based government affairs consultant