It's hard out there for a black conservative

By Larry Elder
Mar 30, 2006

"I could never vote for a Republican. It would be like voting for the Klan."
A prominent, incredibly successful black businessman told me that a few years ago. This attitude perhaps explains the unbridled joy with which some black pundits greeted "the fall" of Claude Allen, President George W. Bush's top domestic policy adviser from January 2005 until his abrupt resignation on Feb. 9, 2006. Now we know why.
On March 9, 2006, Montgomery County police arrested Allen on charges of felony theft and felony theft scheme. Authorities say he entered stores like Target, purchased merchandise and took the items out to his car. He then re-entered the store, receipt in hand, and picked up the same item from a shelf to "return" it for a refund. Allegedly, over the past year, Allen used the scheme to steal more than $5,000 worth of merchandise. Talk about a crash. Allen goes from a $161,000-a-year job with serious presidential face time, to a disgraced defendant facing up to 15 years in prison. Some pundits could scarcely withhold their glee. Not just because a former Bush aide finds himself in the news for the wrong reasons, but because Allen is a conservative black who's fallen from grace...

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