There’s been some confusion today over one aspect of this Breitbart/USDA story that I want to try to clear up.

Shirley Sherrod, the USDA official forced out, did an on camera interview with CNN at midday. In the interview, Sherrod described the pressure she came under yesterday from within the USDA to resign her post in light of the Breitbart video. Shortly after that, the Washington Post had a write-up of the interview in which they quote Sherrod as saying, “I got three calls from the White House. At one point they asked me to pull over to the side of the road and do it because you are going to be on Glenn Beck tonight.” Read More

Just so we’re all clear here: Andrew Breitbart admits he never saw the entire video of Shirley Sherrod’s speech, just the edited clips he was sent by a source.

Let that sink in for a bit.

Regardless of what the whole video turns out to show when we finally see it (and believe me, we’re working to get our hands on it), Breitbart never saw it.

It’s easy to pop Andrew Breitbart in this whole mess, but Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack isn’t exactly covering himself with glory. Vilsack was on CNN earlier essentially saying that it doesn’t matter whether Breitbart’s video turns out to be a bogus smear of Shirley Sherrod. No, Vilsack demanded Sherrod’s resignation because the whole episode could open her up to charges of racism in the future and impair her ability to do her job.

So I guess if I were to write that Tom Vilsack doesn’t have his people’s back and won’t even do a cursory investigation before throwing his employees to the wolves, then that could open him up to charges that he doesn’t have the confidence of USDA employees and impair his ability to do his job.

Dangerous logic.

As I’ve said all day, I want to see the unedited video of Shirley Sherrod before drawing a final conclusion. But the NAACP has now reviewed the unedited tape (as I understand it, they’ve actually listened to the audio) and based on its review released a statement saying it was “snookered by Fox News and Tea Party Activist Andrew Breitbart into believing she had harmed white farmers because of racial bias.”

NAACP President Ben Jealous, no doubt swallowing hard, admits, “Next time we are confronted by a racial controversy broken by Fox News or their allies in the Tea Party like Mr. Breitbart, we will consider the source and be more deliberate in responding.”

The NAACP may release the unedited video as early as this evening.

The NAACP has released the video of Shirley Sherrod’s speech, the most famous comments by a USDA official since the days of Earl Butz. Watch.

I’ll have more on this shortly, but Rachel Slajda has watched the entire thing and tells me it contains exactly what Sherrod claimed it would: her using an anecdote from her own life more than two decades ago to illustrate her own path to getting beyond race.

CNN had solid coverage throughout the day of the Breitbart/USDA smear, but this headline on John King’s blog seriously blows: “Breitbart helps spark debate on racism.”

Late Update: The Washington Post‘s, too: “Firing of USDA official highlights larger political problems involving race.”

RNC Chairman Michael Steele welcomes Gov. Joe Manchin (D-WV) to the race to succeed Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV): Read More

In the VA-05, a race we’ve been following closely as a canary in Democrats’ 2010 coalmine, freshman Rep. Tom Perriello (D) is down 23 points to state Sen. Robert Hurt (R), according to a new poll.

We now know that Andrew Breitbart’s selectively edited, Fox-amplified video of Shirley Sherrod is a vicious smear.

Does she get her job back?

You can see the results from tonight’s primary elections in Georgia on the TPM Scoreboard.