{"id":15062,"date":"2008-03-31T11:10:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-31T15:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/15062.html"},"modified":"2008-03-31T11:10:00","modified_gmt":"2008-03-31T15:10:00","slug":"the-worst-cabinet-secretary-youve-never-heard-of-bows-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-worst-cabinet-secretary-youve-never-heard-of-bows-out\/","title":{"rendered":"The worst cabinet secretary you’ve never heard of bows out"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a rule, having the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development resign in the midst of a national mortgage crisis seems like an unwelcome development. But in the case of Alphonso Jackson, who resigned this morning<\/a> in the midst of multiple scandals and a criminal investigation, the Bush administration is probably better off with a vacancy.<\/p>\n

The Bush administration’s top housing official, under criminal investigation and intense pressure from Democratic critics, announced Monday he is quitting.<\/p>\n

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson said his resignation will take effect on April 18. The move comes at a shaky time for the economy and the Bush administration, as the housing industry’s crisis has imperiled the nation’s credit markets and led to a major economic slowdown.<\/p>\n

Jackson, 62, has been fending off allegations of cronyism and favoritism involving HUD contractors for the past two years. The FBI has been examining the ties between Jackson and a friend who was paid $392,000 by Jackson’s department as a construction manager in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.<\/p>\n

The HUD chief made no direct mention of that in his resignation statement. Explaining his move, he said: “There comes a time when one must attend more diligently to personal and family matters. Now is such a time for me.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s the “spend-more-time-with-my-family” line, without the literal cliche. Except, in Jackson’s case, the spend-more-time-with-my-defense-attorney explanation is the more likely explanation.<\/p>\n

To be sure, scandalous cabinet secretaries like Alberto Gonzales and Donald Rumsfeld get most of the ink when people consider the most ridiculous members of the president’s team, but Alphonso Jackson, a Bush buddy from way back in Dallas in the 1980s, has to be right up there among the most embarrassing cabinet secretaries in recent memory.
\n
\nI was going to do a list of some of Jackson’s more notable scandals, but it looks like Amanda beat me to it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Loyalty Over Merits:<\/strong> During a speech on April 28, 2006, Jackson recounted a conversation he had with a prospective contractor who had a “heck of a proposal<\/a>.” This contractor, however, told Jackson, “I don’t like President Bush<\/a>.” Jackson subsequently refused to award the man the contract. A former HUD assistant secretary confirmed that Jackson told agency employees to “consider presidential supporters<\/a> when you are considering the selected candidates for discretionary contracts.”<\/p>\n

Political Retaliation:<\/strong> In 2006, Jackson allegedly demanded that the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) “transfer a $2 million public property<\/a>” at a “substantial discount” to Kenny Gamble, a developer, former soul-music songwriter, and friend of Jackson’s. When PHA director Carl Greene refused, Jackson and his aides called Philadelphia’s mayor and “followed up with ‘menacing’ threats<\/a> about the property and other housing programs in at least a dozen letters and phone calls over an 11-month period.” <\/p>\n

Contracts For Golfing Buddies:<\/strong> In October 2007, federal investigators looked into whether, after Hurricane Katrina, Jackson lined up an emergency “no-bid contract<\/a>” at the HUD-controlled Housing Authority of New Orleans for “golfing buddy” and friend William Hairston. According to HUD, the emergency contract paid Hairston $392,000 over a year<\/a> and a half; Hairston’s partner companies also received “direct contracts<\/a>” with HUD. One of the companies which received a contract in New Orleans, Columbia Residential, had “significant financial ties to Jackson<\/a>.” Jackson’s wife also had “ties to two companies<\/a> that did business with the New Orleans authority.”<\/p>\n

Awarding Corrupt Companies:<\/strong> Shirlington Limousine and Transportation Inc. is the firm that defense contractor Brent Wilkes used to “transport congressmen, CIA officials, and perhaps prostitutes to his Washington parties.” The firm’s president had a “lengthy history of illegal activity,” detailed in his 62-page rap-sheet, and his limo company “operates in what looks to be a deliberately murky way.” Despite all this, Jackson’s HUD awarded Shirlington a contract worth $519,823<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lucrative Salaries For Cronies:<\/strong> Atlanta lawyer Michael Hollis, another Jackson friend, “appears to have been paid approximately $1 million for managing the troubled Virgin Islands Housing Authority,” despite having “no experience<\/a> in running a public housing agency.” A “top Jackson aide” reportedly made it clear to officials within HUD that “Jackson wanted Hollis” for the job. Hollis received more than four times the salary of his predecessor.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s not every cabinet secretary who faces investigations from the Justice Department, his own agency’s inspector general, the FBI, and a federal grand jury, but Alphonso Jackson is a special kind of cabinet secretary.<\/p>\n

He won’t be missed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a rule, having the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development resign in the midst of a national mortgage crisis seems like an unwelcome development. But in the case of Alphonso Jackson, who resigned this morning in the midst of multiple scandals and a criminal investigation, the Bush administration is probably better off with a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15062\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}