NYC Letter: Pants On Fire X

UPDATE 09.07.09:

No one on Team Barry thought to ask the expiscatory question, is there anything about you that will hurt this White House? [Frisson.] Just how incompetent is Team Barry? We can only hope they are lying.

Posted by Damian at September 6, 2009 11:45 PM

Good news! They are lying!

FOR A WASHINGTON JOB,
BE PREPARED TO TELL ALL

WASHINGTON November 12, 2008 (NYT) - Want a top job in the Obama administration? Only pack rats need apply, preferably those not packing controversy.

A seven-page questionnaire being sent by the office of President-elect Barack Obama to those seeking cabinet and other high-ranking posts may be the most extensive — some say invasive — application ever.

The questionnaire includes 63 requests for personal and professional records, some covering applicants’ spouses and grown children as well, that are forcing job-seekers to rummage from basements to attics, in shoe boxes, diaries and computer archives to document both their achievements and missteps.

... Stephanie Cutter, chief spokeswoman for the Obama transition office:

President-elect Obama made a commitment to change the way Washington does business, and the vetting process exemplifies that.

... Just in case the previous 62 questions do not ferret out any potential controversy, the 63rd is all-encompassing:

Please provide any other information, including information about other members of your family, that could suggest a conflict of interest or be a possible source of embarrassment to you, your family, or the president-elect.

The answer could duplicate the response to Question 8:

Briefly describe the most controversial matters you have been involved with during the course of your career.

For those who clear all the hurdles, the reward could be the job they wanted. But first there will be more forms, for security and ethics clearances from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Office of Government Ethics.

[Hat tip: Gateway Pundit]

The questionnaire can be found here. Mr. Jones must've skipped Nos. 8 & 63 -- and also No.12:

Speeches: Please identify all speeches you have given. If available please provide the text or recordings of each such speech.

Perhaps you, like us, are relieved to discover the White House is a nest of liars trying to slip an opportunistic controversialist pass the American public and not feckless bunglers without a clue. [A sigh of relief.]

UPDATE: Bad news. Team Barry is a nest of bungling liars who can't spin a credible cover story.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Day 229 of CHOPE

IN ADVISER'S RESIGNATION,
VETTING BITES OBAMA AGAIN
Uproar Concerned Environmental Aide's Past Activism

WASHINGTON September 6, 2009 (WaPo) - Jones's resignation late Saturday came as calls for his ouster increased from Republican leaders, who have been critical of past statements and associations that have also taken the White House by surprise. His departure as a top adviser to the White House Council on Environmental Quality leaves Obama's push to create "green" jobs, which he has called an essential element of the more stable economy he is trying to build, without a leader.

Like much of Team Barry "leadership", Mr. Jones devised no real plan and offered up no real arithmetic, instead he clowned and enthused from the podium regaling audiences with "green age" platitudes, slogans, and green mumbo-jumbo.

A White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter, said Sunday that Jones's past was not studied as intensively as that of other advisers because of his relatively low rank.

Mr. Jones apparently didn't rate a Google search. [Pause.] A Google search. [Pause.] No one on Team Barry thought to ask the expiscatory question, is there anything about you that will hurt this White House? [Frisson.] Just how incompetent is Team Barry? We can only hope they are lying.

While some conservatives* tried to portray Jones as one of Obama's many issue czars, he was not. Nancy Sutley, head of the White House environmental council, hired him as her "special adviser for green jobs, enterprise and innovation" in mid-March, and he reported to her rather than to Obama.

Because Jones's position did not require Senate confirmation,** he avoided the kind of vetting that Cabinet officials were subjected to. "He was not as thoroughly vetted as other administration officials," the official said. "It's fair to say there were unknowns."

Yet here is WH advisor and Obama confidant Valerie Jarrett telling us Team Barry had been following Mr. Jones since forever.

JARRETT: You guys know Van Jones?

[Applause. Moderator injects: "This is his house apparently."]

Oooh. Van Jones, alright! So, Van Jones. We were so delighted to be able to recruit him into the White House. We were watching him, uh, really, he’s not that old, for as long as he’s been active out in Oakland. And all the creative ideas he has. And so now, we have captured that. And we have all that energy in the White House.

Oooh. Van Jones, alright!

CHOPE.

Don't know. Don't care.

------------------------------------
* Conservatives like democrats.com, NPR, Newsweek, Slate, and the L.A. Times.

** One of the perks of one-party government -- flouting the Constitution. One of the perks of one-party national press -- smoothing the flout.

Posted by Damian at September 6, 2009 11:45 PM