The Beck Boomlet Fizzles.. UPDATED: Or Not?

Yesterday, the Senate quietly invoked cloture on Cass Sunstein to be the Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. I'm not really a fan of Sunstein, but Glenn Beck was about to unleash the dogs of war to attack Sunstein for whatever rattles around in his head. Sunstein, according to Beck is one of those unaccountable "czars" that are destroying America from within. Cloture accomplished several things:

• By being confirmed by the Senate, Sunstein actually became... accountable to a Senate vote. And he got 7 Republicans to vote for him.
• Happening just days after Beck's witch hunt of Van Jones, obviously this shows that people are undeterred about further attacks from him.
• Sunstein did get 35 votes against him for a fairly uncontroversial position, which means he'd face a lot of opposition for controversial position like Supreme Court Justice. And I wouldn't like him, a moderate to conservative, as a Supreme Court Justice. So we probably won't see that now.

Win-win-win!

FWIW, Beck's jihad against Van Jones appears to have been motivated by oil industry lobbyists opposed to his work on green jobs. Of course, with Jones being rehired by the Center for American Progress, it's likely he'll have a MORE vocal role in pushing for green jobs now, so I don't see how this helped them.

...Yosi Sergant, a midlevel NEA staffer, has been asked to leave his post based on some such nonsense from Beck. So I may have been premature.

...Sergant still has a job at the NEA, he was asked only to step down as Communications Director.

IOKIYAR

Van Jones was kicked out of the Administration, the story goes, because he was a Truther. The Congressman giving the GOP response to the President's health care speech tonight, Charles Boustany, is a Birther.

BOUSTANY: Well, it's certainly being looked at.

STARK: What do you personally believe, I mean -- do you think there's a question here?

BOUSTANY: I think there are questions, we'll have to see.

OK, queue the feeding frenzy, then. Obviously, we won't have a double standard on conspiracy theorists based on political ideology, right?

Um, never mind.

Saturday Night Massacre

I expected this, but it's still kind of depressing what has been done to Van Jones.

I am resigning my post at the Council on Environmental Quality, effective today.

On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me. 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.”

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.

It has been a great honor to serve my country and my President in this capacity. I thank everyone who has offered support and encouragement. I am proud to have been able to make a contribution to the clean energy future. I will continue to do so, in the months and years ahead.

People who have said extreme things at some point need to resign. I eagerly await the resignations of the entire Fox News primetime lineup and about 85-90% of the GOP caucus.

Look, Presidential advisors get too hot to handle and they resign. Happens all the time. Off the top of my head, Alberto Gonzales, Don Rumsfeld and Karl Rove. But those took forever to consummate. Jones had one bad week, with the right-wing Wurlitzer ramping up to epidemic proportions. It turns out that the worst accusation, his signing a Truther statement, had an alibi - the Truthers flat out lied to him about what the statement would say (although, a Truther comes to me with a pen and paper, and I go running in the other direction). And that was enough for the White House to call no joy. Which is kind of pathetic and shows a complete lack of loyalty.

Really, Van Jones wasn't chased out of the White House because of any statement or action. It was because of what he believes.

To understand why and how he's being demonized, we have to look at the way information and misinformation makes it way from crazy blogs to crazy pundits to crazy citizens to, suddenly, the non-crazy regular media.

The "why" is simple: he is a genuine left-wing liberal with a White House job. He is black. He used to be radical, and probably still has radical sympathies (you know, caring about poor black people and all that). He is, in other words, fucking terrifying, if you frame his story right [...]

Here is the message machine in its platonic form: Glenn Beck introduces his audience to a group Jones once belonged to called "The Apollo Alliance" on August 24th. 72 hours later a constituent is asking his (Republican) representative if this Apollo Alliance wrote the health care bill. The Rep has no idea what the guy is talking about, but the rest of the audience certainly does ("Van Jones!" they shout).

And now, here we are. His name on an old 9/11 truther petition is dredged up. An amusing clip in which he calls Republicans assholes (but explains that he, too, is an asshole) is on CBS News. Jake Tapper and Politico are on the case.

That is how a smear becomes a meme. Schoolhouse Rock, 2009 style.

People in the progressive movement identify strongly with someone like Van Jones. He delivered the keynote at Netroots Nation 2008. He had a best-selling book about the Green-Collar Economy last year. His star was rising as he combined the unconscionable problem of urban poverty with the inescapable reality of climate change to find real-world solutions to both problems. And some people on the right couldn't handle that.

Glenn Beck, smarting from losing 57 advertisers in a few weeks, took a scalp in the form of Van Jones. Fox News may have a whole other problem before too long.

Truthers, Birthers, And Their Proper Side Of The Fence

I've seen Van Jones speak and had the opportunity to talk to him at the DNC last year. I'm going to rerun a bit of that discussion and have you tell me if these are the words of a Communist:

On green jobs, which is Jones' real focus area, he stressed that we need to move the environmental conversation from a cultural one to a political one. The green-collar economy "can be a place for people to earn money, not spend money. We need collective action for green citizenship, to create the jobs of the future in a Green New Deal. As long as carbon is free we're never going to move forward." He was pleased by the recent efforts by municipalities and states (green jobs bills have been passed in Massachusetts and Washington state, and the US Conference of Mayors is on board as well), but recognizes that the federal government must be involved as well. "This is about laws, not gizmos. Technology cannot be the savior. This has to be a bottom-up, inside-outside AND a top-down strategy. If the Feds are MIA, human life will be MIA in the future."

We talked about the offshore drilling debate, where Jones clearly stated that the Republicans won the day by lying to the American people. He had three major points:

• There is no such thing as American oil. There is oil drilled by multinationals that is sent overseas to China and India. American offshore driling will do nothing to solve any American oil problems.

• We banned drilling in offshore areas not to save birds and fish, but because of coastal families and coastal communities, because kids were walking into the water and coming out with oil on them, because property values were plunging. Democrats should not be willing to throw away America's beauty for a 2-cent solution in 10 years.

• We've seen the new phenomenon of the "dirty greens," who want to have an "all of the above strategy" on energy, with solar and wind, but also clean coal and drilling offshore and shale and all these dirty polluters. "All of the above" is not a strategy. It's not a wise choice, but a stupid swipe at a persistent problem.

That sounds like pretty mainstream liberal conceptions on energy and the environment. Jones was an activist who went into the government because he saw the need for a federal strategy to deal with green jobs.

But because he was previously involved with Color of Change, who has engineered a successful boycott of Glenn Beck, the Foc News crew has wanted to collect Jones' scalp. So they point to comments and replay them over and over. Not really anything he did, but things he said (ooh, he called Republicans assholes! What delicate sensibilities these chaps have), things he's signed. Although, I have to agree, this was certainly a mistake.

President Obama’s “green jobs czar” Van Jones has been targeted again and again by conservatives for his controversial views and now they’ll have another item to use as fodder.

Mr. Jones signed a statement for 911Truth.org in 2004 demanding an investigation into what the Bush Administration may have done that “deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war.”

Jones has thus far apologized for prior statements and said he didn't agree "now or ever" with the 911 Truth letter. But if he has to leave his job at the White House, that will be the reason. And he absolutely made a mistake

But it brings up something interesting. There are now around a dozen Republican members of Congress who have co-sponsored legislation, essentially asking the President to reveal his birth certificate. The Birther phenomenon is at least as crazy and irresponsible as the Truther phenomenon. Why would it be OK to have 12 members of Congress who are conspiracy theorists, and not one in the White House? Now, the members of Congress would tell you they're not conspiracy theorists. So would Van Jones.

The range of debate that's acceptable and unacceptable keeps changing, somebody send me a scorecard.

The Rise Of Van Jones

It's great news that Van Jones has been tapped for a high-level job in the Obama Administration, as a special adviser for green jobs. Having his voice at the Presidential level is bound to be valuable, and great for at-risk communities who will not be forgotten with Jones as their defender. At the same time, I have to agree with the first comment in this Grist story.

If it is more than a rumor, then Van faces some decisions that would keep me awake at night. Would he be more effective where he is, or on the insde of the administration??? How much power would he really have?? Could he go along with the administration the next time it starts talking about "clean coal?"

Indeed, he might have to make that determination almost immediately. Because the FutureGen project, a "clean coal" research facility in Illinois, is likely to be funded with stimulus money in the short term. This is just research, of course, and even Energy Secretary Steven Chu supports it "with modifications." But the fact is that clean coal technology hasn't worked and offers a false sense of hope that we can just keep burning dirty fuels and not get dirty ourselves. It would be nice to have Van Jones' perspective on this, but he's embedded inside the Administration now.

Leadership is self-generating, but leadership like Van Jones' comes around only once in a long while. We have a lot of battles in California over green jobs and alternative energy that could have used a strident voice like Jones'. There's an effort to triple our commitment to clean energy through a renewable portfolio standard. The Senate leader's top priority is career tech education with an eye to green jobs and the new economy. Perhaps Jones' departure means that new leaders will take hold of these issues and push them forward. But perhaps not. It leaves a big hole.

I congratulate him as I've congratulated other Californians who have moved to Washington. But it's interesting, from my perspective, that the two individuals most likely to be able to drive a movement politics in the Golden State - Hilda Solis and Van Jones - have packed up and joined the Obama Administration. I can't say I blame them, this state is a basket case. And their talents will be used well.

Van Jones, Green Jobs, and Happy Meal Politics

Some great people have been sashaying through the Big Tent to huddle up with the bloggers. And the traditional media has joined them, to take exciting pictures of people typing to show how the bloggers kick it. Rockin'!

I did get a chance to spend a few minutes with Van Jones, an environmental and green jobs activist, to talk about the future of energy and how we can beat the Republicans at their own game. He also offered a candid assessment of the state of the Presidential campaign.

Jones thinks that the progressive movement and Democratic groups have been "hurt by having a good candidate. We were so galvanized against Bush in 2004 that every outside group went nuts, threw everything we had at the Republicans, and we almost came up with the win despite a less inspiring candidate. This year, the spirit of 2004 has been lost. Obama made the mistake of defunding the outside groups and we've become complacent to an extent." Jones said that last week's hit by the Obama campaign on the McCain housing issue was good, but it needs to be a 10-week phenomenon, not a 1-week phenomenon.

On green jobs, which is Jones' real focus area, he stressed that we need to move the environmental conversation from a cultural one to a political one. The green-collar economy "can be a place for people to earn money, not spend money. We need collective action for green citizenship, to create the jobs of the future in a Green New Deal. As long as carbon is free we're never going to move forward." He was pleased by the recent efforts by municipalities and states (green jobs bills have been passed in Massachusetts and Washington state, and the US Conference of Mayors is on board as well), but recognizes that the federal government must be involved as well. "This is about laws, not gizmos. Technology cannot be the savior. This has to be a bottom-up, inside-outside AND a top-down strategy. If the Feds are MIA, human life will be MIA in the future."

We talked about the offshore drilling debate, where Jones clearly stated that the Republicans won the day by lying to the American people. He had three major points:

• There is no such thing as American oil. There is oil drilled by multinationals that is sent overseas to China and India. American offshore driling will do nothing to solve any American oil problems.

• We banned drilling in offshore areas not to save birds and fish, but because of coastal families and coastal communities, because kids were walking into the water and coming out with oil on them, because property values were plunging. Democrats should not be willing to throw away America's beauty for a 2-cent solution in 10 years.

• We've seen the new phenomenon of the "dirty greens," who want to have an "all of the above strategy" on energy, with solar and wind, but also clean coal and drilling offshore and shale and all these dirty polluters. "All of the above" is not a strategy. It's not a wise choice, but a stupid swipe at a persistent problem.

Democrats are right on price - if you cut demand and expand supply through renewables, the price will drop. They are right on people, because those steps will create millions of jobs. And they're right on the planet, because it's the only solution to preserve our environmental future. What the Republicans are offering is Happy Meal Politics, the kind of politics that offers everything for free with no residual consequences.

Jones is a great messenger, and a real leader in the green movement. Democrats would do well to listen to him.

Netroots Nation Notes

I think I have a particularly bad memory for events with huge groups of people where I meet hundreds of people at one time. So I'm going to rack my brain and put down everything here I can remember that I don't want to explore in a longer post.

• One of my favorite panels was the Iraq panel, which featured some of my favorite bloggers. Matt Yglesias gets the prize for the funniest insight when he talked about the White House's surprise at Hamas winning the Palestinian elections and said "You'd think Republicans would figure out that nationalism combined with excessive religiosity would be a powerful electoral strategy." Also that was the panel when I looked over and saw someone accessing my site in the middle of it. First time that's happened. I talked to him later at some bar, but didn't mention that.

• You've probably heard around the blogosphere about the final two keynotes, from Donna Edwards and Van Jones, but let me reiterate that they were quite amazing. This year the best keynotes were surely at the end. Here were two African-Americans stressing the need to stay true to principles, to work outside the system and take it on, to criticize our nominee when necessary and to work from the bottom up for change. Edwards is inside Washington as the newest US Representative, and despite being an early supporter of Sen. Obama she would not be silent in the face of his decisions that she didn't agree with.

And that's an important lesson. And it's a lesson that I learned, actually, when Bill Clinton became president. Because when Bill Clinton became president, many of us on the left, liberals and progressives, became very silent. And that was a mistake, because that mistake brought us some policies that were really not so great. And so we really can't make that same mistake with President Barack Obama.

But we need to be on the job today to make sure that he, and not John McCain, is elected as president of the United States. And don't be fooled about that.

... Finally, I want to share with you that not on any day, by any stretch of the imagination, do I believe that the United States Government should be listening to my phone calls. And if they do, and if they decide they want to listen to my phone calls, then they need to go to a real court and get a warrant.

And I want to tell you that just temporarily we lost that fight. But it's only temporary. Because it's going to come back. Because there is no way -- it's about the American public being smarter than the politicians in Washington.

• As for Van Jones, and I really knew little about him before this weekend, but his speech was stirring. He's an environmental justice activist who has keyed in on green jobs as a way to unite progressives and the poor ("when oil demand goes up, the price goes up; when solar demand goes up, the price goes down."), create a new post-carbon economy and save the planet for the next generation. Fresh off an 8-day trip to the Arctic with Jimmy Carter and other luminaries, he's seen the consequences of climate change and knows the need for action. But there's a danger, as Isaiah Poole notes:

But Jones also reminded the audience that Carter tried to rally the nation around a clean energy and conservation agenda in the late 1970s, only to see his popularity collapse in a lethal combination of inflation and stagnant economic growth—“stagflation.”

Jones said the same toxic economic brew—sharply rising inflation and sluggish economic growth—could quickly undo Sen. Barack Obama just as it did Carter if he wins the White House. Only this time, the consequences could be much more dire.

“If we are not careful, if we are not smart, this could be the precursor to a right-wing backlash that would make us miss John McCain, Make us miss George W. Bush,” Jones said.

The right is MUCH better at backlash than governing, and they'll certainly try to divide the disenfranchised and use Barack Obama "as a pinata," like Jones said. I don't think there's a lot of thought yet about how to deal with this because it's premature. I'm glad Jones brought it up, as it made me think.

• The "Larry Craig caucus" sign in front of the men's bathroom was priceless.

• Other notable panelists and speakers - Wes Clark (there's a TPM interview here), Florida Congressional candidate Annette Taddeo (a non-Cuban Hispanic Jew from South Florida), the always great Charlie Brown (CA-04), Hilda Sarkysian (the health care activist whose daughter died while waiting for a liver transplant), and of course Paul Krugman and Rick Perlstein. I'll have more on the health care panel and Don Siegelman at another point.

• The Rude Pundit went out to the conservative "competitor" to NN and had some fun with Mike Stark. They apparently accosted John Fund and Grover Norquist and accused both of having sex with each other. Classic. After Norquist told him to fuck off they apparently went over to TGIFridays. Hilarious. By the way, I'm publicly apologizing to the Rude One for getting in the way of his game on Friday night.

• It was awesome to personally meet Texas' greatest populist Jim Hightower, my new (or old) favorite blogger Jesse Taylor of Pandagon, and so many others. The Editors and the Sadlynauts have to show up at some point and then life will be complete. I'm sorry to have missed Jeremy Scahill and Mark Danner.

• Don't really know what to say about that Markos/Harold Ford discussion, but it was such a cavalcade of discredited conventional wisdom that I don't know how to put it. As I said, Ford essentially said that we should have ignored FISA because the Constitution doesn't poll well, which really assumes that we should be led around by the whims of the electorate instead of leading, an odd pose from the head of the Democratic Leadership Council. That said I think Markos did the right thing staying above the fray, as Ford was hanging himself with his own rope.

• We came in second in the pub quiz - basically one question away from beating the Daily Kos front-pagers. I missed the "Who Shot J.R." question, which in a way angered me the most.

• News coverage was generally good, although the Austin American-Statesmen came up with a terrible Page One story on Sunday that called Nancy Pelosi (D-Beijing) and injected all kinds of opinion into a straight news story. I didn't link it because the Statesman took it down and apologized today.

• I have to say this was the best conference yet. It was extremely well-managed, and better integrated with the city to allow for tourism as well as interaction with everyone in a social setting. I like the diversity of the panels that allowed you to customize your experience, and become exposed to all sorts of different viewpoints. It's a little overwhelming, and I think people ran out of gas by the end, so some midday break sessions might have been useful. Overall, I'm sure the organizers will continue to tweak it and improve it even more. And of course, just putting a couple thousand irreverent bloggers in the same space is bound to be a blast.