An investigation by the Department of Housing and Urban Development Inspector General reportedly revealed that HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson instructed staff to award HUD contracts to President Bush’s political allies and withhold them from his political opponents. The HUD IG, however, has refused to make the full 340-page report public.

ThinkProgress — which has previously published the executive summary — has obtained access to the entire report. Testimony from Jackson, his top deputies, and HUD legal counsel, none of which has previously been reported, show that the agency set aside the rules, assisted its political allies, and made life difficult for its political opponents. Here are some key excerpts:

1. Against the advice of HUD legal counsel, Jackson regularly met with potential HUD contractors. From page 110 of the report:

Regarding JACKSON’s involvement with contracting matters, [former Acting HUD General Counsel Kathleen] Koch advised JACKSON would meet with individuals who were either contractors or who wanted to obtain contracts at HUD. Koch stated, “We warned him against it.” Koch and her staff used to review the daily schedule for the previous HUD Secretary, Mel Martinez, to advise if there were potential problems, but that practice “just petered out” after JACKSON became Secretary. When potential HUD contractors wanted to meet with Martinez, they would be kept away from Martinez…

On page 156 of the report, Jackson himself admits regularly meeting with potential contractors:

JACKSON acknowledged that he does meet with individuals seeking contracts with HUD, stating “I’ve met with a lot of them…They come over to me…I say to them sure, we’d love to do business with you…”

2. Jackson explicitly acknowledged that he would not assist people who are critical of President Bush. From page 153:

[W]ell my position is if you’re going to castigate me, castigate our President, I’m not going to sit here and lie to you, I’m not going out of the way to call Norm Mineta and say see Officer Medici and make sure that he does X-Y-Z. I’m not going to do it. I will not do it, and I’m not going to say that I will…So I’m not going to go out of my way to help somebody who’s castigating the President…Now, if that’s my bias, I have it.

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Cost of war in Iraq to U.S. taxpayers each week, according to a new congressional analysis. The cost is “twice as much as in the first year of the conflict three years ago and 20 percent more than last year.” The report predicts war costs to reach 808 billion by 2016.

The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward is set to release “State of Denial,” the third in his series of books documenting the inner workings of the Bush administration. Woodward will discuss some notable revelations in the book this Sunday on 60 Minutes. Key highlights:

Bush is covering up the extent of violence against U.S. troops in Iraq:

According to Woodward, insurgent attacks against coalition troops occur, on average, every 15 minutes, a shocking fact the administration has kept secret. “It’s getting to the point now where there are eight-, nine-hundred attacks a week. That’s more than 100 a day. That is four an hour attacking our forces,” says Woodward.

Intelligence shows Iraq violence will worsen in 2007:

The situation is getting much worse, says Woodward, despite what the White House and the Pentagon are saying in public. “The truth is that the assessment by intelligence experts is that next year, 2007, is going to get worse and, in public, you have the president and you have the Pentagon [saying], ‘Oh, no, things are going to get better,‘” he tells Wallace. “Now there’s public, and then there’s private. But what did they do with the private? They stamp it secret. No one is supposed to know,” says Woodward.

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On Monday, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) took to the Senate floor and launched into a 45-minute diatribe on global warming science. Repeating his claim that global warming is a hoax, Inhofe said, “The American people know…when they are being used and when they are being duped by the hysterical left.”

In particular, he attacked the news media. According to Inhofe, “During the past year, the American people have been served up an unprecedented parade of environmental alarmism by the media and entertainment industry.”

This morning, CNN hit back with a segment documenting that virtually everything Inhofe said was flatly contradicted by the facts. Watch it:

The CNN segment concluded: “Inhofe challenged the media to get this story straight in that speech, but when we asked for an interview with him we were told he’s just too busy to speak with us this week.”

Read another debunk of Inhofe’s speech at Gristmill.

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said Wednesday that President Clinton’s response to Chris Wallace’s question about going after bin Laden represents “an assault on all journalists.” “If you can’t sit there and answer a question from a professional, mild-mannered, respectful reporter like Chris Wallace, then the hatred for journalists is showing,” Ailes said.