(UPDATED) Absent A Blue Dress, What Does Cain Have To Lose Besides His Credibility?
To say that Herman Cain has now completely made an ass of himself does a disservice to donkeys everywhere.
With one of the four . . . uh, now five women who have accused Cain of sexual harassment providing a detailed and credible account of him groping her in a parked car in the context of him offering her a job, a second woman about to go public with a detailed account because she is angered that Cain remains very publicly in denial, and a third woman who now says that Cain came on to her after a speech he gave in Egypt in 2002, the Republican presidential wannabe has now shot himself in both feet and is working northward.
It has been 10 days since Politico broke the story of his adventures in philandering while president of the National Restaurant Association.
Since then Cain has alternatively blamed that vast left-wing media conspiracy, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, impugn the integrity of the journalists covering him (an especially swift move) and most recently blame the “Democratic machine.” That is, everyone but himself in about as an atrocious example of political damage control evah. Oh, and he added at a press conference yesterday that men also are victims of sexual harassment, which while true enough has squat to do with the mess that he has made for himself.
That the otherwise likeable if gaffe prone Cain continues to deny that he even knew Sharon Bialek in the face of what she had to say at a press conference earlier this week is stunning.
Bialek, a former employee of the NRA’s educational foundation, stated that Cain approached her on the pretense of showing her the association’s offices. She said Cain parked his car and essentially assaulted her, slipping his hand under her skirt and trying to bring her head toward his lap. Bialek said that when she protested and reminded Cain that she had a boyfriend, he replied, “You want a job, right?”
Cain has counterattacked, noting that Bialek has had financial problems, the implication being that she has gone public with her accusations in anticipation of a future payday. To this Bialek responded, “It’s not about me. I’m not the one running for president.”
Cain has not yet commented as to whether he recalls meeting Donna Donella, a USAID worker who says that he made unwanted advances to her, a situation that she says was defused after her companions suggested that they all dine together.
Donella says she didn’t witness any “inappropriate sexual behavior” at the dinner, but claims Cain asked the waiter for two $400 bottles of wine, and then stiffed the rest of the group when it came time to pay.
It will only be a matter of time — and probably very little time as the rate Cain is immolating — before someone comes forward who has seen Cain and Bialek together, if not outright corroborating her account.
Cain’s other big problem at this point is that a scandal in the making that involved alleged victims with no names or backgrounds has mushroomed into a scandal with faces. Three of the women have now been publicly identified, prompting Kathleen Parker to note in the Washington Post that in journalism, three is a trend and four is a tipping point.
A tertiary problem is that Cain is giving ammo to his competitors for the nomination. Mitt Romney suggested yesterday that the allegations are “particularly disturbing.” He added that they “Are going to have to be addressed seriously,” and they are likely to be fodder for discussion at tonight’s presidential debate in Michigan.
In fairness to Cain (and I’m being way too generous here), perhaps he is an old-school type of guy who believes sticking one’s hand up a woman’s dress in an effort to grab her snatch is just being friendly and a little nooky in return for the promise of a job is the way business is done when you’re a big shot millionaire and former pizza magnate.
Besides which, there is no semen-stained blue dress, Cain’s supporters despise the messenger (the news media), his wife is standing by him, at least in public, so what’s to lose besides the most important thing a politician has — his credibility.
21 Responses to “(UPDATED) Absent A Blue Dress, What Does Cain Have To Lose Besides His Credibility?”
Is “…completely made an ass of himself does a disservice to donkeys everywhere” an ad hominem attack?
I’m trying hard to get a grasp on how the rules work here.
jj:
It’s pretty simple.
There are guidelines that Joe Gandelman has posted and Dr. E. enforces:
http://themoderatevoice.com/comment-policy-important/
Please note (again) that it says “TMV Columnist” not “TMV Strudel Maker” or “TMV Rocket Scientist” next to my byline.
As a columnist, I am permitted a certain latitude in expressing my (usually edgy) views as are Eugene Robinson in the WaPo or Paul Krugman in the NYT.
Just because you insist on being such a noodge, I will also point out that my opening paragraph is not an ad hominem attack.
An ad hominem attack is, to quote Wikipedia, “an attempt to negate the truth of a claim by pointing out a negative characteristic or belief of the person supporting it.”
I didn’t do that; I merely said that calling Cain an ass does a disservice to donkeys everywhere.
Now if I had called you something far strong than a noodge, which you demonstrably are, by using a deeply derogatory and/or profane term or perhaps questioning your ancestry, then I would be out of line.
I hope this clears things up because there is going to be a pop quiz in a few minutes.
Thank you, professor.
As you have stated on this site this morning….I just call’um like I see ‘um…and will continue to do so.
I like the vitriol. One question, are you sure you should not have used a colon instead of a comma
“Since then Cain has alternatively blamed that vast left-wing media conspiracy, Rick Perryz, Mitt Romneyz and Democrats.”
After media conspiracy?
Rcoutme
Howcum, or are we just joshing?
Thanks Shaun: Cain is inflated Zig Z. kind of speaker who before this time went about the country speaking about how he made it in the big wide world. His speeches were about himself. Something we talk about in our own ethnic group is how when you have had years and centuries of no power, how easy it is to act as one’s oppressor once did; inviolate, above the law. I wish Cain well, but I think he may be best as a motivational speaker.
also to all here, if you want to engage writer personally, email them. Read the rules for commenters on the masthead. We keep the commenter’s space for comments on the topics of the article. Not about commenters or writers. If there’s an editorial issue about punctuation, or a tech issue, send an email to Tyrone.
Know that all here write and admin for the big bucks: that is, zero. No one here is paid. We all have day jobs, families, children, elders to take care of, and also volunteer much time to make TMV happen.
thanks,
arhcangel/ dr.e
Thanks
Successful businessmen are not qualified automatically for political office. In fact, CEO’s are not unlike dictators, and the differences between running a company and running a country are about as vast as they can be.
You can tell from his responses to and comments about the media. First, he said they are being too nitpicky. Yea, they do that. They didn’t take your flimsy excuses and hedging as an answer because they don’t work for you. You actually have to explain yourself when you are called out by reporters. Second, his feeble attempt to tell the reporters that this issue is done because he says it is. Another fine example of CEO ego. Again, no one in the press pool works for you, so that is not going to fly either. This kind of arrogance is the byproduct of having people defer to you for years and having little accountability. Its not what we want in a leader.
The govt is not a for profit organization, its leader doesn’t get to just pass any law they like or control the news cycle, and you need to know how to work with people, not just boss them around. Not if you want to be effective. You may have managed to turn a profit in the business world, but that skill set has nothing to do with leading people as an elected official.
slamfu:
As usual, you make good points. To add to the most major of those points, not one of our presidents as gone straight from the business world to the Oval Office. Not one.
Although I may have said this before, it mat be worth repeating.
What really worries me, should — God forbid — this very successful pizza and restaurant man become our commander-in-chief, is how he will handle that 3 a.m. phone call telling him that China has decided to use one of those nuclear weapons (that they haven’t developed yet) against, say, Taiwan.
A man who hasn’t been able to handle, as Republican Godfather Rush Limbaugh calls it, a minor “bimbo eruption.”
Just curious, Dorian….can you think of an example of a politician who handled allegations of sexual misconduct well? I certainly can’t.
I’m not arguing that Cain has handled this well, mind you…and I can think of several specific missteps which might have been preventable. But I find that people so frequently cite the ‘it’s the coverup, stupid’ line but I don’t really get what the alternative is. The opposite of denying and covering up sexual misconduct would be to immediately go before cameras, confess, and say, “So what?” I can’t recall anyone ever doing that or even close to it, and I can’t imagine that that would work either.
The closest I can recall is Gov Sanford, who after a relatively brief period of stonewalling decided to confess that he’d fallen in love with a woman other than his wife, presumably to get sympathy from people who’d been in that predicament and/or to appeal to hopeless romantics. But how’d that work out for him?
Beyond that you’d have to go back to the days where an old boys network in politics and the media protected men who were ‘getting some on the side’, but that world is no longer. These days I don’t think anyone can expect to get away unscathed if they cheat…the best they can do is to be damn good at what they do and have sufficiently strong backing so that their coalitions will circle the wagons for them. And none of that has much at all to do with ‘how they handled the crisis’.
CStanley:
Dorian certainly can fend for himself, but I too can think of no examples of a nationally prominent politician coming clean.
Sanford doesn’t count by an Appalachian Trail mile because he not only denied, he invented a preposterous lie and actually put the citizens of South Carolina and its government at some risk in the event of a crisis or other emergency by going underground without telling anyone.
The idea the Dems are behind this is laughable. We WANT Cain to be the nominee. He’s utterly ridiculous! He guarantees Obama will win the election and still have time for a pick up game of hoops on election night. Go Herman! Keep right on denying. Because you are God’s gift to those of us who want the general public to see what a group of clowns the Reps have put forward (Huntsman excepted).
“Just curious, Dorian….can you think of an example of a politician who handled allegations of sexual misconduct well?”
On the surface, a fair question.
If I did some research, I might be able to find some politicians who have done exactly so — handled allegations of sexual misconduct –possibly sexual attacks — well.
But that is not the point. We are not talking about “examples of politicians”, in the past. We are talking about Mr. Herman Cain, a candidate for President of these United States, today, NOW, November 2011.
The argument that other politicians may have handled themselves extremely bad, or extremely well under the circumstances has absolutely zilch, zero, nada to do with how I, and many Americans, view Mr. Cain’s handling of this fiasco, today, now.
I don’t think it is asking too much–even if a million previous politicians failed at this — to expect a present-day politician to deal with such situations better. And, yes, it may have everything to do with ‘how they handled the crisis,’ the 3 a.m. call especially when considering some of the ignorant foreign policy views already expressed by this man.
I know this point of view will not meet with your approval, but it is my point of view, my opinion, and thanks for asking.
Well, honestly I’m not trying to deflect and while I wish it was Herman Cain’s overly simplistic policy proposals that would do him in rather than this, I’ll not be at all disappointed if he drops out soon.
I just really don’t think it’s possible to use the handling of a sex scandal as an example of how well someone would handle part of the duties of their job. The two things are just not very similar and the personal nature of sexual allegations makes it very very likely that someone will try to keep the details under wraps, which then leads everyone to say that they should have just come clean to begin with, but then I think that’s nonsense because no one would have accepted gross misconduct and a cavalier attitude about it (well, almost no one.)
And yeah, in case anyone’s wondering, I think I am consistent with respect to Bill Clinton, for example….although I disagreed with a lot of his policies I thought he was a very competent president and yet I think he handled the Lewinsky scandal very incompetently. His earlier problems during the campaign, I suppose you could say were ‘handled’ better from a political sense but morally I think the smear jobs were disgusting.
CStanley:
I am with you all the way regarding Clinton. He was hands down the best politician of my generation and the several times that I was up close his charms were extraordinary.
Vis a vis your view that the way Cain has handled his scandal might not reflect how he would be as president is compelling since Clinton was, in our view, a very competent president whose deep personal failings (and I believe they run or ran deeper than Cain’s) were handled with utter incompetence.
The Republican orchestrated smear jobs, whether through arch hypocrites like Newt Gingrich or party surrogates, and the endless investigation by an obviously biased special prosecutor were indeed disgusting.
Although you did not address it here, another commenter on another thread noted that Clinton’s failings — and they were well publicized before the 1996 election — did not affect his popularity among many women, including those all-important indie soccer moms.
It is a different matter with Cain, who has no record to run on and through no fault but his own had been unable to articulate policy positions even before the scandal struck.
Well, if Cain drops out because of this, maybe he can win the Bill Clinton award or something.
Really think his lack of experience in elected office should be the focus— Also– absolutely no foreign affairs experience would be a time bomb. Candidates like Cain (as well as Trump) allow their over-sized egos to convince them that success in the area of business will automatically lead to success in running a bureaucracy.
The fact that they needed to trot out sexual misconduct to even DENT him says a lot about Cain’s Credibility.
A LOT about it.
This is the kind of ‘big guns’ that only got brought out after Bill Clinton was already the Democratic Nominee, after all.
Some important vested interests must really be afraid Cain might win, don’t pretend this isn’t about politics, those women had YEARS to bring their allegations forward in the private sector.
I was just joshing. A colon would have included Romney, et. al. as part of the left-wing conspiracy. A claim that I actually would not put past Cain at this point, really.
@Cannonshop: Umm…these women (or at least some of them) DID bring out these allegations–THAT’S HOW POLITICO FOUND OUT! Meanwhile, like it or not, American politics has always been brutal (…if you can’t stand the heat…).
As for a politician handling sex allegations: see Grover Cleveland.