Katrina Made Me Do It
Remember Claude Allen, a top Bush domestic policy advisor who got caught shoplifting from and committing refund fraud at Target? His case came before the court, and he plead guilty in a common kind of deal which, if he behaves under 2 year’s probation, his record could be cleared. I have no problem with that, it’s a common deal for the first offense–assuming that the Washington Post is correct in that it is a common plea.
What’s more questionable is his defense: he shoplifted because of stress (from, among other things, hurricane Katrina) and sleep deprivation. Now I’m not a physician with experience in these areas, but I still have a lot of trouble seeing how stress and sleeplessness drives a top White House official making $161,000 to shoplift from and commit fraud at Target stores on 25 separate occasions. Something tells me that it might go a little deeper than that.