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March 15, 2006
Say a prayer for Claude Allen
Claude Allen is a right-wing Republican idealogue who most recently was President Bush’s domestic policy advisor. He also has been deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He was the equivalent of the secretary of HHS in Virginia. And Bush nominated him to be a federal appeals judge.
Now, Claude stands accused of a scheme to steal about $5,000 of merchandise in a refund scheme at D.C.-area Target stores.
I met Claude when he was a 25-year-old press secretary for Senator Jesse Helms when Helms was running for reeleciton in the 1984 epic U.S. Senate battle with Jim Hunt. I was a reporter for The Charlotte Observer. We saw a lot of each other in those days, and we talked several times a week.
Claude was a recent Univesity of North Carolina graduate. He had been the first black student body president at Raleigh’s Sanderson High School.
Claude was unfailingly pleasant, even when I asked him hard, maybe even unfair, questions. National political reporters would marvel that Helms, viewed as a racist by many people, would hire a 25-year-old black man as press secretary. I never figured out the race thing. I figure that most of us have racist inclinations at some level. Many of us overcome them, although Helms did not.
But here’s what I thought about a 25-year-old press secretary. For Helms, the job was easy. Everything is clear-cut. There was not much nuance about Jesse Helms. Most everything is black and white, cut and dried. Anybody could state his positions. Taxes? He’s against them. Abortion? Against that, too. Welfare? Ditto. Communism? Please.
So now, instead of seeing Claude in a newspaper photo accompanying the president out of the White House to Marine One, there’s a mug shot taken at the police station.
I vehemently disagree with Claude on most issues. Siding with Bush on tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% while cutting student aid, Medicaid and other social services for the poor, I would argue, is sinful.
It may be that the accusation of the refund scam is, as he claims, a big misunderderstanding. But his friends I have spoken with talk sorrowfully about Claude’s being in denial. They say he needs help.
So today I will say a prayer for Claude Allen. And at the same time I’ll try to resist being angry at him for blowing an opportunity to make a difference. And I’ll try to resist being smug about another right-wing idealogue whose life seems to be inconsistent with his faith rhetoric.
Posted Mar 15 2006 @ 06:36 AM