White House environmental advisor Van Jones resigned late Saturday [September 5, 2009] amid escalating controversy over some of his past statements, actions and associations, citing a "vicious smear campaign against me" that threatened to disrupt President Obama's agenda.
"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 statement announcing his resignation. "They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide."
"I have been inundated with calls—from across the political spectrum—urging me to 'stay and fight,'" Jones continued. "But I came here to fight for others, not for myself. I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future."
Jones' decision to refocus attention on critical issues by removing himself as a target is a standard political maneuver, but it's likely to be only marginally successful. While Jones' resignation does take him out of the line of fire and provides one less distraction, it doesn't guarantee his detractors will stop trying to sideline major national issues by stirring up minor ones.
Ironically, Jones never sought nor expressed any desire for a high-level government job. From all reports, he was more surprised than anyone when President Obama asked him to join the White House Council on Environmental Quality as special advisor on green jobs, enterprise and innovation. He was waging an ongoing battle for civil rights and environmental justice, and outlining a vision for how a sustainable green economy could lift minority communities out of poverty, hopelessness and despair.
I'm not defending or denouncing the controversial things Jones may have said and done. So many things have been distorted, taken out of context, or offered as direct quotes when they are actually third-hand attributions that it's hard to get at the truth.
Frankly, I don't care that much. Most of the actual allegations leveled against Jones are pretty minor, despite the efforts of right-wing commentators and politicians to paint them as indicators of much bigger problems. I'm more interested in his ideas and his track record in turning those ideas into effective programs to fight poverty while helping the environment.
When President Obama invited Jones to join his "green team," a lot of people wondered whether, as a government employee, Jones could possibly remain the effective leader and advocate that got him the job in the first place. With the door to government service firmly closed for now, that question is moot. Yet, my guess is Jones will continue to work on the social and environmental problems that have engaged him for so long, to protest injustice, and to share his vision for a better world.
Government, and all of us, would be wise to listen.
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