Another Black Eye for the White House

Fourteen weeks from now, in November, when the congressional elections kick off, few voters will remember the names of Shirley Sherrod, Tom Vilsack, Tom Gibbs, Bill O'Reilly or even Andrew Breitbart.

But those names were hot tickets a week ago and still may be in many quarters.  That was when Tom Vilsack, a white man, who is paid $191,300 a year as the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, fired from the hip and axed Shirley Sherrod, a $119,000-a-year black USDA Georgia Director of Rural Development.

Vilsack acted after reading a partial transcript of a 2 ½-minute video shown by online news entrepreneur Andrew Breitbart. The complete video ran 45 minutes---but was not shown in its entirety by Breitbart on his web site.

The video showed Sherrod addressing an NAACP meeting in Georgia earlier this year. In that video, Sherrod was explaining to NAACP attendees that when she previously worked for a Georgia non-profit organization in 1986, she initially had some doubts about helping a white farmer save his land from foreclosure.

That was the portion shown by Breitbart.  However, later in the full video, Sherrod explains she did eventually help the farmer save his property. That segment was not shown by Breitbart.

All hell than broke loose at the White House and in cyberspace. TV talk show host Bill O'Reilly immediately called for Sherrod's dismissal. So did a pack of other not-so-well-known bloggers. And so, surprisingly, did the NAACP.

However, after the full 45-minute video was produced and shown to Vilsack, he publicly apologized and admitted, in front of millions of TV viewers, he had goofed badly on this deal.

Then O'Reilly apologized.  And then White House press secretary Robert Gibbs apologized "on behalf of" the White House. Later, President Barack Obama called Sherrod and apologized. Even Breitbart said on his blog he was sorry that Sharrod was fired - but didn't apologize to Sherrod.

And after that, Vilsack offered Sherrod a new position with the little-known USDA Office of Civil Rights and Community Outreach. Sherrod didn't accept the offer. She didn't say what her future career plans might be.

Should Vilsack be fired, demoted or left on the job with an annual salary of $191,300?

Should Sherrod accept the new USDA position and go forward with her career?

Should Gibbs be reassigned as a 'maintenance engineer' - that is, supervising the daily cleaning of White House bathrooms?

What do you think?

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