Sam Hodge: To the HUD Secretary Obama is a communist and katrina was everybody else's fault

I arrived in Washington, DC in May and spent my summer working for a progressive organization. In the microcosm of my workplace, I felt like I was making a difference -my organization was helping make an America we could all celebrate. Was I naïve? Probably.

On Monday, I was invited to eat lunch with the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Alphonso Jackson. Although this was an intimate lunch with only five people present, this was not a private lunch. Jackson is an alumnus of my school, Truman State University, and wanted to meet with current Truman State students who were interning in DC. Upon arriving at his spacious office, he boasted that he has the "best view" of all the cabinet members. We took photos and quickly left his office and settled down to a catered lunch in an adjoining room. Our place setting had three forks. I only needed one, so I eyed what the other Truman State interns did with the superfluous forks and used the one on the outside.

Secretary Jackson immediately embarked on a long diatribe about the most important lesson we should learn while interning in DC. The lesson: It's not about what you know, but about "who you know." He told us to keep up our relationships with fellow interns because one day one of them might be an influential businessman, lawmaker or even President! But I wondered: what about skill, talent and ability? Do these factors matter or is it just about who you know?

These discussions led to a conversation about how Secretary Jackson became the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Jackson explained his long journey from his ambitions to be a superintendent of a school district to leading HUD. His biography was quickly told and punctuated only by his admission of an ever-increasing salary throughout the 80's and 90's. Several times he digressed and reminisced about "rolling in dough" when he worked for an energy company in the mid-90's. Where I come from salaries (money in general) are not considered polite conversation, but Secretary Jackson didn't share these qualms and instead expressed his enormous pride in his gigantic bank account.

It was then when I was reminded of the context of this conversation. This is HUD right? Where our government promises to house the poor? Jackson's boastful admissions about salary and self-worth spoke volumes about his disconnect with the working class and working poor that depend on the services his department offers.
More at The Huffington Post:

Great article and from what we've learned in the past, very typical of Bush Administration Appointees. (O.M.)