April 1, 2008
Editorial
As relieved as we were to see Alphonso Jackson resign on Monday as the secretary of housing and urban development, it was a sad comment on the Bush administration’s low regard for HUD’s mission that Mr. Jackson was permitted to remain in office so long.
Mr. Jackson offered the usual excuse for resigning; his family, apparently, needs to see more of him. It’s evident, though, that his resignation has something to do with the ongoing investigation of Mr. Jackson for allegedly using his position for partisan politics and to reward friends. Even this administration, with its high tolerance for that sort of behavior, no doubt considered it untenable — finally — to have such a dubious housing chief when home mortgages are in crisis.
Mr. Jackson made little impression in either housing or urban development. He did make headlines in April 2006, however, when he boasted that he had taken a contract away because the contractor had been critical of President Bush. “Why should I reward someone who doesn’t like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president?” The Dallas Business Journal quoted him as saying in a speech.
Mr. Jackson later said that he was lying when he talked about awarding contracts for political reasons, but an inspector general’s report later that year found that Mr. Jackson had urged his staff members to favor Mr. Bush’s supporters when it awarded contracts.
More recently, the Philadelphia Housing Authority sued Mr. Jackson, charging that he had threatened to take away $50 million because its president would not turn over valuable property to a developer with ties to Mr. Jackson. He has refused to answer the Senate’s questions about the matter.
Federal authorities are also reportedly investigating whether he steered housing contracts in New Orleans and the Virgin Islands to friends.
HUD has a long history of mismanagement and corruption, which has been particularly pronounced in Republican administrations. That is most likely because with rare exceptions, like former HUD Secretary Jack Kemp, Republicans do not seem to believe in the agency’s mission. Samuel Pierce, the HUD secretary for all eight years of Ronald Reagan’s presidency, defended Mr. Reagan’s sharp cuts in subsidized housing. He presided over a department mired in scandals, including ones that led to criminal convictions of several of his aides.
President Bush consistently backed Mr. Jackson, as recently as last month after Senators Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, and Christopher Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, called for his dismissal. But questions kept mounting about Mr. Jackson’s integrity at a time when his department’s Federal Housing Administration has an important role to play in trying to stave off foreclosures.
Mr. Jackson’s resignation clears the way for Mr. Bush to name a top-caliber successor, given the seriousness of the mortgage crisis. It should also be an occasion to reflect on the cost of appointing HUD secretaries whose priorities are politics and patronage rather than housing and urban development.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. The Socialist Party of Oregon has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is the Party endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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