HUD Secretary Resigns

Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Alphonso Jackson, the Bu$h administration’s top housing official resigned today. Mr. Jackson said his resignation will take effect on April 18 to ensure an orderly transition of the leadership of HUD. 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. He was also under criminal investigation and intense pressure from Democratic critics.

Mr. Jackson has been fending off allegations of special treatment and preference given to friends 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. The HUD chief cited personal and family matters as his reason for resigning. He did not take questions or elaborate on the family reasons he cited for the decision.

President Bush said he accepted Jackson's resignation "with regret." Jackson has a friendship with President Bush that dates to the late 1980s, when they lived in the same Dallas, Texas neighborhood. He was the first Black leader of the housing authority in Dallas and president of American Electric Power-TEXAS in Austin. Jackson said he has spent more than 30 years of his life improving housing opportunities for all Americans regardless of income or race.

In another controversy, the housing authority in Philadelphia has filed a lawsuit alleging that Mr. Jackson tried to punish the agency for nixing a deal involving music-producer-turned-developer Kenny Gamble, a friend of Jackson. At a congressional hearing this month, Jackson repeatedly refused to answer questions about the Philadelphia redevelopment deal. Last year, the inspector general at Jackson's department found what it called "some problematic instances" involving HUD contracts and grants, including Jackson's opposition to money for a contractor whose executives donated exclusively to Democratic candidates. The HUD inspector general found that Jackson blocked the money "for a significant period of time." Jackson blamed his own aides for the delay. In 2006, Jackson triggered the inquiry when he said publicly that he revoked a contract because the applicant said he did not like President Bu$h.

This is another in a series of Bu$h’s good old boys using their position to manipulate the system and showing a complete disregard for the welfare of citizens of the United States.