Shoplifters of the World Unite! Claude Allen--WTF?
Fatback
6,746 Posts
Have we talked about this fucking idiot yet?Damn. Dude was pulling in 6 digits at the WH and he could have easily moved over to K street for 7 digits in a few years, but instead he's out in Maryland boosting at Target for chump change like some dope fiend.OK.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------March 14, 2006For Bush's Ex-Aide, Quick Fall After Long Climb By IAN URBINA and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICKWASHINGTON, March 13 ??? Claude A. Allen often said his religious upbringing took him from a two-room apartment in a poor neighborhood of Washington to a post at the White House."Probably the vast majority of the kids who grew up in our neighborhood were either strung out on drugs or in jail or dead," Mr. Allen, one of the nation's most prominent African-American Republicans, said in a televised interview. But Mr. Allen said his salvation was the Roman Catholic education "that taught me discipline, taught me hard work, that taught me values that were carried throughout life."Last week, that life and discipline appeared to have frayed when Mr. Allen, the president's former domestic policy adviser, was arrested in suburban Maryland and charged with stealing thousands of dollars in merchandise from Target and other stores in a scheme to fake returns.People close to him said they were stunned at the charges. Friends described him as the "goody-two-shoes" of his family who never drank at fraternity parties and went out for ice cream instead. His identical twin, Floyd, a former football player at the Virginia Military Institute, never matched his brother's achievements. "It's just the darnedest thing," Renee Allen, their stepmother, said from her retirement home in Atlanta. "I actually started to call Floyd to ask him what happened, but then I saw it wasn't him."Through his lawyer, Mr. Allen denied the charges, saying there was a mix-up concerning his credit card. Maryland authorities charged Mr. Allen, 45, last Thursday with trying at least 25 times over the last five months to return and collect refunds for goods he never purchased, including a home theater system, clothes and items worth as little as $2.50.The arrest was a puzzling turn in a career that had been on a straight climb. After coming to Washington as a staff member for Jesse Helms, the former Republican senator from North Carolina, he became a prot??g?? of Justice Clarence Thomas and eventually an adviser to the president. People who talked to Mr. Allen Monday said he remained surprisingly upbeat in the face of the charges. He said only one side of the story had been heard, said one former colleague who asked not to be identified because the conversation was private. Like others who know him, his stepmother cannot understand the turn of events. "I simply have no idea where things could have gone wrong in his life," Mrs. Allen said. Floyd was the twin who "kept running into bad times," while Claude Allen intervened repeatedly to help him, she said.In 2001, Floyd Allen declared bankruptcy in Virginia; a year earlier he was ordered to pay $6,450 in a civil suit brought against him by a travel company, according to state and federal records. Claude Allen grew up in a two-bedroom apartment in Northwest Washington. He was the son of a mother who worked part time at a Catholic school and a father who worked for a plumbing supply business. Although he attended Catholic school, he credited his grandfather, a former sharecropper, with inculcating in him a more evangelical faith, and he had become born again by the time he left college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Donald Beeson, a member of the Chi Psi fraternity at Chapel Hill, said some fraternity members worried about admitting Mr. Allen, who did not drink. "You know, drinking and partying, typical things that end up happening at fraternities," Mr. Beeson said. But Mr. Allen functioned well in the mostly white and liberal fraternity, he added, because "he seemed to get along well with everyone ??? always thoughtful and respectful of different opinions."He eventually attended Duke University Law School. Richard L. Schmalbeck, one of his former professors, said, "I'm scratching my head here wondering what happened." Mr. Schmalbeck said there was "not a hint" of Mr. Allen having any ethical problems when he was a student at Duke. Sara Beale, another faculty member, said Mr. Allen had been "a kind of straight-arrow guy, not someone who seemed to have a taste for the high life." He grew up a Democrat but took a job after college as press secretary for Bill Cobey, a Republican Congressional candidate in North Carolina. Soon after, he switched parties. "I realized after the fact that I agree more with the Republican Party platform, that it talked about independence, that it talked about individual responsibility, individual rights, it talked about the ability to guarantee opportunities, not outcomes," he said in an interview with Armstrong Williams, another African-American conservative. "That was very much what my family stood for." Mr. Allen, a devoted father of four, was a prot??g?? of Justice Thomas, who was a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit when Mr. Allen clerked for another judge there. Like many young African-American conservatives, Mr. Allen often turned to Judge Thomas for guidance, two friends said, and the two often met for lunch or dinner."It is a small circle of conservatives, especially when you are black," said Mr. Williams, who was the subject of his own controversy last year after disclosures that he had accepted money from the Bush administration to write favorable newspaper columns."Thomas was a mentor to all of us," Mr. Williams said in an interview. "He is the godfather." But Judge Thomas especially admired Mr. Allen, he said. "He would tell me, 'Armstrong, this guy is so bright! His mind is like a steel trap.' "In 2003, Mr. Allen was nominated to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The nomination was blocked in a dispute over the number of judges from each state in the circuit. But staff members of the Judiciary Committee said Monday that nothing about his ethics or personal life had come up. "We were as surprised as anyone," said a Democratic staff member.At the White House, senior staff members continued to express astonishment about the theft charges against Mr. Allen, who was described as an engaging, devout and largely powerless adviser to Mr. Bush.Although Mr. Allen had the vaunted title of assistant to the president for domestic policy and worked from a coveted West Wing office, he did not set policy so much as carry out the decisions of Mr. Bush's inner circle, particularly Karl Rove, the deputy chief of staff. Mr. Allen managed some of the domestic policy paper flow between the White House and government agencies.Mr. Allen met with Mr. Bush in the Oval Office, along with other advisers, several times a week during the president's domestic policy time, usually in the afternoons. He was a guest of the first lady in her box during the president's State of the Union speech, nearly a month after Mr. Allen first informed Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House chief of staff, and Harriet E. Miers, the White House counsel, that he had been issued a misdemeanor citation for theft.Mr. Allen told the White House at the time that there had been confusion with his credit cards and he would make sure the matter was cleared up.Douglas F. Gansler, the Maryland state's attorney for Montgomery County, said Mr. Allen's trial was scheduled to begin April 27. Mr. Allen was releas
ed on his own recognizance. Reporting for this article was contributed by Elisabeth Bumiller, Michael Janofsky, Robert Pear and John Files.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------March 14, 2006For Bush's Ex-Aide, Quick Fall After Long Climb By IAN URBINA and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICKWASHINGTON, March 13 ??? Claude A. Allen often said his religious upbringing took him from a two-room apartment in a poor neighborhood of Washington to a post at the White House."Probably the vast majority of the kids who grew up in our neighborhood were either strung out on drugs or in jail or dead," Mr. Allen, one of the nation's most prominent African-American Republicans, said in a televised interview. But Mr. Allen said his salvation was the Roman Catholic education "that taught me discipline, taught me hard work, that taught me values that were carried throughout life."Last week, that life and discipline appeared to have frayed when Mr. Allen, the president's former domestic policy adviser, was arrested in suburban Maryland and charged with stealing thousands of dollars in merchandise from Target and other stores in a scheme to fake returns.People close to him said they were stunned at the charges. Friends described him as the "goody-two-shoes" of his family who never drank at fraternity parties and went out for ice cream instead. His identical twin, Floyd, a former football player at the Virginia Military Institute, never matched his brother's achievements. "It's just the darnedest thing," Renee Allen, their stepmother, said from her retirement home in Atlanta. "I actually started to call Floyd to ask him what happened, but then I saw it wasn't him."Through his lawyer, Mr. Allen denied the charges, saying there was a mix-up concerning his credit card. Maryland authorities charged Mr. Allen, 45, last Thursday with trying at least 25 times over the last five months to return and collect refunds for goods he never purchased, including a home theater system, clothes and items worth as little as $2.50.The arrest was a puzzling turn in a career that had been on a straight climb. After coming to Washington as a staff member for Jesse Helms, the former Republican senator from North Carolina, he became a prot??g?? of Justice Clarence Thomas and eventually an adviser to the president. People who talked to Mr. Allen Monday said he remained surprisingly upbeat in the face of the charges. He said only one side of the story had been heard, said one former colleague who asked not to be identified because the conversation was private. Like others who know him, his stepmother cannot understand the turn of events. "I simply have no idea where things could have gone wrong in his life," Mrs. Allen said. Floyd was the twin who "kept running into bad times," while Claude Allen intervened repeatedly to help him, she said.In 2001, Floyd Allen declared bankruptcy in Virginia; a year earlier he was ordered to pay $6,450 in a civil suit brought against him by a travel company, according to state and federal records. Claude Allen grew up in a two-bedroom apartment in Northwest Washington. He was the son of a mother who worked part time at a Catholic school and a father who worked for a plumbing supply business. Although he attended Catholic school, he credited his grandfather, a former sharecropper, with inculcating in him a more evangelical faith, and he had become born again by the time he left college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Donald Beeson, a member of the Chi Psi fraternity at Chapel Hill, said some fraternity members worried about admitting Mr. Allen, who did not drink. "You know, drinking and partying, typical things that end up happening at fraternities," Mr. Beeson said. But Mr. Allen functioned well in the mostly white and liberal fraternity, he added, because "he seemed to get along well with everyone ??? always thoughtful and respectful of different opinions."He eventually attended Duke University Law School. Richard L. Schmalbeck, one of his former professors, said, "I'm scratching my head here wondering what happened." Mr. Schmalbeck said there was "not a hint" of Mr. Allen having any ethical problems when he was a student at Duke. Sara Beale, another faculty member, said Mr. Allen had been "a kind of straight-arrow guy, not someone who seemed to have a taste for the high life." He grew up a Democrat but took a job after college as press secretary for Bill Cobey, a Republican Congressional candidate in North Carolina. Soon after, he switched parties. "I realized after the fact that I agree more with the Republican Party platform, that it talked about independence, that it talked about individual responsibility, individual rights, it talked about the ability to guarantee opportunities, not outcomes," he said in an interview with Armstrong Williams, another African-American conservative. "That was very much what my family stood for." Mr. Allen, a devoted father of four, was a prot??g?? of Justice Thomas, who was a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit when Mr. Allen clerked for another judge there. Like many young African-American conservatives, Mr. Allen often turned to Judge Thomas for guidance, two friends said, and the two often met for lunch or dinner."It is a small circle of conservatives, especially when you are black," said Mr. Williams, who was the subject of his own controversy last year after disclosures that he had accepted money from the Bush administration to write favorable newspaper columns."Thomas was a mentor to all of us," Mr. Williams said in an interview. "He is the godfather." But Judge Thomas especially admired Mr. Allen, he said. "He would tell me, 'Armstrong, this guy is so bright! His mind is like a steel trap.' "In 2003, Mr. Allen was nominated to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The nomination was blocked in a dispute over the number of judges from each state in the circuit. But staff members of the Judiciary Committee said Monday that nothing about his ethics or personal life had come up. "We were as surprised as anyone," said a Democratic staff member.At the White House, senior staff members continued to express astonishment about the theft charges against Mr. Allen, who was described as an engaging, devout and largely powerless adviser to Mr. Bush.Although Mr. Allen had the vaunted title of assistant to the president for domestic policy and worked from a coveted West Wing office, he did not set policy so much as carry out the decisions of Mr. Bush's inner circle, particularly Karl Rove, the deputy chief of staff. Mr. Allen managed some of the domestic policy paper flow between the White House and government agencies.Mr. Allen met with Mr. Bush in the Oval Office, along with other advisers, several times a week during the president's domestic policy time, usually in the afternoons. He was a guest of the first lady in her box during the president's State of the Union speech, nearly a month after Mr. Allen first informed Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House chief of staff, and Harriet E. Miers, the White House counsel, that he had been issued a misdemeanor citation for theft.Mr. Allen told the White House at the time that there had been confusion with his credit cards and he would make sure the matter was cleared up.Douglas F. Gansler, the Maryland state's attorney for Montgomery County, said Mr. Allen's trial was scheduled to begin April 27. Mr. Allen was released on his own recognizance. Reporting for this article was contributed by Elisabeth Bumiller, Michael Janofsky, Robert Pear and John Files.
Comments
a) It's some evil twin activity
b) Dude is a clepto
c) He is in some kind of serious debt (blackmail related)
d) becoming a republican makes you a theif
I am leaning towards d.
Stupid shit.
We were talking about Karma last week.
Oh yeah. I tried that shit when I got popped in high school.
"What? Nah, man this a mix-up concerning my pants."
Hence my clepto theory.
Every mikkle mek a mukkle.
"I just bought this shaving cream and..."
When you give a whole administration carte blanche to the world at large, they will literally want everything they can get their hands on.
I'm just shocked that Dub didn't ride for dude as much as he rides for all of his other people no matter how bad they look.
Trickle-down theivanomics.
damn..didnt this hustle play out 10 years ago?...folls still do this?
y'kmow, folks in this Administration have been reported to be a bit out of touch.