Maybe A Keeper At HUD

This prior post tells us that Dubya nominated former SBA head Steve Preston to run the Department of Housing and Urban Development last April, taking over the reins from the embattled ‘Zo Jackson (noted here); I believed at the time that Preston’s nomination was a situation where President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History was bound to accidentally do the right thing at a certain point and appoint someone who was actually competent.

Well, notwithstanding some complaints from Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein here about funds allocated to California to “purchase, fix up and sell foreclosed properties” (though California got $529 billion, Florida got $541 – maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see the point of the outrage), it looks like Preston has “stood up” again, as Think Progress notes here…

Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s plan to have the government pay the difference between the balances of troubled mortgages and what homes are now worth is troubling, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development said Monday evening.

“I have a very grave concern about that,” said Steve Preston, who took over at HUD in June after leading the Small Business Administration.

In response to a question during a forum at Town Hall in Seattle, Preston said the problem is that the plan would put the loss on taxpayers, “when the financial institution took that risk.

Gee, given all the properties McBush owns (as noted below), you’d think he’d be an expert on this issue, huh?