GOP Senators have come out in defense of Herman Cain, blaming the dreaded 'liberal media' for attacking him unfairly by reporting a past claim of sexual harassment. They say Cain is enduring tougher treatment and a double standard because he is a Conservative. This same liberal media would not treat a Democratic candidate this way, they say.
The Republican senators ripped the media for their reporting of anonymous sexual harassment allegations against the presidential candidate, saying a Democrat would not face the same kind of reporting in the absence of a public accusation.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), a long-time friend of Cain's, and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), both came to Cain's defense, claiming that Conservatives make an easy target for the media:
“It’s easy to take potshots at conservatives,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who described the media’s treatment of the Cain story as “overdone.”
“I do think that conservative candidates tend to get more rigorous criticism than liberal candidates,” echoed Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.).
Gary Hart and Anthony Weiner might disagree. I guess they've completely forgotten the harassment candidate Obama had to endure about birth certificate speculation, even into his Presidency. And of course, lest we forget, there was that case of appointing a special prosecutor and spending millions of dollars in an attempt to bring down a sitting Democratic President. And the opposite side of the coin, Republicans not getting any scrutiny would be exemplified by David Vitter.
But what's most infuriating about the Republicans' 'logic', is their belief that since they are the 'family values' party they make themselves a favorite target, even though it usually seems it's the Democrats being held to the family values standard.
“Conservatives are family-oriented, for the most part religious; they believe in raising children and they believe in marriage. It’s easier to take potshots at a Republican,” Hatch said.
“It just makes you wonder why some in the media will jump all over the Republican on allegations — and that’s all they are — and are not doing the same on the other side,” said Hatch, who has known Cain for a long time. “I’d prefer we look at the individual and look at how good the individual is, or bad.”
Sessions agreed that the media coverage “has not been fair” to Cain, although he also said Cain could have done a better job at responding to the story.
Sure, because Democrats don't believe in marriage, or raising children.
But what these Senators are overlooking is that this doesn't really seem to be a story in the usual media outlets. It's hard to find any account of the story other than the original Politico report. The story here seems not to be the allegations themselves, but whether they will amount to anything as a scandal and derail Cain's campaign.
The other focus of attention is on the source of the leak. Speculation is running rampant that it has come not, from a Democratic source but rather a Republican one, with the three top possibilities being either Romney, Perry, or even Cain himself.
According to the Daily Caller, Mitt Romney, the other front runner, stands the most to gain if Cain is forced out of the race, with a potential 9 point gain in polling. But with Romney already leading head to head or tied in most early voting states, it seems like quite a risk for the campaign to take, especially if suspicion of a leak ever gets tied back to them. Still, when Michele Bachmann was competitive with Romney, a migraine story was leaked to the press. When Rick Perry was looking competitive, suddenly his camp name shot to the front page.
Could a pattern be emerging?
But Perry could also benefit from a Cain fall. And as I’ve noted in many recent poll posts, Cain’s gains so far have been almost exactly the same percentage as Perry’s losses.
Matt Yglesias agrees that when it comes to finding a potential smearer, Perry’s most likely to be the source. “[I]f it ends up being the case that Romney is the only viable alternative to Cain, then Romney wins. But if it ends up being that Perry is the only viable alternative to Romney, then Perry still has a very good chance notwithstanding a thus-far-underwhelming campaign. But either way, Perry desperately needs to get into an “it’s me or it’s Mitt” race, and the infatuation of certain segments of the mass electorate with Cain is muddying the waters in a way that’s very unhelpful to his cause.”
Still, there’s one potential storyline that hasn’t been explored — what if Cain leaked it himself? After all, many of the conservative wing are either dismissing the allegations or defending Cain against them, meaning the candidate may walk away from the scandal mostly unharmed. And the timing of the story has pushed that other important Cain scandal — that of the likely illegal use of fund that helped launched his campaign for the first few months — right off the public’s radar.
Coincidentally good timing? Or is the Cain campaign really that clever?
All of which makes this amount to a non-story everywhere but in political circles, and even less so an attack of the liberal media.