The Washington Post has not one but TWO articles today on Brian Moran's role in a highly lucrative (translation: $$$$) Dulles Airport taxi cab contract. First, there's the main article by Michael Laris, Dulles Taxi Pact Raises Questions on Alliances: Moran's Roles in Law, Politics Come Into Play. Here's an excerpt:After going into private practice in the 1990s, a struggling group of cabbies at Dulles International Airport appealed to the same instinct. Dozens were arrested after striking over work conditions, and Moran came to their defense. "I don't like bullies," he said.There's a lot more, check it out, including the conclusion by Abdalla Nasir, who was president of the Washington Flyer Taxi Drivers Association that hired Moran to defend them:
It was an ideal case for a crusading lawyer and ambitious Democratic legislator eager to build a public image. Moran won acquittals for the cabdrivers in 1999, and helped push airport officials to oust the cabbies' boss, Farouq Massoud, whom Moran had blamed for overcharging and overworking them. "I hounded him out of there," Moran said.
But in 2005, Moran went to work as a consultant for Massoud and helped him win back the Dulles cab contract, according to records and interviews.
"When you cannot beat him, join him, right?" Massoud said recently.
A close Moran ally who chaired the airport's governing board, Mary A. "Mame" Reiley, cast a vote in 2007 bringing Massoud back as one of three contractors running cabs at Dulles. The year before, she also delayed a key vote, which allowed Massoud to stay in the running for the contract, public records and interviews show.
Reiley now chairs Moran's campaign for governor, and at the time of the 2007 vote was being paid by Moran's political action committee as a consultant, according to state and Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority records.
"It boggles my mind after all the issues that came out in the wash, that the airport authority would go back and give him" a contract at Dulles, said Nasir, who has been working as a security guard since losing his job as a driver after the earlier conflict. "Money talks. It's big money. That's how it goes, I guess."Yikes.
In addition to the main Washington Post news story on this affair, Marc Fisher also weighs in, with a commentary entitled "Winning Airport Cab Contract Was 'All About Relationships'". Here's the conclusion of Fisher's article:
"It's all about relationships," says former D.C. Council member John Ray, now a lobbyist who has worked with the Schaeffers in their effort to win back a piece of the Dulles contract. "If this had anything to do with the merits of the case, there'd be no question but Jerry would still be at Dulles."Obviously, this is everything people hate about politics. Personally, I've had my differences with Brian Moran's campaign, but I never suspected anything like this by him. After these two articles, though, so much for Moran's crusading, squeaky-clean prosecutor image. Very disappointing.
"You don't mind losing in a fair race," Jerry Schaeffer says. "But to lose because I didn't hire Brian Moran or that caliber of lobbyist, because I thought merit would stand for itself -- that's what hurts."
P.S. I can't wait for the outrage from the Brian Moran supporters who claim they despise money in politics and the kind of insider dealmaking described in the two Post articles.
