Van Jones: The Republican Gift That Keeps on Giving

It's now just past 4PM Central time and as of last check, Van Jones is still President Obama's green jobs' czar. It's been more than two days since it was revealed that Mr. Jones signed onto a petition that accused the government of George Bush of attacking its own people on 9/11. It's been nearly a week since Glenn Beck started his full frontal assault on exposing the radicalism of Jones. The latest revelation is this video.



This video shows Jones claiming that black kids don't shoot up schools. The word radical is overused. Some of my friends have called my political ideology radical. Often someone is a radical because they happen to disagree with you. In this case, the word radical is used appropriately. Jones is a radical. That's now beyond doubt.

Yet, even though there's no doubt that Jones is a radical he continues to hold his placein the administration. It's a place he only holds because President Obama happened to go around the Congress and create a position that required no confirmation. So far, Jones has apologized twice this week for things he has said. I don't remembe anyone in politics having to do that, and yet, he maintains his job.

Now, we have had the normal response from the Republican party. Both Mike Pence on the House side and Roy Blount on the Senate side have called for Jones to be fired or quit. It appears that sometime soon the White House will do just that. We know this because yesterday Robert Gibbs failed to say that Jones had the "confidence of the President" when asked about Jones. That's the way to telegraph that soon enough he'll be gone.

Yet, he still isn't. So, it gives Republicans and pundits another day, at least, to talk about Jones. That's nothing more than the gift that keeps on giving for Republicans. For another day, we'll have pundits hyper analyze yet another totally radical statement. For another day, we'll have pundits wonder aloud if this makes Obama a radical. They'll wonder aloud if Jones is indicative of the administration as a whole. They'll wonder aloud if this means that health care reform will be this radical.

We're now about 100 hours from Obama's big speech and because Jones is still working, that means oxygen is being taken away from the speech and put squarely on Jones. Now, I think that one of the problems for the administration is that Jones isn't being covered by the MSM. The administration apparently thinks that no one is noticing. They must not realize that the MSM is on the way out. This is being covered by Fox News, talk radio, and the blogosphere, and that's enough. The people know about this guy and they are all wondering why he still works for the administration.

No one will defend the idea that Jones should still work for the administration. The White House will have to eventually remove him. That will likely come when the MSM picks up the story. Yet, keeping him in place only hurts their chances of making the speech on Wednesday effective. If that speech doesn't work, not only is health care reform dead, but for a while, so is Obama's presidency. So, why is Jones still around? He is nothing less than the gift that keeps on giving for Republicans.