Van Jones, President Obama's green jobs czar, is having a tough week, politically. First, he had to apologize for calling Republicans "assholes" in February, before joining the administration, after a video of the comment surfaced and conservatives cried foul. Then it was discovered that he signed onto a 9/11 truth pledge in 2004, calling for investigations into whether people in the Bush administration "may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war." In a statement last night, Jones said the petition "does not reflect my views now or ever." This morning, ABC's Jake Tapper reported that Jones was on the "organizing committee" of a 2002 march in San Francisco demanding a congressional inquiry into 9/11.
But maybe the worst thing, for him, is that he's now become campaign fodder: Republican 2010 gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner has cut a web video blasting rival candidate (and former eBay CEO) Meg Whitman for some glowing words about Jones--namely, that she was a "big fan" of some of his climate change and community-enfranchising efforts.
Time to resign or be fired. I would not want a birhter or a truther serving in any administration.
Yes, Truthers and Birthers are strange folk. But Obama would seem to be caving in to Glenn Beck and Charles Krauthammer, who said Van Jones would be gone by Monday. Why give these guys any encouragement?
Any who would refrain from doing a thing because it was recommended by Glen Beck is just as stupid and even more craven than one who does a thing because it was recommended by him. Do not allow his opinions to effect your judgements.
Van Jones name has been all over the news, especially from the channel whose coverage is neither fair nor balanced, but mostly psychopathic in general, but to sum up – Van Jones is the Special Advisor to the White House Council on Environmental Quality. He attended Yale Law School, and at a protest of the beating of Rodney King was arrested. He worked as a civil rights attorney and became active in the "green movement," and has been active in numerous eco-foundations, and launched Green for All, a non-governmental group dedicated to environmental issues. The buzz about him is that he was once an ardent communist while in college. (Shocking! A college student with communist leanings – that certainly isn't common.) Van Jones is just a person trying to throw some fast cash into doing better things for the environment.
If Van Jones misuses his office then he should step down. If he acts corruptly and exploits the public trust for private gain then he should step down. If he pushes his office toward something completely contrary to what Obama asked for then he should step down. Barring that, he should stay.
Is Van Jones's comments about 9/11, communism or the Republican Party any worse than John Ashcroft's praise of the neo-Confederate Partisan Review? Or the committed Christianist ideologues from Regent University who staffed the Bush Justice Department.
Is what Van Jones has said any worse than what Bob McDonnell said in his Master's Thesis at the outset of his political career?
While the Van Jones thing is over now, I promise you this- if he had not stepped down, Van Jones would still be unknown to 60% or more of voters in November, 2010. No one cares about this stuff except for you guys and the most politically minded people outside of the beltway whose minds are already made up about everything. When has one of these little summer scandals ever made it to the top of the issues list?