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Posted on 11/01/2011 6:58:43 PM PDT by smoothsailing
November 1, 2011
For GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain, the questions far outnumber the answers.
Mark Block, chief of staff for the Cain campaign, announced the campaign was hiring an investigator to check out claims that a private Wisconsin-based firm owned and run by Block and his No. 2 picked up the tab for as much as $40,000 in campaign expenses for the Cain campaign earlier this year.
"We've retained independent counsel to look at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story and report back to us," Block said Tuesday at a Washington, D.C., media event.
A reporter for ABC News continued to pursue the issue, asking the former Wisconsin political operative a couple of follow-up questions, including one about his role in the matter.
"Why don't we talk about the campaign going forward?" Block asked.
That's not the only question he ducked.
Block, the 57-year-old former head of the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity, didn't respond to calls and emails from the Journal Sentinel asking for the name of the investigator and whether Block or Linda Hansen, Cain's deputy chief of staff, played a role in selecting the individual.
Also, the Journal Sentinel asked about Cain's statements Monday that he was in the dark on the issue.
Speaking to Fox News, the former CEO of Godfather's Pizza said, "I'm not aware of this report, so my staff has not had time to go through it."
"We will take a look at it," Cain said. "But at this point, I didn't even know about the report until you brought it up on the show."
Yet No Quarter first contacted Block and Hansen on this topic in the summer, and Block was provided a series of questions and all relevant documents last week.
He responded then by saying he would eventually provide a response, something he still has not done.
Not surprisingly, Cain's team has used the controversy over this and sexual harassment allegations to try to raise money for his surprisingly strong presidential run.
"Friends, I need your support now more than ever," said an email solicitation Monday from Cain. "As I establish myself as the GOP front-runner, my family and I will be the target of many negative, false attacks.
"Will you stand with me? If so, please show your support by making a generous contribution to my campaign today."
Block told reporters that his boss' campaign had received more than $250,000 in donations Monday.
"It was one of our best fundraising days ever," Block said Tuesday in Washington, suggesting that he thought Cain's message was resonating with people across the country.
Earlier this week, the Journal Sentinel reported thatProsperity USA - which billed itself as a tax-exempt nonprofit - helped get the Cain campaign off the ground by paying tens of thousands of dollars for such items as iPads, chartered flights and other travel expenses earlier this year.
Cain began accepting campaign donations on Jan. 1 and officially declared his candidacy in early May, according to federal election filings.
Internal documents said Prosperity USA, which was owned and run by Block and Hansen, believed it was owed $40,000 by FOH, a reference to Friends of Herman Cain, in February and March.
In addition, sources told the Journal Sentinel that Prosperity USA paid about $100,000 to the Congress of Racial Equality shortly before Cain was the featured speaker at an awards dinner in mid-January.
It is not known whether Cain's election fund eventually paid back Prosperity USA, which now appears defunct. The candidate's federal records make no mention of the debt, and the figures in the documents don't match payments made by the Cain campaign.
Election law experts were in agreement this week that the situation raises serious tax and election law problems for Prosperity USA and the Cain campaign.
"It does appear to be problematic if all these transactions occurred and none of it is showing up in (Cain's) reports," campaign finance lawyer Larry Noble told theLos Angeles Times. "It's illegal not to report something, and the contribution could be illegal."
Lawrence Norton, a former general counsel at the Federal Election Commission, was even more blunt.
"It looks like a law school exam on potential campaign finance violations," Norton said, according to The Washington Post. "Many of these payments would be prohibited contributions under federal election law."
Oh yes— but let’s not investigate, expose, how folks could donate to Obama campaign via credit card without validating the name and address match the credit card. I know this is so true...I tested it with a 5.00 donation to Obama campaign,gave a fake name, and it took my donation. On the other hand, tried it with McCain’s website and it declined it...This is such crap...Its going to get real ugly folks....and if all this drama coming out of the word work doesn’t stop Cain; then you can bet, there will be a real mind blower right before election...to get obama the win....betchya.
Well, the Cain campaign itself is initiating an investigation of the matter. They must have some reason for doing it. It may be that they just want to get out in front of the story unlike the harassment thing which they havn’t seemed to be well prepared for.
Investigating or not, if the media reports that this is subject to campaign law, then they are failing to properly distinguish between exploratory phase and campaign phase in which the legal responsibilities are different.
It’s just common sense that they are treated differently.
I understand the difference.
What’s being looked at here is apparently not the Cain campaign so much as it is the Block and Hansen operation “Prosperity USA”. If I was Cain, I’d get rid of Block and Hansen ASAP.
Why is suddenly no one talking about Solydra or Fast and Furious. BO has many scandals. Rush, Levin everyone needs to focus on BO.
yes but he was not a candidate until May - five months after the fact.
Everything they try to pin on Cain, BO has done it 10 times over. Cain needs to point to BO and say when BO gets the same scrutiny he will answer questions. I have only been here for news. I can’t watch or listen. Sick of it all.
Yup! Throwing the spotlight on Cain and two anonymous women takes the spotlight off of Solyndra, Beacon power and “Fast and Furious”.
No.
Republics simply need a pair.
It’s that simple. Forget what the left says. Stand them down, and push THEM back for a change.
Today I stuck a Cain 2012 sticker on my car.
I noticed two things right away. First, how very proud I felt to have it there.
Secondly, it was a statement which brought back the best of the beginnings of the tea party movement. A hint of defiance, and confidence that good will prevail.
Wish everyone would try it. Hard to describe, but Cain’s on the right track. Big.
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And people are clamouring for him to be the nominee... it doesn't make sense. The problems within this shoestring campaign just emphasize on-the-job training that would take place if somehow he were to become POTUS.
Read his book. What I gathered so far is,
His focus is on the end goal.
He tends to deal with things as they pop up.
He leaves the past in the past. Doesn’t dwell on it but focuses on the future. He looks forwards, not backwards.
The Cain campaign is not step and fetch it for these lazy worthless journalists. ABC should just go wait in a bar close to either a Romney HQ or Perry HQ and get the intel that way. The press is always trying to get someone else to do their work for them.
Or get on twitter and make up stories the way the Romney and Perry campaigns are doing.
Journalism is DEAD
I can tell you're very concerned.
The money and support is pouring in for Herman Cain, but we cannot slow down now. Please help him by donating at http://www.hermancain.com/
Also to help join the buzz about Herman go to facebook.com and “like” him. In just the last week he has jumped 13% or 42000 with an impressive 10,000 in the last 24 hours. Make no mistake Karl Rove is watching Herman’s “likes” and so is Romney who gained just 1500 since last Tuesday. THIS is the way to stick it to the GOP establishment! Please tell your family and friends to “like” Herman as well.
If Block is the guy I heard on Geraldo explaining Cain’s harrassment accusation, then, at a minimum, I’d never allow him to do that again. It sounded like weave and dodge, and it needed to sound certain. Better if he’d not called in at all.
Cain on Brett Baier and Bill O’Reilly last night did OK, but he didn’t up his batting average.
His answer on abortion is just odd to me. He doesn’t believe in abortion, but the family will have to do what it will do? What’s that mean? Go overseas? It’s just an odd answer. Better if he’d simply said that he blew what he was trying to say, that he was going to back up and start all over again.
I didn’t really mind his answer on Iran: (1) cause the world price of oil to drop to injure them economically, (2) Put some naval task forces in the Persian Gulf or within striking distance. He needs to verbalize that their capabilities go far beyond simple missile intercept.
I’d like to hear someone say that we’ll employ the full capabilities of our covert forces against their covert forces and that any door they open is open to us. They send teams, then we send teams.
On the sex harrassment, he needs to stop getting wrapped around the axle about when this was known and when it was addressed and who said what when to whom.
At this point, he needs to have the ladies involved tell their stories. The media knows them and will get the story anyway. He never should have given Greta all the details about age, height, job, time frame she was employed, etc., about the woman. Even an idiot could narrow that down to just a few people. He basically outed the woman.
Perhaps his plan is to have it trickle out piecemeal by the media, but that is going to consume the airwaves. That IS one way to get name recognition. If he’s confident he can bat it all down when it pops up, then maybe it’s genius.
Time will tell.
Did they ask him when he stopped beating his wife yet?
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