It's fascinating to see Andrew Breitbart, a prominent conservative blogger and Tea Party supporter, Fox News, and Glenn Beck are trying to spear the Obama Administration coming and going. Breitbart, under his recently posted a clip, in the aftermath of the NAACP characterizing the Tea Party as a racist organization, of an appointed federal bureaucrat, the USDA Georgia Director of Rural Development Shirley Sherrod, a woman of color, allegedly speaking before a Georgia NAACP Freedom Fund dinner, basically talked about an incident (subsequently revealed to have happened in 1986); a white farmer was seeking help to stave off bankruptcy. Ms. Sherrod didn't like the condescending manner in which the farmer was speaking to her, and she responded to the perceived slight by lowballing her initial efforts on behalf of the farmer. [While watching this clip, I was reminded of those scenes in It's a Wonderful Life where evil banker Henry Potter was mistakingly given his arch-nemesis Bailey S&L's bank deposit wrapped in a newspaper heralding the war heroism of a Bailey brother by a proud uncle. George Bailey, worrying about scandal and jail, comes begging for a loan to bridge the missing deposit, which Potter refuses.]
The White House responded by terminating Ms. Sherrod. Then other parts of the story came forward: the incident was 24 years ago while not working at the USDA, Ms. Sherrod went on to do more for the white farmer over the next 2 years, and she was using the incident to explain overcoming her own racial bias. The farmer's wife came out to praise Ms. Sherrod for her efforts on behalf of their family. The NCAAP, which originally condemned the incident, recanted and blasted Breitbart for editing the clip out of context.
Beck then used the incident as a teaching moment on his broadcast today, explaining the knee-jerk reaction by the White House was more of a pattern of behavior, that he himself never called for Van Jones' resignation, that he simply wanted the Obama Administration to explain why they happened to hire a political radical and put him in a position of authority. Oh, please, St. Beck: SHUT UP! While you and other conservatives, including Charles Krauthammer, with whom I usually agree, went up to praise Ms. Sherrod's cathartic confession at NAACP fundraiser, how many times have I heard Fox News, Beck and others repeat ad nauseam the same "hypocritical" clips? Surely Andrew Breitbart didn't have a moral obligation to point out the incident in question was 24 years old and did not reflect the lady's work within the Obama Administration.... He was really out to publicize the NAACP's coming out events for black public officials willing to confront their own racist past...
And heaven forbid if anyone, say a McCain campaign staffer, criticized Sarah Palin: how many times did "fair and balanced" Fox News give the staffers equal time for providing the full context behind Ms. Palin's diva behavior and temper tantrums? Instead, the official story of Fox News was that there was no substance behind the allegations, that it was a "smear" job by scapegoating campaign personnel looking to blame someone for a losing campaign... Yeah, it wasn't as if, say, someone from Fox News interviewed her on the air, explicitly second-guessing the McCain campaign for conceding the Michigan contest--after all, don't all team player running mates criticize their campaigns? If Ms. Palin might diss the campaign manager publicly, surely she would treat the "little people" better, right? She would never target her frustrations at staffers out of the sight of a TV camera, would she? Poor defenseless Sarah Palin, as a national celebrity and governor, couldn't do anything to the all-powerful staffers whom intimidated her behind the scenes; why, they must have had the power to keep her from winning reelection in Alaska! The reason they spoke under conditions of anonymity was not because a vengeful Palin and others might blacklist their careers, but because they lacked a moral backbone to face Sarah Palin and thousands of her chivalrous supporters.... Yeah, if you believe that, Sarah Palin has another Bridge to Nowhere to sell you...
No, Ms. Sherrod's resignation was the right thing to do. I think certainly the case would be more compelling if Ms. Sherrod had done this more recently on the job and if she had been unapologetic, but do we need to recall progressives' long memories of alleged racism, e.g., Judge Pickering and Trent Lott's favorable comments on the late Strom Thurmond's 1948 Presidential bid (despite eventual tolerance of former KKK member Robert Byrd (D-WV) and George Wallace)? I suspect Breitbart, Beck and others would have remembered Pickering if the White House was to backtrack on the forced resignation.
The issue for me isn't so much the accusation of racism, despite omnipresent political correctness. It's one of abuse of power, whether it's for a non-profit or the federal government. I certainly don't feel any better that she has decided the main struggle isn't between white and black: it's between the have's and the have not's. Abuse of power is unacceptable, period. Equal protection under the law is a moral necessity.
Public service isn't a right; it's a privilege. It is to Ms. Sherrod's credit that, in the long run, she came through for the white farmer years ago. I don't think public confessions are prudent; for the administration, they suggest a certain cronyism. I do think Ms. Sherrod has a right to speak her mind--as a private citizen.
Senate Democrats Fight To Add More Money To the National Debt: Thumbs Down
Unemployment insurance is not "free"; employers pay taxes to support it. It's part of the cost of doing business (and also is a disincentive against hiring). To Democrats, the ability to demagogue authorizing another $34B unemployment in NEW debt against
Let's make it very clear: a few months ago Obama claimed to be fiscally responsible by paying for it over already allocated funds. But apparently, Obama doesn't think it's fair for the Republicans to demand this new extension to also be fiscally responsible. The
The new WV senator, a Democratic caretaker, was sworn in in time to make the magic filibuster-defeating 60 votes, with the GOP Maine senators once again flipping and Ben Nelson (D-NE) joining the remaining GOP in using existing funds.
Political Cartoon
Eric Allie notes that what Democrats, by enacting drunken sailor super-spending measures like last year's stimulus bill,were basically digging the their own political graves.
Quote of the Day
The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.
Theodore Hesburgh
Musical Interlude: Chart Hits of 2000
Backstreet Boys, "Show Me The Meaning of Being Lonely"
Céline Dion, "That's the Way It Is"
Marc Anthony, "You Sang to Me"
Madonna, "Music"
Destiny's Child, "Say My Name"
