Have Vilsack and the NAACP outlasted their usefulness to Democrats?

[derby378]

Let's face it. They got "punk'd" by, of all people, a right-wing blogger who's not afraid to use race as a bludgeon when it suits his own purposes. That and video editing software that chops out all the parts that would have exonerated Shirley Sherrod.

The NAACP cannot hide behind the excuse "We're only human." For me, as an individual, to forget to carry the two on my income tax return is only human. But the NAACP consists of more than one person. Someone, somewhere, deep within the NAACP hierarchy should have seen what Breitbart and FOX News were doing with the Sherrod smear campaign and told the rest of the NAACP, "I smell a rat."

As for Vilsack, does he actually do anything in the USDA that has any benefit for American farmers? Or does he just roll over on his back and pee on himself whenever FOX News tells him to?

It's time for some real soul-searching on this issue. If Vilsack and the NAACP could be so easily taken in by agents who have a definitive agenda that is not in the best interest of America, then maybe they should be pushed aside to make way for the "new hotness" to help usher the Democratic Party to where they are supposed to be on the road to fundamental change in America.

[rocktivity]

1. Maybe it's the other way around...

:evilgrin:
rocktivity

[marmar]

2. I don't think the NAACP measures its "usefulness" by the needs of the Democratic Party.....

..... And where were said Democrats rushing to the defense of Ms. Sherrod?

[derby378]

5. I don't know about everyone else, but I was looking for a job

I didn't learn about this controversy until this morning.

The fact is that Vilsack and the NAACP took the word of FOX News and Breitbart over the evidence on the videotape itself. They apparently didn't give a damn when Sherrod told them to view the tape for themselves.

[babylonsister]

3. Why is the NAACP now useless? I don't understand. nt

[derby378]

6. If they could so easily be "snookered" by the right-wing...

...then maybe they've lost some of the essence that made the NAACP such a force to be reckoned with in the past. We can't have any cowards on the front lines against the right-wing who are willing to train their guns on one of their own on the mere accusation that she did something. They should have kept their aim on Breitbart and FOX News instead. And they didn't.

[babylonsister]

7. So now they should be banished into history because they

screwed up but then quickly apologized?

I'm very glad it doesn't work that way.

[derby378]

10. This wasn't an individual screwup

This was an institutional screwup. Big difference.

And I'd rather not see the NAACP fade into the background, either, but they're going to have to work very hard to regain the trust of Democrats beyond merely saying "this will never happen again."

[babylonsister]

13. If the NAACP is forced by the likes of breitbart and faux to

close shop, who exactly wins? Think ACORN. That's exactly what the r/w is hoping for, and I don't think you're helping.

:hi:

[derby378]

15. The NAACP should have thought of that before going after Sherrod

It's an old Rastafarian proverb that we all need to remember: Time be time. Measure twice, cut once.

If you're against the right-wing, you do not take the word of Breitbart and FOX News as gospel, and you especially do not take their word over the word of a loyal USDA employee who has the videotape to prove that she's telling the truth. We expected fuckups like this from the Bush administration, but not from Tom Vilsack or the NAACP.

[Peacetrain]

9. There is a snookering going on right now... and my friend you are falling for it.

[derby378]

11. Please explain. (n/t)

[tularetom]

4. I can't see that Vilsack was ever useful to them

The NAACP, I don't know. I was encouraged by their admission that they had been snookered by Breitfart and faux, but when I saw the head honcho of NAACP on Rachel Maddow last night, I was disappointed. It seemed he was more interested in covering his organization's collective posterior than he was in doing right by Ms Sherrod.

And to tell the truth I was a bit disappointed that Rachel didn't nail his ass to the wall over his timidity.

[Bluenorthwest]

8. NAACP does not exist to be useful to Democrats

Vilsack, he owes his job to Democrats in a very real and meaningful way, a job he never should have had, a job he should be fired from at once.
He is an untrustworthy shill.

[sufrommich]

12. I'm pretty sure the NAACP will survive without your blessing. nt

[derby378]

14. Not if they keep eating their own, they won't

Sherrod was betrayed.