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‘Sources Say’

By on 11.1.11 @ 6:10AM

Herman Cain meets the D.C. media’s scandal factory.

Gospel singer Dottie Rambo had written more than 2,000 songs by the time she died in 2008, but she remains best known for a 1970 hymn based on the Irish folk tune “Londonderry Air” (the same melody as “Danny Boy”) which got a memorable performance Monday. “‘Amazing Grace’ will always be my song of praise, for it was grace that bought my liberty,” Herman Cain sang in his warm baritone as he closed his speech at the National Press Club with the chorus that ends, “He looked beyond my faults and saw my need.”

Whatever his faults, Cain’s need as a Republican presidential candidate Monday in Washington was to deny previously private accusations of sexual harassment dating back at least a dozen years which publicly surfaced Sunday in a Politico story headlined: “Exclusive: 2 women accused Herman Cain of inappropriate behavior.” It was one of the most curious articles in the history of political scandals: The article did not name the accusers, reported to be former employees of the National Restaurant Association, where the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO was president from 1996 to 1999, and the description of Cain’s alleged offenses was maddeningly vague. Cain was reportedly accused of “episodes that left the women upset and offended” and “physical gestures that were not overtly sexual but that made women who experienced or witnessed them uncomfortable and that they regarded as improper in a professional relationship.” The article also described “conversations allegedly filled with innuendo or personal questions of a sexually suggestive nature,” and quoted one second-hand source about an allegation of “an unwanted sexual advance” from Cain.

Without anything more specific — and especially without any comment from the accusers, who reportedly signed confidentiality agreements as part of severance agreements with the restaurant association — such accusations would be impossible to disprove, but can be denied, and this was what Cain was expected to do Monday. “In all of my over 40 years of business experience, running businesses and corporations, I have never sexually harassed anyone,” Cain told the capacity crowd at the National Press Club. He said he had been “falsely accused” and that when the accusation was made, “I recused myself and allowed my general counsel and human resource officer to handle it.” As for the reported settlement, Cain said, “I hope it wasn’t for much because I didn’t do anything.”

Buried far down in the 2,100-word Politico article, below all the allegations from unnamed sources, were the names of five former officials of the National Restaurant Association who worked with Cain during his tenure there, and who said the harassment allegations — which they had previously never heard — were entirely uncharacteristic of the man they knew and admired. Denise Marie Fugo praised Cain as “very gracious,” and Mary Ann Cricchio said, “Herman treated everyone great.” So the accusers in the scandal remain anonymous, as do Politico’s secondary sources, while everyone actually named in the story had only kind words for Cain.

Politico said it had been pursuing the story for “several weeks.” Cain’s spokesman, J.D. Gordon, said other news organizations had previously inquired about the harassment allegations and declined to pursue the story. And while Politico said it had a “half-dozen sources” for its article, those sources did not seem to include the two women who reportedly made the accusations and received termination settlements of more than $10,000 (or, as the article said “in the five-figure range”) from the restaurant association. Although the women apparently did not talk to Politico, the reporters wrote that they had “seen documentation describing the allegations,” thus raising the question: Where did this story come from?

The natural suspicion with any such story is that someone was shopping around opposition research, the dossiers of negative material that campaigns routinely compile on their rivals. Yet those who push “oppo” to reporters are generally careful to do so in ways that don’t leave their campaign’s fingerprints, especially on a story as explosive as this one. In response to questions Monday at the Press Club, Cain said he had no idea whether one of his Republican opponents had pushed the story — a “witch hunt,” he called it. In an impromptu press conference prior to Cain’s speech, his campaign chief of staff, Mark Block, also refused to speculate on that topic. “I would find it hard to believe that anybody with another campaign would do that,” Block said. “But then again, this is politics.”

Indeed, it is politics, where long-ago complaints by former employees can be dredged up and turned into a scandal reported hourly by the cable news networks. And it is politics, where few reporters took notice when Karol Markowicz, who worked closely with Cain on his 2004 Senate campaign in Georgia, strongly defended him in a series of Twitter messages Sunday evening. “I don’t believe…that Cain behaved inappropriately.… He never even bordered on inappropriate in the slightest,” she wrote, adding that she “just can’t believe there’s anything to the charges.” Markowicz called into Mark Levin’s nationally syndicated radio show Monday evening to reiterate her defense of Cain, but other than by me and the Weekly Standard’s Michael Warren, this obviously relevant testimonial was ignored by the press. Meanwhile, on MSNBC — which showed no interest at all in Markowicz or anyone else vouching for Cain’s good character — Chris Matthews offered one of the Politico reporters “congratulations on breaking this story.”

How much “this story” hurts Herman Cain’s presidential campaign remains to be seen. It is highly unlikely that his accusers will remain anonymous much longer. Reporters will find the women and name them and, without regard to confidentiality agreements, the accusers’ stories will be told somehow. At that point, voters will be able to evaluate the credibility of the accusers and the severity of their accusations in a way they cannot do now, when all they have is “sources say” and vague descriptions of what it is Cain is alleged to have done.

The political scandal factory will keep grinding away, but Cain was smiling Monday at the Press Club when he described the bull’s-eye on his back as the Republican front-runner. Still narrowly leading former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the RealClearPolitics national poll average, and even narrowly ahead of Texas Gov. Rick Perry in Texas, Cain has already survived three weeks atop the GOP field. After the Politico story went online Sunday evening, his supporters began spontaneously organizing prayer circles on Cain’s behalf, although his ascent to this point has already seemed miraculous enough.

The Iowa caucuses are barely two months away. If this potentially damaging scandal doesn’t take him down, it may actually enhance Cain’s reputation as a conservative invulnerable to the kind of assaults that the media will surely aim at President Obama’s Republican challenger in 2012. Winning that kind of reputation by surviving such a difficult ordeal would an amazing outcome, although not quite as amazing as the grace that Cain praised in his song at the National Press Club — a performance for which he received a standing ovation. 

About the Author

Robert Stacy McCain is co-author (with Lynn Vincent) of Donkey Cons: Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Democratic Party (Nelson Current). He blogs at The Other McCain.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (171) |

terry walsh| 11.1.11 @ 12:45AM

Thank you Mr. McCain for,per usual, being waaaaay out front on important issues.

Bystander| 11.1.11 @ 7:02AM

It's not a scandal to hang out with terrorist bombers, racist preachers, and Chicago mobsters if you're a Democrat. It's OK to ruin the economy
as long as you are for abortion and sodomy. Those are the issues that really matter.

Tina B| 11.1.11 @ 7:44AM

By,

That is so true it makes me want to puke.

ENOUGH ROPE| 11.1.11 @ 8:17PM

We right of center folks vastly outnumber the leftists in the Marxist Main Stream Media and the Democratic Party. Why don't we wake up and boycott the MMSM, which will put them out of business? When the Poles assembled to greet John Paul II, they realized they far outnumbered their Communist tyrants and liars whom they overthrew. We can do the same to the MMSM and the Democratic and Republican ruling elites.

Jack in Wi| 11.1.11 @ 9:32PM

I have read that the National Resturant Assoc. paid off 2 sexual harassment claims because of Herman Cain. If true, this guy has a lot of explaining to do. Cain and Gingrich are giving the GOP as bad a name as Clinton and Barney Frank have given to the Democrats.

Maddox| 11.1.11 @ 10:49AM

Yes, in fact, this attempted smear of Cain should garner more votes from those who usually vote Democrat. Based on past elections, questions of virtue and morality are attractive to them.

loulou| 11.1.11 @ 11:41AM

You can even kill/drown a woman.

cuban pete| 11.1.11 @ 3:36PM

Slight clarification loulou. Teddy did not drown the young woman. He left her in the car to suffocate, which is a longer and more terrifying way to die.

Kingofthenet| 11.1.11 @ 5:30PM

He got into an accident and was hurt and disoriented, I am sure you as a Navy Seal would have saved her, us mere mortals have it tougher.

Al Adab| 11.1.11 @ 5:35PM

Sorry King, that is over the top and makes you a despicable apologist. At least operate on truth once in a while, OK?

idalily| 11.1.11 @ 7:44PM

Yet he was not so hurt or disoriented that he couldn't leave the scene. And let's not even talk about his intoxication level before he plunged off the bridge.

cuban pete| 11.1.11 @ 8:46PM

I would not have passed four houses with lights on where I could have asked that para-medics be called to come to the scene.

W| 11.1.11 @ 10:29PM

"He got into an accident"
King: You lose credibility with each comment. Teddy was drunk, drove off the bridge into the lake, swam out to safety, left Mary Joe to die, sat around with his advisors for over six (6) hours making up their story and drying out the alcohol, then called the police.
You do that and then report to us if the police give you only a traffic ticket.

skip| 11.1.11 @ 11:12PM

Kingoftheidiots,

There is evidence on record that he telephoned his motel management at 3:00 am that night complaining that guests in an adjacent room were too loud and were preventing him from being able to sleep.

All liberals are pathetic and despicable, it's not just you and Ted.

vtwin| 11.1.11 @ 12:11PM

This is regurgitated crap that Sean Hannity pulled out of his butt. Taste good?

DTOM| 11.1.11 @ 12:25PM

Too bad for the country that you are not correct vtwin.

Grzmlyk| 11.1.11 @ 1:07PM

A liberal is a liberal is a liberal.

The enemy of liberalism is truth. You people are either lying to yourselves or lying to the outside world, but, either way, you are nothing - NOTHING - but cowardly liars. Your ideals are lies, your values are lies, your utopias are lies, your compassionate acts are lies, your gestures of caring for anything but your own cheap, tawdry moral vanity are lies.

And you can be as greedy, corrupt, racist, ignorant, angry, violent, selfish, lascivious, puerile and covetous as you want - all you have to do is spout liberal platitudes and the liberal culture/media nexus gives you carte blanche to indulge your every narcissistic, nihilisitic whim, no matter the destruction and misery you leave in your wake - which you promptly blame on conservatives.

All of your fellow travelers in this orgy of self-aggrandizement wink and nod and praise you as "good" (which, of course, redounds to them) - when in fact you the most diseased blight on this planet mankind has ever seen.

This is why the piece of human excrement that is Barack Obama and his Marie Antoinette wife are the perfect face of the Democrat party. Embodied in that execrable little non-entity and his partner in corruption is every liberal ideal in all its hypocritical, self-serving, vacuous, doctrinaire, angry glory.

Everything that is wrong with the decaying West today can be summed up in one word: Liberalism.

Delta Zelda| 11.1.11 @ 2:34PM

Amen! Beautifully phrased.

Al Adab| 11.1.11 @ 3:17PM

GRZ:
"A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man...which debt he proposes to pay with your money."

A Conservative Christian| 11.1.11 @ 4:26PM

May I ask a favor of all of you.

Can we please speak more like our sweet Lord Jesus Christ instead of braying back and forth like the late Leona Helmsley, AKA Queen of Mean.

And please show some respect for Brenda L. She's a human being made in the image of God!

Please! Words that wound are out of place here. Before you post, just think of the sweet baby Jesus.

Mrs Vito| 11.1.11 @ 4:48PM

C.C., apparently you haven't suffered enough fools like the rest of us...

A Conservative Christian| 11.1.11 @ 4:54PM

"He who calls his brother a fool is in danger of hell fire."

Please be kinder to Brenda L. I'm sure she's a good person and has the Lord in her heart.

Al Adab| 11.1.11 @ 5:39PM

A CC:
I do not know Brenda or her relationship to The Lord nor will I judge her. Nonetheless her words and actions allow me to discern a spirit in opposition to reasoned debate. Such does not make her evil, simply wrong.

Simon Templar| 11.2.11 @ 2:10AM

ACC,
Actually, I would like to ask you a greater favor.
I would like you to discern the difference between the truth and a lie, the difference between righteous indignation and slander, between truthful witness and bearing false witness.

You say speak more like our sweet J.C.,and just which speech are you refering to....the speech condeming the pharisees and calling them white washed tombs filled with vipers or the the speech refering to 'you are sons of darkness.'

Sweet baby jesus grew up to be a man of great conviction that did not shy away from calling a spade a spade when he saw one. He came to bear witness to the TRUTH not to make people feel better about themselves or avoid hurting people's feelings. Yes, there is always good reason to avoid unnecessary and UNWARANTED name calling or harsh words that serve no purpose but to do harm. To avoid all meaness and possibility of offense is not only childish but does not serve the greater purpose of revealing the truth.

Grzmlyk| 11.2.11 @ 12:52PM

Bravo, Simon!

IMHO, treacly little Christians who want to live in a fairy land of nothing but hugs and kisses are no different from delusional liberals.

My god, ACC, get your head out of your holier-than-thou ass and see life the way Jesus meant you to see it.

Kingofthenet| 11.1.11 @ 5:32PM

Yeah How DARE he care about the little guy, He should do like a good Republican and wait until his wife is seriously ill and present her with divorce papers.

idalily| 11.1.11 @ 7:48PM

Oh, please. Liberals "care about the little guy" so much they have destroyed inner cities to inhabitable levels, rended the fabric of the nuclear family apart beyond repair and killed 40 million babies. I guess fetuses aren't "little guys."

W| 11.1.11 @ 10:32PM

King, you mean like John Edwards and have an affair, have a child, pay it all with campaign expenses, while his wife has cancer, and meanwhile talk about two Americas?

Aces and Eights| 11.2.11 @ 12:22AM

The notion that ANY liberal cares about any "little guy" is ludicrous. Liberals CREATE poverty and EXPAND poverty because they NEED poor people. Without the "poor" there would be no need for liberals, so liberals subsidize poverty in order to breed poor people like cattle to be reliable Democrat voters. Perhaps you haven't noticed but the more money that is spent on "fighting poverty" the more poverty there is. Face it Mr. Kingofthenet, you have failed. Your liberal heroes are corrupt and self serving. And you, quite frankly, are not very bright.

Alan Brooks| 11.1.11 @ 9:55AM

Nothing wrong with Cain (I don't give a sh*t about the allegations), but nothing was really wrong with Bush, either, or his father, or Gerald Ford for that matter.
However I wont vote for those sort of candidates- and never did.
I'm very pleased McCain did not win, and cringe at how embarrassing it would have been had the old fart from Phoenix won: McCain would have said some really asinine things. Hard to say what exactly, yet something along the lines of,

"the budget? well in 'Nam I would have sent a recon squad out to do some preliminaries; then we'd lay down a suppressing fire... think I'll get tough on the budget- go on the offensive..."

Back on-topic: I don't care if Cain slept with a hundred women employees or colleagues; I wouldn't vote for him even if he wore a chastity belt and ingested saltpeter all day long. IMO Cain is an Uncle
Tom who wants to placate blacks,
when the squeaky wheel gets the grease and always has.

I like Obama exponentially more than Cain.

DTOM| 11.1.11 @ 10:18AM

Alan, hello!

I share your distaste for Sen McCain's statism. Quick hypothetical question for you: If McCain had won in '08 and Pelosi and Reid delivered the 'ObamaCare' bill to his desk, would McCain have buckled under the media firestorm and signed it into law?

Second, exactly what do you mean by "Uncle Tom?" Serious question.

Alan Brooks| 11.1.11 @ 10:29AM

DTOM,
blacks have to pull every string to get ahead, as Italians did at one time- and so many others. The squeaky wheel DOES get the grease, and the only Earth the meek inherit is a paupers graves.
Don't argue with me about, I don't make the rules.

Alan Brooks| 11.1.11 @ 10:31AM

It is self-evident:
the only Earth the meek inherit is in fact paupers' graves.
If blacks hadn't rebelled in the '60s, they would have been left out of more of the goodies that whites get.

DTOM| 11.1.11 @ 12:14PM

So do you think McCain would ahve signed the bill or not?

I just asked for a simple definition of an "Uncle Tom."

These questions can't be too complicated, can they?

Warrior | 11.1.11 @ 5:33PM

McCain would have enabled the bill to be even worse than the one signed. In his reaching across the aisle, he would have dragged a few RINOs with him which would have ensured the public option plus a swifter implementation as the Democrats would not have had to wait until after the 2012 elections for all the bad crap to completely flatline the industry and our economy. They would also have enough cover for a cap and trade scheme along with an amnesty agreement.

shermbodius rides again!| 11.1.11 @ 12:26PM

AB your obviously a troll and an idiot as well.
Other than that, why are you not at the OWS rallies?

Drunken Sailor| 11.1.11 @ 12:13PM

Talk about a hypocrite.
"Cain is an Uncle
Tom who wants to placate blacks,
when the squeaky wheel gets the grease and always has.

I like Obama exponentially more than Cain."

You say Cain only wants to placate the black vote? What in the hell do you call Obama's politics except placating the blacks, hispanics and class warfare lowlifes?

Consertive View| 11.1.11 @ 4:23PM

Uncle Tom Defined

Lets define a term here, the term Uncle Tom. Today it seems to be use to discribe a black male who has embraced the "white" agenda. We need look at that "white" agenda.

Point one: Education. The "white agenda" seems to be for education. That is an education that leads to a job that gets a black out of the projects and into a higher quality of life.

Point two: Upward mobility. That is a life within a job that allows for a significant improvement over time in the quality of life.

Point three: Freedom/equality. That is a life where you are free to think your own thoughts based on a rational inspection of facts. It is an equality in respect of ideas and worth of labour.

Now, lets look at Uncle Tom here, Allen. Just which of these qualities do you think Obama does not posesses? Is he not educated, upward moble, free and respected? Aren't these just exactly the qualities that Martin L. King wanted for black America? Now Allen, just which of these qualities does Herman Cain not posesses? Aren't these just exactly the qualities that you wish every black male in America to strive for, to earn on his own? Or do you believe that thise things can be handed to a man?

Allen, you might want to rethink your position. If Herman Cain is an Uncle Tom it is only because he wants what Martin L. King wanted, that blacks in America have the chance to earn for themselves all those blessings of education, mobility, freedom so long enjoied by whites. If that is Uncle Tomism then I'm all in favor of it. Certainly Uncle Sam hasn't done a thing for me sense Obama took office.

Annie Mae Meeshaw| 11.1.11 @ 5:59PM

It behooves me to point out that there are too many potty mouths on here. Watch your tongue.

Annie Mae Meeshaw| 11.1.11 @ 6:11PM

For the love of God, is it too much to ask that we use a civil tone? Civility please!

chuck| 11.1.11 @ 9:35PM

Read some history, especially about the founding fathers. Their political discourse makes this look civil. The political tone hear is as American as Mom and apple pie.
Deal with it.

Is that civil enough for you?

idalily| 11.1.11 @ 7:49PM

Alan: "I like Obama exponentially more than Cain."

Why? Try to be specific.

James | 11.1.11 @ 3:17PM

Very, very thank you Mr. McCain!!!!

Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 11.1.11 @ 6:17AM

Before it's all over the Lily Ledbetter Law and others like it will destroy another 10 million jobs in America.

Alan Brooks| 11.1.11 @ 11:33AM

Mona Charen wtote the following, so it can't be said to be any sort of a 'she wanted it' thing:
"[snip] just because the well-worn tactic of digging up dirt on candidates is abhorrent, and just because the press dashes around with its hair on fire whenever one of these juicy targets presents itself, doesn’t mean you can dismiss the accusations altogether.

I say that because the Cain campaign has not, thus far, handled this predictable emergency well — perhaps due to political inexperience, or perhaps for some other reason. Cain did not immediately deny the accusations. Instead, he sent his spokesman, J. D. Gordon, to Fox News, where he offered the kind of responses associated with, well, guilt. “These are thinly sourced allegations. . . . These two sources aren’t even named in the [Politico] piece. It was a third party.”

This sounds like one of those showdowns in crime dramas in which the detective confronts the villain with the accusation of murder and instead of denying it, he sneers, “You can’t prove that.” You don’t have to be a cynic to notice that, according to Politico, the women themselves are not permitted to discuss the matter. So to say that because the information came from a “third party” it is therefore not credible, seems a little slippery.

Pressed by Geraldo Rivera about whether it was true or false that two female employees of the National Restaurant Association had received settlements in connection with harassment claims, Gordon offered a non sequitur, noting that major news organizations had previously passed on this story. Asked again whether the National Restaurant Association had settled with two women who alleged sexual harassment by Cain when he headed the organization in the 1990s, “yes or no,” Gordon sidestepped the question, saying this was a “scare campaign” and offering that “you’ll have to ask the Restaurant Association.” Uh oh.

The following day, appearing at the American Enterprise Institute, Mr. Cain declined to take questions on the matter. Finally, later in the day, he told the National Press Club that “I was falsely accused while I was at the National Restaurant Association, and I say falsely because it turned out after the investigation to be baseless. Never have I ever committed any kind of sexual harassment.” I hope he’s telling the truth. But the locution “I say falsely because it turned out after the investigation to be baseless” leaves one queasy. A falsely accused person doesn’t need to wait for an investigation to issue a passionate denial.

It’s certainly possible that the Restaurant Association agreed to settlements to avoid costly litigation. That happens. But no one in the Cain camp is saying that.

This may be just another in a long string of character-assassination attempts against conservatives. It’s also possible that Cain is playing that angle to avoid the truth."

— Mona Charen

DTOM| 11.1.11 @ 12:28PM

Do you dismiss allegations when those making them will neither name themselves, give any specifics or details, nor face any questions?

[Or is the seriousness of the charge what makes it important?]

[sarcasm enclosed, fyi]

Al Adab| 11.1.11 @ 4:23PM

Sources say:
1. B. Obama was raised and educated Moslem in Indonesia.
2. B. Obama has no birth certificate.
3. B. Obama has a Conneticut SSN while having never lived in CN.
4. B. Obama is a follower and devotee of Bill Ayers and B. Dorn.
5. B. Obama wishes harm to America
etc. etc. etc. Sources say

Frank Drackman| 11.1.11 @ 7:10AM

What REAL man hasn't offended a woman or two(hundred)???
Ted Kennedy for instance, I'm sure Mary Joe Kopeckney was really offended while she was asphyxiating(Not Drowning, there's a difference)
And yeah, as a young Doctor I was admonished for some Double Entedre' with a SYT(Sweet Young Thang) Nurse..
OK, she was a Candystriper, Morman, and maybe I did say I'd make her come like the friggin Morman Pumpernickle Choir, I was JOKING for Jehovah's sake...
I left women whimpering and crying after sex, still do.
No violence, Drugs either, that's why they whimpered and cried.
And thank god it was 1989, and Medical Training hadn't become the Istanbul Bizarre it is now-a-days.
Seriously, the last PCP my Insurance assigned me was from Instanbul, and definately bizzarre.
And I only go to him cause its unethical to write your own Rxs...
and I'd vote for friggin John Wayne Gacy if he was right on the issues...

Frank

Brenda L.| 11.1.11 @ 10:44AM

"What REAL man hasn't offended a woman or two (hundred)?" I'm sure Frank Drackman is a REAL man (disgusting expression) and has come on to many women in the most repulsive manner.

Cain has that randy look about him--randy and ready, just like Justice Thomas of the Supremes Court. Yes, he looks like he's eager and capable of sexual harrassment.

In my experience, conservative men are more disrespectful to women than liberal men. This has been my experience, like it or not.

Conservative men are more likely to consider women "inferior." This, I think, explains it.

Finrod| 11.1.11 @ 11:32AM

So you're going to convict Cain based on his looks.

How does this make you any better than the conservative men you're denigrating?

In my experience, liberal women are much more clueless and shallow than conservative women.

loulou| 11.1.11 @ 11:39AM

Brenda, you're exactly the type to make a frivolous lawsuit because a real man ignored you.

Are you aware that you seem to have the hots for Cain AND Justice Thomas. You better do some soul searching. Your babblings reveal a lot.

Mike A Loeb| 11.1.11 @ 11:51AM

That's because liberal men are basically women.

Drunken Sailor| 11.1.11 @ 12:16PM

Brenda,
Your a fool. Even if a man treats a woman as "Inferior" that does not constitute sexual harrasement. It may make him a Chauvinist but he isn't accused of that because sexual harrasement carries a much larger social punishment. You are comparing apples to oranges.

DTOM| 11.1.11 @ 12:17PM

Brenda L;

Please provide some basis for your stereotyopical characterization of conservative men's attitudes towards women.

And it can't start with, "Everyone knows..."

Brenda L.| 11.1.11 @ 1:08PM

How you posters do go on!

You can rant and rave all you like, but what I said is the truth about Cain and Justice Thomas (porno addict) of The Supremes Court.

They are two randy rowdies with women's vaginas on their minds. And just to let you know, I was an actress in a production of The Vagina Monologues, and I got good reviews.

Great reviews!

Brenda L.| 11.1.11 @ 1:09PM

But you would have never heard of the play The Vagina Molologues, would you?

Drunken Sailor| 11.1.11 @ 1:56PM

You mean that crap about the vagina as a tool of female empowerment that noted feminist Betty Dodson and Wendy McElroy blastes as being hateful of men and heterosexual relations? That play? Yea, but just how does memorizing and reading lines for a play make you a expert on sexual harrasement to the extent you can unerringly spot a sexual harraser by looking at them.

Feminist idiot.

Grzmlyk| 11.1.11 @ 1:58PM

An actress! GET OUT! Who'd a thunk it? Gee, you sound like a rocket scientist. Really, you do. And here I thought actresses were narcissistic fools whose brains are not attached to anything.

You know, I knew a "Brenda L" once. She had beady eyes and was a typical, ignorant, uneducated, bigoted lesbian who hated men.

Being an excellent deductive reasoner, I realized that all "Brenda L's" are beady-eyed, typical, ignorant, uneducated, bigoted lesbians who hate men.

They just have that look about them, you know?

And you know what these beady-eyed, typical, ignorant, uneducated, bigoted, lesbians who hate men are always thinking about? You guessed it: Penises.

If "Brenda L" weren't a beady-eyed, typical, ignorant, uneducated, bigoted lesbian who hates men, I'd suggest she take in my play, titled "The Penis Monologues."

But she's too beady-eyed, typical, ignorant, uneducated, bigoted and hateful of half the people on this planet to appreciate my artistic statement.

So, who gave you good reviews? The Sapphic Tribune? Man-hater Monthly? The "If I Only Had a Penis Review?" I know - it was your cat.

Grzmlyk| 11.1.11 @ 1:58PM

An actress! GET OUT! Who'd a thunk it? Gee, you sound like a rocket scientist. Really, you do. And here I thought actresses were narcissistic fools whose brains are not attached to anything.

You know, I knew a "Brenda L" once. She had beady eyes and was a typical, ignorant, uneducated, bigoted lesbian who hated men.

Being an excellent deductive reasoner, I realized that all "Brenda L's" are beady-eyed, typical, ignorant, uneducated, bigoted lesbians who hate men.

They just have that look about them, you know?

And you know what these beady-eyed, typical, ignorant, uneducated, bigoted, lesbians who hate men are always thinking about? You guessed it: Penises.

If "Brenda L" weren't a beady-eyed, typical, ignorant, uneducated, bigoted lesbian who hates men, I'd suggest she take in my play, titled "The Penis Monologues."

But she's too beady-eyed, typical, ignorant, uneducated, bigoted and hateful of half the people on this planet to appreciate my artistic statement.

So, who gave you good reviews? The Sapphic Tribune? Man-hater Monthly? The "If I Only Had a Penis Review?" I know - it was your cat.

Dai Alanye | 11.1.11 @ 3:26PM

Brenda L. should post her photo online to allow us to do a character analysis. Based on her posts she is irrational and excitable, but I don't want to draw a final conclusion without viewing her face.

P. S.: Try not to look "randy" when the picture is snapped, Brenda.

Al Adab| 11.1.11 @ 4:24PM

Dai:
I thought that was Brenda on the cover of Blood and Earth.

Bydand76| 11.1.11 @ 1:20PM

Well Brenda,

I am sure former President Bill Clinton agrees with you one hundred percent.

Sorry, but you would'nt know the "truth" if it slapped you upside your monologued empty head.

Quit smoking the cat food please.
Thanks.

Brenda L.| 11.1.11 @ 3:16PM

Wantcha join me in singing Swanee River.

Everybody ready? I know all you rednecks know the words:

Way down upon the Swanee River,
Far, far away,
There's where my heart is . . .

And then we'll sing about Ol' Black Joe

Gone are the days when my heart was young . . .
I hear those gentle voices calling, Ol' Black Joe . . .
I'm comin', I'm comin'

Y'all sho do sound pretty harmonizing together.

The First Live Performance of The American Spectator Integrated Chorus!

Shalom!| 11.1.11 @ 3:21PM

You're singing two of Ben Stein's favorite songs!

Ben frequents a piano bar near the Watergate, and he always makes requests for Swanee River and Old Black Joe.

Ben sits there with tears streaming down his cheeks as the pianist (an arthritic octogenarian with flaming red hair and eye makeup smeared to her ears) bangs it out on the Yamaha.

What a sight!

Shalom!| 11.1.11 @ 3:24PM

And I forgot to add that Ben is sometimes accompanied by The Supremes Court Justice Thomas, who sings loudly and lustily. Nice baritone voice.

Al Adab| 11.1.11 @ 3:21PM

My dear Brenda,
Do you mean to imply that there is a moral flaw in Stephen Foster? I thought any form of art overcame any implied failing of the person or artist. While your posts are interesting, they reveal a significant bias against Reason and in favor of emotionalism as the basis for decision making.

Grzmlyk| 11.1.11 @ 4:21PM

Al, I hate to disagree with you, but Brenda L's posts are interesting?

I guess they're instructive - the mindless mind of a harebrained liberal on display.

One can see how effectively her degree in African Women's Studies has taught her to think.

Her posts are bales of bigotry, held together by platitudes, prejudices and stereotypes - plain and simple.

I've always wondered about people like her - cookie cutter liberals who never allow a thought to walk across the pristine fields of their empty minds - feel on their deathbeds. Does it occur to them that they've wasted their entire lives as insensate pawns of a ruthless power structure they thought was benevolent?

Al Adab| 11.1.11 @ 4:26PM

OK Grz, I'll go with instructive.

Grzmlyk| 11.1.11 @ 3:37PM

You are a stupid, foolish, bigoted, hateful, lesbian.

Why do you hate men?

Daddy issues?

I'm KIDDING! I'm with you, Brenda L, performance artist and deep-thinking actress.

Just between you and me: Can you believe them uppity blacks who don't know their place on the liberal plantation??!

I mean, golly, the Great Society has spent 50 years and $6 trillion of taxpayer money building it.

Them negroes, am I right? All they need to worry about is having more Democrat babies, getting in line for their welfare checks and to keep hating Whitey - especially those evil Republican white crackers who don't hand out food stamps or buy their hip hop records or worship thuggish behavior. After all, that's what blacks DO, am I right?

All we ask is that they vote Democrat every election. I'll tell you, in my day, when an uppity black like Herman Cain didn't say yessuh and nosuh to the nearest Democrat politician, we gave 'em whatfer.

Ah, the good old days, eh, Brenda L?

W| 11.1.11 @ 3:30PM

Brenda,
So Cain and Thomas have that randy and ready look. Can you give us more detail on the features of this look so we can spot these men. Please give us some facts.

idalily| 11.2.11 @ 4:09PM

You are asking a liberal loon for facts. Please get a grip here. Liberals don't care about facts. If they did, Detroit wouldn't continue to be a cesspool ghetto pulling the handle for Dems year after year after year. Liberalism is a cult. There is no hope for Brenda. Give it up, W.

Should Have Impeached| 11.1.11 @ 3:34PM

Hmmm.... So how do Al Gore and Bill Clinton look?

(Oops. Slap my wrist!)

Al Adab| 11.1.11 @ 5:41PM

"Methinks Cassius has a mean and hungry look."

chuck| 11.1.11 @ 9:39PM

That's because liberal men are squirrely, like Woody Allen, or gay.

Michael Tomlinson| 11.1.11 @ 7:25AM

While Herman Cain readily gave credence to a WAPO smear job of Rick Perry I'm glad his Republican opponents are holding their fire on this alleged case of sexual misconduct. IF true (a sizeable IF considering POLITICO is a Democrat tool) GOP primary voters will weigh the “evidence” and decide if there is enough fire to the Democrat’s smoke to vote against him. (Though Cain’s calling service or volunteers need to stop their harassing calls to Republicans without responding when the phone is answered. Having to track down the callers to determine who was making these rude calls was unsat.)

As for Democrats and their media goons who defended a sexual predator for eight years of the Clinton occupation of the White House their opinions are irrelevant. Republican standards of conduct are always higher than Democrats – compare how Democrats defended homosexual pimp Barney Frank or homosexual pedophile Gary Studds to how Republican Mark Foley reacted to a media manufactured “scandal” about his homosexuality and his e-mails to adult homosexuals. When Democrats hold their sexual predators (a sizable number of their Congressional members) to an evenhanded standard then they can discuss Republican’s behavior. Until then they need to clean up their own closets.

Jack in Wi| 11.1.11 @ 8:08AM

Sensible comments Mr. Tomlinson. Herman Cain should be defeated for his wacky ideas not untrue charges of sexual harrassment. But if true let them come out now. I sure won't vote for Herman Cain ever.

Drunken Sailor| 11.1.11 @ 12:53PM

I am so stunned.

Clint| 11.1.11 @ 1:31PM

You're Drunk.

Drunken Sailor| 11.1.11 @ 1:57PM

And your a fanatical idiot, but at least I can sober up.

Al Adab| 11.1.11 @ 2:20PM

DS: What was it Winston Churchill said at a dinner one time when the woman seated next to him said, "Sir, you are drunk"? He replied, "Yes madam, but in the morning I shall be sober yet you will still be ugly."

Drunken Sailor| 11.1.11 @ 2:40PM

Al, you nailed it and that is the reason he his one of my top ten idols.
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.
Winston Churchill


Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quo.....z1cTqzVa83

Al Adab| 11.1.11 @ 2:48PM

Maybe DS, Jack and Clint could use a good stiff belt.

Drunken Sailor| 11.1.11 @ 4:28PM

In a glass or to the jaw? Tough call

Clint| 11.1.11 @ 5:09PM

Soooo, You Admit That You're A Drunk.

The Big Yellow Drunken Sailor Bus Calls The Lemon Pie Yellow.

You're The Fixated RINO-CINO,Who Obsessively Attacks Our Co-FavoriteTea Party Presidential Candidate Dr.Ron Paul.

The Tea Party Rebellion Is Here.

Al Adab| 11.1.11 @ 5:42PM

Clint: ??

IMKessel| 11.1.11 @ 7:50AM

Without a single declared source, the mainstream press is reporting and repeating allegations against Cain -- in a word creating the very "crisis" they are reporting on. This is the same lame stream press that ignored Bill Clinton's "indiscretions", before and during, his presidency. The same moronic media mainstream that oft said "What happens behind closed (White House) doors is not the public's business. Is the main difference Clinton was liberal -- or was it that Bill Clinton was a white man?

Tom Foley| 11.1.11 @ 9:58AM

Whether the allegations are true or false does not matter. What is important is the seriousness of the charge.

IMKessel| 11.1.11 @ 1:56PM

I don't understand your point.

I can stand in a room with a woman and she can scream rape. That I am in the room only shows I had opportunity, but the charge is still baseless and a disgusting lie. Fortunately, I live in America and the presumption of innocence reigns. Herman Cain deserves the same presumption of innocence. If he were a Dem, the press would give him his due. He's not. They don't.

DTOM| 11.1.11 @ 7:05PM

Tom;

When you are being sarcastic, try the new AS sarcasm indicator, thusly: [It's really complicated!]

Isn't this fun.

[sarcasm enclosed.]

POST American| 11.1.11 @ 7:55AM

"The Federal Reserve has given so
many BILLIONS to (NAZI) Germany that
they DARE NOT name the total."
-REP. Charles McFadden
1935
(---during the very height
of the FED orchestrated
'Great Depression')

------------------HER-MAN CAIN-----------------------
-------------------------is the-------------------------------
----------------Rockefeller-ROT-child------------------
------------------------Globalist---------------------------
--------------------TREASONOUS-----------------------
--------------------------'FED'------------------------------

John Daniel| 11.1.11 @ 8:10AM

Why doesn't he use this as a teaching moment? Presume the case was settled for a nominal amount to avoid the costs of litigation. These types of allegations are what give nuisance suits thier name....

Mike 3/505| 11.1.11 @ 9:43AM

John,

Great idea.

Regards,

Mike

Clint| 11.1.11 @ 8:16AM

" Cain’s TARP talk, praise of the Fed could hurt him with conservative voters
By Cameron Joseph - 10/13/11 08:38 PM ET

Businessman Herman Cain has shot to the top of the polls with support from Tea Party members, but his backing of the Troubled Asset Relief Program and opposition to auditing the Federal Reserve could hurt him with those same voters.

Levi Russell, the spokesman for the fiscally conservative group Americans for Prosperity, said that Cain will have to explain his stances on these issues if he is to remain a first-tier candidate.

“Among the Tea Party audience, the TARP bailout is something they’re adamantly against, and they’re going to absolutely need to hear more from him on this issue to be comfortable with him,” said Russell. “I don’t know one Tea Party activist who’d say it’s a bad idea to audit the Fed, that’s not a popular position for him to be staking out.”

The Tea Party Rebellion Is Here.

Michael Tomlinson| 11.1.11 @ 8:30AM

John Daniel,
Good point. He may want to talk to the only expert with experience on the topic of tort reform running for the nomination, Rick Perry, to find out more about it.

oldfart| 11.1.11 @ 8:35AM

Guilt by accusation. Can we say the Spanish Inquisition, or the French Revolution? The people bringing these charges need to look at history. Such movements tend to end up eating their own until a dictator (such as Napoleon) comes along to put the heel on the neck and bring calm to the population.

nister| 11.1.11 @ 8:36AM

Herman Cain will author his own undoing. The instrument of his undoing will be his mouth. Death by a thousand cuts.

oldfart| 11.1.11 @ 8:48AM

True - most people are their own undoing. Just that that ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC and CNN refuse to comment on the stupid comments by 'approved' Democrats

Redstateboy| 11.1.11 @ 8:52AM

it's worth repeating.. the lame-stream media ignored Slick Willie and Barny Frank's escapades and certainly turned a blind eye to the sludge trailing behind Das Messiah and the funny part is? The lame-stream media still believes it has credibility with thinking people.

Louis Jenkins| 11.1.11 @ 8:56AM

Were's the blue dress? Silly me, pizza personnel wear red shirts and non-descript pants. I knew that the MSM would come out with something of this nature, sooner or later. Cain has a target on his back, and the mainstream Republicans, the Democrats, and the liberals are all aiming for it. Before Cain was at the top it is doubtful that we would have seen such accusations, and now we will see more. So far, Cain has handled the story well, but I believe we will see more of this story, and possibly some different episodes. If Cain continues as the #1 leader MSM will have to publish more diatribes even making Nero appear as a saint. It's all part of the scheme to make sure that Romney gets the nomination.

Michael Tomlinson| 11.1.11 @ 9:02AM

When the Democrat media condemns a corrupt and decadent Democrat for their behavior is the day when they accept the Constitution is right and FDR was as big a liar and loser as Obama.

MacDaddy| 11.1.11 @ 9:06AM

My question is to Black America: here we have yet another case of a prominent black man, rising up, heading for the top, and the LIBERALS are trying to keep him down, fabricating half-truths and untruths in an attemt to keep him from realizing his full potential....slanderous lies and misinformation by LIBERALS to keep a righteous black man from leadership. And this is okay with you? Exactly why?

nister| 11.1.11 @ 12:28PM

How do you know who planted the story? How do you know it's slander? If "liberals" are behind it..why not wait 'til he's nominated?

Pecos Pete| 11.1.11 @ 9:09AM

Reporters from Politico wrote that they had "seen documentation describing the allegations, ..."

Dear Politico,

This letter can be described as documentation. I allege that you are a tool of the democrat party and a fool for writing your story. Furthermore, I allege that, when your reporters were 2 years old, they pooped in their britches.

Truthfully yours,

Pecos Pete

Frank Drackman| 11.1.11 @ 9:41AM

OK, Sexual Her-Ass-Mint, Bla Bla Bla..
doesn't Herb know you have to pronounce it "Hair-S-meant"???
Its like droppin the "N-Word"
the "ah" ending is acceptable, the "er" ending isn't, except at the Talladega Alabama VFW...
and WTF is up with Karl Roves Gigantic Watermelon shaped Head??
I swear he looks like one of those freaks from that movie "Freaks".
And that Gay board he writes on reminds me of the N-Word basketball coach in Junior High who made us play a 2-3 Zone against the innercity Junior High with 19 year old tatooed thugs...

Frank

loulou| 11.1.11 @ 11:32AM

Karl Rove the larvae is terrified that Cain will get the nomination. Cain doesn't need Watermelon Head.

Dr. X| 11.1.11 @ 9:56AM

There is no greater fascistic, Stalinistic, totalitarian aspect of our society and our law than the gender-grievance industry, in which absolutely unsubstantiated, anonymous allegations are taken as fact and due process is not accorded to the accused.

There are so many fake sexual harassment and "abuse" claims it's unreal. The fact is that EVERY SINGLE man in this society can at ANY MOMENT be maritally or financially ruined by ANY WOMAN who claims to be "offended." If he's getting divorced, all she has to do is say "he threatened me" and she'll automatically get an order of protection and the cops will come and confiscate his guns. If she wants custody, it's "he's abusive" or "he molested the children." If it's at his workplace, ANYTHING he might say at any time may be construed as "offensive" and he's finished. And there is an entire army of government-funded court advocates and gender-equity officers to guide her through the process, and they NEVER dispute the allegation. Just look at the Duke University "rape" case.

On the other hand if she wants to sleep her way to the top of the corporation, that's her sexual freedom and you can't say a peep about it. The guy she WANTS to sleep with can make all the explicit sexual comments he wants with no penalty. College girls can have their "Slut Walks" but if a MAN uses that word in her presence he's finished.

I'm not saying that actual cases of abuse don't exist, but the number of politically and personally-motivated fake or very subjective claims are enormous, and every time a man so much as says "hello" to a woman, especially in the workplace, he's playing Russian roulette. It's all about power, power, power.

Maddox| 11.1.11 @ 10:56AM

"There is no greater fascistic, Stalinistic, totalitarian aspect of our society and our law than the gender-grievance industry."
I believe there is. It is the racial discrimination industry, unless you are a black conservative.

loulou| 11.1.11 @ 11:31AM

These phoney lawsuits were all the rage in the 1980s-1990s. Someone was pulling an Anita Hill and made a little bit of change.

Old Soldier| 11.1.11 @ 10:06AM

Notice how Perry got blindsided as soon as he took a lead in the polls? Now suddenly Cain is ahead and dirt gets aired. It doesn't benefit the Democrats - they would save it a year then use it for all it's worth.

Only one person has the money to dig this deep, the motivation, and the lack of morals to do so.

Looking right at you Romney - scumbag.

Mike Rogers | 11.1.11 @ 10:23AM

Go Stacy!
As always, great coverage from the campaign trail, and getting the story behind the story that the other media miss.
See you in DC this weekend.

somnolence| 11.1.11 @ 10:35AM

Many of us may show up at Obama rallies with signs and placards referring to his Chicago gay batthouse scandal. You want to fight dirty; you ain't seen nothin' yet.

loulou| 11.1.11 @ 11:29AM

Wasn't his partner found murdered?

Bob| 11.1.11 @ 11:01AM

By my count the bro has changed his story eight times in 48 hours just one more change and he will reach his magic number of 9. Who supplied the hush money to his girl friends? Just dial 999-Ask-Herm and you will receive a recorded message that changes every hour.

big bob| 11.1.11 @ 1:34PM

8 times!! Really? Wow. Imagine that. And how did you know...you heard all 8 "iterations" or did you listen to some pervert claim that it had changed 8 times? Please, enlighten us all: did they change, or did they clarify? Please point us all to how they "changed". And please, be more specific than these so-called journalists!! We are ALL listening!!

loulou| 11.1.11 @ 11:28AM

Juanita Brodderick could not be reached for comment.
Paula Jones could not be reached for comment.
Kathleen Willey could not be reached for comment.
Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.
Marilyn Monroe could not be rached for comment.
The waiatress Dodd was lying on top of at la Brasserie in DC could not be reached for comment.

Finrod| 11.1.11 @ 11:35AM

This.

loulou| 11.1.11 @ 11:29AM

Has Bill Clinton opined on this yet?

I'm getting ready to donate more $$ to Cain.

Ken (Old Texican)| 11.1.11 @ 11:58AM

The conservative push-back on this is going to be enormous.
From everything I've heard or read, Mr. Cain is an honorable man.
From Mr. Cain from now on...his answer should simply be... "asked and answered".

Personally, I'm still rooting for Governor Perry to get his head out of his butt. He has already proven he can get a solid job done.

chuck| 11.1.11 @ 9:51PM

I don't know Ken, I think you'd you'd need the biggest drilling rig in Texas to burrow into Perry's ass in order to find his head these days.

vtwin| 11.1.11 @ 12:15PM

Herman Cain just another “family values” Republicon?

DTOM| 11.1.11 @ 12:19PM

So vtwin, tell us about Barack Obama's family values. Say starting with partial birth abortion and what Obama did in Illinois to "protect" aborted babies too stupid to die in the procedure.

chuck| 11.1.11 @ 9:53PM

Do you ever have anything intelligent to say?

Oops, asked that to a lib......never mind.

Dave| 11.1.11 @ 12:30PM

We all know liberals NEVER lie.

Hahahahaahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahaahahaahaha....

DTOM| 11.1.11 @ 7:08PM

Dave;

Try the new AS sarcasm indicator, thusly:

[We all know liberals NEVER lie!]

[sarcasm enclosed!] Practice safe sarcasm...always use an enclosure.. HeeHaw!

chuck| 11.1.11 @ 9:54PM

[You know, vtwin is one of the most intelligent human beings ever!]

somnolence| 11.1.11 @ 12:41PM

Obama, remember Larry Sinclair?

cowgirl| 11.1.11 @ 12:42PM

Did not Hillary Clinton make a remark to the effect that her "husband was a hard dog to keep on the porch"? Where is the outrage. Oh yes, women love Bill Clinton because he supported abortion. Of course Clinton supported abortion - a good way to protect a dog from what Obama calls "mistakes".

somnolence| 11.1.11 @ 12:44PM

ONE of Obama's partners was found dead, yes. His mother related an interesting story to a couple of reporters. The MSM CONVENIENTLY ignored it, as does the AMERICAN SPECTATOR. So yeah, there is a constant pick and choose "OUR S.O.B." of the week, etc.

somnolence| 11.1.11 @ 1:19PM

I do wonder about a playwright who constantly has to use the word "vagina" in mixed company. When billing of that particular play is announced within our city, and in fact, everytime a Cialis or Viagra commercial appears, I'm so grateful that my departed parents aren't around to witness the shallow bullcrap which passes for information or entertainment these days. We live in a world of pathetic wretchedness, and yeah, give me Jim and Margaret Anderson's way any day. That is addressed to you, Brenda, since you seemingly have to broadcast to the world the invisible threat to vaginas.

somnolence| 11.1.11 @ 1:27PM

Of course, men are never sexually harrassed by women. Try working in a distribution warehouse where women walking behind you constantly pinch your backside. It happened so frequently when I worked there I went home and joked with my wife about it.

Drunken Sailor| 11.1.11 @ 1:59PM

It's only harassment if you mind.

Whitehall| 11.1.11 @ 1:44PM

The obvious source(s) of this story are the lawyers for the plantiffs.

The trial lawyer are one of the biggest sources of donations to the Democratic Party yet they know the non-disclosure terms of the settlements. this way they can force the issue into the public eye while hurting the lead challenger to the Democratic Party. When further details are revealed, the lawyers needn't be held to account.

martin j smith| 11.1.11 @ 3:26PM

This so called potentially damaging scandal is only "damaging" if one accepts the premises which are on very shaky ground and if there is not push back from the smear jobs that will be and are engineered by the Socialists. So, Stacy how do you intend to respond to these kinds of smear tactics ? As for me. lets start at the source shall we. And that is Politico or is it Politiko ? In any event they are impartial are they ?

somnolence| 11.1.11 @ 3:51PM

You Romneyites had better hope that if you do succeed in bringing Cain down to dismal numbers in the polls that he doesn't decide to burn you with a third party run. To whom would he be loyal if many remained on the sidelines watching the media scorch him. Count me on his side if that did happen.

mikedevx| 11.1.11 @ 4:38PM

Herman Cain has lived his life the right way. And now he has built a campaign the right way. Scurrilous lies and innuendo will not derail the Cain Train.

Way to go Herman! Those of us who support you are not summer patriots.

Caveat: I am assuming that after "weeks of investigation", that if this is all politico has, then politico has nothing. If it turns out that there *is* something to these allegations, then I am free to change my opinion. But at this point, politico has NOTHING, the NYT has nothing, MSNBC has nothing.

This outrageous attack has already begun to backfire. Let it backfire completely, please! The rebound will be to Mr. Cain's benefit, and to the haters' and liars' harm. May the voters have long memories about the haters and the liars. Ah, the sweet, sweet smell of truth and justice! The liars have thrown their vicious acid with all manic glee, but it has rebounded to splash only on themselves; and now their own acid will eat away at THEM, and they will be ones we get to watch suffering. Oh sweet justice indeed! Richly deserved, richly deserved!

KarlMarxSucks| 11.2.11 @ 9:18AM

My personal reaction was immediately sending the money to his campaign. I was very pleased to know tens of thousands of contributions have been made in 24 hrs. I'll send again as soon as another absurd allegation is made.

somnolence| 11.1.11 @ 5:27PM

Are you ready for this? The latest gossip has one of the women in question saying she won't come forward because of the confidentiality agreement, but she said something about "being invited up to a hotel room." Does she have an audio recording of that(not that it matters)? Once again, how this is a campaign issue at all is beyond me. Clinton set the precedent once and for all with Gennifer Flowers and Paula Jones. No one cares, we were told. So I'm sticking by that adage, and staying on the Cain train. If he isn't the nominee, then I really don't give a damn if Obama is reelected. Like I say, I would hope he would run as a third party candidate.

Who Knows?| 11.1.11 @ 5:56PM

Never forget---

It's the COVER UP that gets you, in the end.

Whatever the truth is about Cain's past, especially regarding this sexual harrassment brouhaha, is NOT the essential point.

What is mattering most, and will matter more and more, as people have time to absorb everything about it, is HOW Cain and his team reacted to it.

And, anyone who's lucky enough to have found Jennifer Rubin's "Right Turn" blog at the Washington Post, and been reading what she offers, has to recognize that Cain is in deep doo doo.

I think he's toast.

Doubtless it's true that you can fool most of the people most of the time, as well as the fact that people tend to forget what happened in the past.

However, even though Cain's supposedly "bad" behavior took place many years ago, now that he's a high profile candidate to be leader of the free world, it's certain that there exist many eager beaver reporters who will study ALL that he's done and said about this, since it came out.

So, instead of people FORGETTING, they'll be GETTING it. It always takes time for accepted truth to "trickle down". And, we definitely have more than enough time for Cain to be seen as the not-ready-for-primetime guy he NOW is.

Cain and Perry are---TOAST.

Just my insignificant take.

Any bets?

somnolence| 11.1.11 @ 6:03PM

Yeah, I'll bet. Clinton got away with much worse, so pal, you've already lost your damned bet.

Who Knows?| 11.2.11 @ 11:08AM

I bet Cain and Perry are toast.

How could I ALREADY have lost the bet, since there's still a year to go before the GOP primary election?

nohussein| 11.1.11 @ 6:28PM

What is with this minority run majority BS, some just don't learn.

nohussein| 11.1.11 @ 7:57PM

"yes we can", anyone that falls for this black preacher BS is a friggin moron.

nutty| 11.1.11 @ 8:03PM

?

nutty| 11.1.11 @ 8:03PM

?

it's crazy| 11.1.11 @ 8:06PM

what?

faded rose| 11.1.11 @ 8:14PM

In my grandmother's time it was called "advances". In my mothers's time it was called, "making passes". In my time it was called "being hit on". As one who was hit on regularly and never charged anyone with sexual harassment, I call it human nature. As a matter of fact, if a woman has a sense of humor , it can be fun.

When I was in my mid 40's we had an oaf in the office who thought it just made a woman's day for him to say something sexually tinged. One day he said to me, "If you were 10 years younger and single, I'd ask you out. . " I said, "Henry, if I were 10 years younger and single, you'd be standin' at the end of a long line." Everyone in the office just hooted and Henry slunk back to his cubby. In the proper circumstances, it can also be called "striking out".

faded rose| 11.1.11 @ 8:47PM

THE REST OF THE STORY -- One of my cruder office mates (a woman) said, "Poor Henry, he's not gonna be able to get it up for a month and his wife is not gonna know why. . ." If Henry had heard her, would he have a case for harassment or just belittling?

chuck| 11.1.11 @ 9:58PM

Love it! You know, I think most women are just as sick, or sicker than us men/dogs.

nohussein| 11.1.11 @ 8:52PM

I don't care about this crap, cain is nothing more than a black preacher, thats just the way it is.

nohussein| 11.1.11 @ 8:54PM

I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, I've seen this crap since I was young.

koorangkoo| 11.1.11 @ 9:16PM

Before this media attack, I was unsure if I wanted to suppport Herman Cain. After this media attack, I am now a 100% supporter of Mr. Cain. The media attack was the deciding factor.

nohussein| 11.1.11 @ 9:33PM

I'm sorry to hear that.

BackToBasics| 11.2.11 @ 12:27AM

I'm glad to hear it.

BackToBasics| 11.2.11 @ 12:32AM

Many RINO's on the web, even on this site, try to convince Tea Party people and Evangelicals that Cain is unfit for the presidency because he is too RINO himself. If he were a RINO this puff piece would never have happened.

BackToBasics| 11.2.11 @ 12:34AM

It would not have heppened this early. It would ahve waited until he was the nominee and much closer to the November 2012 election.

POST American| 11.1.11 @ 10:45PM

------Tick! ----Tick! ----Tick! ---Tick!

--------------HUAC meets NUREMBERG-------------
---------------------------2012-----------------------------

-----------------Tick! ----Tick! ----Tick! ----Tick!

Kingofthenet| 11.1.11 @ 10:46PM

Looks like one of the women is getting ready to spill the beans!

Kingofthenet| 11.1.11 @ 10:52PM

Cain ALREADY violated the agreement by saying it was a lie. I hear it was a pattern of abuse by a superior over MONTHS.

Aces and Eights| 11.2.11 @ 12:26AM

You "hear" a lot. Virtually all of it untrue. Grow up.

BackToBasics| 11.1.11 @ 11:12PM

This "may" have been a setup against Cain years ago.

When a huge amount is at stake even innocent people can get a little tongue-tied, not because they are lying but because they know that their enemies are tring to ruin them with trumped up allegations.

In hindsight, if it was known or suspected years ago that Cain might have had high or even presidential political ambitions, it would not be hard to believe that these flimsy allegations were brought against him preemptively as a hoped-for insurance policy against Cain succeeding.

Based on what we know now, this flimsy charge is just too convenient and I am not saying it definitively but it "could" be that this was a setup that was done 12 years ago against a decent and good man.

He's a good man and I will continue to back him against the self-aggrandizing, Democrat and Republican establishment leaders.

POST American| 11.2.11 @ 12:05AM

-----Globalist RED China TREASON OP

------tick-----tick-----tick

--------FULL spectrum, unfolding cyber surveillance

-------------------tick --tick ----tick ----tick

----------EUGENICS and GENOCIDE agendas

------------------------tick ---tick ---tick --tick

--------------HUAC meets NUREMBERG-------------
----------------------------2012---------------------------

-----------TICK! -----TICK! -----TICK!

John B| 11.2.11 @ 1:32AM

Any reasonable open minded person can now see that any discussion about Herman Cain and his political future is meaningless.
Even before this sexual harassment thing it was over for Cain and it was Romney who will be the nominee.
As an Obama voter, I'm perfectly happy with this choice. I might vote for Romney this time, or I might vote for Obama, but either way I'll have a progressive person in the White House who believes in National Health Care and the rights of women and gays. I can't lose. But the real conservative voters are really going to have a tough election year. They'll be sick no matter which one wins. How could the conservatives have taken their best chance in years to elect someone that believes as they do and end up with a progressive as their nominee is a really good question.

Simon Templar| 11.2.11 @ 3:01AM

But John... you are not reasonable and you have no mind. You are an idiot liberal troll that thinks that we give a rat's ass what you think, say, or do.

Simon Templar| 11.2.11 @ 2:57AM

McCain writes, "Without anything more specific -- and especially without any comment from the accusers, who reportedly signed confidentiality agreements as part of severance agreements with the restaurant association -- such accusations would be impossible to disprove, but can be denied, and this was what Cain was expected to do Monday. "

I will try to make this a simple as I can for you.
CAIN HAS NOTHING TO PROVE OR DISPROVE.
The burden of proof is on the accusser. Let's see the fact, FACTS, proof.

Now, McCain, I heard from my ex-friends over at Politico that you are a closet CINO, you had sex with your daughter, and you are a secret admirer of Che Guevera.

Sorry, but they say you were seen wearing the Che t-shirt, had your arm around your daughter with those beedy eyes Brenda talks about, and your name is allegedly on the subscription list of The Huffington Post!

So, do you deny it? What do you have to say for yourself? Out with it! Prove to us it is not true.
Sorry, but I can not give you any more details about these accusations or what I heard so you are on your own, bud.

Hmm, having trouble? Well, looks like you will have to give up the day job at TAS. We can not have marxist, incestuous, Cino's running about the halls of The American Spectator.

Guest1776| 11.2.11 @ 2:59AM

Isn't this laissez-faire approach exactly what we tried from 1979 to
2007, when inequality shot through the roof, according to the CBO?

NO! What we had is government interference into free markets and when government interferes it distorts the market and bubbles are created and popped. Take Fannie and Freddie with all their just sign here and own a home loans for instance. It created a boom as homes were in demand and put a lot of people to work building them but it was a bubble bound to pop because it was created by government forcing banks out of time tested loan standards the community organizers like Obama called racist. You know its racist for a bank to require good credit, 10-15% down and ability to pay loan with one week's pay etc...

Many people want to blame Wall St and the removal of Glass-Steagall but the fact is if that never happened there is still a banking crisis because of sub primes loans banks were forced to come up with by government that were based on the economy.

And another thing to consider is that if all those loans that were packed and sold were time tested loan standards before the government interfered then the Glass-Steagall thing wouldn't have mattered much because they would have been responsible loans where mortgages were paid regardless of slowing economy.

Pols like to have it both ways. For example Democrats are demonizing banks for not making small business loans yet require banks to have more cash on hand before making them. Dodd/Frank did that and did not address the F&F problem. Another example of government interfering into free markets is the Durbin Tax banks are now charging for debit card use. Example: Walmart and banks willfully agreed that Walmart will pay pennies per purchases using debit cards so banks didn't charge you the customer to cover their processing cost. The Durbin Tax removed that and now banks have to charge you $5.00 a month for your debit card whether you use it or not to cover the cost while Dick Durbin demonizes banks for charging that fee he forced them into charging.

Pols love to have both ways and its the same thing with the 70,000+ pages of tax code where pols are demonizing companies they tax for raising the cost of their product or service after pols raise their cost through higher taxes. Pols know those cost are always passed onto the consumer but its a win/win for them because they can then demonize the companies.

Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan gets rid of all those hidden taxes and loopholes within the 70,000+ pages of tax code lobbyist lobby them to change etc... and when implemented 9-9-9 will result in an economic boom with cheaper products because companies will evaluate their bottom line with the money they save and lower cost trying to steal consumers from their competition. Competition is always good for the consumer and this is exactly why big corps lobby for taxes and loopholes that'll hurt their small business counterparts and exactly the reason we need a Main St President not a Wall St POTUS like Obama has been or Romney will be.

Basically at the root of the problem with the mortgage crisis is this noble but misguided idea that everyone deserves to own a home. Its not true! You deserve to ow a home when you can meet the free market standards for getting a loan. To pretend as pols do that banks want to loose money on their loans and need a bailout is nonsensical.

Guest1776| 11.2.11 @ 2:59AM

9-9-9

It's a multifaceted solution addressing many issues at once in its simplicity. I can remember another man with a bold plan that was simple "We win they lose!" and went about putting the policies in place to do just that. Herman Cain has that same sort of bold plan to solve big problems and end class warfare envy politicking as we know it.

9-9-9 encourages working poor to save which is typically the reason working poor are still WP after a decade of working. See immigrants who come with nothing and barely speak the language and live the American Dream through hard work, savings and make it.

The 9-9-9 plan encourages job growth, lowers cost for the employer which has direct correlation to pricing -good for the consumer. Also, gives people more money on their paychecks to spend/save.

If One gets $200.00 EXTRA a on their paycheck each week and the same bag of groceries One paid $200.00 for under 70,000 pages of tax code - One pays an extra $18.00 but still has $182.00 to put into savings that week or offset other taxable goods they might purchase that week. Many will see much more on their chacks that $200.00 and even the working poor will have more funds available each week.

When people are putting their money into savings accounts then banks don't need TARP bailouts the Federal Reserve printing money to supply them therefore devaluing savings accounts of the elderly and hurting the poor with inflation.

When perpetual working poor are saving they won't be perpetual working poor and they won't need government forcing banks to change time tested loan standards or F&F distorting the housing market creating bubbles.

9-9-9 takes away the catalyst for most if not all the divisive bickering ie envy politicking and class ware rhetoric as it treats everybody fairly, the same. The rich spend more because they can so they will pay their fair share.

9-9-9 allows Michael Moore or the frugal Warren Buffet to stimulate the economy and pay more taxes until their hearts content. True patriots! Moore can film a documentary of him and Buffet going around the country spending their money until they're blue in the face paying taxes. Moore can call his documentary "Warren and Me."

When we pass 9-9-9 pols will not be able to raise taxes because it will be easier for the opposition to explain how that “directly affects your life” to the consumer/voter. You’ll have a lot more people voting when you try raising their taxes. Good luck with that tax loving Democrats or even the "read my lips crowd" within the GOP establishment.

Herman Cain one simple plan addressing many problems directly at the roots and SOLVING THEM. Romney 59 of them just tweaking around the edges.

Millionaires like Romney and billionaires will be getting a tax break too and instead of hiding their money in the loopholes of 70,000+ pages of tax code, they will spend it and pay plenty of taxes. Why? How? - Because the so called “rich” spend more money by default.

Cain's plan sends the taxes to the government through the economy which means free markets will decide the winners and losers - not the government!

kerry| 11.2.11 @ 7:57AM

so, apparently the current head of the Nat'l Restaurant Association gave $1000 to Romney campaign this summer......who does Karl Rove want for president again?

Tenn Slim| 11.2.11 @ 9:09AM

Note the accusations came on the very day that Cain upped Romney in some obscure Iowa straw poll.
Cain will bury his opponents, come to the Jan 20 2013 inauguration, see for yourself.
end
Semper Fi

Conserdude| 11.2.11 @ 5:21PM

I really like Herman Cain, but that's getting harder to do when he and his "campaign" (whoever they are) are so clumsy and inconsistent in their response to these allegations, which they knew would drop more than a week in advance.

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