Van Jones a Microcosm of a Lot

I won't try and turn this Van Jones story into a referendum on everything Obama. If I did that, my Obama supporting readers, you know who you are, would go into a fit. Still, there is something of a microcosm of both the Obama administration and our media in general in this story.

Let's start with Glenn Beck. About this time ten years ago, Mr. Beck was likely in a drunken stupor. He was an alcoholic until about a decade ago. This time last year, he was a nearly unknown commentator on CNN. If he had done this then, no one would have noticed because no one would be watching. He moves over to Fox News and his ratings explode. Suddenly, he becomes a major player in the media world. It is, after all, the relentless reporting of Glenn Beck that has suddenly turned this into a front page story. It is the culture at Fox News that made an obscure commentator into a media giant.

As for Jones, there is so much here that should trouble everyone about Obama and his administration. Either no one in the administration did any of the basics of vetting, or they did and they approve of what Van Jones is about. I don't know which is worse, frankly. Van Jones is a boiler plate radical. He's a Marxist, Communist, former felon, who thinks that environmental policy is a tool of social justice. Now, he's the green jobs czar, whatever that is. So, how did this radical pass the Senate hearings...oh yeah, there was no confirmation hearings. That's because as a Czar he was one of nearly forty people near the president that fall outside the traditional cabinet appointment process. Obama simply created a White House job for him out of thin air. Obama's fascination with czars and advisors is all part of what I refer to as a shadow government. I actually referred to it as a shadow government way back in January, before it become popular. That's what it is when the President creates White House positions out of whole cloth and moves them outside of the bureaucratic system.

On top of this, Van Jones is one of several radicals in the White House. We have the science czar, John Holdren, Cass Sunstein, Dr. Zek Emanuel, Harold Koh, and Van Jones among a cast of thousands. On top of the radicals, there's all the folks from Chicago. Only those from Chicago can appreciate just how corrosive the political machine politics of Chicago can be. There's Rahm Emanuel. He owes his first political election to Donald Tomczak. Tomczak was a famous political fixer and knee deep in the Hired Truck Scandal. There's David Axelrod, Valerie Jarrett, Arne Duncan, and the Pritzkers. All of these folks have Mayor Daley's seal of approval. They have to. You get nowhere in Chicago without Daley's seal of approval. In Chicago, it isn't Republican or Democrat but corrupt, and that's what the Chicago folks bring to the White House.

On top of all of this, the whole fiasco exposes a White House that's totally out of touch and disorganized. If the White House were in touch, they wouldn't have appointed Jones to begin with. That said, word started to trickle out weeks ago about radical statements. The White House ignored it. Then, Glenn Beck started really zeroing in this week. The White House has simply ignored him. All the while, the story kept growing bigger. First, Jones had to apologize this morning about using a swear word to describe the Republicans. Now, he just denied that he signed onto the petition that he clearly signed onto. The guy is a disaster for the administration and yet he maintains his position. Obama is holding onto him like he's his most important advisor. He's the green jobs czar and he's causing the whole administration to lose credibility and yet he continues to keep his job. He should have never gotten the job. It would have been prudent to remove him as soon as any media came out. A prudent president would have removed him at the beginning of the week. That he's still in place means that we have a White House that is totally out of touch.

It's as though the White House doesn't see just bad all of it looks. To them, it appears, holding onto a guy that signed onto the idea that the American government committed genocide on its own nation is perfectly fine. They see nothing wrong with it. This guy is NOT critical to policy. Cut him loose for goodness sake. No, so far, the White House has not. The conventional wisdom is that he'll be gone by Monday. Let's hope so, but why is he still in place. He's a total disaster and he's bringing down the White House. Where are all his high paid advisors to state the obvious.

I wouldn't draw too much of it except that the White House is orchestrating this like they orchestrated the health care debate, like total amateurs. This White House isn't merely full of radicals. They're also full of incompetents. Let's face facts. We have a White House that's not only trying to pass a radical agenda, but on top of it, they have no idea what they're doing. All of our greatest fears are being realized. We have serious problems and we have a White House totally clueless how to solve them.