The left is kicking and screaming over the Van Jones affair – now that it’s over. They didn’t lift a finger to try to defend Jones when Jones was being confronted with his own words and actions. After the fact, they’re pitching fits about it. Which is a seriously bad move on their part. Jones gave an interview acknowledging that he was a communist and signed a 9/11 “truther” petition among other things. These are actions that do – and should – disqualify someone politically whether the left wants to admit it or not.
Up until now, the MSM had been remarkably silent about Jones. Only Jake Tapper of ABC News had reported the whole story, as far as I know. But now the Washington Post is reporting all the details – things that the left would be better off not defending.
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 officials in President George W. Bush’s administration “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 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 fatally shooting a Philadelphia police officer in 1981, threatened to further deepen the controversy. A White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter, said Sunday that Jones’s past was not studied as intensively as that of other advisers because of his relatively low rank.
I’m surprised that the Post is running with this much detail. But it makes it easier to understand what actually happened here to those who have not been following the Jones affair.
Which is also why the ruckus from the left defending Jones is a very bad idea.
But by all means, do carry on. Show the majority in this country what you embrace.
For the frequently-egregious WaPo to say that STORM “had Marxist roots” is like saying Hitler had opinions or hurricanes allegedly get gusty. As usual, the MSM attempt to conceal the truth.
I agree– let the left keep screeching and howling about unfairness. Let them defend their Marxist 9/11 truther. It just shows how deranged the far left has gotten since Obama was elected (which is strange, given how far from the left O has been governing.. you’d think they’d be at least somewhat pacified). If their best defense for Jones is the race card, then they’re in dire straits. After the Professor Gates police incidence, the public is quickly growing tired of the left perpetually playing the race card. It only helps the right if the left continues to insist on defending the scum of the earth.
Even better Olbermann has declared war on Beck. He posted on Kos asking for people to dig up info on Beck and his producer.
Don’t these people ever learn?
No.
Nicely put, Gaius.
Short and to the point works best.
People have been faulting the White House vetting process for coming up with candidates like Jones and the other tax cheats, etc. that have made it into the WH staff. Personally, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with their vetting process. They knew exactly who and what Jones was. How could they not? It didn’t take a deep digging investigation to find out all this info about him and his leanings. It probably didn’t take 10 minutes since the info is so readily available. What this does show is the utter contempt the Obamessiah and his gang have for the American people to try and foist someone like Jones on us and the arrogance of believing he’s got the country and the DPMP so much in his pocket that no one would care when he appoints an avowed communist political elitist.