-- Mary Francis Berry, former chair, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
For readers outside the USA: Ms Berry is black and given that she was appointed to chair the commission by President Jimmy Carter, then by President Bill Clinton, it's a safe bet she has voted the Democratic ticket all her voting life and wouldn't be caught dead supporting a candidate favored by any Tea Party or GOP faction.
This is by way of saying that Berry's observations were not motivated by an agenda; she was simply calling things as she saw them. However, her analysis is only partly correct, as Shirley Sherrod inadvertently revealed in her reply to CNN's Tony Harris, when he asked why she'd left her employment at the USDA:
SHIRLEY SHERROD: Why am I out? They asked me to resign. And, in fact, they harassed me as I was driving back to the state office from West Point, Georgia, yesterday. I had at least three calls [from the USDA] telling me the White House wanted me to resign.Ms Sherrod wasn't on Glenn Beck that night; neither Glenn Beck's show nor any other FNC (Fox News Cable) show mentioned Sherrod or the controversy that led to President Barack Obama's latest Beck Panic Attack, until after she was forced out of the USDA. And it was actually Beck who came out with the most eloquent defense of Sherrod.
[...]
TONY HARRIS, CNN: So the pressure came from the White House?
SHIRLEY SHERROD: And the last one asked me to pull over to the side of the road and do it.
She said, "Well, Shirley, they want you to pull over to the side of the road and do it because you're going to be on Glenn Beck tonight.
What to make of the latest chapter in the horror story called The Present State of American Politics? I say we throw the book at the Democratic and Republican parties and draft Glenn Beck for U.S. President.
Yes yes it's already on record that he doesn't feel qualified for the job. But I think he should stop hiding behind ADHD and substance abuse recovery and his latest excuse (he might be going blind) and give into pleas that he run for the office of U.S. president.
Behind Beck's media personality is a tough-minded businessman who was managing a radio station before he was out of his teens and who parlayed his radio and TV appearances into a multi-million dollar media empire.
No one understands the problems of America's families and small business owners bettter than Beck.
No one is better at standing up to bullies and exposing hypocrites than Beck.
No one is better at multi-tasking than Beck and nobody is a better judge of character and intelligence.
No one is better at rapidly assessing complex situations and quickly absorbing reams of data.
No one is better at clearly and quickly explaining hideously complicated economic and legislative issues to the general public.
No one is harder working than Beck.
No one is more eloquent at defending America and the rights of all Americans.
And nobody is better qualified at staying focused on the big tasks.
Even guilt-ridden, medicated and blind Glenn Beck would be a better U.S. President than all the prospective contenders among the Democrats and Republicans combined.
True, he has a very strange sense of humor; perhaps only Harpo Marx and Ernie Kovacs would have found his "A Plastic Frog Had to Die" routine inspired.But then it takes a strange sense of humor to fully appreciate how the world's lone superpower nation ended up on its knees begging for its life from China's Communist Party.
And how the world's greatest democracy ended up a flunky for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Except that Beck never laughed about those things. He wept. And for that, he would be the president to lead an American renaissance and restore respect for the United States of America.