Fire Jim Moran

The threshold question in any political campaign is whether the incumbent should be fired and why. As this is a Catholic social justice column, there must be a social justice reason to fire the incumbent in question, Jim Moran.

While Jim has had some personal problems over the years, he has worked through them and they are no cause for his ouster.

He should be fired because if he is not, the District is de facto endorsing the current state of affairs in the bankruptcy law, which Jim Moran wrote - including the provision that prevents cram-downs for residential first mortgage loans in reorganziation. This reform removes the option for the poor that is predominant in Catholic Social teaching and is ample reason to remove the incumbent in Virginia's 8th District.

The lack of cram down authority meant that a judge could not reduce the value of the mortgage backed securities that back the loan, so that they would never lose money. That led to models which turned into a feeding frenzy for investors - which led to a freeding frenzy of home loans to people who could not afford them - the liar loans that allowed anyone with a post to buy a house. Too many buyers led to a huge bubble in housing prices - leading to more and more exotic loan products. While at several stages, many people should have known better (and some did, making billions of dollars in the process), the whole feeding frenzy can be traced back to the former Mayor of Alexandria, Virginia's willingness to carry the financial sector's water (and receive some special consideration on his own finances in the process).

If voters in Alexandria, Arlington and Reston - having been told this - still desire to have Jim continue to serve then they accept the taint of this action and the consequences of it - the destruction of the national and world economies. I am unwilling to accept that taint, or vote for Jim another time.

I won't vote for the Republican challenger either, since he would be no different on bankruptcy reform. Instead, I will vote for the progressive alternative, Virginia Independent Green Candidate Ron Fisher. I urge everyone else in the District to do so too.