Bush Critics Need Not Apply

Bush Critics Need Not Apply
A new inspector general's report, portions of which were obtained by the Progress Report, document how the top U.S. housing official, Alphonso Jackson, "urged staff members to favor friends of President Bush when awarding Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) contracts." Jackson is a "longtime Bush friend" and former neighbor in Dallas, Texas, who "has led the $32 billion agency since March 2004." Three top HUD officials testified that Jackson told them that "it was important to consider presidential supporters when candidates for HUD discretionary contracts were being considered,” the report states. Jackson's chief of staff told investigators that Jackson "personally intervened with contractors whom he did not like ... these contractors had Democratic political affiliations." Awarding contracts on the basis of party affiliation "violates federal law." Yesterday, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), ranking member on the Government Reform Committee, called for Jackson to resign immediately. The White House gave him "a tepid vote of confidence." JACKSON TOLD SENIOR STAFF TO REWARD BUSH SUPPORTERS WITH CONTRACTS: Jackson admitted to investigators "that he did have a bias, in that he wasn't likely to assist someone who would 'castigate' him or the president, although he would not interfere with a contract on that basis." But HUD officials say "he told a senior staff meeting...that they should look at contractors' political leanings. He urged them to give contracts to supporters of President Bush, and voiced concerns about other contracts going to active Democratic donors, the aides said." "I have never touched a contract,” Jackson said Wednesday in his first interview about the incident. “I just ad-libbed a little more than I should have, and I regret that.” But the report also states that Jackson "would meet with individuals who were either contractors or who wanted to obtain contracts at HUD," despite testimony from a former HUD lawyer saying "we warned him against it." Investigators "so far have found no direct proof that Jackson's staff obeyed." HUD is refusing to release the full, 340-page report on Jackson’s conduct to the media, but the Dallas Business Journal has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain it.JACKSON ADMITS LYING ABOUT RETRIBUTION FOR BUSH CRITIC: The HUD investigation was triggered after the Dallas Business Journal reported last April that Jackson had closed a speech "with a cautionary tale, relaying a conversation he had with a prospective advertising contractor." The contractor had "made a heck of a proposal...so we selected him," Jackson told a group of real estate officials. "He came to see me and thank me for selecting him. Then he said something ... he said, 'I have a problem with your president.' I said, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'I don't like President Bush.' 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. If you have a problem with the president, don't tell the secretary.'" Jackson continued, "He didn't get the contract. Why should I reward someone who doesn't like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president? Logic says they don't get the contract. That's the way I believe." When the story first broke, a HUD press secretary said that Jackson's story was actually "hypothetical," pure fiction, since Jackson is "not part of the contracting process." But Jackson's chief of staff said he had "personally intervened with contractors whom he did not like," and the inspector general confirmed with HUD officials that the conversation did take place, although the contractor in question never had his contract canceled. Jackson admitted to investigators that he had "lied, and I regret having done that."JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG: The U.S. federal government spends roughly $315 billion annually on contracted goods and services, making it "the largest consumer of goods and services in the world." Shielded from accountability by a secretive executive branch and a drought of oversight by congressional conservatives, the cash-flush federal contracting process has become a prime source of government corruption. Most notably in Iraq and in the Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast, the last several years have seen an explosion in contract fraud, waste, abuse, and cronyism. Rep. Waxman has compiled a database -- Dollars, Not Sense -- to track the extent of waste, fraud, and abuse in federal contracts. "Currently, there are 124 contracts in the database, and the total value of the costs incurred or projected to be incurred under the contracts is $752 billion." Calls by progressives to establish a Truman Commission to investigate waste and fraud in Iraq contracts, and by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and others to establish a federal Anti-Fraud Commission for Katrina spending, have been repeatedly rejected by conservatives