Embattled HUD Secretary Steps Down Amid Allegations

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• GWEN IFILL:

  Now, the nation's top housing official resigns. Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson stepped down today amid allegations over whether he steered some contracts to friends and political allies.

  Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post has been covering the story, and she joins us now.

  Welcome, Carol.

• CAROL LEONNIG, The Washington Post:

  Thank you.

• GWEN IFILL:

  So why, do we know, as close as we could understand, why he quit now?

• CAROL LEONNIG:

  Well, as far as we can tell, sources close to HUD and to the White House say that the White House aides ushered him over to the White House on Monday a week ago and wanted to talk to Secretary Jackson about his future.

  We don't know what the conversation was about. But it looks as though the White House started this ball rolling, suggesting that Jackson couldn't be an effective leader with so many controversies swirling around him.

• GWEN IFILL:

  That, with the big housing crisis underway, that he was not necessarily the person to lead the department?

• CAROL LEONNIG:

  There was some element of that. Certainly, Secretary Paulson's announcement today, such a news-grabber, on the same day that Secretary Jackson is announcing his resignation, rather, in about three minutes and 40 seconds, there's something about that.

  But, as well, there are a series of senators that have been asking for the secretary's resignation because he will not answer questions about whether or not his agency has been playing favorites, trying to steer contracts to his friends, and a series of lawsuits and inspector general and grand jury investigations.