Watching the Cain campaign’s increasingly clumsy and embarrassingly sloppy response to a totally foreseeable sexual-harassment scandal is like witnessing a guy slip on a banana peel, then roll off the side of a cliff, then get attacked by a pack of wild animals, then explode into flames. After an entire day of claiming that Perry campaign aide Curt Anderson had leaked the details of the harassment incident to the press (which, even if that’s the case, wouldn’t make the story untrue), the Cain campaign decided today to abruptly withdraw the accusation.
“All the evidence that we had and what’s transpired in the last two weeks led up to Mr. Anderson as being the source,” [Mark] Block said. “We were absolutely thrilled that he came on your show and said that he wasn’t, because Mr. Cain always had the utmost respect for him.”
Pressed whether he was specifically withdrawing his claim that Anderson, who worked on Cain’s 2004 Senate run, used information from his time with the GOP candidate to plant the Politico story, Block said he was — for now, at least.
Hear that, everyone? The Cain campaign would just like to “move on with the campaign” now. Unfortunately for Cain, that’s not going to happen. In fact, we seem to be inching, inexorably, day by day, to finally finding out what actually took place between Cain and his female subordinates. Among the latest developments on that front:
• Politico reports that one woman received “a payout of about $45,000 as part of her settlement.” This is not the same woman who, according to the Times, was given $35,000.
• The lawyer for one of the women “has drafted a statement on behalf of his client and is sending it to the National Restaurant Assn. for review in hopes it can be released publicly.”
• Pajamas Media, a website that we thought was conservative but is apparently now part of the racist liberal East Coat media, reports new, vague details from anonymous sources about what transpired between Cain and one of the women. We don’t know how seriously to take them, but if they’re true, they would be disastrous for Cain.
Adding to the ongoing Herman Cain sexual harassment controversy, two sources have now confirmed to PJ Media that a female employee of the National Restaurant Association told associates she had been brought by Mr. Cain to his Crystal City, Virginia residence where she alleged “he had taken advantage of me.” ….
Both sources, one male and one female, worked at the time — mid-1990s — for the governmental affairs department of the National Restaurant Association, as did the woman.
Meanwhile, a new Rasmussen poll taken yesterday shows Cain still in the lead nationally. But that’s probably because only 13 percent of GOP voters “think it’s Very Likely that the charges against Cain are serious and true.” That number would obviously soar if more concrete details emerge.
Herman Cain accuser got $45,000 settlement [Politico]
Cain Campaign Drops Claim Perry Consultant Leaked Harassment Story [TPM]
BREAKING: PJM Sources Report Details of Alleged Cain Incident [PM]
Herman Cain accuser may offer story in statement [LAT]
Update: We said we didn’t know how seriously to take the report from the esteemed Pajamas Media. Well, we figured out the answer: not very seriously! Three separate, major corrections have now been added to the bottom of the story:
CORRECTIONS: A previous version of this story mentioned that a source witnessed Cain and the woman entering a taxi together. This was incorrect.
The previous version also mentioned that the woman awoke in Cain’s bed — the source only claimed that the woman awoke in Cain’s apartment.
