smear campaign

The resignation of "green jobs" czar Van Jones over the weekend drew little attention from mainstream media (even the New York Times admitted they were late on the piece) with the exception of those who were outraged that such an extraordinarily accomplished man -- author of a best-selling novel with a law degree from Yale to boot -- could be vilified so egregiously and forced to resign prematurely. Sure, he's made a few nasty comments about Republicans, admitted to converting to Communism (while in prison!) in the 1990s, and signed a petition to investigate the involvement of the Bush administration in the attacks on September 11. But come on, a Yale Law degree! And a best-selling novel! Aren't those ample qualifications to work at the White House?

I would suspect that Jones' very own mentor, Karl Marx, were he alive and writing today, would not have a difficult time being accepted to Yale on the grounds of "academic diversity" and would remain on the New York Times' Best-sellers list for years. After all, Columbia invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak for those very reasons, and the Communist Manifesto isn't exactly the least popular item on reading lists across the country, I hear.

The amazing thing to me is that he is being defended by the Left despite these revelations. They often cite his apologetic tone for signing the petition or becoming a communist, and instead focus on his passionate pursuit of creating “green jobs” that will, admittedly, need to be created to compensate for the millions of jobs inevitably destroyed if current environmental legislation is passed in the Senate. He is, of course, a victim of a “smear campaign” being propagated by the Right, not to be confused with the smear campaigns of the Left brought against people like, as a random example, Joe the Plumber, who has absolutely no role in government but instead had the audacity to challenge future-president Barrack Obama. The result of his confrontation with the candidate was an investigation into his past personal and financial records to determine if he was in fact as indigent as he had initially claimed. If only the White House dug this deep when appointing czars, the whole situation with Mr. Jones may have been avoided entirely.

ht - James Taranto