Covering For A Cabinet Secretary?
by georgia10
Wed May 10, 2006 at 06:49:12 AM PDT
Dustee Tucker, a spokeswoman for Jackson, told the Dallas Business Journal Tuesday that Jackson's comments at his April 28 speech were purely "anecdotal.""He was merely trying to explain to the audience how people in D.C., will say critical things about the secretary, will unfairly characterize the president and then turn around and ask you for money," Tucker said. "He did not actually meet with someone and turn down a contract. He's not part of the contracting process."
Oh, ok. So it was just an fake story about illegal conduct, nevermind that he did not tell the audience that he wasn't serious. That makes it all better, right? But if it was some wacky parable pulled out of thin air, how to explain away the specifics in HUD's initial reaction to the story?
"On May 3, Tucker told the Business Journal that the contract Jackson was referring to in Dallas was `an advertising contract with a minority publication,' though she could not provide the contract's value."
So not only was Jackson lying to the audience, but Tucker was in on the fairytale as well?
Jackson wants us to believe his confession was concocted, but denying federal contracts based on support of the President doesn't seem that out of character for him. After all, Jackson is a Bush Pioneer. He is a man who had no problem aggressively campaigning for the President while on the taxpayer dime.
And maybe I would be able to accept HUD's illogical denial of the story if the agency had not lied to protect Jackson in the past. In 2002, HUD employee Richard W. Mallory was fired by Jackson for trying to expose the misuse of $1.8 million of federal funds by the San Fransico Housing Authority. Mallory, by the way, replaced another fired whistleblower.
When Mallory was fired for exposing the corruption, he wrote a series of letters to Alberto Gonzales and the secretary of HUD. He detailed how Jackson had orchestrated the cover-up and told him to not to makes waves, since the then-mayor of San Francisco (Willie Brown) was Jackson's friend.
When the press filed FOIA requests to obtain those letters, HUD denied they existed. That is, until they were leaked to the press. HUD, by the way, never launched an investigation into the corruption Mallory had detailed.
So color me skeptical now of HUD's claim that Jackson just made up the elaborate story. The agency has a history of shielding Jackson and of misrepresenting information. And besides, its "anecdote" explanation just plain doesn't make sense.
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