VAN JONES RESIGNS!

AP NEWS ALERT:

Obama aide Van Jones resigns as environmental adviser amid controversy over past statements.

Remember: 5 A's in "raaaaaacism."

UPDATE: We remind you that John Hinderaker had expected the rap-music angle to be the last straw.

UPDATE II: More AP news via Chicago Tribune: "The White House issued a statement early Sunday saying Jones had quit the administration."

UPDATE III: by Smitty
Since you can't find Don Meredith doing "Turn Out the Lights" on YouTube, how about an obscure dude from Seattle working out on Roger Miller?

UPDATE IV: (RSM) Heavy action on Twitter:

• John Hawkins: "I'll enjoy the sweet salty tears of the Left and their cries of 'Racism! Wingnuts! Rarrrr!' over Van Jones leaving"
• LadyPatriot: "The wheels on Obama's bus go thumpety-thump. Van Jones, you can't trust a guy who throws his grandma & 20yr pastor under the bus!"

Fire Andrea Mitchell is also blogging the resignation.

UPDATE V: WH statement at Washington Post:

"I am resigning my post at the Council on Environmental Quality, effective today," Jones said in a resignation letter released by the CEQ late Saturday.
"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," he said.
"I have been inundated with calls -- from across the political spectrum -- urging me to 'stay and fight,'" he 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.
"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."

UPDATE VI: David Horowitz at NewsReal says Valerie Jarrett should go, too:

The Obama Administration -- the Soros network and the Apollo Alliance -- are revealed to their rotten core here. This was their protege and only an idiot . . . would not be able to see what’s going on here.

UPDATE VII: Wlady at the The American Spectator cites the Wall Street Journal -- when I had it 20 minutes earlier! A blogger gets no respect, no respect at all, I tell ya . . .

Now a Memeorandum thread. Our claim to exclusivity? Thanks to Smitty, we're the only blog to react to this news with video of some dude strumming a ukelele and singing "King of the Road."

UPDATE VIII: You gotta love the L.A. Times:

Van Jones, the onetime Marxist whose controversial statements about Republicans and 9/11 have made him a distracting lightning rod as Barack Obama's environmental czar in recent days, resigned tonight.

That "onetime Marxist" is classic. As if, sometime in the interval, Jones had an epiphany on the Road to Damascus: "Hayek! Mises! Friedman! We must deregulate! Cut taxes!"

Fox News now has a story, and a Red State blogger observes:

Interesting time to be turning in one's resignation - midnight Saturday night, on a holiday weekend. I guess this gives the MSM a chance to not report it again.

Of course, while the MSM ignored the "controversy," they'll be all over the resignation as proof of the viciousness of right-wingers.

UPDATE IX: Predictable reaction at DailyKos:

Van Jones: A "High-Tech Lynching"

Yeah, I'm sure George Allen is heartbroken about this. Understatement of the decade from Ed Driscoll:

[S]omething tells me that Glenn Beck is going to have reasonably good ratings on Monday.

Gee, ya think? Ed quotes Andy Levy's Twitter:

"Won't it be weird when people who don't get their news from the internet or FNC have no idea who the guy who resigned is?"

Read the whole thing -- a really solid aggregation by Mr. Driscoll. Well, I've done enough for one Sunday morning. Alabama beat Virginia Tech, Van Jones resigned, and all is right with the world.