White House Officials Refuse to Be Pinned Down on Gov't Role in Health Reform
White House resignation: Van Jones out
(The appearance above had not helped Van Jones' cause at a time when the White House is enmeshed in a fight with Republicans and conservatives within its own party over helath-care reform, energy and other initiatives.)
by Mark Silva and updated
Van Jones, a White House environmental adviser who had attracted searing criticism from conservatives for his past political activism and had raised eyebrows anew for recent harsh remarks about Republicans, has resigned overnight.
Jones had become a lightning rod for critics in a White House that has faced increasingly stormy weather in its push for a health-care overhaul as well as its initiatives in combating climate change.
"On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me," Jones said in a resignation statement released near midnight Saturday. "They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide."
Jones, dubbed the "green czar'' by critics accusing President Barack Obama of amassing power in the hands of presidential advisers who are exempt from Senate confirmation, also had become a singular target for FOX News Commentator Glenn Beck, accusing the administration of harboring Communists and other radicals..
FOX's Beck zeroed in on Jones after a group that Jones had co-founded, ColorofChange, started an advertising boycott against Beck's TV program after Beck stated on another FOX show that Obama is "a racist.''
Republican Sarah Palin has been encouraging followers on her Facebook page to watch Beck's program.
Jones had issued two public apologies recently, one for signing a petition in 2004 that had questioned whether Bush administration officials "may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war," another for saying at a public forum that Republicans "are a---holes.
Obama "is not'' one, Jones had added.
The White House, for its part, had not gone out of its way to defend Jones, with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs saying the other day that Jones "continues to work in the administration.''
Today, Obama political adviser David Axelrod maintained that resigning was Jones' "own decision'' -- and he "commended him'' for it. "The political environment is rough, '' Axelrod said in an appearance on NBC News' Meet The Press, "so these things get magnificd, but the bottom line is he showed his commitment to creating green jobs in this country by removing himself as an issue.''
Jones, who specialized in promoting environmentally friendly employment for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, maintained that he had been "inundated with calls from across the political spectrum urging me to stay and fight,'' but said he could not ask his colleagues to spend time and energy defending or explaining his past.
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Jones had said that the petition on the Sept. 11 attacks "certainly does not reflect my views, now or ever." And of his other remark about Republicans, he said, "If I have offended anyone with statements I made in the past, I apologize."
Republicans were not accepting Jones' apologies...
Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana had said Jones' "extremist views and coarse rhetoric have no place in this administration or the public debate." Sen. Chris Bond of Missouri had said Congress should investigate Jones's fitness for the job. On Saturday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, wrote on his Twitter account that "Van Jones has to go."
"Can the American people trust a senior White House official that is so cavalier in his association with such radical and repugnant sentiments?'' asked Bond (R-Mo).
Nancy Sutley, chair of the White House environmental council, accepted Jones' resignation in a statement early today, saying that "Over the last six months, he had been a strong voice for creating jobs that improve energy efficiency and utilize renewable resources. We appreciate his hard work and wish him the best moving forward."
Wire services contributed to this report.
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