Alphonso Jackson, the African American U.S. housing secretary under pressure after accusations of improper allocation of federal contracts, is resigning.The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the 63-year-old Housing and Urban Development Secretary is set to make the announcement today after facing calls to step down for behaving improperly in cherry-picking who would and would not be awarded government ontracts. The Texas Republican and member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity had been extremely active the past few months traveling the country in an effort to stem the disastrous foreclousure debable Americans are facing due to the ongoing subprime mortgage crisis.
Overseen by HUD, the brother was HNIC of The Federal Housing Administration, which runs the largest government program to aid home buyers. One of 12 children, Jackson rose to prominence in Dallas where he successfully ran the Dallas Housing Authority before our deal ole' Presdent tapped him to come to Washington.
His troubles started on April 28, 2006 when Jackson spoke at a meeting in Texas on the issues of government contracting. He recounted that a prospective African-American HUD contractor had made a "heck of a proposal" and was selected upon the basis of that proposal, but upon thanking Secretary Jackson for being selected the bidder, mentioned that he did not like President Bush.
As a result, Jackson said, the bidder who had criticized Bush did not receive the gig: "Brother, you have a disconnect..." Jackson asked the crowd, "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." That led to a series of inquiries that have now resulted in numerous FBI investigations and calls for Jackson's head.
And sadly, this may not be the... rest of the story.