Derbyshire offers a nice reason for wishing she would have stayed fired:

“So: while you’re forming opinions on whether Andrew Breitbart did due diligence, whether the NAACP shot themselves in the foot, whether the White House ordered Ms. Sherrod’s firing, whether Bill O’Reilly committed journalistic malfeasance, and the other issues in the case, please don’t lose sight of this key fact: Positions at all levels in the federal bureaucracy — positions dispensing power, patronage, and huge sums of public money — are being filled by radical revolutionary leftists like Shirley Sherrod.”

That is a terrible and dismaying thing. Regardless of the nuances of this case, I hope Ms. Sherrod stays fired. I hope she never again controls the disbursement of public money or patronage power over public-sector jobs. People with her views, background, and connections should not be employed by the federal government.