Tom Vilsack Says He Offered to Resign Over Shirley Sherrod Saga

As the controversy over Shirley Sherrod's ouster grew last month, Tom Vilsack told President Barack Obama he was willing to resign his post as secretary of the Department of Agriculture.

In an interview with Politico, Vilsack again expressed regret for his rash decision to fire Sherrod over a selectively edited video that distorted comments she had made about race matters.

The secretary said he was hurrying to make a speech July 19 in Ohio when an aide held up a BlackBerry playing the footage in which Sherrod, who is black, appeared to say she refused to provide full assistance to a white farmer because of his race.

The former Iowa governor told reporter Roger Simon he is extra careful about race issues at agriculture, especially because the department is involved in multibillion-dollar settlements and lawsuits over discrimination claims. From Politico:

"I had a heightened sense of sensitivity to civil rights in the department," Vilsack told me. "We were working so hard, and then [the edited Sherrod speech] comes out and I thought: 'Good Lord, this is not going to help the department.' "

With a room full of Ohioans waiting for him and without consulting anybody, Vilsack decided to become someone who "at least fails while daring greatly."

"I made the decision to place Shirley on administrative leave," he said. "I was concerned and upset. By the time I got out of the meeting, she had indicated a willingness to resign. Only later did we learn there was a whole lot more to the story."

What the video didn't show was Sherrod, the Georgia state director for rural development at the USDA, going on to say that those race-based feelings were wrong.

When Vilsack realized he had made a huge blunder, he apologized to Sherrod, offered her a new job, and "indicated to the president I would do whatever I needed to do."

While the president said Vilsack "jumped the gun" on the firing, "there was no appetite for resignation at the White House," Vilsack said. He said the president has been supportive during the entire saga.

Sherrod has accepted Vilsack's apology, but she did not accept a new job at the department.

Read Politico's feature on Vilsack, which also touched on a range of issues, including border security, here.