Wampum

Two stories suggest that the administration is using the threat of withholding government contracts to bully companies into toeing the administration's line.

HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson speaking, to the Real Estate Executive Council, a national minority real estate consortium, told the audience that if they wanted Federal contracts they need to play ball with the administration:

After discussing the huge strides the agency has made in doing business with minority-owned companies, Jackson closed with a cautionary tale, relaying a conversation he had with a prospective advertising contractor.

"He had made every effort to get a contract with HUD for 10 years," Jackson said of the prospective contractor. "He made a heck of a proposal and was on the (General Services Administration) list, so we selected him. He came to see me and thank me for selecting him. Then he said something ... he said, 'I have a problem with your president.' "I said, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'I don't like President Bush.' I thought to myself, 'Brother, you have a disconnect -- the president is elected, I was selected. You wouldn't be getting the contract unless I was sitting here. If you have a problem with the president, don't tell the secretary.'

"He didn't get the contract," Jackson continued. "Why should I reward someone who doesn't like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president? Logic says they don't get the contract. That's the way I believe."

Jackson now claims he made the whole thing up and that HUD contracts are "awarded solely on a stringent merit-based process." Whether the story is true or not, it seems clear that Secretary Jackson was either trying to bully the contractor in question or the audience into supporting the administration by threatening to withold government contracts. As Steve at the Carpetbagger Report notes, Jackson's message was "It's a nice government contract you have here; it'd be a shame if something happened to it."

I wonder if classified telecommunications contracts are let solely on merit. In the USA Today story revealing that the NSA is gathering information on the telephone calls of tens of millions of Americans, we find the following:

One major telecommunications company declined to participate in the program: Qwest...

The NSA, which needed Qwest's participation to completely cover the country, pushed back hard.

Trying to put pressure on Qwest, NSA representatives pointedly told Qwest that it was the lone holdout among the big telecommunications companies. It also tried appealing to Qwest's patriotic side: In one meeting, an NSA representative suggested that Qwest's refusal to contribute to the database could compromise national security, one person recalled.

In addition, the agency suggested that Qwest's foot-dragging might affect its ability to get future classified work with the government. Like other big telecommunications companies, Qwest already had classified contracts and hoped to get more. (emphasis added)

Did the administration withhold contracts from Qwest because it did not play ball with the NSA data mining operation? I do not know, but that is the threat that was made. We seem to have a pattern of the administration using threats of withholding government contracts to bully companies into supporting the administration's position. That is an abuse of power.