Why does ACORN still matter? Two words – a name: Shirley Sherrod.

The one simple fact about the firing (yes … a coerced resignation is a firing) of Ms. Sherrod is this: It never should have happened! No amount of mea culpas or apologies or even rehiring Shirley can negate this reality.

This whole incident isn’t about Breitbart or the radical right wing lie & smear machine. We already knew they were full of shit. This incident is about a cowardly Obama administration that has shown itself to be lacking in judgment and ready to make kneejerk reactive decisions based upon wholly manufactured evidence. Imagine if we’d been talking about … oh … how about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq Iran some far off nation?

But at least the headline this morning in the Times Argus is “Mea culpa, White House apologizes to fired Ag worker”.

Welch is a totally different story. It’s been the better part of a year since Welch joined his radical right wing lie & smear machine buddies in Congress and attacked the grass roots organization ACORN based entirely on manufactured video evidence and other lies (voting issues, misuse of government funds). Yet the weasel Welch still stands by the lies even though the lies have been publicly exposed! (see this GMD post for audio from a recent Mark Johnson Show providing irrefutable evidence of Welch’s bullshit).

Just as nobody bothered to do even the most cursory fact checking before Shirley Sherrod was sacked from her job; the weasel Welch never bothered to say “You know, as an experienced prosecutor I know the importance of facts when it comes to damning people. I want to see the evidence supporting the claims before I make a judgment on the floor of the House – before I attack a grass roots organization that has done so much to help empower the dis-empowered.”

A simple step for someone with Welch’s experience, yet one he freely and openly refused to take … and refuses to take to this day.

Okay, this whole sordid Shirley Sherrod affair can be written off as a major fuck up with lessons hopefully learned. But the weasel welch continues with his lie based attacks on ACORN. No lessons learned or acknowledgment of poor judgment and worse actions.

Welch is much, much worse. Welch is simply doing a Tricky Dicky Cheney dance (ala Iraqi WMD) and just keeps insisting that despite mountains of evidence proving him wrong that he, Welch, was correct.

Lack of judgment and lack of credibility. That is the phrase that best describes Peter Welch. And he won’t even apologize for it. Those like Welch do not belong in Congress.