By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Van Jones loved the spotlight. Heck, who wouldn't, after being named a special adviser and green jobs czar for President Barack Obama.

In Kansas City last week, Jones was one of the federal officials flown in to take a look at the Green Impact Zone, an idea to upgrade 150 blocks of low-income neighborhoods.

Jones was introduced twice by fellow, higher-ranking fed officials -- and on both occasions, Jones made sure to interject that he was a "special adviser" to Obama.

But now he's not part of the administration at all, thanks to imprudent remarks and a petition he signed years ago, a petition that implied the federal government allowed 9/11 to happen.

The statement that really got Jones in trouble with radio shock-jock Glenn Beck and other conservatives came in February, when he was at a green energy conference in Berkeley.

When asked why Republicans were more effective when they held Congress, Jones replied:

The answer to that is: They're assholes. That's a technical political science term. And Barack Obama's not an asshole. I will say this, I can be an asshole. And some of us who are not Barack Hussein Obama are gonna have to start getting a little bit uppity.

Of course, for Beck and the rest of the white-America crowd, Jones got a little too uppity, especially when a group co-founded by Jones went after Beck and got some advertisers to pull out of supporting his show.