E-Mails Show Rush to Judgment on Sherrod

[RamboLiberal]

Source: CNN

Newly released documents give the public its first look inside the Obama administration's internal deliberations over whether to fire Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod, and the hundreds of e-mails clearly confirm officials pushed her out for political reasons despite knowing they did not have the full context of the explosive video that thrust her into the national spotlight.

There is no smoking gun proving Sherrod's original allegation that the White House forced the Agriculture Department to fire her in order to contain any political damage. But the documents do show that top White House aides like then-Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel were keeping tabs on the matter as it unfolded, and in the initial hours after her firing other White House officials were thankful that Sherrod had been ousted so quickly.

"Just wanted you to know that this dismissal came up at our morning senior staff meeting today," Christopher Lu, who serves as the White House's liaison to the Cabinet, wrote to senior Agriculture officials on the morning of July 20, the day after Sherrod was fired.

"Everyone complimented USDA on how quickly you took this action," Lu wrote, noting that the swift move helped stop an "unpleasant story" from gaining any "traction" in the early hours of the flare-up.


Read more: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/08/e-mails-show-rush-to-judgment-on-sherrod/?hpt=T1

[txaslftist]

1. Ironic.

She went from the back of the bus to the front of the bus to under the bus.

How utterly gutless of the Administration to accept the FOX News version of the facts and make a decision before even examining the context of things.

What a bunch of wimps.

[cascadiance]

2. "Rush" to Judgement is a nice play on words too!

[xchrom]

3. Recommend

[yodermon]

4. This is a case study of how the adminsitration treats the left.

And the consequences of such treatment.

[dem mba]

5. what worries me is that top Democratic officials

are so concerned about what Fox News is going to say. Don't they realize Fox News viewers are NEVER going to vote for Democrats, no matter what? Who gives a flying fuck what Fox News says?

The right move would have been to place Sherrod on immediate paid leave until all the facts could be reviewed. They certainly should have asked Sherrod for her side of the story as well. Too many fuckups in this case, and I thought Vilsack was supposed to be one of our more competent Dems.

[atreides1]

6. Define "competent"

Then go down the list of members of this administration and the Democratic members of Congress, see which ones fit that definition of "competent".:D

[Iowa]

7. No, Vilsack isn't competent.

Vilsack is a fumbling, bumbling, corporate stooge. He's about as articulate as Charles Grassley, and dumb as a box of rocks. When he ran for President in 2008, he couldn't get even a tiny portion of Iowa to back him. Contrast that to Tom Harkin's run back in the 92 where other candidates simply had to abandon Iowa. Vilsack is a passionless, self-serving, dud who managed to weasel his way into a position via his corporate toadying. When I saw that Obama appointed him as Sec of Ag, I knew that Obama was going to be a disaster.