In Adviser's Resignation, Vetting Bites Obama Again

Washington Post ^ | September 7, 2009 | Scott Wilson and Juliet Eilperin

[La Lydia]

The resignation of White House environmental adviser Van Jones has revealed a lapse in the administration's vetting procedures that, nearly eight months into his tenure, delivered President Obama with an unwelcome distraction as he begins an important week on behalf of his health-care reform initiative. Jones's resignation late Saturday came as calls for his ouster increased from Republican leaders, who have been critical of past statements and associations that have also taken the White House by surprise. His departure as a top adviser to the White House Council on Environmental Quality leaves Obama's push to create "green" jobs, which he has called an essential element of the more stable economy he is trying to build, without a leader....

While some conservatives tried to portray Jones as one of Obama's many issue czars, he was not. Nancy Sutley, head of the White House environmental council, hired him as her "special adviser for green jobs, enterprise and innovation" in mid-March, and he reported to her rather than to Obama. Because Jones's position did not require Senate confirmation, he avoided the kind of vetting that Cabinet officials were subjected to. "He was not as thoroughly vetted as other administration officials," the official said. "It's fair to say there were unknowns."...

[La Lydia]

Several interesting things about this article. Valerie Jarrett's name does not appear, nor is her role apparent. They cover it up, and cover her butt. Toward the end, the writers have to explain the entire incident, starting with Glenn Beck, because the Wash Post never reported on the uproar when it was going on. They do get points, however, for actually reporting his Marxist connections, which I never through to see in the Wash Post. By the same token, the writers make a big deal of his "low rank," and say his work is "Chamber of Commerce" stuff. No Chamber of Commerce I've ever belonged to! And they make a big deal out of his "best-selling" book, which Amazon ranks at #4,983.

[gidget7]

Calling it, continually, a vetting problem, is almost worse than not covering it at all. Zero was not vetted, how can we expect his administration to be??

They knew full well who this guy was, as they know who the others are, and all are there because of their radicalism, not because zero didn’t know!

[Parley Baer]

“a lapse in the administration’s vetting procedures that, nearly eight months into his tenure, delivered President Obama with an unwelcome”

I don’t agree with this assessment at all. He is trying to get as many like minded idiots into his administration as possible. How many have already slipped through under the radar screen?

[kabar]

Jones was amply vetted by Obama. He just got caught, not by the MSM, but by Beck and the bloggers.

[La Lydia]

Washington Post spinning for Obama. No more, no less. They see everything as “process” rather than substance, anyway, and here is Exhibit A.

[Gaffer]

There will soon come a time with this despot that “getting caught” or “being outed” won’t matter.

[Natural Law]

The problem as I see it is not with an incomplete or insufficient vetting process, it it with the criteria used. No one can believe that Obama and his herd didn't know that Van Jones was bat-shit crazy communist, black nationalist that has absolutely no record or ability to create jobs of any kind. He was selected because he was created in Obama image. He is a black community organizer (Obama really is a racist) and he is a communist (so is Obama).

[gidget7]

True, however, I have been hearing the same thing from FOX all morning.

[kittymyrib]

BO and his coven of Marxists were not vetted before the election because the Leftist msm wanted to turn this into a socialist country. These revelations should come as no surprise to anyone who was paying attention.

[Lancey Howard]

Jones, who wrote the best-selling 2008 book "The Green Collar Economy" and graduated from Yale Law School

I never heard of the book, and the "graduated from Yale Law School" attempt by these scumbag Washington Post Democrats doesn't wash, as Jones himself admits:

"I had a professor who encouraged me to apply to Harvard and Yale [for law school], which was almost unheard of for students coming from the kind of public schools that I was coming from in the rural South. I was accepted to both places, and decided to go to Yale because Yale didn't have any grades and was smaller than Harvard. I figured, once I enroll I'm guaranteed to graduate, so I can just go and be a radical hellraiser student, and they can't do anything about it. Which is pretty much what happened."

[True Grit]

Jones was amply vetted by Obama.

http://www.barking-moonbat.com/images/uploads/bagdad_bob_large.gif

[angkor]

My opinion:

He was vetted and then enthusiastically hired with the proactive assent of the Zer0 inner-sanctum including Valerie Jarrett.

He was told to immediately resign by Axelrod on Saturday afternoon when Axelrod and Zer0 concurred that he would be “a distraction” from Zer0’s big “health scare” speech on Wednesday.

Axelrod: “His situation is an ongoing distraction.”

Zer0: “We can’t have any distractions next week.”

Axelrod: “Right. I’ll take care of it.”

Axelrod: “Van, sorry but I’ll need your resignation by 5:00 PM today.”

[Starboard]

They do get points, however, for actually reporting his Marxist connections

Maybe one point--the word "communist" is never mentioned.

[angkor]

>>> They see everything as “process” rather than substance, anyway <<<<

They have to. They live and work in DC.

It’s a company town.

[rlmorel]

"...The resignation of White House environmental adviser Van Jones has revealed a lapse in the administration's vetting procedure..."

It did no such thing. They knew who this guy was inside and out.

[Starboard]

Calling it, continually, a vetting problem, is almost worse than not covering it at all. Zero was not vetted, how can we expect his administration to be??

EXCELLENT POST!

[Disgusted in Texas]

All they had to do was GOOGLE this communist . A first grader could have vetted him!!!

[torchthemummy]

"He was not as thoroughly vetted as other administration officials," the official said. "It's fair to say there were unknowns."...

Unknowns? Just bald-faced lying.

[leilani]

He had control of billions of tax dollars to disburse as he saw fit - unaccountable to anyone. And he stood to gain many more billions under his control if cap & trade is passed. This explanation they're now peddling is such a crock - the mandatory FBI background checks just to get a WH pass, let alone set up an office down the hall from a POTUS would have found all of the stuff we all found just by googling.

The WH had to overrule the background check for this avowed enemy of America to be allowed anywhere in close proximity to any POTUS, particularly one as vulnerable to threats as Obama, and it had to be overruled at the highest level. The WH's current contention that his troublesome statements & associations just got by them because of less stringent vetting for Czars is laughable on its face.

I wonder how the FBI feels today to hear the WH's implication that their investigation standards are so lax & shoddy that the FBI wasn't able catch all this stuff bloggers were clearly able to catch with just the click of a mouse & after only .0234 seconds.