Van Jones-A Failure of Vetting?

Cross-posted by Gary Fouse
fousesquawk



Van Jones-Headed for the university lecture circuit?


Now that Van Jones has stepped down (in his own classless way), it is time to ask, as many pundits have been doing for the past week, if the appointment of Jones to a White House position was a breakdown in the vetting process. Hardly.

It's not as if Obama and those in the White House were not perfectly aware of who Jones was and what he stood for. Obama, much like Bill Clinton, has been trying to pose as some kind of moderate in the public eye while quietly bringing in the worker bees who would operate in the background and implement his radical program. Everybody in the White House knew that Jones was a self-proclaimed communist with a radical agenda. Perhaps what they forgot was the wonder of YouTube; they overlooked the possibility that many of his radical statements had been documented on video. That, if you will, was the breakdown in the vetting process. Just like Jeremiah Wright, Obama forgot about the video tapes. In Wright's case, when the documentation became overwhelming, Obama threw his pastor and friend of 20 years under the bus in the name of political expediency and saving his candidacy. After all, we were assured, Obama never shared Wright's views. Never even knew of them, in spite of spending 20 years in the pews of Wright's church. And America bought it. What will Obama say now about Jones? Will he say that he was unaware of Jones' past and those inflammatory statements until they came out on YouTube? Will the news media even deign to ask him?

Here is part of what Jones said in his resignation statement:

"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."

Vicious? More vicious than calling Republicans, "a**holes"? More vicious than comparing George W Bush to a "crackhead"? More vicious than claiming that Bush was complicit in 9-11?

Speaking of vicious, Howard Dean, who knows a thing or two about "vicious", issued a public statement that Jones was "brought down" and that his resignation was "a loss for the country". That speaks volumes about Howard Dean.

Maybe now, with Obama's poll numbers sinking over health care and other forms of government take-over, the public will take a more critical eye to the "worker bees" that this administration has put in place. How many more Mark Lloyd videos will surface before the public clamor for him to go becomes overwhelming?

Finally, it is not enough to welcome the departure from government of the Van Jones'of this administration; it is high time to take a critical look at those who have brought these fringe characters into positions of power in the first place.