Subscribe via RSS Feed

Ruh-Roh

[ 22 ] October 30, 2011 | Scott Lemieux

I’m not going to say, exactly, that this story affects Cain’s chances of getting the nomination. I think this changes them from zero to zero. But it certainly doesn’t help.

Comments (22)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. wiley says:
    October 31, 2011 at 1:39 am

    I just read the whole article out loud to my mate. What a great piece of reportage.

    I happen to know there were sealed settlements reached in the plural. I think that anybody who thinks this was a one-time, one-person transgression would be mistaken,” this source said.

    The first woman was identified to POLITICO by a former association board member and her identity was confirmed by two additional sources.
    The former board member recalled learning of the woman’s departure at a 1999 association board meeting and trade expo in Chicago.
    “She was offered a financial package to leave the association and she did,” said the former board member. “What I took offense at was that it was clear that rather than deal with the issue, there was an effort to hush it up. She was offered a way out to keep quiet.”

    .

    But you know who is responsible for all these mean-spirited allegations? That’s right:

    “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,” the campaign said in a statement. “Sadly, we’ve seen this movie played out before – a prominent Conservative targeted by liberals simply because they disagree with his politics.”

    Liberal meanies with time machines. Is there no limits to the depths that liberals will plunge in order to defame an upstanding, upright, self-evidently goody-two shoed conservative?

    I think not.

    Reply
    • c u n d gulag says:
      October 31, 2011 at 8:33 am

      Victimization is like the cherry on the sundae for Conservatives.

      Cain’ll be fine if he can say that these women accusing him are Leftist Hairy-armpitted Liberal Lesbians.

      A couple of Hillary and Rosie O’Donnell references, and he’ll be good to go!

      Reply
  2. wiley says:
    October 31, 2011 at 1:40 am

    Oh, yeah— LOCK UP THE WHITE WOMEN!!!

    Reply
  3. Warren Terra says:
    October 31, 2011 at 2:16 am

    Well, he may have been sexually harassing the staff – but at least he’s not campaigning while appearing drunk, like Perry.

    Can this field possibly be the best the GOP can do?

    Reply
    • efgoldman says:
      October 31, 2011 at 12:30 pm

      Can this field possibly be the best the GOP can do?

      That’s the really, really scary and really, really creepy part, isn’t it?

      Reply
    • wiley says:
      October 31, 2011 at 12:42 pm

      On a related note, has anybody else ever noticed how glazed Bush’s eyes were sometimes? I’d swear he was stoned on serious pharmaceuticals half the time—and possibly mixing drugs and alcohol, as well. Is there any doubt he was sloshed at the Bejing Olympics?

      Now, I don’t mind if the President of the United States has a belt, or smokes a joint, or even toots up a little coke, now and then; but I do mind if other people are going to prison for doing the same.

      Reply
  4. R Johnston says:
    October 31, 2011 at 3:46 am

    I’m certain that if anything this improves Cain’s chance of getting the nomination. I’d have put it at zero before, and maybe 5% or so now. There’s nothing the Republican base loves more than claiming that liberals are making false dirty accusations against conservatives, especially sexual harassment accusations.

    In the party where the base believes with absolute certainty the spectacularly ridiculous claim that Clarence Thomas was lynched in the Senate and holds a deep grievance over the matter to this day, this can only help Cain win the nomination.

    Reply
    • ajay says:
      October 31, 2011 at 6:17 am

      the base believes with absolute certainty the spectacularly ridiculous claim that Clarence Thomas was lynched in the Senate

      Request for clarification: is it that they think he was innocent, or that they believe he did it and just don’t think it matters?

      Reply
    • chris says:
      October 31, 2011 at 7:13 am

      On the other hand, Thomas never had to run against Barack Obama in November. The Republican nominee will. If there’s anyone left in the Republican Party capable of the vaguest semblance of rational thought it has to occur to them that this could be a serious handicap in the general election, where you have to appeal to more than just Fox News viewers.

      Reply
    • Rarely Posts says:
      October 31, 2011 at 8:32 am

      I had the same thought. I’d still put his chances at 1%, but it’s always possible this news will cause people to rush TO him in sympathy. It will, in part, depend on the exact accusations, the witnesses, and whether it is perceived as a real story or a hit-piece.

      Reply
    • Bill Altreuter says:
      October 31, 2011 at 12:48 pm

      Accusations of sexual harassment are a feature, not a bug. To the extent that Republicans believe it is a thing at all they probably think it is a good thing– more evidence of how good men are persecuted and brought low by something the damn liberals made up. If it was good enough for Clarence Thomas, why not Herman Cain?

      Maybe Ginny Thomas can give the accusers a call.

      Reply
  5. calling all toasters says:
    October 31, 2011 at 6:05 am

    I find it hard to believe that a man who flashes the creepiest grin ever in his ads might actually be creepy.

    Reply
  6. efgoldman says:
    October 31, 2011 at 12:32 pm

    So the next question is, which little birdie leaked the story?
    Lookin’ at you, turdblossom.

    Reply
    • R Johnston says:
      October 31, 2011 at 12:36 pm

      That’s an easy call: Cain’s campaign manager. The failure of the Cain campaign to leak this story would be political malpractice, and while the Cain campaign is certainly capable of political malpractice it’s still best to assume that a story that can only help Cain in the race for the Republican nomination was leaked by them.

      Reply
    • efgoldman says:
      October 31, 2011 at 12:45 pm

      I dunno’. The great Charley Pierce is thinking along the same turdblossom lines…

      However, the appearance of this story smells extraordinarily of mackerel. Cain becomes the bubble of the week. Almost immediately, Karl Rove dedicates the past two weeks to teeing up Herman Cain on the teevee. And it is not like Rove, to name only the most conspicuous character, is without friends and contacts in the National Restaurant Association. (Some scrolling required.) According to the good folks at the Center For Responsive Politics, we also discover that the National Restaurant Association has retained not only the lobbying firm founded by former Republican National chairman Haley Barbour and former Bush I hired hand Ed Rogers, but also another high-powered lobbying firm, Mehlman, Vogel, and Castignetti, the first two of whom had long careers as Republican congressional aides and operatives before hanging out the shingle. No real surprise, of course, but it does indicate that the Republican establishment — or that which remains of it — has decided that Herman Cain’s free ride has ended. It’s becoming a bit clearer that the Republican primary process may consist of lashing the party’s entire base to a chair and forcing them all to listen to Mitt Romney long enough for the Stockholm Syndrome to take over.
      You might argue that someone has acted on principle, that someone thought that the nation needed this information in order to make an informed decision. If that’s the case, then why didn’t anyone try to strangle the whole campaign in its crib by releasing this a month or two ago? The only way this makes sense is as something that someone kept in their pocket until they needed it. And, in dealing with a party in which Karl Rove is a power, I choose not to believe in coincidence.

      Reply
  7. thebewilderness says:
    October 31, 2011 at 2:34 pm

    I don’t think he ever had a chance at the nomination. Given the way he has run his campaign I have thought from the beginning he was running for Vice.

    I am braced for another round of blaming women for what men do to them in the corporate media.

    Reply

Leave a Reply




If you want a picture to show with your comment, go get a Gravatar.

    • Switch to our mobile site