Incomplete Secret Service records made public today claim Jack Abramoff visited the White House only twice in the last five years.

TPM Muckraker: “[T]hese records don’t account for any of the meetings the White House has publicly confirmed: Hannukah receptions in 2001 and 2002, as well as the infamous May 9, 2001, ‘$25,000 Meeting,’ of which we have a picture. In short, the records are a joke.”

Raw Story: Logs show Abramoff met with President Bush “the same day President Bush nominated one of Abramoff’s former colleagues to be Assistant Secretary of Labor.”

On April 28, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson told a real estate group that he had canceled a government contract because the contractor criticized President Bush. (If true, Jackson’s conduct appears to violate federal law.)

ThinkProgress has learned that HUD Inspector General Kenneth M. Donohue, Sr. has launched a review of Jackson’s conduct.

We have also obtained a statement issued by Jackson a short while ago:

I deeply regret the anecdotal remarks I made at a recent Texas small business forum and would like to reassure the public that all HUD contracts are awarded solely on a stringent merit-based process. During my tenure, no contract has ever been awarded, rejected, or rescinded due to the personal or political beliefs of the recipient.

Jackson now says his remarks were “anecdotal.” This seems to be in conflict with the latest statement from his spokeswoman, Dustee Taylor, who said Jackson told “a made up story.”

UPDATE: GovExec.com has more on the story.

On April 28, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson told a real estate group that he had canceled a government contract because the contractor criticized President Bush. Since then his spokeswoman, Dustee Tucker, has given conflicting explanations of the event. Let’s review —

May 3: Tucker tells the Dallas Business Journal that the contract Jackson was referring to in Dallas was an actual HUD “advertising contract with a minority publication.”

Early yesterday: Tucker tells the Dallas Morning News that Alphonso Jackson was referring to a real contract that was canceled. She even provided additional details of Jackson’s encounter with the contractor that Jackson did not mention during his April 28 speech: “When first asked about the episode Tuesday, Ms. Tucker spoke as if the contractor existed, saying he had approached Mr. Jackson ‘trashing, in a very aggressive way’ him and the president.”

Later yesterday: Tucker tells the Dallas Business Journal that Alphonso Jackson made the whole thing up: “He was merely trying to explain to the audience how people in D.C., will say critical things about the secretary, will unfairly characterize the president and then turn around and ask you for money,” Tucker said. “He did not actually meet with someone and turn down a contract. He’s not part of the contracting process.” She repeats this version to the Dallas Morning News: “‘It’s not a true story. It’s a made-up story,’ said Jackson spokeswoman Dustee Tucker, adding that he was only trying to make a point about how Washington works.”

Today, ThinkProgress made several attempts to contact Dustee Tucker at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. We were routed to Jerry Brown in the Office of Press Relations. Mr. Brown couldn’t answer our questions about the inconsistencies in Ms. Tucker’s statements. He also informed us that Ms. Tucker was now on “scheduled leave” and would not return until “next week.”

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson is already under fire for claiming he cancelled a government contract with a business because the CEO was critical of President Bush. But that’s not the only contract corruption scandal his department is wrapped up in.

Shirlington Limousine and Transportation Inc. is the firm that defense contractor Brent Wilkes used to “transport congressmen, CIA officials, and perhaps prostitutes to his Washington parties.” Shirlington’s president, Christopher Baker, has a “lengthy history of illegal activity,” detailed in his 62-page rap-sheet, and his limo company “operates in what looks to be a deliberately murky way,” with multiple, regularly-changing addresses, many of which were actually at residential buildings.

Despite all of this, Shirlington recently won a HUD contract worth $519,823. (Shirlington was also awarded a massive $21 million contract “to provide transportation, including limo service for senior officials” for the Homeland Security Department last fall.)

Today, Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) sent a letter to Secretary Jackson urging him to make public all information pertaining to Shirlington limo:

I request that you release all documents and communications in your possession pertaining to any HUD contracts with Shirlington Limousine. Thorough examination of these documents is critical to eliminating suspicion of inappropriate or illegal activity in awarding Shirlington Limousine a federal contract. I also ask you to clarify your comments regarding the eligibility of Administration opponents to compete for federal contracts.

Read Rep. Slaughter’s full letter HERE.

He would “make a great President.” George added, “I would like to see Jeb run at some point.”

Rick Gwin, the Pentagon’s special agent in charge of the Cunningham investigation, on the scandal’s reach: “This is much bigger and wider than just Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham. All that has just not come out yet, but it won’t be much longer and then you will know just how widespread this is.”

Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that Alphonso Jackson is now telling the truth. (And we have serious doubts.) Through his spokesperson, Jackson now says his original story about canceling a contract because the contractor criticized Bush was a fabrication.

So why did Jackson make up such a story? Jackson was speaking to the Real Estate Executive Council, a consortium of minorities in the real estate industry. According to his spokesperson, Dustee Tucker, he was “trying to explain to this group how politics works in D.C.” Tucker said he was trying to send the group a “message.”

Whether the story was true or not, the “message” was clear. If you are critical of President Bush you won’t be receiving contracts from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Trying to intimidate people with this kind of rhetoric is deeply unethical. Jackson is being entrusted with public funds. He has an obligation that those funds are spent for the public’s maximum benefit, not to reward those who have the same political beliefs.

Whether Jackson’s story was true or not, serious ethical improprieties are involved. This is not about a gaffe or gossip. (Nevertheless, that’s exactly how the Washington Post treated it, relegating it to Al Kamen’s column.) It’s about the fundamental obligations of public officials. It’s time for the rest of the media to follow the lead of the Dallas Business Journal and the Dallas Morning News and start taking it seriously.

UPDATE: More on the story from Georgia10 at DailyKos.

will have to be confirmed by both the Intelligence and the Armed Services committees. ABC News’s Z. Byron Wolf: “A four-star general cannot be reassigned without the say-so of the Armed Services Committee. So, President Bush has essentially nominated Hayden to two posts. One as CIA Director and the other as a reassigned four-star general.”

At yesterday’s press briefing, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld criticized Congress for not adequately funding Iraqi security forces:

In addition, cuts and delays in providing funds for the Iraqi security forces will delay what has been truly significant progress in turning over greater responsibility and territory to Iraq’s army and police. A slowdown in training and equipping the Iraqi security forces will have unacceptable harmful effects of postponing the day when our men and women in uniform can return home with the honor and appreciation they deserve.

Rumsfeld is right to say we need to effectively train Iraqi security forces; the quicker we do so, the quicker our troops can come home. But he forgets that under his watch, the Pentagon has not spent the the money Congress already appropriated for this purpose. From an AP report last month:

The U.S. military has spent just 40 percent of the $7 billion appropriated in 2005 for the training of Iraqi and Afghanistan security forces, a top Pentagon priority that is lynchpin for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Rumsfeld should stop blaming Congress and concentrate on effectively managing the taxpayer funding he’s been given.