Who's Better At Making Fun Of The Hermanator-- Colbert Or Kimmel? Neither Beats Reality

I figured when Herman Cain did that interview a few weeks ago with Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC and O'Donnell read the part from his autobiography where Herman talks about how his reaction to the Civil Rights movement was-- in his words-- to "move to the back of the bus," that would be the last we'd ever hear from The Hermanator. Was I wrong! Republicans love their little minstrel shows and Cain spiked in the polls and started regularly beating the inevitable Republican nominee in poll after poll.

Then today Politico broke the news that Cain was harrassing women when he was head of the restaurant association's trade group. The story's been bubbling for almost two weeks but until Sunday no one had enough to get it into print and Cain's camp has steadfastly refused comment. But "in a tense sidewalk encounter Sunday morning outside the Washington bureau of CBS News-- where the Republican contender had just completed an interview on Face the Nation-- Cain evaded a series of questions about sexual harassment allegations."

The women were paid off to keep quiet and moved on to other companies. The Romney camp denies having leaked the information and quietly points the finger at Rick Perry. His campaign denies everything, of course. And Team Hermanator is whining that this whole thing is an "unfair attack."

Cain said he has “had thousands of people working for me” at different businesses over the years and could not comment “until I see some facts or some concrete evidence.” His campaign staff was given the name of one woman who complained last week, and it was repeated to Cain on Sunday. He responded, “I am not going to comment on that.”

He was then asked, “Have you ever been accused, sir, in your life of harassment by a woman?”

He breathed audibly, glared at the reporter and stayed silent for several seconds. After the question was repeated three times, he responded by asking the reporter, “Have you ever been accused of sexual harassment?”

Cain was president and CEO of the National Restaurant Association from late 1996 to mid-1999. Politico learned of the allegations against him, and over the course of several weeks, has put together accounts of what happened by talking to a lengthy roster of former board members, current and past staff and others familiar with the workings of the trade group at the time Cain was there.

In one case, Politico has seen documentation describing the allegations and showing that the restaurant association formally resolved the matter. Both women received separation packages that were in the five-figure range.

On the details of Cain’s allegedly inappropriate behavior with the two women, Politico has a half-dozen sources shedding light on different aspects of the complaints.

The sources-- which include the recollections of close associates and other documentation-- describe episodes that left the women upset and offended. These incidents include conversations allegedly filled with innuendo or personal questions of a sexually suggestive nature, taking place at hotels during conferences, at other officially sanctioned restaurant association events and at the association’s offices. There were also descriptions of physical gestures that were not overtly sexual but that made women who experienced or witnessed them uncomfortable and that they regarded as improper in a professional relationship.

Peter Kilgore, who was the association’s general counsel in the 1990s, and remains in that position today, has declined to comment to Politico on whether any settlements existed, saying he cannot discuss personnel matters.

But one source closely familiar with Cain’s tenure in Washington confirmed that the claims related to allegations of sexual harassment-- behavior that disturbed members of the board who became aware of it, as well as the source, who otherwise liked Cain.

“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.

I guess these aren't as funny as they were when I was getting reday to show them earlier today before the story broke. Sexual harassment is always so becoming on the pompous and pius.






UPDATE: Why This Is Good For The GOP

It bolsters the Republican Party's claim that they do have non-gay candidates. And, suddenly, no one is talking about what George Will said about Romney. What did he say? Glad you asked... you didn't read about "The Pretzel Candidate?"

A straddle is not a political philosophy; it is what you do when you do not have one. It is what Romney did when he said that using Troubled Assets Relief Program funds for the General Motors and Chrysler bailouts “was the wrong source for that funding.” Oh, so the source was the bailouts’ defect.

...Republicans may have found their Michael Dukakis, a technocratic Massachusetts governor who takes his bearings from “data” (although there is precious little to support Romney’s idea that in-state college tuition for children of illegal immigrants is a powerful magnet for such immigrants) and who believes elections should be about (in Dukakis’s words) “competence,” not “ideology.” But what would President Romney competently do when not pondering ethanol subsidies that he forthrightly says should stop sometime before “forever”? Has conservatism come so far, surmounting so many obstacles, to settle, at a moment of economic crisis, for this?

Well... there's always... Santorum.