Umm...Memo to the White House: White House "Green Jobs Czar" Van Jones is becoming toxic. Van Jones is becoming more like the Dow Jones during the recession. His stock is plummeting.
Jones is coming under fire for a whole littany of past comments and actions. Fox News has been all over this More on the controversy here.
Jones has a few things going against him. First he was caught on tape uttering a swear word against Republicans. Then it comes to light that he was a co-signer on a 9/11 truthers document which states that 9/11 may have been an inside job by the government. There's much more but I'd be typing for awhile and might get a cramp. Suffice to say that his past views are making life a little uncomfortable over at The White House on this Labor Day weekend.
A quick google search on Van Jones brings up all sort of questionable comments and associations so the question is this: did anybody at The White House type in "Van Jones" in Google? If so, why was some of this not flagged? Or did it not occur to anyone that some of these past comments and actions may be a problem?
On the bright side for The White House, the larger mainstream media hasn't really picked up the story yet. Political Reporter Byron York over at National Review has done a little research. See below from his column:
From a Nexis search a few moments ago:
Total words about the Van Jones controversy in the New York Times: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy in the Washington Post: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy on NBC Nightly News: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy on ABC World News: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy on CBS Evening News: 0.
If you were to receive all your news from any one of these outlets, or even all of them together, and you heard about some sort of controversy involving President Obama's Special Adviser for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, your response would be, "Huh?" If you heard that that adviser, Van Jones, had apologized for a number of remarks and positions in the recent past, your response would be, "What?" And if you were in the Obama White House monitoring the Jones situation, you would be hoping that the news organizations listed above continue to hold the line -- otherwise, Jones, who is quite well thought of in Obama circles, would be history.
Conservatives are clearly driving this story. It just proves that while Republicans may be out of power, conservatives still wield influence on the Internet, talk radio and oh yes, on Fox News. You think The White House doesn't see Glenn Beck as one of those annoying little flies? Time for Pest Control.
