give her a new job in another agency; she's clearly qualified and wise enough to fill important roles across the bureaucracy.
Where did I get such an arbitrary figure? It's just slightly under the average reward for wrongful termination settlements, and Shirley Sherrod was clearly, undisputably, wrongfully terminated.
The "video" in question was really another edited piece of garbage by Andrew Breitbart; Sherrod's employers COULD HAVE taken the time to review the
real video , but instead, harrassed her to resign, worried about what Beck or Hannity might think. Wrongful termination, and it's not really close.
Of course, everyone's backtracking, including the White House and the USDA (Sec. Vilsack).
Way to play right into their hands, guys. Way to believe Andrew Breitbart. Way to be soooooo rattled by the reverse-racism-bullshit-mantra that the Teabaggers/RW Talkheads spewed forth, that you immediately pressured Ms. Sherrod to resign; Ms. Sherrod, someone who has gone through racism herself and clearly, per her speech, learned that allowing negative experiences and racist biases to effect her and other's work was not the best way to move forward.
Now pay the woman.
EDIT: I realize that technically, Ms. Sherrod serves at the pleasure of the President, so "wrongful termination" in this case is not so much a legal argument, as it is an argument about what happens in the private sector when something so full of BS like this goes down. It's also meant to HONESTLY compensate her, instead of offering the job back, which would obviously be an impossible place for her now.
Kudos to Kossack Hey BB for pointing out the irony in "serving at the pleasure of the President" vs the White House's current stance on the situation.