another corrupt pal of bush's

Questions remain about housing secretary

WASHINGTON - During an investigation of his conduct last year, President Bush's housing secretary defiantly defended his dealings with federal contractors doing business with the department.

Alphonso Jackson survived that investigation, but now faces a new one stemming from the same forceful style that got him in trouble the first time.

The FBI and the department's internal watchdog are examining Jackson's ties to a friend who was paid at least $392,000 in federal money after Jackson passed along the man's name for a job as post-Katrina construction manager at the Housing Authority of New Orleans.

Jackson, 62, has spent much of his career working for housing agencies in several cities. He has a personal friendship with Bush that dates to the late 1980s, when they lived in the same Dallas neighborhood.

Two weeks ago, within hours of news reports disclosing the criminal probe, the White House issued a statement saying the president supports Jackson.
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Jackson triggered the inquiry last year by the Housing and Urban Development Department's inspector general when he told a minority group of commercial real estate executives in Dallas that he had revoked a contract because the applicant who thanked him said he did not like Bush.

"He said, 'I have a problem with your president,'" Jackson told the crowd. "I thought to myself: 'Brother, you have a disconnect — the president is elected, I was selected. You wouldn't be getting the contract unless I was sitting here.' ... He didn't get the contract."
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Yet the report 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.

Given the periodic corruption scandals over the housing department's 42-year history, Jackson's contacts with individual contractors have troubled department lawyers, last year's investigation showed.

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Man, is any friend of bush's honest? I guess they couldn't be and still be friends...