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Byron York talks about the continuing battle over Obama appointees with a radical past (and present):

But the war that has become unexpectedly intense in recent days isn't about any particular policy. It's the war over personnel -- the president's choices to fill important but not necessarily high-profile jobs in his administration.

Some of Obama's choices have been people with radical pasts -- or radical presents. Others are so overtly political that they can't see any line between serving Obama and serving the public. The presence of each has made it increasingly difficult for their boss, the president, to present himself as a centrist.

First was Van Jones, the Obama "green jobs" czar who once signed a petition supporting the "9/11 truther" movement; who was a self-professed communist during much of the 1990s; who supported the cop-killer Mumia abu-Jamal; and who accused "white polluters" of "steering poison into the people of color communities." Under fire for his extremist views, Jones disappeared in an unusual middle-of-the night resignation on Sept. 5.

Then there was Yosi Sergant, who, as communications director for the National Endowment for the Arts, crossed an entire football field of ethical lines by using his office, which is intended to promote the arts in America, to instead enlist artists to work on behalf of specific Obama initiatives. He resigned Sept. 24.

Now comes Kevin Jennings, the gay activist who heads the Education Department's Office of Safe & Drug Free Schools. Jennings founded a group called the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network and has devoted his career to introducing the topic of homosexuality into every American classroom, including elementary schools.

But as York notes, this is likely the tip of an iceberg:

Does anyone believe that Jones, Sergant and Jennings are the only Obama officials about whom truly serious questions can be raised? While Obama's other wars will someday end, this one might last the entire administration.

I seem to recall candidate Obama pooh-poohing the idea that he was a socialist or a radical himself. As proof of this, he asked that we "judge him by the people with whom he surrounds himself"; so it is hardly a coincidence that he has surrounded himself with people with strong ties to communism, socialism, and other radical left views--far out of the mainstream of America. Nor is it surprising that the questionable connections of many of his advisors are not deep in the past, but robustly are continued to this day.

Obama made himself out to be a calm, reasonable centrist; one who was willing to listen to all sides and who would govern sensibly and rationally. He basically duped a lot of Americans into believing this BS with his golden rhetoric--when all you had to do was to look at whom he surrounded himself with then.

It should be obvious to all by now, that people like the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and the Bernadine Dohrn-William Ayers' connection were not outlying data points on the graph of Obama's character; instead, they represented in a very fundamental way the essence of the Man Who Would Be King.

Obama is hardly a centrist. The aura of "calm" can now be recognized for what it always represented: an unwillingness to commit himself to any action that is not explicitly delineated by his ideology. Obama is not a reasonable man who solicits a variety of opinions and comes to a mature decision--no, he is a manipulative man who pretends to care about what others think because he knows that he has to; but then ignores them and marginalizes those who disagree.

In short, Obama is a leftist ideologue, steeped in postmodern rhetoric and tactics. He is determined to foist his socialist and profoundly anti-American agenda on this country.

And, if we are to judge him by those with whom he surrounds himself--like, Jones, Sargent and a whole host of others; then we must come to the inevitable conclusion that he is not different from them; and, in fact, believes in pretty much the same things that they do. Unfortunately, though, as President of the greatest country on earth, he is likely to cause even more damage than any one of them could ever hope to inflict.