Posted on 11/04/2011 6:45:59 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Republican race has officially been hijacked by the Herman Cain sexual harassment controversy, and the furor shows no signs of dying down. Everyone in Washington is now trying to decide whether Cain is more like Clarence Thomas or Bill Clinton. Or maybe even Anthony Weiner.
But the media firestorm has overlooked one key fact: We still don't know what Cain actually did.
New details emerged Thursday night about the two unnamed women who Politico originally reported had accused Cain of making "sexually suggestive" remarks and "improper" gestures toward them while they were employees at the National Restaurant Association sometime in the 1990s. The new reports provide some clarity to the scandal, mostly by providing information that differentiates the two original accusers:
According to both stories, one of the women was paid a $35,000 termination settlement after Cain made "unwanted sexual advances" at an NRA event in a hotel, apparently after a night of heavy drinking. The NYT reports that Cain asked the woman to come up to his hotel room, and made repeated advances even after she declined.
Politico reports that the second woman reached a $45,000 termination agreement with the NRA to settle harassment claims against Cain. She is the same woman Cain was referring to when he recalled that employee had "falsely" accused him of sexual harassment after he "made a gesture saying" she was the same height as his wife. She is also the same woman who has requested to release an anonymous statement through the NRA that would "counter" Cain's statements, while leaving out the details of the incident.
But in the end, the new revelations raise more questions than they answer. In fact, the Cain harassment story has actually gotten more vague and confusing as new details and allegations emerge.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
In libtard land, that is the beauty of it. As long as no specifics are discussed, they can continue to milk a non story.
At least not where I have been shopping (Publix) for the last three days.
To many people it will not matter what he did, the MSm reports he sexually harrassed women and paid them off. “He must be guilty” they decide.
This is an old-school technological lynching, the same type that Cain said he was ready to tackle.
This whole spectacle should be foisted up as an example of racism perpetrated by the Left. I have been so insulted by these liberal talking heads that I’ve actually written letters of complaint to CNN, pMSNBC, and FoxNews. They’re allowing people to come on the air and use negative racial stereotypes such as ‘uncle tom’ and ‘house nigger.’
C’mon people! The Republican party should be out there saying, “See! Racism is alive and well on the left and in the Democrat party. JUST LIKE IT WAS OVER THE LAST 50 YEARS!
Once blacks realize that the Dems are actually holding them back from prosperity, I believe we’ll see a fundamental change in this country. Otherwise, we’re always going to be bickering about slavery and other BS that’s been out of the American experience for over 100 years.
Yep. It's like I always say. Trust your instincts.
People "just know" stuff even though they can't logically explain how they "just know."
This is one of those things. There IS something odd about this whole story, and people "just know it."
I think that's why his donations have sky rocketed. People are running to his defense - "for some reason". Something doesn't seem right.
Since when did that matter?
In the Duke LAX debacle, they had the team suspended, the Coach fired, 88 faculty members signing a public demand for the players to be convicted, even while their accuser's story was falling apart. The MSM started to catch up with the holes in the story about six weeks after the damage was done.
The only odd things are indeed the media desperately trying to help Obama and discredit Cain.(Especially after Obama was given a pass at any vetting other than he was the new black savior of the commiecrats.)
If they report one more word about this they better report this first
The MSM is "Coming".....all over themselves.
This thing just makes me sick and feel so helpless. I pray for Herman cain and his wife. doesnt matter if he is or isnt our nominee. this is wrong!
Exactly. To me, this is the same as a phony slip-and-fall case where the insurance company shells out money simply because it’s cheaper than fighting it.
Well apparently he did something worse than forcing a woman onto a bed, biting her lip to keep her from protesting, having his way with her, and then telling her to put some ice on her bleeding lip.
We already know the press doesn’t think an accusation involving those details is worth much attention.
The allegations are bogus but the settlements are real and Cain should have mentioned them back whenever he said “there are no skeletons in my closet”.
He would be looking much, much better right now had he done that.
“There were two cases of alleged misconduct on my part during my tenure at NRA, both resulted in settlements and non-disclosure agreements. I cannot and will not speak about any of the details of those settlements whatsoever, other than to say I believe I behaved properly at all times. And that’s all I’m going to say about those cases. Period.”
If he had just said that, back in March (or whenever), or even when this broke a week or so ago, he would be looking much, much better right now.
But I guess that’s why they call what he lacks “experience”.
Experience counts.
RE: What if they manufactured a scandal and nobody came?
_________________________
The problem is EVERYBODY CAME. Like a pack of wolves the mainstream media did.
As Brent Bozell observes...
Politico offered an incredibly vague story that somehow required four reporters to compile.
This is how vague the claims were, which Politico rushed to publish. They assert there were “conversations allegedly filled with innuendo or personal questions of a sexually suggestive nature,” and also, “descriptions of physical gestures that were not overtly sexual” but made women uncomfortable.
What does all this mean? At least in Hill’s case, she was making wacky but specific charges about Long Dong Silver. But who cares? All that matters is that Cain’s presidential campaign is ruined, just as it reached its height. Black conservatives must be denied a role model this prominent and successful.
Within two days, NBC’s Ann Curry was leading off the “Today” show with this thermonuclear question about Cain: “Will the controversy and his reaction to it derail his presidential campaign?”
In 1994, when Paula Jones publicly, at a national press conference for God’s sakes, accused President Clinton of exposing himself while demanding oral sex — something no one accuses Cain of doing — CBS and NBC completely ignored her press conference. ABC gave it just 16 seconds.
When Kathleen Willey accused Bill Clinton in 1997 of sexually groping her in the Oval Office when he was president — another woman coming forward publicly with a charge far more serious than anything even suggested about Cain — the networks ran a grand total of three stories, the longest of which was just 1 minute.
And in the first five days after the publication of the 1999 Wall Street Journal column in which Juanita Broaddrick reluctantly came forward and charged the President with a bloody rape, the number of news stories totaled to three.
So it’s maddening when someone like Tom Brokaw goes on MSNBC and insists that Herman Cain should be laying everything out on the table.
The media frenzy on Herman Cain’s non-victim story EXCEEDS BY A HUGE PROPORTION the stories that were produced during the Clinton sex scandals.
Yep. This whole thing has been fueled by anonymous sources or people claiming to speak for anonymous sources making vague accusations. Like that idiot talk radio Iowa guy - says Cain said something so horrible yet he won’t say what it was or allow anyone on his staff to discuss it. Everybody wants to tar and feather him without providing any actual evidence. This is the worst smear I have ever seen. Even if he said “something” he committed no crime, thing was settled, and it was a dozen or more years ago.
Cain’s complete mishandling of this is the only reason the incidents are still in the news. He knew perfectly well when first asked that there had been two complaints against him that had been settled during his time at the NRA, and had even discussed it with advisors at the beginning of his 2004 campaign. Instead, he denies it and then has to be forced into admitting it piecemeal, and then impugns the victims and also declares loudly that he is the target of a conspiracy by jealous rivals because the press found out about the claims in the first place (which the press would have done anyway sooner or later).
But since he has been less than truthful all along and now seems to be moving to the Bill Clinton “a good offense is the best defense” strategy, it’s normal that people are going to want to know more about exactly what he did. If he had been truthful at the start, apologized for any real or imagined impropriety, and then moved on, all of this would have been deflected, because I doubt that the women involved really want to go into all of this again.
Instead he has created a situation where there are inevitably going to be he said-she said allegations that are throwing the entire GOP campaign off message and making us all look tawdry and Clintonesque.
LLS
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