Another Bush Crony Bails Out

Alphonso Jackson, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, resigned today. Jackson was under investigation by the Department of Justice, the FBI, and his own department's inspector general for allegations of political favoritism.

The resignation of the HUD director seems poorly timed, given the current housing crisis, but it's hard to see someone with Jackson's record as an asset. His four-year tenure has been fraught with scandal. A full list of Jackson's accomplishments in office is beyond the scope of this post, but here are a few highlights:

In 2004, he justified cuts to housing assistance programs by saying “being poor is a state of mind, not a condition."

In 2006, he told a gathering of real estate investors in Dallas that he didn't believe in awarding housing contracts to people who didn't like Bush. He later retracted this statement, saying that he had "lied." A statement from his office claimed that the story was an anecdote meant to explain "how politics works in D.C."

In the investigation that ensued, he said that he didn't get involved with contracts. A grand jury investigation seemed to indicate that this wasn't the case.

More recently, Philadelphia Housing Authority director Carl Greene sued the HUD, alleging that they retaliated against him for refusing to turn over vacant property to one of Jackson's business associates. Recently uncovered e-mails, in which HUD officials discussed punishing Greene, seem to support this claim.