Running For Cover
by digby
I think we all knew that the Shirley Sherrod episode was an example of really poor judgment, but the emails obtained by the LA Times prove something many of us have suspected for quite some time, namely that the administration is pathologically worried about being perceived as "liberal", in this case, manifesting itself as being too solicitous toward African Americans:The e-mails, some of which were redacted by the Agriculture Department, do not show whether the White House ordered the dismissal, long a point of speculation. Sherrod has said that when department Deputy Undersecretary Cheryl Cook called and asked her to resign, Cook told her the White House wanted her out, but USDA and White House officials have said the decision was made within the agency.
However, the e-mails suggest the White House was watching with interest. "Just wanted you to know that this dismissal came up at our morning senior staff meeting today," Christopher Lu, who serves as Obama's liaison to the Cabinet, wrote to top Agriculture officials early July 20, the morning after Sherrod was ousted. "Everyone complimented USDA on how quickly you took this action," he wrote, adding that it would stop an "unpleasant story" from getting "traction." "Thanks for the great efforts."
Within the USDA, the messages show, government officials had moved at breakneck pace to try to beat the news cycle, leaving little time to ask questions, seek legal advice or consider Sherrod's side of the story.
The first sign of trouble arrived about 2 p.m. on July 19, in an e-mail from USDA communications staffer Wayne Maloney.
Maloney informed Chris Mather, the department's director of communications, that a video had popped up online and that a conservative website soon would publicize it.
"It speaks for itself and you need to watch it right away," Maloney writes.
Mather's response was blunt. "THIS IS HORRIBLE," she wrote as she sent notice — subject line "Super Urgent" — up the chain of command to Karen Ross, Vilsack's chief of staff, and her deputy, Carole Jett.
It took just an hour and a half to get a directive from Vilsack. "The S [Secretary Vilsack] is absolutely sick and mad over the S Sherrod issue. He wants her immediately on adm leave," wrote Krysta Harden, assistant secretary of congressional relations.
Cook responded simply, "Done."
Five minutes later, Cook reached Sherrod on a cellphone. Sherrod gave her side of the story, according to a timeline assembled by Cook.
Cook and Dallas Tonsager, undersecretary of rural development, said in an e-mail sent to Vilsack a few minutes later that the subject of the speech was blacks and whites working together.
"She said there is a copy of the entire speech, and Cheryl asked her to provide it as quickly as possible," the e-mails said.
But Vilsack did not wait. An hour later, Cook called Sherrod, who was driving in Georgia, to ask her to resign. Another hour later, Cook called Sherrod again to ask her to resign by the end of the day.
"I called her a fourth time at 6:35 to ask whether she'd be willing to pull over to the side of the road and submit a resignation by email," Cook writes in the account.
Sherrod agreed, and her job working with poor farmers in rural Georgia was finished.
The fact that this "unpleasant" story was being pimped by a professional character assassin with serious issues with African Americans wasn't relevant. Neither, apparently, was the fact that she told them there was more to the story. It clearly scared them to death that they could be accused of reverse racism, as if that's even a real issue in this country.
Of course, it's not just the administration. It's the Democrats in congress too, who ran over each others' backs to be the first in line to stick it to ACORN. The White House got burned with Sherrod, and maybe they learned a lesson. But the impulse is revealing --- and pathetic.
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