Sherrod turns down USDA job

Shirley Sherrod, the former Georgia Director of Rural Development for the Agriculture Department, who was fired from her post last month amid a controversy over remarks she had made on racial issues, has declined an offer to return to the department.

In a press conference on Tuesday with USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack at Agriculture headquarters in Washington, Sherrod said she had turned down two different jobs from the agency.

"I need to take a break from some of all I've had to deal with in the last few weeks," Sherrod said, according to a Washington Post report. She said she hopes to maintain "some kind of relationship" with the department.

The jobs offered were deputy director of the USDA Office of Advocacy and Outreach in Washington, and a senior position in the department's Georgia office.

Sherrod came under fire for comments she made at a March NAACP conference -- which were taped and widely circulated -- that critics initially called racist. As a member of an anti-poverty group 20 years ago, Sherrod said, she denied a white farmer full assistance.

But in extended comments heard only in the full videotape, she said she later helped the farmer, and she used the example to underscore that her job was to help poor farmers regardless of race.

Vilsack moved quickly to ask Sherrod to resign when an edited excerpt of the video was made public, then a day later said it was a mistake and offered her the civil rights job.

He took full responsibility for Sherrod's firing Tuesday, Fox News reported. "I disappointed the president, I disappointed this administration, I disappointed the country, I disappointed Shirley. I have to live with that," Vilsack said.

Jerry Hagstrom contributed to this report.