Family values and store refunds!

Chances are that you may not have heard of Claude Allen but he was an Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy. He was popular with the moralists on the Religious Right because he was one of the top people pushing the abstinence campaign in government schools. Allen made sure people knew he was a “born-again Christian”. He also got his start in politics working for Senator Jesse Helms, one of the most hard Right senators in decades.

It appears that Mr. Allen has been arrested. Here is supposedly what happened. According to the police Mr. Allen was involved in a scheme to to steal around $5,000. He had a receipt for some goods from a Target department store and police say he was detected putting the merchandise in his cart and then wheeling it to the refund desk.

I supposed from reports that Alllen was not actually returning merchandise. He would supposedly go into the store with a receipt and pull the same item off the shelf and then take this item and the receipt up for the refund. At the time he was given a citation and released but police continued an investigation. They claim that store video tapes show Mr. Allen pulling this trick repeatedly. They say that on occasion he would walk into the store and purchase an item, take it to his car and pack it away, return to the store and pull the same item off the shelf and take it and the receipt up for a refund.

Bush had perviously nominated Allen to the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals but Democrats stopped the nomination. Allen also worked for the Virginian state attorney general’s office. The Washington Post reports that once “he kept Medicaid funds from an impoverished rape victim who wanted an abortion.” One conservative, former White House counsel, C. Boyden Gray, said that Allen’s nomination was held up because of his “traditional values belief in family, and ideals of personal conservatism.”

Allen resigned from the White a few weeks ago. Coincidence? Nope. He was arrested on January 2nd. Then the investigation started to see how widespread were his actions. His resignation became official February 7. In other words he offered one month’s notice immediately after the incident. But when the resignation went into effect he told the press it was because he wanted to spend more time with his family. I suspect that was not the case. He told one conservative, only a few days ago, he resigned because, if one is going to preach family values, one has to practice them. Nothing was said about the issue of practising the morality of not stealing.

The charges involve swindles at both Target and Hecht’s stores and total more than $5,000. His attorney his peddling the story that it’s a “series of misunderstandings.” Some reports indicate there were 25 such “misunderstandings”.