It’s big, big news. This is important stuff, and I mean beyond just the obvious fact that it keeps a raving, racist, anti-American, truther looney-tune from having control of billions of dollars of taxpayer monies, that is….
This is politically damaging to the Democrats and to Obama in a massive way. Because he put him into office, Van Jones = Barack Obama. Jones wouldn’t have been there had Obama not sidestepped the constitutional vetting process and installed him into a non-constitutional office where he would be in a position to affect how our money is spent and how our lives are regulated. The potential damage that an openly racist whackjob could have done is damage that Obama opened us all up to by his poor choice.
This calls Obama’s judgment into question. As Hot Air via Ace of Spades reminded us, the one thing that was supposed to convince us all to vote for Obama despite his questionable past and his onion paper thin resumé was his vaunted “judgment.” Guess where his judgment got us?
Hopefully, this debacle will call the whole process of installing unelected, non-confirmable “Czars” into executive positions into question. We heard rumblings of it from Robert Byrd, who as a left-winger in a conservative state, was probably getting an earful from his constituents as to why this cuckoo’s nest ever happened in the first place. If nothing else, Van Jones may end up having been a sacrificial wolf that helped start the movement to force our legislators and executive branch to actually obey the Constitution once again.
This debacle also shows the power that conservative media can have, when we all get on the same page and start hammering home the truth. ABCNNBCBS, MSNBC, and the rest of the left-wing near-oligopoly on broadcast media were basically AWOL on reporting the news of Van Jones’ past. They didn’t want to touch it, since it looked bad for a guy they supported. You can bet that if this had been a Republican President nominating a conservative with even 1/100 the baggage, the MSM would have been all over it like flies on a cowpaddy. Instead, the job was left to Fox News, Glenn Beck, and conservative blogs like Gateway Pundit, Ace of Spades, LGF 2.0, and others (please forgive me if I’m missing any), as well as news dissemination sites like Free Republic. Each deserves a hearty round of applause for scoring a victory for the Republic against the forces of evil!
And this brings us to the obvious left-wing talking point meme that is going to be spreading around the internet today: the evil right-wing has (re)discovered that horrible, terrible personal charactre attacks work. Those evil right-wingers!
Sorry, but no. We were simply doing the job that Congress could have done if Obama hadn’t been trying to sneak this guy under the radar in a patently unconstitutional fashion. Just as importantly, we need to understand that charactre counts for something. If you have a guy who has repeatedly made anti-American statements, said he is fighting American efforts overseas, thinks his own government perpetrated the worst terrorist attack ever on US soil, constantly says that white people dump toxic waste in black neighbourhoods alng with other wacky racist conspiracy theories, and associates with open and avowed Communists, then common sense says this guy doesn’t belong in any position of authority within the American government. That’s not a smear campaign, that’s called “common sense.” A guy who has spent his whole adult life undermining America and helping to set Americans against each other doesn’t deserve to be in the American government.
In short, the defeat of Van Jones is not just a victory for the GOP (who didn’t do a whole lot, btw) or for the conservative blogs and Fox News. It is a victory for America, for common sense and simple decency. It is proof positive that there are still at least some people in this nation capable of thinking rationally, instead of just twisting around and going whichever way the winds blow. The defeat of Van Jones shows that the old America, the America of the Founders, the America of the greatest generation, isn’t dead yet.
As John Dryden versed, “Beware the fury of a patient man.”
That’s what Van Jones’ defeat was – he was correct when he identified his opponents as “opponents of health care reform.” They were, and are also opponents of: massive federal debts, ridiculous spending waste of the taxpayers’ money, the assaults on our civil liberties, and the attempts by radical left-wingers to overturn all mores and traditions in this country. In short, Obama and Co. have woken the sleeping giant – the conservative majority who slept through the “opportunity” to vote for McCain.
And the GOP will reap benefits from all this, even though they basically didn’t do anything w.r.t Van Jones. If the Obama administration and the Democrats in Congress keep going in the direction they are, 2010 will be a magnificent election for the GOP. Let’s just hope they can come up with another Contract with America-type manifesto to rally the troops around. Even as it is, simply riding along on autopilot has the Republicans consistently ahead in generic Congressional balloting. Just think where they could be if they actually did something!
To summarise, once again, kudos and a shoutout to everyone involved in bringing Van Jones down! Score one for the Republic!