Van Jones Resignation

[jimmy olsen]

I'm surprised we didn't discuss this here. This situation was not what Obama needed while trying to get health care reform through the congress. If their vetting let this guy through, then who else with skeletons in their closest was let in?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/06/AR2009090601054.html?hpid=topnews

Van Jones's Resignation Reveals Vetting Lapse
   
By Scott Wilson and Garance Franke-Ruta
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, September 6, 2009; 3:38 PM

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 amid spreading calls for his ouster by Republicans 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 so-called green jobs, which he has called an essential element of the more stable economy is trying to build, without a leader.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs on Sunday explained the resignation on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," saying Jones "decided that the agenda of this president was bigger than any one individual." The president does not endorse Jones's past statements and actions, Gibbs said, "but he thanks him for his service."

Jones, a towering figure in the environmental movement, had issued two public apologies in recent days. One was for signing a petition in 2004 from the group 911Truth.org that questioned whether Bush administration officials "may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war," and the other for using a crude term to describe Republicans in a speech he gave before joining the administration.

His previous involvement with the now-defunct Bay Area radical group Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM), which had Marxist roots, also emerged as an issue. And on Saturday his advocacy on behalf of death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of shooting a Philadelphia police officer in 1981, threatened to further widen the controversy.

A White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter, said Sunday that Jones's past was not studied as intensively as other advisers because of his relatively low rank.

Jones's position, for example, did not require Senate confirmation. So he avoided the kind of vetting Cabinet officials were subjected to.

Those procedures were tightened during the transition after a history of unpaid taxes emerged during the confirmation of two high-profile nominees -- Timothy F. Geithner and Thomas A. Daschle. Geithner was later confirmed as treasury secretary, but Daschle withdrew from consideration as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Moreover, as an adviser to the Council on Environmental Quality, rather than to Obama directly, Jones's past was not reviewed to the same degree as the more senior "assistants to the president" and other top advisers inside the West Wing. The result was the recent revelations that, administration officials acknowledge, caught the White House off guard.

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

The announcement that Jones was stepping down came minutes after midnight Sunday morning. In a written statement, Jones said, "On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me. They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide."

He continued: "I have been inundated with calls -- from across the political spectrum -- urging me to 'stay and fight.' But I came here to fight for others, not for myself. I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future."

Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck launched the drive against Jones. Beck's campaign grew more vitriolic after a group Jones founded in 2005, ColorofChange.org, led an advertising boycott against his show to protest Beck's assertion that Obama is a racist.

Republican calls for Jones to step down have growing over the weekend. Rep.  Mike Pence (R-Ind.) called on Jones to resign Friday, saying in a statement, "His extremist views and coarse rhetoric have no place in this administration or the public debate."

Senator  Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.) urged Congress to investigate Jones's "fitness" for the position, writing in an open letter, "Can the American people trust a senior White House official that is so cavalier in his association with such radical and repugnant sentiments?" On Saturday,  Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, wrote on his Twitter account, "Van Jones has to go."

It became clear Friday, after Gibbs declined to defend Jones, that a resignation was likely in the offing. Gibbs said only that Jones "continues to work for the administration" -- but did not state that the adviser enjoyed the full support of President Obama.

Jones had worked for the administration's environmental council since March. He was a civil-rights activist in California before turning to environmental and energy issues, and he won wide praise before joining the Obama administration for articulating a broad vision of a green economy Democrats could embrace.

"The political environment is rough, and so these things get magnified," David Axelrod, an Obama senior adviser, said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "But the bottom line is that he showed his commitment to the cause of creating green jobs in this country by removing himself as an issue, and I think that took a great deal of commitment on his part."

Staff writers Anne E. Kornblut and Juliet Eilperin contributed to this report.

[Zoupa]

If their vetting let this guy through, then who else with skeletons in their closest was let in?

"A White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter, said Sunday that Jones's past was not studied as intensively as other advisers because of his relatively low rank.

Jones's position, for example, did not require Senate confirmation. So he avoided the kind of vetting Cabinet officials were subjected to.

Those procedures were tightened during the transition after a history of unpaid taxes emerged during the confirmation of two high-profile nominees -- Timothy F. Geithner and Thomas A. Daschle. Geithner was later confirmed as treasury secretary, but Daschle withdrew from consideration as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Moreover, as an adviser to the Council on Environmental Quality, rather than to Obama directly, Jones's past was not reviewed to the same degree as the more senior "assistants to the president" and other top advisers inside the West Wing. The result was the recent revelations that, administration officials acknowledge, caught the White House off guard.

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

Noob.

[Admiral Yi]

In a written statement, Jones said, "On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me. They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide."

Poor Van.

[The Brain]

I mounted a viscous smear campaign in my bathroom today.

[Zoupa]

I mounted a viscous smear campaign in my bathroom today.

lolz.

[Razgovory]

I don't even know who this guy is.

[Hansmeister]

I don't even know who this guy is.

He was the "green jobs czar".  And apparently a complete nutter in the vein of Jeremiah Wright, no wonder Obama liked him.

[Razgovory]

Well anyway, he doesn't look dutch.

[Admiral Yi]

Well anyway, he doesn't look dutch.

Maybe he's related to Van Morrison.

[Neil]

The Obama administration is certainly going to be noted for its disloyalty and cowardice, isn't it?

[DontSayBanana]

We haven't really had a good putsch in DC personnel since Nixon. They impeached Clinton, but for some reason, they let him keep his job.

[Razgovory]

We haven't really had a good putsch in DC personnel since Nixon. They impeached Clinton, but for some reason, they let him keep his job.

Because he wasn't convicted.

[garbon]

Sounds like a typical bay area nutjob.

[Eddie Teach]

Sounds like a typical bay area nutjob.

Yeah, surely if they're mainstream enough to head the House, "green jobs czar" should be a non-issue.

[Jaron]

I don't even know who this guy is.

He was the "green jobs czar".  And apparently a complete nutter in the vein of Jeremiah Wright, no wonder Obama liked him.

I don't know about everyone else, but I'm beginning to worry more about the radicals in the White House than the ones in the Middle East. Someone remind me why I voted for this fool again?!