Herman Cain boasted to religious right about his moral virtue last month (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Here's the passage that struck me most from Politico's
report on the two women who received five-figure settlements from Herman Cain's former employer after accusing him of sexual harassment:
Cain, who has been married to his wife Gloria for 43 years, did tell at least one campaign staffer this year about the possibility that claims of sexual harassment could surface, according to the aide. Cain, this person said, described a case in which he fired an employee in 1990s and the woman alleged sexual misconduct or harassment. Cain told the campaign staffer he had beaten the case and that the woman had paid for his legal fees. The aide had no further details.
Either there's at least one more accusation out there or Herman Cain is giving his staffer a load of bull—or both. Whichever way you look at it, this is likely the beginning, not the end, of stories about Herman Cain and harassment. And that probably means the end of his campaign.
Unlike Bill Clinton in 1992, Cain has positioned himself as a moral saint. The rationale Cain offers for his campaign is that experience doesn't matter, character does—and that he's got the character to be president. These kind of stories deal a fatal blow to that argument.
Mon Oct 31, 2011 at 6:02 AM PT (Barbara Morrill): Team Cain goes with the blame the liberal media defense:
Fearing the message of Herman Cain who is shaking up the political landscape in Washington, Inside the Beltway media have begun to launch unsubstantiated personal attacks on Cain.
Dredging up thinly sourced allegations stemming from Mr. Cain’s tenure as the Chief Executive Officer at the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s, political trade press are now casting aspersions on his character and spreading rumors that never stood up to the facts.
Since Washington establishment critics haven’t had much luck in attacking Mr. Cain’s ideas to fix a bad economy and create jobs, they are trying to attack him in any way they can.
Sadly, we’ve seen this movie played out before - a prominent Conservative targeted by liberals simply because they disagree with his politics.