Shirley Sherrod rejected an offer from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to return to the department as a full-time employee. This decision was made amidst rumors (started by Sherrod herself) that there is a lawsuit on the horizon against Andrew Breitbart. While not taking the full-time position offered, she willingly took a part-time consulting position, apparently to assist the department in their future civil rights issues.
For the benefit of anyone that has been living under a rock for past couple months, Sherrod came to the attention of the public for some allegedly racially insensitive statements she had made that were taken out of context by Breitbart. Officials in the Obama Administration forcefully requested her resignation when they became aware of what Breitbart was planning on posting about Sherrod. Mainstream media cried foul against FoxNews for running with the story, in spite of the fact that after initially being on Breitbart’s side (sticking with just the edited version), the network ended up on Sherrod’s side, implying that the administration was wrong for forcing her resignation. While Breitbart was irresponsible in his actions, Sherrod suffered professional and financial damages as a result of her forced resignation – theoretically that should have left Breitbart as at best a co-defendant with the Obama Administration in any lawsuit, but apparently he’s the only one with litigation in his future. As for why Sherrod won’t take on a full-time position with the Department of Agriculture, her story is that she needs a break, and has aspirations to work on civil rights issues elsewhere. Other than pointing out that one needs a scorecard to keep track of this story, all I can say is “no comment!”
Tags: Andrew Breitbart, Barack Obama, Department of Agriculture, FoxNews, racism, Shirley Sherrod, Tom Vilsack
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