Did White House fire woman on strength of bogus Breitbart video?

By now you've heard about the story burning up the right: A U.S. Agriculture Department official says the USDA forced her to resign because Andrew Breitbart posted a video of her supposedly describing how she didn't help a white farmer 24 years ago because of racial reasons.

The woman has now said the video is bogus and that she said nothing of the kind, and she's hinted that the White House urged her firing.

So the question is this: Did the White House have this woman fired before the facts were known, all in response to what may prove to be a Breitbart-manufactured racial controversy? If so, this would illustrate an appalling White House willingness to "jump" when Breitbart says "how high," as Digby put it in a scorching post today.

I generally agree with Digby's read, but I want to urge a bit of caution here. The woman's public statements thus far don't quite say conclusively that the White House directly ordered her firing. There are still more facts to come out. That said, it seems unlikely that the USDA would undertake such a high-profile axing of the woman without consulting the White House first.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/07/did_white_house_get_woman_fire.html

as if he was the Holy Grail..he screwed up on ACORN and now this. How come republicans rule the white house and Obama.

because it has been happening since day one. The country rejected the Republicans and their policies in 2006 and again in 2008, maybe someone should tell the White House.

Sherrod said the short video clip excluded the breadth of the story about how she eventually worked with the man over a two-year period to help ward off foreclosure of his farm, and how she eventually became friends with the farmer and his wife. <...>

“The story helped me realize that race is not the issue, it’s about the people who have and the people who don’t. When I speak to groups, I try to speak about getting beyond the issue of race.“

Indeed, the wife of the white farmer in question, 82-year-old Eloise Spooner, confirmed the story and called Sherrod a “friend for life.” She told CNN that Sherrod “treated us really good and got us all we could.” “She’s the one I give credit to with helping us save our farm”:

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/07/20/shirley-sherrod-video/