Ousted Black USDA Director, Shirley Sherrod, Declines New Job Offered by Tom Vilsack

Ousted black USDA director Shirley Sherrod, declines new job offered by Secretary Tom Vilsack, saying she couldn't say yes to the job after what happened.

Shirley Sherrod, the USDA director who was thrown under a bus by the Obama Administration and Fox News, after a snippet of a video was disclosed by right wing blogger Andrew Breitbart, declined Tuesday to accept an offer to return full-time to the agency. According to CBS Atlanta, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said that Sherrod did agree to work with the agency in a consulting capacity in the future to help it improve its civil rights performance. I don't blame her one bit. The thrill is gone.

She told reporters she did not think she could say yes to a job "at this point, with all that has happened."There had been indications that Vilsack, who apologized to Sherrod for pushing her out, had offered her a position in the Office of Advocacy and Outreach, which works in the civil rights area."It is a new position," she said. "I look at what happened ow. I know he has apologized and I accept that. A new process is in place and I hope that it works. ... I think I can be helpful to him and the department if I just take a little break and look at how I can be more helpful in the future," Sherrod said.

Vilsack said that "Shirley has unique opportunities here." Vilsack said he had tried in vain to get Sherwood to return to the department.The veteran department employee was forced out earlier this year when an excerpt of a speech she gave several years ago was posted by a conservative blogger on the Internet, remarks that seemed to show Sherrod giving short shrift attention as a local agriculture to a poor white farmer's plea for financial assistance. Source

I believe she has better options available than to go back to the USDA after she was unceremoniously dumped without due process.