White House team praised firing of Sherrod yesterday, offers her job today

There's the decision making ability that Americans like to see. Rush to judgment and fire someone before all of the data has been released (which was released by a Teabagger hack) and then show concern the day after. Didn't we see enough knee-jerk decision making during the Bush years?

A short time ago, CNN reported that Secretary Vilsack called Shirley Sherrod to apologize and to offer her a job. Vilsack also made a public statement this afternoon acknowledging that he called Sherrod to offer an apology to ask whether she would consider finding a way forward. Vilsack said he accepts full responsibility and (repeatedly) said it was his decision. (Note from Joe: The speech was carried live on CNN and FOX, but not MSNBC, which seemed odd.)

What a difference a day makes.

Only yesterday there was plenty of back-slapping in the office.

One source, who is unhappy with the administration's handling of the incident, paraphrased Messina's remarks: "We could have waited all day – we could have had a media circus – but we took decisive action and it’s a good example of how to respond in this atmosphere."

But two other senior officials present at the meeting, who responded to a call to the White House press office, said the gist of Messina's words had been conveyed to POLITICO inaccurately, and that Messina -- a top political operative and senior manager -- was merely speaking in his capacity as Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and "cheerleader" to boost staffers' morale.

Messina was merely praising the White House staff for "communicating well, sharing well, basically rising to the occasion" on the Sherrod story, one official said. "It was an institutional or procedural point."

Now that the full story has come out the tone has slightly evolved.

A White House official confirmed that advisers to President Obama spoke to officials at the Department of Agriculture “and we agreed that the issue should be reviewed.” The official, speaking anonymously to reveal internal discussions, said Mr. Vilsack was amenable.

“There was a convergence there, but we did initiate the conversation,” the official said.

The last time I checked, any friendship is a two way street and not this kind of behavior. If Team Change ever wants to reflect on why so many on the left are turned off by them (not that they care) it's because of situations like this.