Speaking in a halting voice, a Chicago-area woman accused Republican presidential contender Herman Cain of making an unwanted sexual advance against her more than a decade ago, saying she wanted to provide “a face and a voice” to support other accusers who have so far remained anonymous. “Come clean,” Sharon Bialek challenged Cain, demanding he confess to any inappropriate behavior with her or other women. Cain’s campaign instantly issued a denial. “All allegations of harassment against Mr. Cain are false,” it said. At a press conference with attorney Gloria Allred, Bialek described an evening in mid-July 1997 when she had dinner in Washington, D.C., with Cain, whom she had contacted in hopes he could help her find a job. Cain had reserved a luxurious hotel suite for her, and the two were in a car for what she thought was a ride to an office building. “Instead of going into the offices he suddenly reached over and he put his hand on my leg, under my skirt toward my genitals,” she said. “He also pushed my head toward his crotch,” she added. She said she told Cain to stop, adding that he did. Bialek said she did not file a workplace complaint against Cain at the time because she had been laid off from her position with the National Restaurant Association’s education foundation. Bialek, a registered Republican and mother, is the the fourth to allege misconduct. Cain has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and has called the accusations a “smear campaign” in the week since the disclosure that two women reportedly received financial settlements from the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s after accusing Cain, who led the group at the time, of sexually inappropriate behavior while they were employed there. A third woman told The Associated Press last week that she considered filing a workplace complaint against Cain over what she deemed sexually suggestive remarks and gestures that included a private invitation to his corporate apartment. A former pollster for the restaurant association has said he witnessed yet another episode involving a fourth woman. It was unclear if he was referring to Bialek. The allegations have rocked Cain’s unorthodox presidential campaign just as he was riding high in public opinion polls two months before the leadoff Iowa presidential caucuses. He has emerged in national and state surveys as the leading conservative challenger to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination — adding unpredictability to a race already as volatile as any in recent memory. As the new accuser surfaced, Cain was in California for what his campaign said were private events and an appearance on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” as he works to stem the fallout of the string of allegations. In response, Cain spokesman J.D. Gordon assailed Allred, calling her a major donor to Democrats who typically engages in self-promotion. He said the campaign would have more to say on the allegations later Monday. Federal Election Commission reports show that Allred gave $1,000 to Hillary Rodham Clinton and $2,300 to Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign. Allred has represented several high-profile clients, including Amber Frey, a witness against convicted California killer Scott Peterson. Allred also represented a woman whom news reports accused of having an affair with golfer Tiger Woods. “I consider sexual harassment the No. 1 problem in the workplace,” Allred told the AP in an interview last week. “It denies equal opportunity in the workforce. If (women) don’t protest it, they’ll have to continue to suffer.” – AP
Uh-oh, he's getting the Tiger Woods Effect now. I think that's going to be the end of him. Still, it won't cost him as much as it cost Tiger, lol.
He seems unscathed in the polls; so I wouldn't discount him so quickly. As a liberal, I kind of hope he does get the nomination, this only adds to the material that will kill him in the general election.
Be careful though, if Obama were to call Cain 'brother' like Perry did in the last debate, we'll have endless "Obama is a racist" articles to read.
Yeah, I didn't much care either with the initial accusations. But, if additional women are going to start coming out of the woodwork, i think it pops the bubble. And, I do think it was just a bubble anyway, we weren't really going to elect him. But, the end-game will effect the presidential race and his post-campaign career. And, I think this fourth allegation will define the end-game. I think Cain needs to keep denying until the end no matter the evidence, so he has some plausible deniability to protect future career options. He can pretend he was swift-boated.
Agreed. I think the recent polls probably havent accounted for the latest claimant. Give it a few days and I'm fairly certian you'll see a drop in his poll numbers. Looking at the GOP field, the top contenders- Romney, Bachman, Perry, Gingrich, and Cain- have little to no chance of winning a general election against Obama. Out of that group, the only ones I can see as gaining the nomination right now are Gingrich and Romney, and both would undoubtedbly lose by a wider margin than McCain did in the last election. Although I dont see the GOP ever fully backing him as their candidate, the current dynamic really plays well for Ron Paul. He's been ideologically consistent and his is the only ideology that resonates with a younger audience and seems to be gaining steam. This election could turnout to be a landmark election in changing the face of the Republican party from its more 'traditional' issues of abortion, gay marriage, and gun rights, to a more libertarian platform of states rights, increased privatization and less government.
this take seems about right: -- Conservatives have been expressing genuine anguish at the recent treatment of Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain. It isn’t fair, they say. In 1998, when Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff got the full details of President Bill Clinton’s adulterous affair with a 21-year-old intern, the magazine killed the story, leaving the nascent new media, in the person of The Drudge Report, to bring it to light. In 2007, when John Edwards was still a viable Democratic presidential candidate, the National Enquirer broke the news of his illicit affair and illegitimate child, but the mainstream media actually covered it up, with one CNN journalist explaining it was “unimportant.” And yet when the left wing news website Politico recently published anonymous allegations about 10-year-old sexual harassment complaints against Cain, the mainstream media lit up like a Christmas tree. For a week, the aforementioned CNN and the other left wing outlets went wall-to-wall with the charges. And now, with Sharon Bialek finally stepping forward to make more detailed accusations in person—accusations Cain wholly denies—we can be sure the story will remain explosive for some time to come. Not only is the news coverage of alleged sexual misconduct different according to political affiliation, the consequences of actual misconduct are often quite different as well. Republican congressman Mark Foley sent suggestive emails to male pages; he resigned under GOP pressure. Democratic congressman Gerry Studds actually had sex with one of the boys, then flung defiance at the House when they censured him; he was re-elected by Democrats until his retirement. And what if a drunken Republican senator had accidentally dropped a car containing his adultery mate into the water? What if he had sauntered back to his hotel to clean up while the poor woman desperately pounded on the car window until she drowned horribly? Would conservatives have re-elected that man? Would they have declared that man “The Lion of the Senate?” The very idea makes one ill. Conservatives would have demanded his arrest and trial with a single voice. So the double standard continues with Cain. Not only have the reliably left wing news sites like ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN been acting as if this were the story of the decade, but right wing sites like Fox and our own PJMedia have added fuel to the fire, eagerly tracking down more details. You can be sure that will keep happening as the story proceeds. And if Cain turns out to be guilty, you won’t be hearing any excuses for him here. And yes, it’s unfair. But there’s a reason it’s unfair—a reason it should be unfair. There’s a reason we right wingers vet our candidates while the left adulates theirs, a reason we condemn our miscreants while the left elevates theirs, a reason our news outlets cover stories that the left covers up. The reason is: we’re the good guys. We have to do what’s right. The left doesn’t. Sorry, but that’s the way it works. It’s the price you pay for defending what’s true and good, the price of holding yourself to a high moral standard. Our politicians have to be better than their politicians. Our journalists have to be more honest. Even our protesters have to behave with decorum and decency—and still suffer being slandered—while theirs can act like animals and commit acts of violence and lawlessness and spew anti-semitic filth and still find themselves excused and glorified. There’s a reason the bad guy in movies is always chuckling darkly while the hero frequently finds himself with a laser beam cutting a path toward his vitals. The world is a place that has to be fought for and wrongdoers hold high power in every field. Liars wear ties and sit behind desks and tell us “That’s the way it is!” while drawing seven figure salaries from mainstream corporations. Truth tellers—the Becks, the Limbaughs, the Coulters, the Breitbarts—have to create their own venues while dodging brickbats and charges of bigotry and meanness and insanity. Herman Cain is going to have to run the gauntlet, not just of a racist and dishonest left that wants to destroy him but of a fair-minded and decency-loving right that wants him to come fully clean and let the voters decide how we should proceed. The fight for truth, liberty and morality requires sacrifice and self-examination. The self-righteous quest for power over others does not. The world is just as unfair as you think it is. You’ll never catch the devil hanging on a cross.
Not to be all . . CONSPIRACY THEORIST but If I randomly roll around the country with 6 bags of 100 000 cash in them . . and had 6 random folx agree to point the finger at a person . .. . . . then generally . . . media wise and society wide . . he is guilty sure his innocence maybe proven but then people will just say "What is more probably that 6 unrelated people would point the finger or . . . . .they guy did it. . . " This is a gross exaggeration but they is still when someone is public . .. taking them down is not that hard if you sleezy enough that being said Herman may have done all of this I would suspect he did some of it . . . . I have no basis for this though . . .beyond I don't care for the guy The allegations just gives me another vehicle to get to the point of not liking him. Rocket River
The right wingers were never really going to support Cain anyway. And they are already trying to spin up Newt and even Santorum. They will do anything to avoid pulling the lever for Mitt...
Teddy's dead, Clinton did just have a wonderful 65th birthday party with every A lister on Earth, his tete-a-tete was at least consensual, and I don't care about Cain's dalliances because he's a fool. But daaaaaaamn you guys are way past wrong trying to mount any defense on this. The women of America will KIL, kill you on it. Trust me, I'm married to one of them.
Progressives should not be too giddy over this. I think Obama would have made short work of Cain, but Romney represents are far more serious threat.
