Last week, Herman Cain couldn't seem to keep his mouth shut—or
his story straight—about the multiple employees who accused him of sexual harassment and who were paid a total of
$80,000 in hush money. And despite the
insistence of his chief of staff that the story was "done ... period, end of story," a
fourth woman emerged yesterday to accuse Cain of sexual assault, and then, last night,
news broke of yet
another woman who had witnessed Cain's questionable behavior.
So what's the take-away message Cain has learned from all of this? It sure pays to be accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault:
Cain spoke about the amount of money he has raised since these allegations came out, describing record fundraising numbers. Kimmel asked Cain if he thought the other candidates would hire women to charge them with sexual harassment.
Cain joked, “If they’re smart they will.”
Except that Cain wasn't really joking. Because he's managed to raise $2 million since the story broke—more than he raised in the preceding three months. Turns out, in today's Republican Party, having multiple women accuse you of being a sexual predator and all-around sleazebag is a great way to raise money. And so far, it's not exactly hurting him in the polls.
And that's today's Republican Party, ladies and gentlemen: a party composed of such pea-brained, mouth-breathing misogynists who, upon hearing that one of their own has an apparent pattern of harassing and assaulting women, respond not with scorn and disgust—or lectures about family values, or hand-wringing about how to explain it to the children, or demands that Cain drop out of the race and go into permanent hiding—but with support and cash. Because, as we should all know by now, anything, even behavior that was once considered an impeachable offense, is okay if you're a Republican.