And Another One Bites The Dust (Herman Cain)

[Flagg]

MSNBC

Cain says he was 'falsely accused' of harassment
GOP candidate: 'I have never sexual harassed anyone, and yes, I was falsely accused'

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain admitted Monday to being accused of sexual harassment while at the helm of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s, but denied ever engaging in such activity.

Cain, responding during an appearance on Fox News to a story that said he had settled two sexual harassment claims against him while at the NRA, said that an investigation into those allegations proved them to be "totally baseless."

"I have never sexual harassed anyone, and yes, I was falsely accused while I was at the National Restaurant Association," Cain said in the interview, his first comments on the Politico story from Sunday. "I say falsely because it turned out, after the investigation, to be baseless."

Cain sought to forcefully dispute the story, which said Cain had been accused of sexually suggestive behavior toward at least two female employees during his time as head of the restaurant lobby.

The report said the women signed agreements with the restaurant group that gave them five-figure financial payouts to leave the association and barred them from discussing their departures. Neither woman was identified.

Cain said he had never personally settled any sexual harassment suit, and that if the NRA had settled any claims, it had done so without his knowledge.

"If the Restaurant Association did a settlement, I wasn't even aware of it, and I hope it wasn't for much because nothing happened," he explained. "So if there was a settlement, it was handled by some of the other officers that worked for me at the association."

Cain's campaign has launched an all-out effort Monday to dispute the story. Campaign manager and chief of staff Mark Block forcefully denied the Politico story on television this morning.

"Herman Cain has never sexually harassed anybody. Period. End of story," Block said on MSNBC's Daily Rundown.

Block said he was not "personally aware" of any settlement, and invited reporters to contact the NRA for comment.

The story comes just as Cain has enjoyed a wave of momentum — and scrutiny — in the GOP primary. He spoke at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, this morning, where he refused to take questions.

Cain is scheduled to deliver remarks this afternoon at the National Press Club, where he'll also likely face questions about the allegations.

The initial report was based on anonymous sources and, in one case, what the publication said was a review of documentation that described the allegations and the resolution.

Cain's campaign told the AP that the allegations were not true, and amounted to unfair attacks.

NBC News has not independently verified the Politico report.

'Casting aspersions'
"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," he added.

"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 anyway they can," the statement continued. "Sadly, we've seen this movie played out before — a prominent Conservative targeted by liberals simply because they disagree with his politics."

Asked if Cain's campaign was denying the report, Gordon said, "Yes."

"These are baseless allegations," Gordon said in a second interview later Sunday evening. "To my knowledge, this is not an accurate story."

In its report, Politico said it confronted Cain early Sunday outside of the CBS News Washington bureau, where he had just been interviewed on "Face the Nation."

Politico said Cain's campaign staff was given the name of one woman who had allegedly made a complaint and this name was put to Cain directly Sunday. Politico said Cain responded, "I am not going to comment on that."

"Have you ever been accused, sir, in your life of harassment by a woman?" the Politico reporter then asked.

"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?" Politico reported.

A message seeking comment from Peter Kilgore, listed on the National Restaurant Association website as its chief legal counsel, was not immediately returned.

Cain plans to continue with several planned appearances in Washington on Monday.

He is slated to discuss his tax plan at the American Enterprise Institute, appear at the National Press Club and hold a healthcare briefing on Capitol Hill.

Cain — a self-styled outsider relatively new to the national stage — is facing a new level of scrutiny after a burst of momentum in the race for the GOP presidential nomination. He's been steadily at or near the top of national surveys and polls in early presidential nominating states, competitive with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

The former pizza company executive has been pointing to his long record in business to argue that he has the credentials needed to be president during a time of economic strife.
Iowa Poll: Cain, Romney top field ahead of caucuses

Earlier Sunday, Cain said that an Internet ad featuring his campaign manager smoking conveyed a message about letting "people be people" and was not intended to suggest that smoking is cool.

The video went viral this month with some 1 million clicks on Cain's campaign website. The ad shows Cain's top adviser, Block, taking a deep drag from a cigarette and slowly exhaling into the camera.

"I'm not a smoker. But I don't have a problem if that's his choice," Cain said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

"So let Herman be Herman. Let Mark be Mark. Let people be people. This wasn't intended to send any subliminal signal whatsoever," the candidate said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

If they were lying, why pay them off, hmmm?

[Mr Bean]

Seriously you think this of all things will impact Cain's polling? Have you ever heard of Newt Gingrich Flagg? It was over twenty years ago and we don't have any wronged woman to come forward and give a tearful press conference so this will be a non issue in a week. The only question is if Cain continues his run of good luck beyond Iowa or the party sucks it up and just elects Romney after all.

[Flagg]

Newt Gingrich who was forced to resign in disgrace? Yeah, I recall that.

His 15 minutes are about up anyway.

[Mr Bean]

Newt Gingrich who was forced to resign in disgrace? Yeah, I recall that.

His 15 minutes are about up anyway.

Resign in disgrace yet polls a solid 5%-8%.
And his 15 minutes of fame were up a decade ago yet he's still here. You really don't know just who Newt Gingrich is don't you?
Sex scandals only make Republicans stronger unless they are GAY sex scandals. I will now predict Herman Cain will win Iowa.

[Losonti Tokash]

I still just get a kick out of people citing his tenure at Godfather's. During which they collapsed from 911 stores to 420, acquired a reputation being even worse than Domino's, and Cain was forced to resign by the board. Truly, a heck of a job.

[Alferd Packer]

At best, we'll see Cain make it to Super Tuesday, when racism will be pitted against anti-Mormon bigotry as the GOP voters go to the polls in bulk. I suspect that racism will be the stronger of the two factors, and Mitt Romney will handily win the day.

[Flagg]

Newt Gingrich who was forced to resign in disgrace? Yeah, I recall that.

His 15 minutes are about up anyway.

Resign in disgrace yet polls a solid 5%-8%.
And his 15 minutes of fame were up a decade ago yet he's still here. You really don't know just who Newt Gingrich is don't you?
Sex scandals only make Republicans stronger unless they are GAY sex scandals. I will now predict Herman Cain will win Iowa.

Wow, single digits. And I was saying Cains 15 minutes were up. This will sink him.

[Barlestone]

I wouldn't be too fast to believe this is the end of Herman Cain. There were similar allegations against Clarence Thomas, and look where he is now. It won't help his campaign, certainly, but if this is all there is it won't push Cain out of the race by itself.

[Flagg]

Clarence Thomas had a single accuser and never paid her off.

[Barlestone]

Anita Hill ended up testifying before congress, and was much more visible than Cain's accusers have been so far. Clarence Thomas also did have multiple accusers, Anita Hill is just the one everyone remembers.

By comparison, all we've got on Cain is that there were accusations, which were followed by settlements. The settlements were not paid by Cain himself, and if he can maintain that separation and maybe insinuate that it was "stop-bothering-us" money rather than "keep-quiet-about-this-misconduct" money he might be able to ride this out.

Of course, this is if what we have here is all that shows up, and that's a pretty big if. I guess the real test for how much this damages him will be if we're still talking about it in two or three weeks.

[Broomstick]

If they were lying, why pay them off, hmmm?

Because court cases are expensive, often more expensive than payouts which make the problem go away.

[Flagg]

If they were lying, why pay them off, hmmm?

Because court cases are expensive, often more expensive than payouts which make the problem go away.

I have a dim view of that excuse when coming from large corporations who can easily petition for reimbursement of legal costs if the case is found in their favor.

[Broomstick]

Well, OK, I can see your point, but it's STILL the most common excuse I've seen for doing that. I guess big corps just don't want to spent the larger sum in the first place, whether or not reimbursement is a possibility.

[evilsoup]

Well, there's also the point that shit sticks - if this was dragged through a public court, then even if the women in this case were laughed of court, plenty of people would still believe him guilty; and it would still reflect badly on his employer.

(Just to make it clear, I'm mostly playing devil's advocate here)

[Lord Zentei]

Does anyone remember when he released that atrocious video of the 9/11 attacks with him singing "God Bless America" in the background some weeks ago? Most of us (myself included) predicted his demise in the polls, but lo and behold he surged and is now one of the top contenders. I wouldn't count him out just yet. The main thing which could sink him now is if it turns out that a settlement was in fact paid with his knowledge, since he has already stated publicly that if it happened, it wasn't with his knowledge.

So let Herman be Herman

Indeed.

[Flagg]

How many times has his story on the matter changed now?

[Lord Zentei]

No idea. I wasn't even aware that he had changed his story.

But in any case, a related article:

Disregard what you read in the liberal press: there's a chance that Herman Cain will emerge stronger from his little “sex scandal” than he was before. The reason liberals think otherwise is that they don’t understand the psychology of Republican voters. Guilty or not, Cain has turned this story to his advantage by invoking the most powerful conservative narrative of all: sin and redemption, with a bit of racial politics thrown into the mix.

To be sure, it’s been a difficult 24 hours. Politico started the ball rolling by publishing the charge that Herman Cain behaved inappropriately towards two women while head of the National Restaurant Association over a decade ago. Both ladies were subsequently paid off by the NRA. To defend Cain, the campaign sent in spokesman JD Gordon to calm things down – a bad choice as Gordon himself was wrapped in controversy after he cut an ad that featured him puffing cigarette smoke into the camera. On the Fox News Channel, Sunday night, Gordon looked shifty and uncomfortable as he repeated a disavowal that disavowed the substance of the charge but not the charge itself.

It wasn’t until a press conference on Monday morning that Cain finally set the record straight. And what a performance he gave! Journalists gathering at the The National Press Club complained that they didn’t have the chance to grill him properly, but there’s something about the dignity and wit of Herman Cain that makes the ordinary bull of politics seem redundant. He said, “Number one … I have never sexually harassed anyone. Number two … I was accused of sexual harassment, falsely accused, I might add. I was falsely accused of sexual harassment, and when the charges were brought, as the leader of the organization I recused myself and allowed my general counsel and my human resource officer to deal with the situation and it was concluded after a thorough investigation that it had no basis.”

There was nothing unusual about the substance of Cain’s denial – all very lawyerly and preplanned. But then, in a twist that no one could have foreseen, he closed the press conference with a song. “Amazing grace will always be my song of praise/ For it was grace that brought me liberty./ I cannot know just why He came to love me so;/ He looked beyond my faults and saw my needs.”

There are rare moments in politics when rhetoric transcends dialogue and becomes poetry; when a politician communicates to his audience on a personal level so magical that it is almost metaphysical. This was one of those moments. You see, the elitist liberal press will doubtless parody Cain’s song for days to come (imagine the fun Jon Stewart will have with it). But to the millions of Republicans who are born again Christians, Herman Cain has just sent a powerful message that – if he's lucky – will turn this scandal into an electoral asset. Cain was invoking the process of sin, redemption and forgiveness that so many religious conservatives are familiar with. Just as Bush erased his past mistakes in 2000 by declaring, “I was blind, but now I see”, Cain was saying to evangelicals, “I didn’t do it, but even if I did do it, I put my sins before the Lord and he has washed me clean.” To every Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostalist or Seventh-day Adventist, this is a more powerful message than if he had materially proven his innocence. Humanity and humility matter more to religious voters than probity.

Additionally, Cain might also be saved by his the colour of his skin. The fact that he is a black conservative makes Democrats hate him (because he questions all their assumptions about race and liberalism) and Republicans love him (because he confirms that conservatism is not inherently racist). Republicans admire him enough to likely want to protect him and his reputation: it would certainly be foolish to feed to the liberal wolves the most charismatic candidate they've got. Already Right-wing columnist Ann Coulter has led the fight back by arguing, “Liberals are terrified of Herman Cain. He is a strong conservative black man … This is a high-tech lynching.” Her analysis is characteristically hyperbolic, but the intensity of her remarks reflects wider conservative anger at attacks pitched at the man who cleanses them of their movement's Original Sin: racism.

Herman Cain’s unique understanding of what makes the Tea Party tick will help guide him through his crisis. Conservatives know that they need him and, for that reason, they will look beyond his faults. That will help him – for now.

[Flagg]

MSNBC

First Thoughts: Cain's evolving statements

Cain’s evolving statements… Monday began with him claiming no sexual harassment, and that he wasn’t aware of any settlement… But it ended with an admission that one woman might have incorrectly interpreted something he said as being inappropriate, and a settlement/agreement was reached… The big question: Does another shoe drop?... Here come the Super PAC ads: Pro-Perry group begins airing ads in IA and SC… Obama releases his physical; will the GOP candidates their medical information?... And Obama’s busy day with local TV stations.
By NBC's Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Brooke Brower

*** Cain’s evolving statements: Make no mistake: Herman Cain and his campaign had a rough day handling the allegations that he had behaved inappropriately toward two female employees when he headed the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s. NBC News has confirmed that two women accused him of inappropriate sexual conduct, and at least one woman received a financial settlement. First, Cain top aide Mark Block said on MSNBC’s “Daily Rundown” that Cain “never sexually harassed anybody. Period. End of story.” And he added, “I am not personally aware of any settlement.” In a later interview on FOX, Cain said, "If the restaurant association did a settlement, I wasn't even aware of it, and I hope it wasn't for much.” But then his story began to change. “Yes, there was some sort of settlement or termination,” he told FOX’s Greta Van Susteren. “I was aware that an agreement was reached,” he said on PBS. “The word settlement versus the word agreement. You know, I’m not sure what they called it.”

*** Will another shoe drop? So Cain’s Monday began there (no sexual harassment, not aware of a settlement) and ended up here (one woman might have incorrectly interpreted something he said as being inappropriate, and a settlement/agreement was reached). Can he survive this? It all depends if there’s another allegation or a new piece of information that contradicts his current story. If there is, that would be a knockout blow. Indeed, conservative commentators largely gave Cain a free pass yesterday. Rush Limbaugh said, “Look at how quickly what is known as the ‘mainstream media’ goes for the ugliest racial stereotypes they can to attack a black conservative.” And Laura Ingraham, who clerked for Clarence Thomas, said, “Doesn’t all this sound familiar? A black man who thinks for himself, who ends up surprising everyone…” (One exception, however, was Karl Rove, demonstrating an establishment-vs.-base divide here.) But if another shoe drops, he most likely won’t get another free pass from them.

I love how the first people to scream "YOU'RE PLAYING THE RACE CARD!!!" any time someone points out abject racism immediately throw out the race card when there's no racism to be found except the shit spewing from their own lips.

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

I still just get a kick out of people citing his tenure at Godfather's. During which they collapsed from 911 stores to 420, acquired a reputation being even worse than Domino's, and Cain was forced to resign by the board. Truly, a heck of a job.

This is really all we need to know about the guy. I'm not of a mind to see this in twenty years.

I still just get a kick out of people citing his term as President. During which the GDP collapsed from $36tn to $17tn, acquired a human rights record being even worse than China, and Cain was forced to resign by the people revolting en masse. Truly, a heck of a job.

[Lord Zentei]

The US is at $14.5tn right now, so by that ratio, GDP would have to drop to under $6.7tn.

I don't want to see that either.

[Flagg]

NYTimes

Cain Accuser Got a Year’s Salary in Severance Pay
By JIM RUTENBERG, JEFF ZELENY and MIKE McINTIRE
Published: November 1, 2011

This article is by Jim Rutenberg, Jeff Zeleny and Mike McIntire.

WASHINGTON — The National Restaurant Association gave $35,000 — a year’s salary — in severance pay to a female staff member in the late 1990s after an encounter with Herman Cain, its chief executive at the time, made her uncomfortable working there, three people with direct knowledge of the payment said on Tuesday.

The woman was one of two whose accusations of sexual harassment by Mr. Cain, now a Republican candidate for president, led to paid severance agreements during his 1996-99 tenure as the association’s chief. Disclosure of the cases has rocked Mr. Cain’s campaign just as he was surging in polls.

Further challenging Mr. Cain, a lawyer for the second woman called on the restaurant association to release her from a confidentiality agreement signed as part of her settlement, raising the prospect that she could publicly dispute Mr. Cain’s account of what happened. The lawyer said the confidentiality agreement had left her unable to respond to Mr. Cain’s dismissal of the complaints against him as a “witch hunt” or to his denials of any inappropriate behavior toward the women.

“He’s basically saying: ‘I never harassed anyone. These claims have no merit,’ ” said the lawyer, Joel P. Bennett of Washington, who represented the woman in her initial agreement. “And I’m sure my client would have a comeback to that.”

The precise nature of the encounters between Mr. Cain and the two women remained murky. He has said over the past two days that he joked with one of the women about her height, but he has not addressed what happened with the first woman — the one who received the $35,000 payment, according to the people who knew of it — or even acknowledged there was an incident with her. Her friends and colleagues said she had told them at the time that she was upset about the situation.

The developments put new pressure on Mr. Cain’s campaign, as his own accounts evolved over a second day on Tuesday and new details raised questions over exactly what had taken place at the association. And his shifting answers continued to raise questions about the capabilities of a campaign that seasoned party hands still view with skepticism.

Asked during an interview on the Fox News Channel on Tuesday night whether he would ask the association to comply with Mr. Bennett’s request, Mr. Cain said, “I can’t give you a definitive answer on that until we consult with our attorneys.”

He added that there could be “legal implications” if the women were released from confidentiality agreements, though he did not say what those implications might be.

A spokeswoman for the restaurant association, Sue Hensley, said that Mr. Bennett “has not been in contact with the association,” and that “if we are contacted by Mr. Bennett, we will respond as appropriate.”

She did not address questions about the details of the $35,000 severance arrangement with the other woman. A spokesman for Mr. Cain, J.D. Gordon, also declined to discuss the details of the arrangement.

Asked about the encounter that had left the woman uncomfortable working with Mr. Cain, according to friends and former colleagues, Mr. Gordon said, “Mr. Cain has already explained the situation in some detail in numerous public appearances.”

Four people with contemporaneous knowledge of the incident said the encounter had taken place in the context of a work outing during which there was heavy drinking, a hallmark, they said, of outings with an organization that represents the hospitality industry. They spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid being publicly drawn into the dispute, and declined to provide details of the encounter, saying they did not want to violate the privacy of the woman.

Two of them said that other factors had been involved in her severance, and that other, less-loaded issues had been making her unhappy at the association. But they said the encounter with Mr. Cain had added an emotional charge, and contributed to the size of her payment. One former colleague familiar with the details said such a severance was not common, especially for an employee with the woman’s years at the association and her pay grade.

The situation with the other woman appeared to be more in keeping with a standard settlement related to harassment allegations, though she never filed suit in a case that, one person familiar with her accusations said, included “more than one” alleged incident that made her feel uncomfortable.

Mr. Cain has at times seemed to conflate the situations with the two women. Appearing to speak about the terms of the formal settlement with Mr. Bennett’s client on Monday, he said she had received perhaps three months of severance — this after at first saying he knew of no severance.

On Tuesday, he said in an interview with “CNN Headline News” that it was “in the vicinity of three to six months.”

Asked on Fox News Channel on Tuesday night why his story kept changing Mr. Cain said “when I first heard the word settlement I thought ‘legal settlement.’ My recollection later was that was an agreement.”

That led one of his interviewers, the conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer, to ask whether he was being “Clintonian” in his answer, a nod to Mr. Clinton’s initial statements that he did not have sexual relations with the intern Monica Lewinsky. “Well, it wasn’t intended to be Clintonian,” Mr. Cain said. “It was simply using the word agreement.”

In speaking about the confidential agreement, Mr. Bennett said that he indeed considered it to be a form of settlement agreement.

A relative of one of the women said Tuesday evening: “This is not something we asked for. This is not something we brought on.”

As Mr. Cain took question after question on Fox, his campaign sought to project a business-as-usual aura on Tuesday and released a list of 15 co-chairmen of his campaign effort in Florida. He did not join five of his Republican rivals at a candidate forum in Iowa, where Gov. Terry Branstad said voters would wait for facts to be revealed before reaching a conclusion.

“Iowans are pretty fair-minded people," Mr. Branstad said.

Mr. Cain also was set to keep his pre-scheduled dinner with several Republican senators at a Washington steakhouse near the White House.

It remained an open question how Mr. Cain would weather the political fallout from the allegations. His rivals for the Republican presidential nomination neither rallied to his defense or offered a comment on the matter.

But several prominent conservatives stepped forward with supportive words for Mr. Cain, whose campaign said he had experienced a boost in fundraising.

“As I watch this witch hunt of Herman Cain,” Rush Limbaugh said on his radio program Tuesday, “I’m reminded once again that whether they can do it or no, the media clearly believe that they can make or destroy any political candidate they choose.”

Mr. Cain’s rising appeal is rooted, in part, by his unconventional style and the fact that he is not seen as a typical politician. The sexual harassment allegations are providing the biggest test yet to his preparedness for office and his ability to react to a crisis.

Mr. Cain also kept a pre-scheduled dinner appointment with a small group of Republican senators at a Washington steakhouse near the White House. He arrived through a parking garage and entered a private room in the basement of Bobby Van’s, which allowed him to bypass a cluster of reporters who gathered outside.

Jim Rutenberg and Jeff Zeleny reported from Washington, and Mike McIntire from New York.

And another one down, another one down, another one bites the dust...

[Vendetta]

This is apparently now all a smear campaign from Rick Perry.

[Anguirus]

Interesting bit from the Telegraph there. I think that even if he manages to minimize damage in the primaries, it's a threat to his electability in the general.

[Broomstick]

Part of the problem with sexual harassment in the workplace is that what men might consider friendly overtures can be seen by women as threatening or harassing. It's a cultural problem that's still being worked out. Absent further information, that might be what happened here - Cain said or did something he thought was innocuous and a couple women viewed it differently. Based on my experience in corporate America I view that as a likely scenario. In which case the settlement and the confidentiality agreements make sense.

If that IS the case, though, a better strategy than outright denial would be "Look, I said/did something in a manner I thought was fine/friendly/acceptable but I now realize, seen from the viewpoint of a woman, was not as innocent/friendly/harmless as I had thought. I'm sorry for having hurt anyone's feelings, I assure you it was unintentional, and I have learned from the experience. It has made me more aware of how others different from me perceive the world and I think it has strengthened me as a leader."

Of course, we don't know the details here. Given the way it has been (mis)handled I think there's a possibility of the confidentiality agreements being lifted which I think is much more likely to hurt Cain than help him.

[gizmojumpjet]

Let's also not forget that it's entirely possible that he indeed was falsely accused. As someone who was falsely accused of sexual harassment, I know that it does happen.