Bush hit by new blow as aide is charged with shoplifting

[Neil D]

[:"blue"] Another scandel.....Let's see, how many this month? [/]

Tony Allen-Mills, New York

PRESIDENT George Bush’s battered image suffered another damaging blow yesterday with reports that his former top domestic policy adviser had been arrested by Maryland police for allegedly swindling two large department stores in a bizarre shoplifting scam.

Claude Allen, a prominent conservative who had become the highest-ranking African-American on the White House staff, resigned his post last month after telling the president that he wanted to spend more time with his family.

Yesterday it emerged that Allen had been interviewed by police in early January after he allegedly left a Maryland shop with goods he had not paid for. He was arrested last week and charged with two counts of theft that carry maximum sentences of 15 years in jail.

Bush said he was “shocked” by the arrest. “If the allegations are true, something went wrong in Claude Allen’s life, and that is really sad,” he said.

The arrest is the latest in a series of embarrassing mishaps for the White House, which is beginning to appear dangerously accident-prone. Bush’s approval ratings have fallen to 37% in one poll and to 34% in another. Only Richard Nixon, the disgraced former president, had lower ratings at this stage of his second term.

Allen, 45, is a born-again Christian and former lawyer who joined the administration in 2001 and was appointed domestic policy adviser at the start of Bush’s second term.

He often travelled with the president and sat with Laura Bush in the first lady’s box for the state of the union address on January 31, a few days before he resigned.

According to police statements, employees at a Target superstore in Gaithersburg, a Washington suburb, noticed Allen putting merchandise in a shopping bag. He also had items in a trolley. He allegedly walked over to a cashier, produced a receipt for similar goods, and said he was returning the items and wanted a refund.

Shop staff have alleged he was reimbursed for the goods he claimed to be returning, and then left the store with other items he had not paid for. He was challenged in the car park.

A police spokesman claimed a subsequent investigation uncovered 25 cases where Allen had allegedly obtained refunds from Target and another store for goods he had not purchased.

web page

[Neil D]

[:"blue"] further information regarding Claude Allen

[/]

Allen, a native of Philadelphia, spent much of his childhood in a working-class section of Northwest Washington, D.C. He attended Archbishop Carroll High School.

In 1982, Allen graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.A. He got his start in politics working for Republican Senator Jesse Helms, of North Carolina; he was Helms's campaign spokesman in 1984.

From 1985 to 1987, Allen was a staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In 1990, he was awarded a J.D. degree from Duke University School of Law.

From 1990 - 1991, Allen was a law clerk for David B. Sentelle, a judge on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit famous for his role in the Whitewater investigation. He was an associate at Baker & Botts in Washington, D.C. from 1991 to 1995. He then served in the Virginia Attorney General's Office from 1995 to 1998, before becoming Secretary (Commissioner) of Health and Human Resources for the State of Virginia.

In 2001, Allen was appointed as the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Allen's nomination in 2004 to become a federal judge on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals was opposed by liberal and civil rights groups such as People for the American Way and the NAACP. The nomination was derailed by a filibuster by Senate Democrats. [3]

Wikipedia bio

[Dr. Shane]

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his

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top domestic policy adviser

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Reminds me of those that accused Clinton of all kinds of scandels. Well, I guess they actually accused Clinton and not his advisors and cabinet members. Also kind of reminds me of those that sought to find fault with Daniel. I wonder... does President Bush pray three times a day? Now if the anti-Bush crowd could only make that illegal maybe they could get him tossed in the lion's den.

Let's not forget, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

[Neil D]

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Shane said:

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his

former

top domestic policy adviser

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Reminds me of those that accused Clinton of all kinds of scandels. Well, I guess they actually accused Clinton and not his advisors and cabinet members. Also kind of reminds me of those that sought to find fault with Daniel. I wonder... does President Bush pray three times a day? Now if the anti-Bush crowd could only make that illegal maybe they could get him tossed in the lion's den.

Let's not forget, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

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From Wikipedia-

[:"green"] Claude Alexander Allen (October 11, 1960 - ) was a domestic policy advisor to the President of the United States George W. Bush. The conservative African-American Republican was appointed to that position in January 2005.[1] [:"red"] Allen resigned February 9, 2006[/] stating he wanted to spend more time with his family. He was arrested on March 9, 2006 on charges stemming from allegations he stole $5000 by claiming retail store refunds to which he was not entitled.[2] [/]

Only a month ago???? He was Bush's top domestic advisor up until a month ago?????

Doesn't give much meaning to the word "former"...

[Dr. Shane]

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He was Bush's top domestic advisor up until a month ago?????

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And why isn't he anymore? He got the boot. Someone probbally discovered he was a bad apple so they got rid of him. Should have they tried a cover up instead?

[Neil D]

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And why isn't he anymore? He got the boot. Someone probbally discovered he was a bad apple so they got rid of him.

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Shifting tactics in the relentless persuit of defending a worthiless regime?

SPIN! SPIN! SPIN!....Your world is spining!

[Ron Lambert]

Why is this Bush's fault?

[Nicodema]

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Allen, 45, is a born-again Christian and former lawyer ...

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... and let me get this straight, at NO TIME during all these raids on the barely-one-step-above-ghetto chain "Target" (a.k.a. chez Target [pronounced: tar-zhay] for those who clearly don't need to shop there but do so anyway) did the Holy Spirit, or his education in law, EVER tap him on the shoulder and tell him, "Claudey boy ... AHEM ... this is STEALING ..." ?????????

[Bravus]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />

Claude Allen likes to talk about virtue and absolute standards. "I am proud to be part of an administration that is not afraid to say what is right and what is wrong," he said at an abstinence conference in 2005.

<hr /></blockquote><font class="post"> - From Salon

[Nicodema]

Oh but Bravus, don't you know if you quote Salon.com to some folks on here, they think you might as well be quoting Lyndon LaRouche. Obviously if it is SALON it HAS to be SPIN, right??? (*copious eyerolling here*)

[Bravus]

Hehe - which is why I labeled it as such: people are very welcome to judge the source. But the quote is straight from Claude Allen's mouth, and that's the 'meat', right?

[Nicodema]

Yep.

But if anything, this gives me even more pause to reflect upon myself. How consistent are my deeds/behavior with the message I share verbally? Especially when it comes to things like the truth about God's character, what He's really like. I have to say I have a long way to go/grow in that department. I would not want my anger or my stubbornness, for example, to "give the lie to" anything truthful I'd want to share about God's love and amazing mercy and grace....

[Bravus]

Agreed, there's definitely food for thought for all of us. One of the implications, though, is that it might be better to make more modest claims... and then to also display more personal integrity. It seems to me that these guys' moral judgement is all directed outward at others and what they should and shouldn't do. Turning it inward and holding *ourselves* to the highest possible standards of integrity is mreo important.

[Nicodema]

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Turning it inward and holding *ourselves* to the highest possible standards of integrity is mreo important.

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amen to that!

[Dr. Shane]

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did the Holy Spirit, or his education in law, EVER tap him on the shoulder and tell him, "Claudey boy ... AHEM ... this is STEALING ..." ?????????

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So Christians never sin? Wow, I hope no one from my church is following me taking notes.

[Dr. Shane]

Good job, Bravus.

I have been known to post things from the Drudge Report and NewsMax too. And of course it is spin. Spin doesn't mean it is wrong, it just means it is selective reporting. IOW we need to get the other side too.

[Nicodema]

However ... words from the man's own mouth are not "spin" ...

[Nicodema]

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Shane said:

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did the Holy Spirit, or his education in law, EVER tap him on the shoulder and tell him, "Claudey boy ... AHEM ... this is STEALING ..." ?????????

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So Christians never sin? Wow, I hope no one from my church is following me taking notes.

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Shane doing something (a)repeatedly which (requires premeditation EACH AND EVERY TIME to carry out goes beyond simply stumbling in one's walk, or experiencing a moment of weakness. It is habitual and practiced. I do not need to judge anyone else to know what the Bible says about that:

"He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. No one who is born of God will continue to [:"red"](practice)[/] sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God."

1 John 3:8-9.

If I were to struggle with temptation, occasionally falling, I would be hurt if someone said that meant I'm not a real Christian. But if I were to HABITUALLY PRACTICE a KNOWN SIN, particularly one that involved deliberate care and forethought to carry through, it would not surprise me in the least.

If, for example, I had problems with stealing in the past, went into a shop and got tempted, and swiped something on the spur of the moment, that would be one thing. The thing to do afterwards is to pray it over and go make it right with the shop owner. But if I were to carefully premeditate a clever scheme for making off with a cart full of stolen goods time and time and time again, over a period of time, on many occasions deliberately premeditating these "heists" it means I'm PRACTICING it.

If you think I'm wrong about this, by all means, show me from the Word of God my error. Because this either applies to ANYONE (whether me, you, or Mr. Allen) or it doesn't. Plain as that. God is no respector of persons.

[Ron Lambert]

Maybe he's one of those Christians who believes in once saved, always saved, so it doesn't matter what he does. Those who are proud of saying they have been born again would do well to consider that they need to be born again every day. Or at least their repentance and conversion need to deepen daily. If their sanctification is not going forward, it is ebbing away.

[Dr. Shane]

He has an identical twin that friends say that can't tell apart from each other. So that makes the story a little more interesting.

Oh the suspence! He makes about $160K/year and is suspected of stealing (or trying to steal) about $5k worth of goods. Either he has some kind of disorder or his identical twin has been busy.

[lazarus]

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Shane said:

I have been known to post things from the Drudge Report and NewsMax too. And of course it is spin. Spin doesn't mean it is wrong, it just means it is selective reporting.

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Wow, Shane

When one is being selective one can leave out key details and/or key facts. This can leave the hearer/viewer with distictly the wrong impression. This is the art practiced so skillfully (perhaps less so in the past few months) by the bush administaion.

[Jeannieb43]

Wow. The method used by the culprit [putting some things into a cart along with other things he was returning, then going around and out a different way, etc...] shows me a lot of pre-planning on his part. It wasn't just accidental that he walked out with unpaid goods. He'd had experience.

[Nicodema]

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Ron Lambert said:

Maybe he's one of those Christians who believes in once saved, always saved, so it doesn't matter what he does. Those who are proud of saying they have been born again would do well to consider that they need to be born again every day. Or at least their repentance and conversion need to deepen daily. If their sanctification is not going forward, it is ebbing away.

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I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt, and assume you were speaking in general and not aiming that at me personally, because whatever other faults I have, I don't think "being proud of saying I'm born again" has been one of mine. Generally I have a difficult time believing such a thing about myself, let alone turning it into some sort of twisted "bragging rights". If perchance I have been born again, that would have EVERYTHING to do with HIM (JESUS) and NOTHING to do with ME. HE's the One with the amazing love, miraculous power, beauty, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and generosity. I'm just some poor formerly demon-infested schmuck with more personal issues than Carter has Liver Pills that He decided to be kind toward.

[Dr. Shane]

That's why we need to get both sides to a story, Lazurus.

And yes Jeanine, this guy seems a little

[Ron Lambert]

Nicodema, I was talking about Christians like some Baptists who believe in once saved, always saved. Although of course all of us need to be reminded that conversion must be a continuing, daily process, too.