Posted on 09/09/2009 6:00:10 AM PDT by SJackson
Van Jones, an administration official specializing in environmentally friendly "green jobs," has resigned his position. . .The decision of Van Jones to resign as President Obama's "green jobs" czar is not a victory for Republicans who griped about the White House aide's willingness to call them out on their extreme partisanship.
Nor was it a victory for right-wing nuts like Glenn Beck, who waged a bitter campaign against Jones, highlighting his history of activism on behalf of environmental justice, racial reconciliation, global solidarity and an inquiry into events leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
It was an unnecessary and unwise surrender by an Obama administration that is neither ready nor willing to fight those who "spin lies for profit" -- as NAACP President Ben Jealous described those who smeared Jones.
Jones made a gracious exit from his key position in an administration that was unwilling to stand up for him. "On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me," Jones said in his resignation statement over the Labor Day weekend. "They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide."
Jones said he had been "inundated with calls from across the political spectrum urging me to stay and fight." The NAACP and other groups had initiated campaigns to keep Jones in his position as White House special adviser for green jobs.
Few doubt that Jones would have stayed on if the president and his aides had been willing to defend the ablest advocate for green jobs. Nor is there doubt among those of us who have known and worked with this remarkable man over the years that, when Jones signed a petition or spoke at a rally, he did not always agree with every detail of what was being said - any more than a Republican congressman who speaks at a tea party rally agrees with the signs in the crowd that call for acts of violence or a conservative talk-show host agrees with callers who claim President Obama was not born in the United States.
Those heirs to Joe McCarthy who have been waging a campaign to discredit and dismiss high-ranking African-American appointees of the Obama administration have highlighted the fact that Jones' name appeared on a petition calling for an aggressive inquiry into whether Bush/Cheney administration aides failed to take necessary steps to prevent the 9/11 attacks.
While some who circulated that petition may have believed the worst about members of the former administration, Jones clearly and unequivocally stated the more extreme position "certainly does not reflect my views, now or ever."
Jones wanted a more serious inquiry, as did many mainstream Democrats and Republicans who worried about the constrained and ineffectual approach of the 9/11 Commission and a Bush-friendly Congress. As the NAACP's Jealous says, "I have known Van Jones for more than 15 years. In that time he, as is characteristic of great public servants, has continuously grown and increased his capacity for improving the condition of humanity. Throughout, he has been guided by a powerful sense of patriotism and love for all."
Jones' Republican critics knew this. They just wanted to get rid of Jones, who has for many years been among the savviest and most effective advocates for green jobs -- and whose appointment to the green jobs position was one of the strongest signals that the Obama administration was serious about both environmental protection and job creation.
President Obama and his aides let the right spin a fantasy about a man who led the highly regarded Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and was recently listed as one of Time">Time magazine's 100 most influential players of 2009.
In so doing, they allowed Glenn Beck to define the administration.
This won't make the Obama presidency stronger; nor will it position the president to work more effectively with Congress on issues such as health care reform -- let alone green jobs initiatives. The right now knows they can make this administration blink. And they will keep poking and prodding White House aides and appointees until Obama and his inner circle push back.
That's how Washington works.
Republican strategists and the echo chamber in the media understand this. Unfortunately, the president and his aides do not.
John Nichols is the associate editor of The Capital Times.
It's a victory for all freedom loving Americans when a commie bites the dust and if Glen Beck is a "right wing nut", I'm another one.
Funny how these guys always resign at 1:00 AM.
They got too bold and almost exposed themselves for who they really are, and so had to throw the communist under the bus, for now.
This article tells me all I need to know about the Capital Times.
HUGE victory for Beck.. and real journalism..
There you go. Dig up factual information on a racist commie and you’re branded a nut.
Maybe that’s why they say liberalism is a mental disorder—they think they’re right and the world is wrong.
Notice how those who pursue the truth are “right wing nuts.” They are obviously not “real” urinalists because they are unwilling to pee on the truth.
.....Dig up factual information on a racist commie.......
You left out “uppity” as in Uppity racist commie
The only "spin" going on comes from the Left. We know what happened. So do they. It's they who are putting lipstick on their pig.
Yeah, digging up facts constitutes a “bitter campaign” - call the Waahmbulance!
I hope this columnist stays far, far away from machinery.
With his “liberal logic”, things that are more complex than a wedge will prove daunting to his sorry intellect.
I hope this columnist stays far, far away from machinery.
With his “liberal logic”, things that are more complex than a wedge will prove daunting to his sorry intellect.
This is the tip of a very big, dirty, iceberg. If America keeps digging and scratching, they, for sure, aren’t going to like what they find when they examine the President and Congress.
If we want the Republic that Ben Franklin and company gave us and challenged us to keep; then we are going to have to be ready to fight hard to keep it.
My award for the most SugarCoated Statement of 2009.
These people are liars. They can’t stand the truth about Jones, or that he resigned in the dead of night to keep his public record from being exposed further.
They are also totalitarians, because they can’t stand the loss of one of their comrades from a position of unexamined authority over us peasants.
They are also haters, because they seethe with anger over the fact that people they loathe could have exposed someone from their camp.
In a more realistic World, you might say that Jones’ loss of this position is no big deal. Not in the World of people like this writer.
But Charlie Gibson short quoting Sarah Palin to make her sound like a fanatic, getting challenged on the veracity of the quote, then cutting her questioning the quote from the TV broadcast - that is just good journalism.
Disgraceful.
It’s not seemly for progressives to get all wee-wee’d up about Jones resigning.
“...right-wing nuts like Glenn Beck, who waged a bitter campaign against Jones, highlighting his history of activism on behalf of environmental justice, racial reconciliation, global solidarity and an inquiry into events leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.”
How do you get someone fired by highlighting their efforts at “racial reconciliation” or “global solidarity”. I’m surprised this guy had the stones to write something this blatantly false. It’s not like Glenn hid the reasons he went after Jones. Everyone who cares to look can find Glenn’s words about Jones’ history with STORM, the LA riots, and the 9/11 petition. The writer can’t even bring himself to truthfully list the problems Glenn (and many of the rest of us) had with Jones.
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