Bob Herbert: Thrown to the Wolves

[amborin]

Thrown to the Wolves

By BOB HERBERT

The Shirley Sherrod story tells us so much about ourselves, and none of it is pretty. The most obvious and shameful fact is that the Obama administration, which runs from race issues the way thoroughbreds bolt from the starting gate, did not offer this woman anything resembling fair or respectful treatment before firing and publicly humiliating her.

Moving with the swiftness of fanatics on a hanging jury, big shots in the administration and Bill O’Reilly of Fox News came to exactly the same conclusion: Shirley Sherrod had to go — immediately! No time for facts. No time for justice.
What we have here is power run amok. Ms. Sherrod was not even called into an office to be fired face to face. She got the shocking news in her car. “They called me twice,” she told The Associated Press. “The last time, they asked me to pull over to the side of the road and submit my resignation on my BlackBerry, and that’s what I did.”
This woman was thrown to the wolves without even the courtesy of a conversation. Her side of the story? The truth? The administration wasn’t interested.

And the blame for that falls squarely on the people at the very top in the White House. Why didn’t President Obama or Vice President Joe Biden or Rahm (call me Rahmbo) Emanuel, or somebody somewhere in the upper echelon say, “Hey, what the heck are you doing? You can’t fire a person without hearing her side of the story. This is not the Kremlin. Are you nuts?”

snip

Black people are in a terrible condition right now — economically, socially, educationally and otherwise — and there is no effective champion fighting for their interests. Mr. Jealous and the new edition of the N.A.A.C.P. have shown in this episode that they are not ready for prime time, and President Obama seems reluctant to even utter the word black. Or poor, for that matter.
We hear so much about the middle class, and it’s true that the middle class has suffered in this terrible recession. There’s a middle-class task force in the White House led by the vice president. But the people suffering most in this long economic tailspin are the poor and the black, and you don’t hear much about that.
Which brings us to the most important part of the Shirley Sherrod story. The point that Ms. Sherrod was making as she talked in her speech about the white farmer who had come to her for help was that we are all being sold a tragic bill of goods by the powerful forces that insist on pitting blacks, whites and other ethnic groups against one another.

snip

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/opinion/24herbert.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=homepage

[Raineyb]

1. Bob Herbert nails it again! n/t

[CrispyQ]

2. When is the President going to learn this?

"There is no way we’ll overcome those divisions if people who should know better keep bowing before and kowtowing to the toxic agenda of those on the right whose overriding goal is to foment hostility and hate."

[Orsino]

11. I think he just did--the hard way.

This enormous embarrassment over which he presided is certainly going to make him a little more careful about dancing to Fox' tune.

[Skittles]

13. yeah well we will see

my bet......no change

[Orsino]

14. My bet: a little change...perhaps hard to notice.

But the prez ain't stupid. He will do his best to make sure he isn't made to look the fool again...in precisely this way, anyway.

[lunatica]

3. I bet the Whitehouse heard about Shirley Sherrod being fired at the same time

All the rest of us heard. After the fact.

Rather than instantly jump deep in Obama's shit because he was busy signing into law the Wall Street reform law which is good news rather than micromanaging every department's move, maybe we should be glad that they jumped on it as fast as they did after finding out about it. I'd say that Obama's reaction to this issue has been quite good. He called her personally to apologize for her boss's mistake, and no matter what Vilsack says, I'm willing to lay another wager that he was contacted by the Whitehouse about his actions.

I get a little irritated at the instant kneejerk finger pointing on every perceived evil within seconds of it happening. The Whitehouse has a huge job to do every single day and it isn't part of that job to micromanage every government agency out there. Time is too precious for that shit, and besides doing that would destroy this country faster than anything.

Since when is it the Whitehouse's job to know all things that the federal government is doing at all times? There are 20 million federal employees and here's a list of federal departments:

Executive Departments

* Department of Agriculture (USDA)
* Department of Commerce (DOC)
* Department of Defense (DOD)
* Department of Education (ED)
* Department of Energy (DOE)
* Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
* Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
* Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
* Department of Justice (DOJ)
* Department of Labor (DOL)
* Department of State (DOS)
* Department of the Interior (DOI)
* Department of the Treasury
* Department of Transportation (DOT)
* Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Should Obama personally watch every single one at every single moment?

[amborin]

4. Wall street "reform" is not real reform

[lunatica]

5. Obviously he can't win for losing

Damned if he does and damned if he doesn't know every single damn thing happening at every single damn moment. He should be impeached by God!

[rfranklin]

6. Didn't we usually blame Bush for every action in his administration?

Whatever the truth is, the perception of the average poorly informed, unthinking "independent" voter will be to vaguely sense that Obama fired Sherrod in a panic because that became the theme almost the moment the truth came out about the video clip. Like it or not, that's the way politics works and this one was a loser for the Obama White House.

[lunatica]

8. I recall Rove, Cheney, and Rumsfeld getting a lot of the blame

I also recall that Bush was considered too much of an idiot to comprehend or to know much of anything or decide anything. We did blame his puppetmasters.

But I see your point.

[EFerrari]

7. Not according to Shirley. nt

[lunatica]

9. I heard her say she was very satisfied with the call from Obama

and that she accepted the apology. When was that given? The day after or was two days after she was forced to pull her car over by Vilsack to submit her resignation.

Maybe while she was still out in the cold she was lashing out at the Whitehouse, but after Obama called her she was calm. The only person in the administration she seems to still blame is Vilsack who she is seriously considering bringing a civil lawsuit against.

[EFerrari]

15. Shirley did not lash out at the White House. She was very calm

when she told AC that the impetus for her firing came down from someone in the White House. She said it was probably not Obama and that she didn't need an apology from him.

But nice work trying to discredit her.

[lunatica]

16. How was I trying to discredit her?

She's become one of my heroes. I don't know what you mean.

[EFerrari]

17. Maybe that was an overstatement.

But as I read your post, you implied that she "lashed out" at the White House as if she was emotional and allowing that to dictate her behavior. She's been the coolest headed person in this whole deal, as far as I can tell.

[lunatica]

18. I didn't mean it like that at all

I think she's the one who's been perfect throughout this whole thing and it's the reason Breitbart and FOX look so ugly. And I'm delighted to know about her and add her to my list of heroes.

[EFerrari]

19. Then I apologize for misreading your post. nt

[HipChick]

10. Why should Obama be talking about race?

just because he's the first mixed-race president? Race problems have been around forever..what..were we waiting for a black president to be elected before we talk about it..SMH

[Skittles]

12. kinda describes all of us doesn't it