Right after President Obama's election, some folks on the left went out of their way to debunk the idea that America was entering some new post-racial phase.  Now we know why. It seems almost everything that happens nowadays is, according to some, directly attributable to racism.

Opposition to the stimulus, to TARP, to the GM take over, and to cap and trade was apparently all based on racist opposition to Obama. Reverend Jeremiah Wright reappeared this week to helpfully remind us that opposition to health care is the product of the "racist right wing" upset that "poor people will be helped."

Tea Parties? Racism. Angry town halls? Racism.

According to a certain portion of the left, there is no loyal opposition these days, just racism lurking behind each and every criticism of our new president.

And now we've come to Van Jones.  This is a man whose public record, background and professed ideology makes Nancy Pelosi look like Barry Goldwater. He's also a man who escaped any public scrutiny whatsoever in becoming an adviser to the President of the United States.

Yet bringing to light some of the more remarkable and unsavory parts of his record is....., well, take it away Mary Mitchell:

The Beck attack is the same strategy that right-wing conservative radio and TV hosts used during the Obama campaign.

After finding video of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright using harsh language to describe race relations in this country, the hosts at Fox News had a field day.

Jones is being sacrificed in the same way the Rev. Wright was sacrificed.

Ironically, Beck, who had the gall to call the president of the United States a racist, is using the race card to alarm whites. [snip]

Although the Obama administration has bent over backward trying to gain the acceptance of distrustful whites, so far it isn't happening.

Beck and people like him can't seem to accept that John McCain lost the election and a black man and the people of his choosing are running the country.

Given the critical battle under way over health care, Jones did the right thing.

But let's stop pretending that the fierce opposition from the right isn't racism.

It is.

For the record, Reverend Wright wasn't "sacrificed" by Obama - indeed he initially stood by Wright in his famous "race speech" in Philadelphia- until the Reverend showed up at the National Press Club in Washington DC and put on such an embarrassing performance that Obama had no choice but to chuck him under the bus.

But back to Jones.  Forget the assholes comment. Forget the radical environmentalism, "racial justice frames," and accusations of white polluters poisoning black neighborhoods.  Forget the support of cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Jones's signature on a petition that endorsing an investigation based on the notion that President Bush and others had advance knowledge of (and were therefore complicit in) the attacks of 9/11 disqualifies him from serving in the capacity as an adviser to the President. More to the point: it has nothing whatsoever to do with the color of his skin.

Mitchell dismisses the Truther petition as "meaningless" and waves away Jones' endorsement of its views with this jaw dropping excuse:

As ridiculous as that might sound, a lot of black people distrusted Bush to the point that they thought anything was possible.

Well, that explains it. Clearly, because Jones is black and Bush was President, Jones should be absolved of taking responsibility for endorsing one of the most outrageous and obscene conspiracy theories on the planet.

With the kind of logic Mitchell employs, it's no wonder we aren't now - and probably will never be - in a "post-racial" America.

UPDATE: Another perfect example of "crying racism" by the left comes - not surprisingly - from of this segment last night with Keith Olbermann and Chris Hayes of The Nation.  Olbermann introduces the segment with a quote alleging Van Jones was targeted because he has "the same attributes as Obama," before serving up the first question to his guest:

Olbermann: The line of racist attacks against the president - sometimes poorly disguised as birthers or deathers or whatever - is that what's in play here principally?

Hayes: First of all, one can never read the mind of Glenn Beck, nor would one want to...so, I don't know, it seems absolutely the case that race is playing a major factor - in fact of the 3 names that were tweeted today, I wonder which one he'll go after the hardest. But, no, the fact of the matter is that clearly, unambiguously, race is playing a big factor in this - and you need to look no further than Beck's own program where he's standing there and he's got Jeremiah Wright footage on one side of the screen and Van Jones footage on the other side of the screen and he's sort of mugging for the camera like, 'oh, look, another angry black guy." (emphasis added)

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