Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 17, 2001; Page C03
Trouble magnet Jim Moran -- who in recent months has coped with a nasty divorce, complaints about hisethics and bad publicity about his scuffle with an 8-year-old boy -- quietly marked his 56th birthday yesterday with a staff party in his congressional office. But it was a different story the night before outside Moran's house. The Arlington Democrat and two young women created a ruckus that a witness described as "something out of a Jerry Springer episode."
Rep. Moran: A birthday to remember. Or maybe forget.
(Ray Lustig - The Washington Post/File Photo)
Moran's chief of staff, Paul Reagan, called this characterization "somewhat exaggerated," and explained: "It was just two very good friends who came to give him birthday presents and were surprised that the other one was there, as far as Jim is concerned. They never spoke to each other. I took notes on what Mr. Moran just told me and I'm not going to go beyond that."
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Our witness -- who lives on Moran's street, Walter Reed Drive, and asked not to be named -- told us that while walking her dog around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, "I heard arguing and slamming doors coming from Congressman Moran's house. He had one girlfriend, a blonde in her thirties, against his black Toyota, and was talking to her while another one, a redhead in overalls who seemed to be in her twenties, walked into his house with balloons and what looked like a cake."
As neighbors gathered, Moran followed the redhead into his house and "then there was a bunch of screaming," said our witness. "She said something like, 'I don't want to be here! I don't need this!' Then Moran had the redhead by the arm, trying to get her out of the house. She pointed at the blonde and yelled, 'That . . . is the one who should leave! I was invited! How could you do this to me?' And she was cussing the whole time and got into what looked like a Ford Escort station wagon and sped away. The blonde stayed behind."
Our witness continued: "The redhead came back a few minutes later and went into the house while the other girl was in there, and more yelling continued out into the walkway outside. The arguing and cussing continued for the next 10 minutes or so and all I could hear was the woman screaming at him, 'How could you do this to me?' and the congressman was standing next to her, trying to console her and saying: 'I'm sorry . . . I'm so sorry . . . ' "
Eventually peace returned to the neighborhood, and the redhead in overalls apparently returned, our witness said. She was spotted leaving Moran's house early yesterday morning.
THIS JUST IN . . .
• First daughter Jenna Bush pleaded no contest yesterday to alcohol possession by a minor, and Austin Community Court Judge Elisabeth Earle ordered her to pay $51.25 in court costs, perform eight hours of community service and attend a six-hour alcohol awareness course. Jenna, one of President Bush's 19-year-old twin daughters, was cited for a misdemeanor when police found her drinking beer in an Austin bar last month. She showed up in court wearing a tight-fitting sleeveless black shirt, pink capri pants, and sandals that exposed a toe ring on her right foot. At one point she complained to Earle that pesky photographers were snapping her picture through the windows in the courtroom's doors; the judge dispatched two security officers to shoo them away. Court officials told us that Bush has until July 18 to comply with the court order, and if she does so, the charge will be dismissed. "Good luck to you, miss," Judge Earle told Jenna, according to the Associated Press. No comment from the White House.
• Chicago resident Juanita Jordan, the elusive wife of the equally elusive Washington Wizards basketball honcho Michael Jordan, made a rare appearance in Washington Tuesday night for an Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performance at the Kennedy Center and then stayed on for the late-starting post-show dinner, of which she was honorary co-chair. "I love theater and dance," Juanita Jordan told The Post's Janelle Erlichman at the dinner, a benefit for the dance troupe's scholarship and community outreach programs. Wearing a smart black suit with a low-cut sparkly top that showed off her cleavage, she was sitting with Chicago and Washington friends -- but not her absent husband, who was listed as her co-chair. "He comes and goes," Jordan said. "He's not here permanently."
Among the guests -- most of whom left before the sorbet -- were Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, D.C. Mayor Tony Williams, mixed-media couple Judy Woodruff and Al Hunt, D.C. School Board President Peggy Cooper Cafritz and Fannie Mae Chairman Franklin Raines.
• Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone will be on hand Sunday to help place the "doctoral hood," as they say in commencement parlance, on his pal Tony Bennett during George Washington University's graduation exercises on the Ellipse.
