Top Aide to Bush Shoplifts Then Gets Less Than a Slap on the Thieving Wrist?

[Ed. note: Update: According to TPM Mucker, Allen claimed all 25 (indeed!) different instances of theft for which he was exposed - how many unexposed? - on the ill effects of Hurricane Katrina. Not that he had any special work regarding Katrina, however. Bush Republicans, always willing to stand up and admit errors... someone else's errors.]

From The Times and note the bold line - something went wrong, not he did wrong. Gee, from that alone you can tell he's a Bushie.

A former White House adviser pleaded guilty to theft Friday, briefly breaking into tears as he tried to explain to a judge why he made phony returns at discount department stores while working as a top aide to President Bush.

''Something did go very wrong,'' Claude Allen said.

Allen, 45, pleaded guilty in Montgomery County Circuit Court to one misdemeanor count of theft under $500. He was sentenced to two years of supervised probation and ordered to pay a $500 fine.