The Associated Press reports tonight that Van Jones, the so-called Green Jobs Czar in the Obama administration, has resigned. Though Jones has always been a bit controversial to conservative pundits, the tipping point for the White House seems to have been the revelation this week of his signature on a 2004 petition from 911Truth.org, which “calls for immediate public attention to unanswered questions that suggest that people within the current administration may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war.” In his statement, Jones said:
A video of Jones calling Republicans “assholes” at a February Q&A at Berkeley also surfaces this week (let’s go to the tape) and kicked off what has probably been about the worst week of his life. There’s been no shortage of right-wing criticism of Jones since he took the job in May, particularly from Glenn Beck, who — I’m sure this is a coincidence — found his show facing an advertising boycott last month organized by a group that Jones founded.
So that’s the news. What’s the commentary? I think this is sad. Yeah, having read the 911 petition, which is pretty short, I think that was a stupid move on Jones’s part — but I also think it’s possible that, as other signers have claimed, the statement he signed may have been different. Either way, it’d be a good idea, if you’re going to play in politics, to keep good copies of anything you put your name on. Even assuming he read it, the language, while inflammatory, is calling for a lawful investigation, not any kind of revolution or violent action. It’s asking a question. Is it an offensive question? Yeah, to a lot of people. But it’s still a question, and Jones’s signature — like that of the other 98 Notable Americans (including Ed Asner, of all people) and about 50 family members of 9/11 victims — means he supports looking at the question more completely, not that he’s found the answer.
Beyond that, and getting to this issue of whether it was inappropriate for Jones to call Republicans (and himself) “assholes” before he took a job with the administration, well, right here you have the reason that White House after White House is filled with tepid, self-protecting fans of the status quo rather than progressive go-getters. If you fill a house with activists, this kind of stuff is going to come up. People who feel things passionately — as Jones clearly feels for the issue of creating green jobs — speak passionately and act passionately. That can certainly be to their detriment, but I think quite often this kind of passion and commitment is to the benefit of their cause. It should be harnessed, maybe tamed, but not so quickly held against them.
The decision the administration made not to defend Jones is understandable, I guess, because they feel they need to spend political capital elsewhere. At some point, though, you run out of political capital in the other direction — no one wants to work for a White House that doesn’t defend its ardent supporters.
SATURN SMITH 