Van Jones

I'm a little uncomfortable with Obama's throwing Van Jones under the bus. Since when does asking for an investigation as to who-knew-what-when on 9-11 make you ineligible to serve the Country? Especially when we're talking about the previous outing-spy-traitor-torturer-"so?" administration! Also, doesn't freedom of speech include the freedom to boycott?

Justin Rubin, Executive Director of Move-On had a good statement on this:

The right-wing smear campaign that wrongly forced Van Jones' resignation represents Washington at its worst.

Van Jones has worked tirelessly to bring jobs and environmental progress to some of the poorest communities in our nation. His dedication and leadership are exactly what we need more of in Washington. And his resignation is a loss to this Administration.

This should serve as a wake-up call to all reasonable people that the right wing politics of race-baiting, distortion, and hate—as practiced by Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Republican Congressional leaders like Mike Pence--are a growing threat to the change America desperately needs.

Andy Stern from SEIU aslo spoke of this on Twitter:

Van Jones deserved a more spirited defense. I underestimated the traction of the attacks - and like the White House should have done more

John Potesta said:

Van Jones is an exceptional and inspired leader who has fought to bring economic and environmental justice to communities across our country. . .

Van was working to build a common ground agenda for all Americans, and I am confident he will continue that work. Unfortunately, his critics on the right could find no common ground with him.

Clearly, Van was the subject of a right-wing smear campaign shrouded in hypocrisy. Van’s chief tormentor Glenn Beck, who spent weeks engaged in vicious name-calling, retains his perch at Fox News after calling the president a racist who has “a deep-seated hatred for white people.” Van has set a standard that Beck would never impose upon himself. . .

Jane Hamsher's reaction is one of my favorites:

Now he's been thrown under the bus by the White House for signing his name to a petition expressing something that 35% of all Democrats believed as of 2007 -- that George Bush knew in advance about the attacks of 9/11. Well, that and calling Republicans "assholes." I'm pretty sure that if you search through the histories of every single liberal leader at the CAF dinner that night, they have publicly said that and worse.

So where are all the statements defending Van Jones by those who were willing to exploit him when it served their purpose? Why aren't they standing up and defending one of their own, who has done nothing that probably the majority of people in the Democratic party haven't done at one time or another? Is he no longer "one of their own?"

And Digby, of course, adds just the right amount of snark:

Don't Fuck With Fox

by digby

So Van Jones resigned and a great sigh of relief is felt all over the village. The dangerous radicalism we've recently been seeing in our political discourse has been eradicated with his departure and the administration can pursue its agenda without any other distractions from the kooky fringe. Thank God for that.

I would hope that these leftist extremists like Color of Change will think twice before they go after an upstanding company like FOX News because the lesson here is that somebody is going to pay a big price for doing it. In fact, it probably would pay to keep a close eye on the FOX gasbags from now on to get an idea of which groups or individuals have offended the network and get rid of them before anyone has a chance to make a public stink. It would save everyone a lot of time and trouble.

Why is this White House so scared?