SO WHY DIDN'T VILSACK ASK FOR HIS WIFE'S RESIGNATION?

I keep trying to figure out whether this 2004 story about the wife of our gutless agriculture secretary is relevant to today's news:

On the day before she was slated to give a prime-time address at the Democratic National Convention here, Iowa first lady Christie Vilsack came under fire Monday for comments she penned in columns for an Iowa newspaper, including a 1994 piece in which she said she was "fascinated at the way some African-Americans speak to each other in an English I struggle to understand, then switch to standard English when the situation requires."

The comments were disclosed Monday in the Boston Herald under a large headline reading, "Say What?" In the columns, written for the Mount Pleasant News, Vilsack also wrote that Southerners, while polite, have "slurred speech," according to the article....

Christie Vilsack wants a political career of her own -- just last month there were reports (in Politico and elsewhere) that she might want to run for a House seat in 2012 (she considered running for Charles Grassley's Senate seat in this election cycle, then decided against a run). I imagine her husband didn't want that mini-embarrassment and a Fox-driven tale of a Dangerous Evil Negro to mess up Mrs. V's pursuit of the family business, and thus he threw Shirley Sherrod under the bus without bothering to learn the whole story.

The Vilsacks are Democrats, but they pose no threat to the right -- Tom is, of course, a pro-agribusiness ex-DLC chair. He's in the guild, as is his wife. They get the benefit of the doubt. Shirley Sherrod didn't.