Column:
Van Jones resignation an embarrassment for Obama
Published Sept. 11, 2009
For me, a good day became great Saturday evening. Still in a euphoric state of shock after returning home from the MU football game in St. Louis, I got on my computer to discover Van Jones had resigned his position as green jobs adviser for the Obama Administration.
Glenn Beck deserves all the credit in the world for discovering Jones' disturbing past and for the movement that led to his resignation. It was during his one-week special edition of his show on Fox News that he first introduced America to Jones.
Controversy swirled around Jones after parts of his past were brought to light. It was mentioned many times that Jones was a member of the Communist Party and he signed a petition calling for an investigation into whether the Bush Administration was involved in the attacks of Sept. 11.
If "birthers" are crazy, what does that make the people like Van Jones who signed this petition?
Once confronted about signing the petition, Jones tried to avoid it, claiming he didn't fully understand what he was signing, but Mike Berger, a spokesman for 911truth.org, claimed Jones knew fully well what he was signing in 2004.
Knowing people believe this, much less a government official, is simply sickening to think about, especially today, the eighth anniversary of the attacks in Washington and New York.
Another incident involving Jones occurred in February of this year. In what amounts to a town hall meeting, Jones used a word starting with "A" and ending in "-ssholes" to describe Republicans.
Comments like this are fine for comedians and everyday people, but it is uncalled for from an administrative official.
A president always has to be careful about who he chooses for these positions to avoid making his administration look bad. The frightening thing about Obama is he must have known the disturbing past behind Jones and not thought of it as extremist or controversial.
Put another way, Obama would not have hired Jones if he thought his past was bad enough to warrant criticism.
This whole situation is very telling. If the calls for Jones' resignation were from fringe groups and few others, Obama would have shrugged it off and stood his ground.
Instead, Van Jones is now part of the ever-increasing unemployment the stimulus was supposed to prevent.
This simple fact tells us the White House is feeling the heat. They know the people are not happy with them, especially over the Jones issue. The breaking news of Jones' resignation late Saturday night is also very curious.
If Obama didn't think people would care, this news would have broken during the day. Instead, it was kept as quiet as possible, being released while most of America was asleep or out for their Saturday night activity of choice. Knowing this, one also can infer the situation is an embarrassment to the Obama Administration. They know this is a victory for Glenn Beck and people with views similar to his.
For Jones to suddenly resign clearly demonstrates the people can be heard. It seems a fair assumption Obama might have helped Jones along in his decision to resign given the negative effect he had had on the way people perceived the administration.
The lesson to be learned from this is simple: The voice of dissent has become loud enough so those in Washington know they have no choice but to listen and act accordingly.
Eric Hobbs is a senior at MU and the vice chairman of the MU College Republicans. He can be reached at emhn75@mizzou.edu.