Claude Allen: A Mystery, Wrapped in an Enigma, Wrapped in a Target BagThe Washington Post is as excited as we are about the upcoming trial of Claude Allen, the former White House adviser who confessed to shoplifting thousands of dollars in merchandise from stores in the D.C. area.
“The Enigmatic Man” headlines the paper’s mega-takeout on Allen this morning. Already it’s bad: don’t expect much insight from a profile that uses “enigma” in its headline. But it’s got a couple choice nuggets.
Allen, of course, didn’t talk for the article, nor did his lawyers. A lot of old friends and co-workers talked, mostly about how he was a decent guy but there seemed to be part of him they couldn’t know. So the article is really several thousand words on how little we know about the guy.
There’s a great anecdote from the executive director of the Virginia NAACP, King Salim Khalfani. In 2000, his group threatened the state of Virginia with a boycott if then-Gov. James Gilmore didn’t end the state’s recognition of “Confederate History Month.” Claude Allen — then the state’s secretary of health and human resources — was tapped to help smooth things out.
What was his ploy? He gave Khalfani a poster portrait of Confederate leader Gen. Robert E. Lee.
One other bit of information stood out: as we recall, he has an identical twin brother, Floyd. What I didn’t know, but the Post reported, was this: Floyd works in retail security. That’s an interesting twist, no?