Hightower Lowdown

There’s chutzpah . . . and then there’s big honking bull-goose chutzpah. Jim Moran has the bull-goose variety.

A Congress critter from Virginia, Moran touts himself as a fiscally conservative, pro-business Democrat. But based on his own monetary messes, you wouldn’t want him touching your financials.

Four years ago, Jim was $700,000 in debt, playing hide-and-seek with dozens of credit-card companies and sinking fast. Suddenly, a lifeboat came to his rescue! It was MBNA, the nation’s largest credit-card issuer, waving a $450,000 loan at him and offering to consolidate his debts at a much lower interest rate.

I’ve had an MBNA credit card in the past, and I don’t recall them being particularly compassionate toward delinquent borrowers, much less tossing out generous terms on six-figure loans to people with bad credit. Maybe they just liked ol’ Jim.

Or maybe he was a lawmaker who, at this time, happened to be supporting a bill that MBNA was lobbying hard to pass. Ironically, the bill was to make it much tougher for consumers who fall behind on their credit-card debt to get a fresh start by declaring bankruptcy.

Heaping stink on stink, only four days after Moran’s MBNA loan was cleared, he sponsored an even tougher bill to help financial giants like MBNA crack down on ordinary consumers.

Of course, both the company and the congressman say there was no hanky-panky. “It never occurred to me to see any connection” between the bill and the loan, Moran says. An MBNA flack adds, “We thought this was a good business deal.” Yep, it bought them a politician who is very good for their business.