VAN JONES COURTED BY GREEN PARTY: Obama's former green-jobs czar invited to join after leaving administration amid controversy.

      The former green-jobs czar under President Barack stepped down last Sunday after coming under fire for making derogatory comments about Republicans – calling them “a—holes,” earlier this year, and likening former President George W. Bush to a “crackhead” in a speech captured on YouTube.

      The Green Party compared Obama’s restraint in coming to Jones’ aid over the recent controversy to President Bill Clinton’s lack of defense when his African-American nominee for Assistant Attorney General, Lani Guinier, was attacked and ultimately withdrawn.

      “The targets tend to be black -- consistent with Republican fury over the election of Barack Obama to the White House,” the Party said in a statement about the comparison.

      Jones, an African-American environmental activist from California, has been championed by progressives as pioneering the “green jobs” movement – or jobs that add to the quality of the environment.

      “Like the Greens, Van Jones sees green jobs and a healthy environment as interconnected pillars of a sustainable and just economy, said Mike Feinstein, co-chair of the Green Party. “We encourage Van to bring that agenda into the electoral arena as a Green Party member, leader and possible future candidate, either nationally, statewide in California, or locally in Oakland, his home.”

      Marian Douglas-Ungaro of the DC Statehood Green Party and the Green Party Black Caucus agreed with the call for Jones to join the party.

      “As a Green, Van Jones can be a strong national voice for justice and the environment, independent of the constraints of the Democratic Party hierarchy, the corporate lobbies that pull their strings, and the right-wing appeasement and selling out of grassroots social movements that appears to be their strategy,” she said.