Time for Alphonso Jackson to go

September 22, 2006

Following up on yesterday’s item about Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson and his apparent penchant for letting politics dictate the grant process, it looks like Bush’s cabinet secretary has a real problem on his hands.

Yesterday, an initial news report indicated that HUD’s inspector general found that Jackson “urged top aides to take contractors’ politics into account when handing out grants and deals,” but did not find any “direct evidence” that favoritism actually occurred.

A lot of us would like to get more details from the HUD report itself, but the inspector general’s office said it would not release the full, 340-page report. (Gotta love that Bush administration respect for transparency in government.) The Dallas Business Journal has filed a FOIA request to obtain it, but in the meantime, ThinkProgress has obtained the executive summary.

As it happens, yesterday’s news looked bad for Jackson. Today’s news looks much worse.

* “During the investigation, Secretary JACKSON’s Chief of Staff, as well as the HUD Deputy Secretary testified that, in a senior staff meeting, JACKSON had advised senior staff, to the effect, that when considering discretionary contracts, they should be considering supporters of the President, language consistent with the remarks made by JACKSON in Dallas, Texas, on April 28, 2006.”

* “Investigation did disclose some problematic instances involving HUD contacts and cooperative agreement grants, in particular, the cooperative agreement award issued to Abt Associates…was blocked for a significant period of time due to Secretary JACKSON’s involvement and opposition to Abt. Secretary JACKSON’s Chief of Staff testified that one factor in JACKSON’s opposition to Abt was Abt’s political affiliation.”

* “Secretary JACKSON’s Chief of Staff also identified other instances of Secretary JACKSON intervening with contractors whom he did not like. Reviews of political contributions indicated these contractors had Democratic political affiliations.”

Given this, resignation shouldn’t even be open to debate. Jackson has to go.

Indeed, at the risk of sounding over-dramatic, Jackson probably committed a felony or two. He doesn’t need a press secretary to help spin the facts; he needs a lawyer to start preparing a defense.

I’m routinely disappointed by what constitutes a big political story, but this is a genuine scandal that could revive the “culture of corruption” story quite nicely. Hint to Dems: this one’s easy and there’s no reasonable defense. It’s a slow, hanging curve, right over the middle of the plate….

Starting the clock now:

How long until Mr. Jackson (if you’re nasty) starts whining that everyone is out to get him, not because he is as crooked as Quasimodo, not because he trampled the 1st Am. but because he’s black?

You’re not being dramatic CB. It is hard to imagine how he could have abused his position more. Every person in the government should be screaming for his head right now. Anyone who obeyed his assery needs to go along with anyone who defends him.

  • Well, let’s see. Youve got a sitting Congressman, Bob Ney, who pleads GUILTY to taking bribes, and yet, he seems to still be holding HIS job. Leaves me little reason to believe that Jackson will think he has to go. As long as you are ripping off taxpayers, noone will come to your rescue. Now, if you rip off Target, for example (why does that ring a bell), well, then you can bet your ass justice will be served. Albeit a rather lenient one in the end…

  • I think former governor John Rowland of Connecticut got sent to prison by the feds for things quite similar to what is described above.

  • Just to be clear, I favor prison sentences for this kind of thing, and as a Connecticut taxpayer, I don’t think Mr. Rowland was sent away for a long enough time.

  • LOL!!! Has’nt it registered yet????? The GOP moto is “TO THE VICTORS GO THE SPOILS!!!”. After all,it’s the capitalist way. To the GOP “the american way=the capitalist way”. All of the top 400 on Forbes richest list are now BILLIONAIRES.

  • Ten bucks to the 1st person who correctly names what reward Bush gives to Alphonso for this behavior.
    And I’ll bet 20 that after the reward Alphonso will not have to resign or get fired. And if anyone wants to point out that internet gambling is illegal, shut your mouth, Bush has set a precedent of brazen law breaking and I intend to follow.
    Ask the site administrator for my email afterwards if your guess on the Alphonso’s prize turns out true.

  • Jackson was on the Charlie Rose Show a few months after Katrina hit New Orleans and said he withheld funding to rebuild New Orleans at Mayor Nagin’s request. Charlie didn’t question it, but I would like to know more details about that and the reasons for Nagin’s request.

  • Everything you listed here is why Alphonso got the job. It is so much the way things work now, that he didn’t even realize it needed to pretend that wasn’t the way things work.

    That’s what you guys don’t get about this whole accountability thing. The reason the entire focus of intelligence reform has been on the CIA is because their intelligence was the most accurate, rather than the most fabricated. The fact that you’re willing to screw up for the big guy is a sign of loyalty. Denying reality in favor of sycophancy, no matter how rediculous it makes you look, is a check on your resume. There’s always a columnist job out there for any male prostitute, so long as he’s willing to prostitute himself for the boy king.

  • Andrew F – for $10, Alex

    “What is, the Medal of Freedom?”

    There have been multiple articles noting the correlation between Nixon and Bush 43 as far as approval ratings go. The general conclusion as to the difference is that Nixon had the decency to resign for his ethical entanglements. The Bush administration is never ever ever ever going to take responsibility. What are we going to do if Alphonso does not resign and Bush says he is doing a Heck-of-a-job? Write more pissed off tirades?

    This system only works if everyone agrees to and abides by the rules. The #1 problem with Bush is not his policy positions (wrong as they are) it is his willingness to ignore the rules of polite society. He is a bully and he has damaged this country to an extent that we will not truely know for many years.

  • G2000,
    Bob Ney meets his destiny on October 13—the day he’s scheduled to “officially” plead guilty. Unless he plays a scam and bails on the plea (which some think could happen, forestalling any legitimate conviction-by-trial until well after his current term in Congress ends), he’s a cooked goose, and will have to resign by default.

    As for Jackson—of course he’s “finished”—but the longer he’s kept in place by Herr Bush, the more damage he can do to yet another program deemed “unacceptable” by Massah W….

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