MAN FOR THE JOB:

Strong Social Conservative Lands Key White House Post (Pete Winn, 1/06/04, Citizen Link)

President Bush has chosen Claude Allen, currently deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, to be his new domestic policy adviser, the White House announced Wednesday. [...]

In the '90s, Allen was secretary of Health and Human Resources for the Commonwealth of Virginia. According to his official biography, as the head of 13 agencies and 15,000 employees, he "spearheaded Virginia's welfare reform initiative and provided leadership to overhaul the state's mental health institutions and community services." Prior to that, he served as a deputy attorney general in Virginia — and as an aide to former Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C.

In his new White House position, Allen will be responsible for helping shape the administration's policy on domestic issues.

"Claude has a great grasp of the things that need to be done domestically," Brandt said, "from promoting the sanctity of marriage and promoting healthy lifestyles to bringing policies on a wide variety of other issues. He is definitely the man for the job."

NON-JUDICIAL APPOINTMENT (Robert Novak, 1/08/05, Townhall)

Claude Allen, a leading African-American conservative Republican, was left off President Bush's list of renominated judicial appointments but is slated to become the new head of the Domestic Policy Council at the White House.

Allen, currently an assistant secretary of Health and Human Services, was one of the 10 appellate court nominees blocked by Senate Democrats. Conservative sources say he was not anxious to go through that painful process again.

However, Allen may eventually be renominated for the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, but to a Virginia seat when one opens up instead of the Maryland seat to which he was first named. That would bypass opposition from Maryland's two liberal Democratic senators, Paul Sarbanes and Barbara Mikulski. Allen is a Virginia resident.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 8, 2005 6:10 AM