NYT: Former Aide's Arrest Surprises Friends and Colleagues

[kskiska]

WASHINGTON, March 11 — The arrest on theft charges of Claude A. Allen, who until recently was President Bush's top adviser on domestic policy, was an apparent fall from power that surprised and mystified his friends and former colleagues.

(snip)

Ava Rashford, a neighbor and fellow member of the Covenant Life Church, said: "There are no secrets in our church, and I've known this family for years. Our church emphasizes openness about problems in our marriages or families, and if there was a problem, we would know. There wasn't with this family."

(snip)

He described himself as a market-oriented conservative. His children were schooled at home. He advocated sexual abstinence before marriage and supported abstinence education programs.

(snip)

"Just when today's welfare state was being created," Mr. Allen wrote, "my mother and father were instilling in my brother and me the principles of self-government and self-worth, not what Uncle Sam could do for us."

more…
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/12/politics/12allen.html

[Betsy Ross]

1. Allen's behavior seems like

a severs emotional problem, less interested in stealing than in getting attention.

[bottomofthehill]

2. Fuck that, he is a thief

But the rules dont apply to him because he is a Republican and in the BUSH Administration

[EST]

3. Sounds pretty repressed to me.

Such a tight-ass can hardly escape the accumulated craziness seeping out, somewhere. Rigid structures tend to break, rather than bend.

[BlueManDude]

4. I'll bet anyone this guy will have a pysch eval soon

he's a fucking nutcase and that church is freaking cult.

[rodeodance]

12. I hope he gets the help he obviously needs.

[Erika]

5. This was one sick dude, homophobic and sexist, and a Bible

thumper. The church didn't know he had a problem. Probably not.

Maybe his parents should have instilled in him Christ's teachings of helping the poor and those in need. He lived on Uncle Sam's payroll instead and stole because of his Republican greed.

Those poor kids of his. He evidently didn't think of his wife or kids either.

He was a rising star in the Republican party.

[Nomen Tuum]

6. Once again the New York Times apologizes for a crooked Republican

If this guy was a Clinton aide, they would once again tear Clinton to pieces about this, instead they let Bush off the hook

[Erika]

7. Where does the NY Times let W off?

[truthisfreedom]

8. this isn't rocket science. unhappy screwed up people are often klepto.

it's a classic symptom. rethugs are all insane. *shrug* i'm not surprised one bit at this.

[truthisfreedom]

9. heres one article on it:

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2002/10/21/smallb5.html?t=printable

Researchers looking for medicine that can cure kleptomania
Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal - October 18, 2002
by Troy May
Researchers at Stanford University are conducting the first placebo-controlled trial of a new treatment for kleptomania, the mental illness that causes uncontrollable urges to steal.

There are an estimated 1.2 million people in the United States who suffer from kleptomania, which is often triggered by stress. However, little else is known about the impulsive mental illness.

Kleptomaniacs are in the category of impulsive behavior that causes harm, such as pyromania or people who pull out their hair.

While it's unclear what causes kleptomania, it's considered a obsessive-compulsive disorder because the person has urges to steal items that they can easily afford. Then once the deed is done and the urge has passed, they feel remorse.

"These are disorders that are difficult to treat," says Dr. Mark McCormick, chief of psychiatry at Kaiser Hospital Santa Clara. "Approaches in the past have not been successful."

Currently, people often are treated with psychotherapy combined with various antidepressants. While these efforts work in many cases, it's unclear what part of the therapy is helping the patient — psychotherapy or drugs.

To find out how much drugs contribute to the combination, Dr. Lorrin Koran, professor of psychiatry at Stanford, plans to conduct a controlled study without the use of psychotherapy.

The approach is similar to a previous study on compulsive shopping, in which Stanford researchers found that drug therapy alone does work. In a study that hasn't yet been published, about 75 percent of people who received an antidepressant named Celexa, made by Forest Laboratories, reduced their compulsive shopping habits, while all patients on a placebo continued to compulsively shop, says Dr. Elias Aboujaoude, attending psychiatrist at Stanford in the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Clinic.

<snip>

[NYC]

10. Does this qualify as kleptomania?

...it's considered a obsessive-compulsive disorder because the person has urges to steal items that they can easily afford. Then once the deed is done and the urge has passed, they feel remorse...

He didn't just steal the item. He then went to get a refund in cash. Is that the same as stealing on impulse?

[tabasco]

19. I don't think this is kleptomania. It is simply criminal behavior.

Never underestimate the power of greed. Greed lies at the core of "republican values."

This was a deliberate, planned, criminal enterprise, not an impulsive act.

[NYC]

20. I wonder if it has anything to do with his $958,300 house, which KoKo01

posted. I can't imagine that someone would expect to pay a mortgage based on salary + refund fraud, but you never know.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2507864

Claude Allen & "Covenant Life Church Members" can afford $950.000 houses?
KoKo01's comment:
He buys the house in October for $950,000 at about the same time he starts scamming Target and Hechts? And, how are these "Covenant Life Members" affording to live in a neighborhood with Million dollar houses?

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0311-02.htm

Last sentence:
County records show that Mr. Allen bought his home in October 2005 for $958,300, along with his wife, Jannese.

[Infomaniac]

23. I think you're right.

Assuming he has no income coming from other assets, his $161,000 salary would not be enough to carry a mortgage on nearly a million dollar house. This also assumes that he put no more than 10% down on the home. Based on his income alone, the highest mortgage he could carry is around $400,000. My guess is he was living beyond his means and resorted to stealing to cover the shortfall. Some people just feel entitled to a certain standard of living. That's not mental illness. That's just plain being fucked up or a republican. Either works as an explanation.

[NYC]

24. His salary was $161,000?

Someone else speculated that it was c. $90,000. To me that sounded "low" for a "top advisor" or whatever he was called.

$161,000 sounds more likely to me. Is this public information?

Do you know about his wife's salary? Or did she stay at home for the home schooling?

From what I've read, he stole (through refund fraud) $5,000 over the course of the year. That's not very much to cover such a large mortgage. (I'm assuming he has a mortgage. Maybe he doesn't.) Maybe the $5,000 was from one store only.

Whatever is going on, it requires detailed financial investigation. Where does someone get the money for such an expensive house? It would be interesting to know.

Somehow, the refund fraud sounds petty (in terms of $). I suspect there may be something much deeper. (All of this is thanks to KoKo01 posting his house information.)

[NYC]

25. He worked for Baker & Botts from 1991 to 1995.

I'm looking for the letter rejecting him as a judge, and I came across this information instead.

It's a small world.

[Infomaniac]

27. House Information

I'm speculating that his wife did not work outside of the home. Mainly because of the home schooling thing, but also because the extreme fundies have a thing against working mothers. I could be wrong. I'm not basing this on a one know fact: the home schooling and my experience with the extreme fundies.


I do know there are public records databases that can tell you how much of a mortgage is on the house. You need the name and a few other details. SSN is ideal, but failing that, a DOB would work. His DOB was posted in another post and is also available on his resume available on the DOJ website. Anybody who has access to this credit reporting databases like Experian or something like Choicepoint could get a idea of his financial position.

Oh, and I'm in the City too. Just had dinner Friday night with another Du'er, Thomcat. We ended up at a bar on the Upper East Side next to a guy extolling the benefits of the planned Ave Maria community in Florida and a woman wondering why Hollywood needed to make movies about homosexuals. We checked underneath the table just to make sure there were no pods.

[NYC]

28. Upper East Side?

I wonder where people like that come from. With any luck, both of them will move to the Ave Maria community. Generally, people in Manhattan are pretty good, though some of the uninformed can be scary.

[sofa king]

17. I don't know, my spider-sense is tingling.

The politico/general/bureaucrat caught stealing story is a pretty common one here in DC, and it's usually something pretty trivial (this one is a little bigger than usual). It occurs to me that there might be more to it than just some psychological tremor.

It occurs to me that if one were running a large, clandestine, criminal organization, one possible way to ensure the loyalty of the public figures under your control is to have them occasionally commit petty crimes--or pin it on them. If you get caught for real, hey, the cabal can smooth things over for you. But if you're not playing ball with the big boys, you get caught when they want you to get caught, and you'll never work in this business again.

I know it sounds a little far-fetched, but consider who else has been caught stealing recently:

(Former) Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, Military Police commander at Abu Ghraib prison. Claimed she was never arrested or charged, but that the Army used shoplifting as an excuse to demote her as punishment for allowing the prison scandal to come to light. Demotion of general officers must be approved by the President, personally I think.

Michael V. Kostiw, CIA Director Porter Goss' choice for executive driector of the CIA, forced to resign CIA 25 years ago for shoplifting.

Lok Lau, FBI agent and purported spy who allegedly penetrated the Chinese government, fired for shoplifting in 2000.

Tracy Fortin, FBI agent in the "anti-obscenity unit," November 2005. The FBI has a unit to combat fucking obscenity? That's gotta be one of John Aschroft's brilliant ideas.


What does it all mean? Maybe some people in positions of authority neurotically manifest their stress in the form of shoplifting, or they're just a regular statistical sample of the world's kleptos as suggested above. Or maybe they're being framed, as several claim. If they are being framed, why? And by whom?

Hell if I know.

Anyway, thought I'd just point out the weirdness of my lovely hairball of a town, lord I love it so.

[Demeter]

30. The Only Shock Is That There Haven't Been More Arrested For Theft

or worse.

[tenshi816]

32. Self-delete

[Erika]

11. So W should endorse a thief to the Court of Appeals?

How many others with "anti-social problems" has he nominated and who have been approved?

[ConcernedCanuk]

13. Gee Whiz, a thief in the White House - boggles me wee Canuk brain

.
.
.

From the posted Article:

The police accused Mr. Allen of going to stores on more than 25 occasions and buying items, taking them to his car and then returning to the store with his receipt. He would then pick up the same items he had just bought and return them for a refund, the police said. The incidents were said to have occurred while Mr. Allen was still in his job as Mr. Bush's domestic policy adviser.

Through his lawyer, Mr. Allen denied the charges, saying there was a mix-up concerning his credit card.
___________________________________________________________________________

there was a mix-up concerning his credit card

25 TIMES????

gimme a break

[susu369]

14. Oh please

Allen brags his parents were "instilling...the principles of...self-worth, not what Uncle Sam could do for us."

Yet, in action:

When the issue (holiday to honor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.) was debated in the early 1980's, Mr. Allen said that he felt anguish because he respected Dr. King but was working for Mr. Helms, who opposed the holiday.

That's when he should have resigned.

There's a paper trail with his credit card companies (as well as the videos), so I feel those friends defending him will be very disappointed.

[occuserpens]

15. Strategic shoplifting

2006-03-12 Strategic shoplifting

[formercia]

16. He behaved like a crackhead

What he did was typical of drug users' behavior to get money. No class act.

[goclark]

18. Kool Aid drinking Republican

that is hiding behind the Church.

He ,and few of the others, really share their life stories,the TRUE stories, with the church members.

[sam sarrha]

21. what..supprised he got caught being a member of the Elite

[quiet.american]

22. If Allen was a top adviser, why hasn't anyone ever heard of him?

I'm sure someone has, but I've never heard of the guy. And if he was a top adviser on domestic policy, given the state of the country, he obviously was out of his depth.

[NYC]

26. Out of his depth. Bush tried to promote him to a federal judgeship.

He was rejected as unqualified. Bush likes people who are out of their depth. I guess that would make them loyal. If you don't qualify for your job, you are beholden to the person who gave it to you.

http://www.now.org/issues/judicial/allen.html

Claude A. Allen
Take Action: Oppose Confirmation of Judicial Nominee Claude A. Allen (9/04)
Nominated to the United States Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.

I can't find the letter that was posted on DU within the past 2 or 3 days. It said that he did not meet the requirments.

IChing posted: "His repulsive resume."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[quiet.american]

31. Hi NYC -- 'preciate the links. n/t

[allalone]

29. He's an ordinary thief

this isn't swiping a lipstick or candy bar from a counter top. this was planned. he buys stuff, puts it in car, takes the empty bag and goes back in the store, refills the bag and then goes to counter to get refund. There does seem to be a mental problem involved because of the use of a credit card instead of cash. But, sorry, a thief.