What do you make of the controversy surrounding Van Jones, Obama's Green Jobs Czar?

Asked by kevbo (25672) September 6th, 2009 from iPhone

You’ll have to bring your own reading to the table. Sorry.

So Van Jones resigned/was fired this weekend more or less because his statements/sentiment threatened to derail the health care reform agenda by way of providing conservatives with an opportunity for a media sideshow. Specifically, he went on record calling Republicans “assholes,” and it has surfaced that during Bush he signed a “truther” petition stating that the Bush admin was directly responsible for 9/11 and should be investigated. He has since retracted/denied this sentiment.

So there’s a bit more that has shaken out that’s interesting:

Reader comments on Wonkette regarding this story were unusually apoplectic. This is a site where sacred cows are shot for sport and skewering poiticians is an art form. (It’s also fairly left leaning.) Instead, these people were practically crying into their keyboards, most obviously because Obama appeared to be caving to pressure from the right. But, does this also represent a deeper shift, loss or disappointment on the part of Obama supporters? Is this some kind of back breaking straw?

Secondly, it has come out that Van Jones is a fellow of the Institute for Noetic Sciences, which investigates parapsychological phenomena (spoonbending and reincarnation, colloquially). The institute, by the way, was founded by astronaut Edgar Mitchell. So how does this factor in to the drift of the Obama admin in general and the Green Jobs initiative in particular?

FYI, I happen to believe “noetic science” is a legit pursuit and that the gov’t has been looking into this stuff for decades, but imagine it’s beyond the limits of credibility for most voters.

Finally, what’s your take on the truther aspect of this story?
From his wiki page his work seems very impressive, and it seems like a real loss to have someone of his ilk fall to a political skirmish.

bold added for readibility, not courtroom dramatics