Claude Allen

More bad news for the Bush White House. Last month's strange departure of senior White House advisor Claude Allen "to spend more time with his family" turns out to be something entirely different. Allen was arrested yesterday and charged in a “retail theft scheme.” Here's the police report. Check out Atrios to see what a piece of work this Christian Right extremist is.

Now, of course, Allen is being characterized as a lowly functionary that no one really knew. However, from ThinkProgress we have:

Allen had the highest salary of any employee in the White House, tied with Karl Rove, Andrew Card, and Stephen Hadley, among others. He was earning $161,000 a year.

Atrios debunks one early right-wing talking point that Allen was some unknown staffer. In fact, he was the top domestic policy adviser and a former Bush Federal Circuit Court nominee. The Washington Post labeled him the embodiment of “conservative values.”

Digby has a good post on Allen here:

He was Schiavo before Schiavo was cool.

Claude Allen is a Rove republican through and through --- a cheap, opportunistic phony preying on people's prejudices. He rose to the very top of the GOP heap by insulting the intelligence of all around him and daring them to call him on it. Very few people did.

The saga continues as the White House adds its all-criminal team status.