He's There Because Barack Obama Wanted Him There...

John McCormack of The Weekly Standard asks the wrong question:

Bob Beckel said on Fox this morning that Obama White House green jobs czar Van Jones will be canned by Tuesday. Beckel reasoned that Jones's background is simply indefensible for a White house appointment, and wondered if the FBI screwed up because they must not have uncovered this in the vetting process.

Former White House staffers I’ve spoken with say they would bet the FBI uncovered much of Jones’s past--especially if Jones truthfully answered their questions. What would then happen is this: the background report would go to the Counsel’s office (run by Greg Craig), who would then raise the question of whether what the FBI found was disqualifying with the the potential employee’s boss. Jones was hired by Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley, but he presumably (and ultimately) reports to the chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel must have decided that nothing in Jones’s background was alarming enough to prevent his appointment.

So even if Jones is thrown overboard this weekend, it’s worth asking: Did Rahm sign off on Jones’s appointment despite what the FBI must have discovered about his background. And, incidentally--did Jones tell the truth to the FBI?

The essential question is not this question: How did Van Jones get become Green Jobs Czar given his backround?

The answer to that question is simple: Because Barack Obama wanted him to be his Green Jobs Czar, irrespective of his backround. 

The essential question is this: Why would Barack Obama want anyone with Van Jones' backround to be in his administration in the first place?

Much of what we know about Van Jones was public knowledge. He was, to put it mildly, not adverse to publicity. I doubt that Van Jones' views on capitalism and race were unknown to Barack Obama. In fact, I would suggest that both were well known to the President, and the simple fact was that those views didn't bother Obama in the least.

I mean, it's not like Van Jones was some stupid white cop in Cambridge or anything, right?

The issue isn't whether Van Jones slipped through the cracks of a vetting process, it's that Van Jones was considered for an administration position in the first place. Enough about Jones and his view was in the public domain to automatically preclude his participation in government by just about any rational standard. Other than Barack Obama's, that is.

Comments

[PeterUK]

Van Jones was hand picked for the Administration. "Birds of a feather flock together",and these flockers are communists.

[badanov]

heheheheh

He said flockers.

[Progressive White Peon]

No! NO! It was NOT Obama! The God-King must surely have been misled by his evil Counsellors...

[JeffS]

In support of the essential question.....

A complete investigation should have turned up Jones' background and affiliations, although it isn't certain (e.g., Standard Form 85P doesn't ask for associations with Communist organizations). This assumes that the background investigation was, in fact, complete. Because it's possible that all the FBI did was to run a check in the NCIC database for felonies and outstanding warrants; sometimes, that's all a Federal employee usually gets.

However, that's for a *typical* Federal employee. Jones works in the White House, and even if he doesn't have a security clearance, the investigation would, at least, focus on him being a security *risk*. One would think that entails a deeper investigation. Certainly that's been my experience in such matters. Little things like an active association with Communism still raise flags.

Therefore, either Jones got a cursory background check from bureaucratic indifference (this is possible, believe me) or because the investigators were told to do so.....or he got a complete background check, and the White House ignored.

So, yep, Dennis, I'm sure that Rahm signed off on Jones' hiring. And that Obama is/was comfortable with this character being on his staff. Most likely because Obama and Jones have much in common, especially in regards to ideology.

[PeterUK]

"Therefore, either Jones got a cursory background check from bureaucratic indifference (this is possible, believe me) or because the investigators were told to do so.....or he got a complete background check, and the White House approved".

[JeffS]

Toe-may-toe, toe-mah-toe. Which is red on the outside, at least.

[Simon]

But if a thorough background check had been done on Obama, then you wouldn't appoint him as Green Jobs Czar either.

Then again if you have a crackpot position then you probably better appoint a crackpot. No good appointing Einstein as Chief Alchemist.

[Simon]

Ths is pretty good -

http://jimtreacher.com/archives/002116.html

Even the Duran Duran version would sound good with these lyrics.

[Jim Ryan]

Jones's views are the essence of The Dogma. Other lefties have more watered-down versions of The Dogma because they don't have the stomach to embrace it. But they wish they did and they have respect for those who do, though they see them as slightly eccentric, as one who has seen the light and is driven slightly mad by it. They don't see Jones's views as nutty but rather as pure. They can't see them as nutty without admitting to themselves that their watered-down version of leftism is simply slightly less nutty. The leftist who heaps scorn on commies and truthers is a rare bird. Lefties have contempt for the apostate who doubts Keynesian stimulus works or rejects Marx but never for the commie or the truther.

This is because leftism is a fetish. It's not interested in truth but in the purest form of obeisance to its idols: the annihilation of economic disparities and totalitarian rule by the cognoscenti. When you idolize these goals, you simply can't see Jones as a nutter. Quite the contrary, he becomes a sage.

[Firehand]

I'd bet the FBI got it all; problem is, with Obama & Co., those things would be considered qualifiers.

[elliottg]

.

[TmjUtah]

You know Dennis, I begin to worry less as the days go by.

Obama has an agenda; his cronies and handlers as a whole seem to think that government originates some sort of value or worth. They think they are going to direct a titanic change in the way Americans live their lives.

Hubris. It's a killer. Harry Reid, Charlie Rangel, Schumer... those kinds of self serving trotter in the trough fuckers know the truth. They are lower than mold on bread. They are parasites. They've played the game their adult lives long and now they see The Won arriving to queer it all for them.

They ran the world. Or at least were credited with as much by a lazy press and a hopeful statist movement.

America works better than most anywhere else - and I say this on a one - to - one, any given day basis - because even after fifty years of soft marx indoctrination most people living in these United States unconsciously attempt to PLAY FAIR.

Or JUST.

Or just do the right damned thing, when given the chance.

Obama is just a petty thug who would like to fulfill any number of campus commie fantasies. Fuck him. His handlers are split between those who would make a fast buck or those who would be the power behind the throne. Silly shits, the Presidency is the one elective office in this country that is actually held accountable by the public between elections. Brother O's wrecking crew are ultimately going to see orders of magnitude more annoyed emails and petitions from the nutroots than Bush did on his worst days.

America doesn't work because of government. We work in spite of government. O has over reached, and I believe that even before the Great Fraud Strategy of 2010 begins to be executed, his presidency may well be on the way out.

Even his choice of Biden probably won't save his sorry ass.

[Mike C.]

Well, it's all moot now. Van Jones resigned. Late at night, on a Saturday night on a 3 day holiday weekend.

[JeffS]

Yup, Mike, Jones is Under The Bus. And good riddance to that nut job!

But it's not moot, as the essential question posed by Dennis remains unanswered.

[PeterUK]

The Obama administration seems to be made up of revolutionaries and mercenaries.There is a vacancy for the former.

[PeterUK]

"-SnarkandBoobs *Wait… what if Van Jones says he didn’t REALLY resign because he just signed the resignation letter but didn’t read it?"