So Van Jones, Obama's Green Jobs man, has resigned because some Republicans got their undies in a bunch about some of the things he's done. Most of the media reports have focused on these two things:
1) He signed a petition asking for investigation into how much the government knew beforehand about the 911 attacks.
2)He called the Republicans a**holes and was videotaped doing it.
Let's move on to #2. He called the Republicans a**holes and was videotaped doing it.
The A-word came out of Van Jones' mouth in response to a question from an audience member about why the democrats couldn't get bills passed with so many of them in office but the Republicans have always been able to push forward their agenda with far fewer people.
"The answer to that is, they're a**holes," he said. "That's a political science term."
I do not see Van Jones' use of the word 'a**hole' here as an insult to Republicans, but rather a backhanded compliment. From what I understand, he was saying they are willing to be tough where the Democrats are more prone to slide into divisive wimpdom.
Um. Yep.
Guess it has to do with George Lakoff's Republicans= Strict Father, Dems=Nurturing Mother model of political rhetoric, but as usual the Republicans are playing a meaner game of hardball than the Dems, who in the current administration seem more intent on conciliation than on sticking with the agenda they were elected for
And here's something I still don't get:
Folks like Rush Limbaugh and Tom Sullivan can make on- the- air references comparing the president of the United States to Hitler, a mass murderer of 6 million people, and that's okay. But Mr. Jones compares Republicans to a humble but crucial bodily part, and he suddenly has to resign.
I've never figured out why we humans are more ashamed of our bodily parts than we are of our mass murderers. But that's a whole 'nother rant.
I'll try to stick to Mr. Jones here.
He followed his A-word comment up by saying "And some of us who are not Barack Hussein Obama are gonna have to start getting a little uppity."
In other words, the Democrats need to learn something from the Republicans: start acting more like a**holes.
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