Today, President Obama was interviewed on Good Morning America by ABC News correspondent Elizabeth Leamy. In the interview, he stated that Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack had "jumped the gun" in firing Shirley Sherrod. That leaves a question hanging in the air. What was the White House role, if any, in the firing? Obama's statement will only lead to further questions.
Vilsack seems to be willing to take the blame. He has denied getting any pressure from the White House. Obama's statement today sounds like he is throwing Vilsack under the bus.
Yet, there is the statement from Sherrod in which she quotes Agriculture official Cheryl Cook as stating that the White House wanted her immediate resignation. That takes us to Ms. Cook. Is she giving any interviews? If she confirms Sherrod's account, where did she get that information from? Was the White House pushing this firing, and if so, how high up did it go?
Of course, we have no criminal act alleged here, but you know the old Washington adage; the cover-up is worse than the crime. One thing that is clearly merited here is an internal investigation within the Department of Agriculture as to how this mess came to pass. Why was this woman wrongly fired? That investigation should be carried out with total transparency.
Whether that happens or not is questionable. How aggressively will the main stream media (Fox News excepted)dig into the case to determine any White House involvement.
The official position of the White House is set; they had no involvement in the firing and only got involved in correcting the mistake.
Meanwhile, Sherrod is on the news talking circuit lashing out at the Right, Republicans, Andrew Breitbart and Fox News. The position of the Left is that Fox News drove the story. They may have jumped the gun based on the originally-released exerpts, but the fact is that Sherrod had resigned shortly before Fox broke the story.
This story is far from over.
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