There's Something Very Weird About The Herman Cain Sexual Harassment Scandal

Business Insider ^ | 11/04/2011 | Grace Wyler

[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.

[Kartographer]

"There IS something odd about this whole story, and people just know it."


[Atticus says] "The witnesses for the state, with the exception of the sheriff of Maycomb County, have presented themselves to you gentlemen, to this court, in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted, confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption – the evil assumption – that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women, an assumption one associates with minds of their caliber."
From the novel 'To Kill a Mocking Bird', by Harper Lee

[MNJohnnie]

We KNOW that Cain and his organization gave a heap of money to people who wanted to blackmail Cain.

How about you stop lying and smearing Cain? The organization gave a $35,000 severance package to make a frivolous lawsuit go away. Happens every day in the business world HOW about instead of pimping the smear, the slanderbots provide even 1 single shred of evidence rather then rumor inndueno and hearsay against Cain? But of course, you smear bot liars cannot do that because your accusation have NO base in ANY fact.

[MNJohnnie]

Provide even a single shred of evidence to back up your accusations.

Ah but you cannot. See because all you have is rumor, hear say and accusation.

How about you quit pimping the smear slanderbot?

[RowdyFFC]

Sounds to me like, a couple of women made allegations. There was an investigation where nobody could back up their stories, which basically means they put themselves in a position of being in a one-on-one, or two situation of their own consent and making. Then later figured out that since there were no witnesses, they could make up whatever they wanted to and make a little money off the NRA in the process.

When the NRA investigated and found no proof of their allegations, they decided to take no punitive action against the women and told them they could keep their jobs. Which got them NOTHING! The women knew they’d screwed the pooch in their job situation and started screeching like banshees about their pitiful situation. So the NRA offered them a deal if they wanted to quit with severance pay. Which gained them some nice dollars without ruining their employment reputations as long as they shut the hell up and get lost. Writers are a dime a dozen as well as troublemakers.

And of course this situation has the same effect as making deals with terrorists. It always comes back to bite somebody in the butt.

[econjack]

I agree. What continues to amaze me is that the black voter continues to support the Dems even though their lot in life hasn't changed much in the past 50 years. Indeed, since the War on Poverty was declared by Johnson back in the 1960’s, according to a report released last summer, poverty in America is worse now that it was before the WoP. Trillions of dollars...for what? If I were black, I'd probably start listening to the GOP message that a rising tide lifts all boats and quit bitching that I'm not in the 1%. You never will be unless you change something and, just perhaps, the place to start is at the ballot box a year from now.

[AngelesCrestHighway]

I’ll take Cain any day compared to Obama! This diversion takes away from what Obama has done to the country. Don’t lose sight of the disaster all around us!

[SeekAndFind]

RE: He has been charged several times with acting inappropriatly toward women

_____________________

With the above attitude on display, the liberals already have their game plan.

I have a great idea for the liberals — CHARGE a conservative candidate several times with acting inappropriately towards women ( regardless of whether it is true or not ).

The MERE CHARGE will cause millions of supporters to flee.

[sergeantdave]

The seig heil racists at Politico are letting this story out drip by drip in order to plant negative thoughts about Cain, proving they have no evidence against Cain.

This story is nothing more than a propaganda campaign to smear Cain. The pigs at Politico will reap their karma harvest soon.

[dforest]

Everyone has to write the story as though they know. We find out it is endless innuendo and speculation. Not knowing the real truth keeps the story going.

That is what they want though, because the truth may end up being pretty boring.

We will see.

[Carry me back]

They are not baseless accusations. Settlements were involved. The guy at the radio station a staunch conservative said he acted wrong with the women there. Plus the guy is married. As much as some want Cain. They should just drop him and find someone else, it appears. I’ll wait it out, but right now the guy is wasting our time.

Instead of people talkng about the Obama failure, we are talking about Cain and his personal problems.

[over3Owithabrain]

Another point - why would someone agree to leave their job/career if they were so horribly wronged. For a year's pay or less? Bull. Sure, Mr. Cain raped me but I'm not gonna get him charged with a crime or even get him fired. I'm just going to volunteer to be unemployed with a slightly longer severance pay. Yeah right.

This is someone that either stunk at their job and/or wanted to leave anyway. The company didn't care for them much either so they got rid of them for the best deal they could swing.

[bearsgirl90]

SO true!

[dawn53]

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.

Exactly...why do people think things like this won't come to light. The settlements were real, even if the allegations were not. Get ahead of the press, they're going to dig...go ahead and say you'll probably hear "such and such"...you've diffused the situation if it should come up.

Not a very smart thing, IMO, to not mention it before the "press" uncovered it.

[concerned about politics]

Somebody is really scared of Mr. Cain.

Oh, and this is the same reason they went after Palin and Backman the way they did (continued from post #26). The woman's vote is another left wing voting block. If these two were to lure the female vote away from the democrats, again the democrats would never win another election.
(If a Hispanic were to run as a Republican, they'd do everything in their power to destroy him or her, too.)

The democrats (and the left wing media) will only allow white men to run as Republicans, otherwise, it's a major threat to their party (which is why the MSM is protecting Romney. He's the stereotypical, "rich white guy Republican").

[MNJohnnie]

Provide even a single shred of evidence to back up your accusations.

Ah but you cannot.

See because all you smearbots have is rumor, hearsay and accusation. "it looks like, it sound like, it reminds me of..." I accuse you of being a paid Romneybot propagandists. Prove me wrong.

Ah but that right YOU get to claim the presumption of innocence. Odd how you deny that same basic right to Cain

How about you quit pimping the smear slanderbot?

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

We still don't know what Cain actually did.

It doesn't matter. At least not to the Liberal Media when attacking a Conservative. They'll never let inconvenient details and facts get in the way of a good public lynching of a Conservative.

[CynicalBear]

I have noticed that most every time someone comes on here and tries to advance the negatives about Cain it’s a Perry supporter. I seem to remember a comment a while back that warned us that Perry’s campaign was going to go negative. Seems that has happened.

[over3Owithabrain]

The guy at the radio station a staunch conservative said he acted wrong with the women there.

You mean the guy who won't even say what was said it was so dang horrific? And he won't let any of his staffers discuss it since it was so traumatizing?

So you wanna join the stoning without even knowing what was said because he was accused by a "conservative"? You feel good hurling that rock without knowing anything but what someone that you don't even know personally told you?

[samtheman]

Get ahead of the press...

And not just the press.

Assuming Cain wins the nomination, he will then be up against Barak Obama.

Did he seriously think Barak Obama and the Chicago Mob would let this rest?

[nuvista]

Agree 100%... Cain has handled this very badly. And, he’s not totally “inexperienced” in the high-stakes world - he’s run major companies and organizations, sat on the Federal Reserve - he’s not just some guy working in the local dry cleaners. He’s had a talk show in ATL for many years and he ran for Senate in 2004. He and his team should have been well prepared for this, as it’s SOP for any candidate running for not only President, but Senate/Congress, even state/local offices. Had he come out with what you suggested back in the spring, this whole thing would have been a non-story. Now, the “real” story and the thing that troubles even some of his supporters (including me) is how poorly prepared he and has staff have been and how poorly they have handled this. Cain’s major attraction - in addition to his conservatism and business background - is management experience. The President is CEO of the world’s largest organization and management capabilities are very helpful (not that we want a management technocrat with no ideology like Romney).