Source: Washington Post

In a current editorial:

HOUSING AND Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson is the subject of four (yes, four) investigations into allegations that he used his position to reward those who were friends and punish those who weren't. Yet, when he appeared at two Senate oversight committee hearings this month, Mr. Jackson refused to answer questions about the matters. He used the convenient clam-up excuse that he could not comment because of ongoing investigations. That's a tried-and-true legal and political strategy. But it's troubling that the head of a taxpayer-funded federal agency would employ it to dodge legitimate questions from Congress.

And here are some of the specifics:

Nor would Mr. Jackson respond to questions -- in writing or orally -- about his alleged role in helping to award lucrative contracts to friends through housing authorities in New Orleans and the Virgin Islands or about senior HUD staff members telling the department's inspector general that Mr. Jackson had directed them to take into account political affiliation when awarding contracts. It was an April 2006 speech by Mr. Jackson in Dallas, in which he bragged that he had fired a contractor who had criticized President Bush, that turned him into flypaper for investigations by a federal grand jury, the FBI, the Justice Department and HUD's inspector general.

Someday I'm going to believe in the government again, right? Someday.....