Newsmax has already served up image-rehabilitation services for the likes of Bernard Kerik, Ralph Reed and Vito Fossella. Now Newsmax is apparently adding a new disgraced conservative politician to the program.
An Aug. 17 column by Ronald Kessler serves up the opinions of Alphonso Jackson, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Bush, about President Obama (spoiler: Jackson doesn’t like him). Kessler serves up a heartwarming story about Jackson’s background:
When Jackson, 65, was growing up in Dallas, blacks had to sit at the back of the bus. They could not drink from the same water fountain as whites. They were not allowed into the same restaurants or even on the same floor of department stores as whites.
Jackson’s father was a Republican, but Jackson grew up as a Democrat. He began to have second thoughts about being a Democrat after a black athletic director at Truman State University in Missouri, who was a Democrat, told him he was not capable of majoring in political science and taking pre-law classes. Instead, he said, Jackson — an All-American athlete — should major in physical education.Jackson told Ken Gardner, a white track coach who was a Republican, what the athletic director had said. “He looked at me and he said, ‘You don’t have to be a physical education major,’” Jackson says. “He took me in to see the athletic director, and the athletic director backed off. I had never experienced a white person who truly had faith in our abilities.”
Jackson asked his father why he was a Republican. “Because the Republicans respect me as a human being,” his father said. “They don’t categorize me as a black.”
Needless to say, Kessler didn’t mention the ethics issues that forced Jackson’s resignation as HUD secretary — specifically, a federal invesigation sparked by Jackson’s claim that he had canceled the contract a HUD contractor who admitted to disliking President Bush. The investigation was later closed without charges being filed.
It seems we can look forward to more whitewashing of Jackson with nary a mention of his ethical difficulties.