August 24, 2010
Notice how this was delayed until barry was away on (another) vacation.
Last week, Ms Sherrod made nice with NAACP president Mr Jealous (who she acknowledged as present in her infamous speech) and today, as scheduled, Ms Shirley Sherrod met with Agriculture Secy Tom Vilsack to allegedly talk another job at the USDA.
Why the need for a press conference…to tidy it up in front of the media and give Ms Sherrod an additional 15 minutes?
Press conference quotes follow
Offered during 1.5 hr meeting:
- Full and part-time work
- Old job (proof there was no real intent to have her back at the USDA)
- Deputy director of the Office of Advocacy and Outreach – a new position created by Congress to address questions of discrimination
Ms Sherrod refused both but said she may return as a consultant.
SHERROD:
I look forward to some kind of relationship with the department in the future. We do need to deal with the issues of discrimination and racism in the country in the future, and I certainly would like to play my role.
But not be the test subject:
A new process is in place, and I hope that it works; I don’t want to be the one to test it. … I think I can be helpful to him and to the department if I just take a little break and look to how I can be helpful in the future.
VILSACK:
I did my best, I think it’s fair to say. There’s no one better suited in the country to help us than Shirley.
No one?
I know that I disappointed the president, I disappointed this administration, I disappointed the country, I disappointed Shirley. I have to live with that … Maybe, just maybe, this is an opportunity for the country to have the kind of conversation Shirley thinks we ought to have.
Even as she called FOX, the Tea Party and a man who she had never spoken with and whose full name she did not know as well as the “conservative people he’s dealing with” racists. But since she is black, that is not considered racist. It’s called The Double Standard of Race in America.
Found this curious in the article. barry did not apologize – her spoke with her on the phone and stressed the sincerity of Secy Vilsack’s apology.
She has since received numerous apologies from the administration, including from Obama himself, and Vilsack asked her to return.
And further down:
The incident proved embarrassing for the Obama administration, and President Barack Obama called her personally to express his regret.
And that’s what he did – “express regret” for “this misfortune” while he referenced his automythology, which did not at all “satisfy” Ms Sherrod.
And the real reason she is not taking the job – besides lucrative speaking engagements she would not be able to accept:
Sherrod said she did not want to discuss it, but that a lawsuit against blogger Andrew Breitbart would take place.
I don’t know about Mr Breitbart – but a suit would be a great way to expose Ms Sherrod’s inconsistent statements about what she did for the farmer, the edited NAACP tape (right in the midst of her tale – resuming with the audience laughing), the NAACP’s role, whether Mr Jealous really was present for that speech and the WH’s involvement in her firing. And then there’s the matter of her own out loud and proud accusations that Breitbart is a liar, a racist and wants to “get us stuck back in times of slavery“.
