The latest twist in the Claude Allen case is somewhat buried in the New York Times:

Last week, that life and discipline appeared to have frayed when Mr. Allen, the president’s former domestic policy adviser, was arrested in suburban Maryland and charged with stealing thousands of dollars in merchandise from Target and other stores in a scheme to fake returns.

People close to him said they were stunned at the charges. Friends described him as the “goody-two-shoes” of his family who never drank at fraternity parties and went out for ice cream instead. His identical twin, Floyd, a former football player at the Virginia Military Institute, never matched his brother’s achievements.

…People who talked to Mr. Allen Monday said he remained surprisingly upbeat in the face of the charges. He said only one side of the story had been heard, said one former colleague who asked not to be identified because the conversation was private.

Like others who know him, his stepmother cannot understand the turn of events. “I simply have no idea where things could have gone wrong in his life,” Mrs. Allen said.

Floyd was the twin who “kept running into bad times,” while Claude Allen intervened repeatedly to help him, she said.

In 2001, Floyd Allen declared bankruptcy in Virginia; a year earlier he was ordered to pay $6,450 in a civil suit brought against him by a travel company, according to state and federal records…

Stranger and stranger.

(hat tip: John Podhoretz)

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