Lot of leftist Schadenfreude at the arrest of top White House aide Claude Allen, and who could blame them? If the situation were reversed — if, say, a John Conyers staffer had been appointed to a federal judgeship by Bill Clinton, was blocked by Republicans, was then given a job with a fancy title at the Clinton White House and then abruptly resigned because, it turned out, he had shoplifted — the glee on the Right would have been irrepressible.

Having said that, I’m getting genuinely insane e-mail following a few Atrios postings about my “Who the heck is Claude Allen” posts in the past few days — e-mails accusing me of “lying” to “cover up” for the White House and then cursing me out in the language of eleven year-olds. This suggests to me that the next few weeks are going to feature some wild theorizing according to which Karl Rove and the President assigned Claude Allen to steal from Target. The Bush haters can’t even allow themselves to enjoy their Schadenfreude.