The resignation of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Alphonso Jackson, announced on Monday, comes at an inopportune moment for President Bush and the Republican Party.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is poised to bring back legislation, stalled in February, aimed at tackling the nation’s mortgage and foreclosure crisis.

It will thus reach the top of the Capitol Hill agenda this week at precisely the moment when the Bush administration looks least equipped to deal with an issue that is the single biggest concern among voters.

Jackson’s departure from HUD amid allegations of cronyism leaves the executive branch, justifiably or not, looking like it might have been engaged in suspect pecuniary fiddling while the housing market burned.

Worse, the tarnish on HUD is not the only thing putting the GOP at a disadvantage in shaping Washington’s response to the mortgage debacle. The other shoe to drop was the Federal Reserve’s bailout of Bear Stearns, the Wall Street powerhouse.

The Bear got sick because it made risky bets on mortgage-based derivatives. It is extremely difficult for the administration and for Capitol Hill Republicans to argue that homeowners should not be bailed out of their rash housing bets when the Fed has just bailed out Wall Street bankers for doing essentially the same thing on a grander scale.

But that is the position the GOP finds itself in. Its chief objection to the Reid bill is that it would allow homeowners who cannot pay their mortgages to clear their debts via bankruptcy. Many Republicans and the banking industry hate the idea, arguing that this would push up mortgage rates and militate against the American Dream of homeownership.

There are other suggestions making the rounds, such as that foreclosed properties should be bought with federal money. But fiscal conservatives hate this idea, too, because it would prop up house prices and cause a long economic hangover rather than letting the market inflict effective and salutary pain on those who lost their bet that real estate prices would keep rocketing.

The point is not that these economic arguments are wrong, but that being right is not always crucial to winning a political debate. What is crucial right now, politically, is who looks competent and caring. And it is hard to argue that these two qualities are most apparent among Republicans running the executive and trying to dig in their heels on Capitol Hill.

The Bear Stearns bailout and the Jackson resignation have not created a perfect storm against Republican efforts, but they have certainly put the wind at the Democrats’ back.