The worst cabinet secretary you’ve never heard of bows out

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As a rule, having the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development resign in the midst of a national mortgage crisis seems like an unwelcome development. But in the case of Alphonso Jackson, who resigned this morning in the midst of multiple scandals and a criminal investigation, the Bush administration is probably better off with a vacancy.

The Bush administration's top housing official, under criminal investigation and intense pressure from Democratic critics, announced Monday he is quitting.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson said his resignation will take effect on April 18. The move comes at a shaky time for the economy and the Bush administration, as the housing industry's crisis has imperiled the nation's credit markets and led to a major economic slowdown.

Jackson, 62, has been fending off allegations of cronyism and favoritism involving HUD contractors for the past two years. The FBI has been examining the ties between Jackson and a friend who was paid $392,000 by Jackson's department as a construction manager in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

The HUD chief made no direct mention of that in his resignation statement. Explaining his move, he said: "There comes a time when one must attend more diligently to personal and family matters. Now is such a time for me."

It's the "spend-more-time-with-my-family" line, without the literal cliche. Except, in Jackson's case, the spend-more-time-with-my-defense-attorney explanation is the more likely explanation.

To be sure, scandalous cabinet secretaries like Alberto Gonzales and Donald Rumsfeld get most of the ink when people consider the most ridiculous members of the president's team, but Alphonso Jackson, a Bush buddy from way back in Dallas in the 1980s, has to be right up there among the most embarrassing cabinet secretaries in recent memory.

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/