When I said that, I was lying

[TexasTiger 13,017]

DBJ article prompts calls for resignation of HUD secretary, investigation

Dallas Business Journal - 6:19 PM CDT Wednesdayby Jaime S. Jordan Staff Writer

U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-NJ, has called for the resignation of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson following a report in the Dallas Business Journal that Jackson scuttled a government contract after an applicant said he didn't like President Bush.

Separately, Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., citing the same story, called for an investigation of all HUD contracting decisions during Jackson's tenure.

In a story in the May 5-11 issue of the Dallas Business Journal, Jackson told an April 28 Dallas real estate forum about a meeting with a prospective contractor who'd been selected for a HUD deal. During the meeting, Jackson said, the contractor told Jackson that he had a "problem with your president."

"He didn't get the contract," Jackson told the Dallas forum. "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."

Lautenberg's press secretary, Alex Formuzis, said Lautenberg reacted with outrage to the comments made in the story.

"If those comments are in fact true, then the president should demand his resignation immediately," Formuzis said.

Formuzis said playing politics with government contracts, or denying contracts to people that aren't in support of Bush, is a violation of rights and possibly illegal.

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."

(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.)

http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dallas/stori...08/daily19.html

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Unfortunately, This goes on on both sides. It is heinous no doubt.