Listen to your Mama!

The lesson here is that Mothers apparently do know best! Here is the first graph from the WAPO report on how shocked his associates are:

Claude A. Allen has said his mother warned him that as a black man he risked ruining his life, or at least his career, by becoming a Republican. As it turned out, nothing could have been farther from the truth [emphasis mine].

Really! I guess as a black man rising to a pinnacle of power whose salary was the same as Rove’s, though probably not his influence, and being charged with stealing approximately $5,000.00 doesn’t ruin your life or career? In what universe do these reporters live?

But then, reality sort of sets in at the WAPO and the next couple of graphs defy the assertion made in the first:

But Allen's once-soaring career has taken a bizarre turn with his arrest Thursday on theft charges for allegedly ripping off two department stores in a phony refund scheme.

The arrest of Allen, who suddenly resigned last month as President Bush's top domestic policy adviser, startled those in his big-ticket Gaithersburg neighborhood and at the White House who knew him as a soft-spoken and collegial aide who was loyal to his young family and devoted to his church.

"When I heard the story last night, I was shocked, and my first reaction was one of disappointment, deep disappointment," Bush said yesterday.

Allen is accused of swindling Hecht's and Target stores out of more than $5,000 in refunds for items he did not buy. His lawyer, Mallon Snyder, denied the charges. "His returns and refunds were exactly what they should have been," Snyder said yesterday, saying that the charges stem from a series of misunderstandings.

Apparently Claude Allen should have listened to his Mama. When playing with the Big Boys, and in this case I mean the Republican Swindlers, you should at the very least go for the big bucks, not chump-change, and by all means make sure you swindle the Federal Government.

Take Custer Battles for instance. They have recently been found guilty of swindling our Federal Government in Iraq of over $3 million dollars and this administration didn’t even join the civil suit of the whistleblowers. See, crime and swindling the government out of big money isn’t a problem. However, it seems that Target and Hecht’s take a different view as does the State when it comes to larceny, theft and criminal justice.

According to our President:

"If the allegations are true, something went wrong in Claude Allen's life," Bush said. "And that is really sad."

Yes, Mr. Presdient it is very sad, and I am sure we can count on you, and your administration, and cohorts to be fully supportive of Mr. Allen in his sad time of need.

But, probably not. I would be willing to bet that because Mr. Allen chose to engage in low-end, and chump-change, crime Barbara Comstock will not be heading up a “Legal Defense Fund” for him anytime soon. After all, I don’t think his crime was committed in the furtherance of this administration’s policies. I am also willing to bet that the Hudson Institute doesn’t have a chair, or desk, or anything, to offer him so that he can work along side Scooter Libby, either!

After all this was just a chump-change crime, not big enough for this administration. And take notice that I didn’t talk about Cheney and Halliburton, okay, well now I did!

But then maybe I am just a Mama, and think that I know better!