Obama adviser in trouble

A key adviser to President Obama on green energy jobs appears to be hanging on by a thread tonight.

Van Jones, since March a special adviser at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, issued a statement Thursday on signing a 2004 petition calling for congressional hearings and other investigations into whether high-level Bush administration officials had allowed the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks to happen. He said it "does not reflect my views, now or ever."

Jones also apologized for a video that surfaced of him using a derogatory term for Republicans (an anatomical reference that begins with "a").

Conservative activists have been on the warpath against Jones. And today, a top House Republican, Mike Pence, called on him to quit or be fired. "His extremist views and coarse rhetoric have no place in this administration or the public debate," Pence said.

More worrisome for Jones, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs did not provide much cover today. Asked whether Obama still had confidence in Jones, Robert Gibbs would only say that Jones "continues to work in the administration."