Unbelievable: Van Jones says 9/11 petition didn’t reflect his views; Update: Jones didn’t “carefully review” petition

Note well: He doesn’t deny that he signed it. He denies that he agrees with it. Which means, I guess, that he’s asking us to create a new standard for public officials by which documents that bear their signature should no longer be used against them.

Imagine the contempt you’d need to have for the intelligence of your audience to try a non-defense like this:

In a statement issued Thursday evening Jones said of “the petition that was circulated today, I do not agree with this statement and it certainly does not reflect my views now or ever.”

He did not explain how his name came to be on the petition.

“My work at the Council on Environmental Quality is entirely focused on one goal: building clean energy incentives which create 21st century jobs that improve energy efficiency and use renewable resources,” Jones said in his statement tonight.

Jones also said in his statement that “In recent days some in the news media have reported on past statements I made before I joined the administration – some of which were made years ago. If I have offended anyone with statements I made in the past, I apologize.”

That’s the second apology he’s made in two days; at this rate, it’d be faster and easier to issue a statement retracting everything he ever said in his life prior to being hired by Obama. As for the non-denial denial, remember that the Washington Times already contacted 9/11 Truth this morning to ask them if Jones’s name could have ended up on the petition mistakenly. The response:

9/11Truth.org spokesman Mike Berger told the Washington Times over the phone that all of the signers had been verified by their group. He said 9/11Truth.org board members “spoke with each person on the list by phone or through email or individually confirm they hae added their name to that list.”

“I think in most cases they spoke to them personally,” he added. “No one’s name was put on that list without them knowing it.”

Three possibilities. One: The Truthers are lying and simply added names of activists like Jones who, um, no one had ever heard of when the petition was circulated in 2004. If that’s true, it’s curious that people like Ed Asner and Janeane Garofalo, whose names are also on there, apparently haven’t objected in the five years since. Two: As I said in the Beck post, maybe Jones doesn’t actually believe the theory but signed on for the sheer romantic rebel pseudo-intellectual glory of it. In that case, we’re in the same situation as we were with Ron Paul when he denied having written the racist crap in those old Ron Paul newsletters: Even if he’s telling the truth, the fact that he approved it proves he’s either too stupid or careless to be trusted with power. Or three: Jones is lying. Unless the correct answer is number one — and it’s mighty curious that Jones isn’t saying it is — then he’s got to go. Pull the trap door, Barry.

Update: Krauthammer, Mara Liasson, and Steve Hayes all think he’ll be gone by Monday. And that was before he put out this statement. He must want that czar job awfully bad, though, to put The One through this PR trip, which has now reached Tapper at ABC News and is bound to spread tomorrow.

Update: The spin gets lamer. I say again: Unbelievable.

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