Tales from the Cabinet Crypt

The only time you hear about a Cabinet secretary in the Bush Administration is when they do something stupid. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure they have literally no job other than to say "Yes, Mr. President." Anyone want to tell me one thing Elaine Chao's done at Labor Secretary the last six years? Dirk Kempthorne at Interior? Jim Nicholson at Veterans Affairs? Mike Leavitt at Health and Human Services?

In fact, the only time the name of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson came up is when he claimed he pulled a federal contract from someone who told him "I don't like the President." Jackson tried to get out of the ensuing uproar by saying he made it up, then he weathered the storm and went down into the underground bunker where the Cabinet is currently stashed.

Funny story... there's now independent confirmation that HUD does appear to favor loyalty in their contracting.

Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson urged top aides to take contractors' politics into account when handing out grants and deals, an internal department review has found, though there is no "direct evidence" that favoritism actually occurred.

The department's inspector general began investigating Mr. Jackson after he boasted in a Dallas speech that he'd once scuttled a deal because the would-be contractor disparaged President Bush [...]

In an initial interview on May 17, for instance, HUD Chief of Staff Camille Pierce said there was no political litmus test and she never heard Mr. Jackson express sentiments akin to those he expressed in his Dallas speech [...]

In a follow-up interview on June 8, investigators confronted her with testimony from Cathy MacFarlane, who resigned that month as HUD's assistant secretary for public affairs. Ms. MacFarlane told investigators that at a senior staff meeting, Mr. Jackson "made a statement to the effect that it was important to consider presidential supporters when you are considering the selected candidates for discretionary contracts."

And Ms. MacFarlane told investigators, "I think it was a political [appointee] talking to a political, saying if all things are equal, you're giving out a contract, give it out to the family, you know."

The testimony stirred Ms. Pierce's memory. "He did say that he did not want contracts awarded — he did say something about political groups, maybe to Democrats or something like that," she said in the follow-up interview, though she added that "if I had thought he was serious, I would have gone in and said, sir, that's ridiculous."

So there's no hard proof, but everyone agrees that Jackson talked about favoritism in meetings. Jackson, amazingly, believes this "exonerates" him.

Small wonder that the housing bubble looks headed for a hard landing when a bright light like this is the HUD Secretary.