The Politico Herman Cain story about a settlement regarding an accusation during his time at the National Restaurant Association has already won the morning, as Politico likes to say.
But, as Byron York discussed on Bill Bennett’s radio show this morning, accusation-wise, “Nothing extremely clear. . . . It’s all really quite vague.” Detail-wise, it doesn’t help that the “Cain campaign did not do a great job” in the immediate follow-up to the story last night, in a statement and to Geraldo Rivera on Fox News. The campaign was not denying anything and “kept blaming the Beltway establishment,” as Byron puts it. “Everything is going to depend on the facts of the case.”
The news of a five-figure settlement is eye-brow raising, the former education secretary commented. He also noted that, typically, “If it’s not true, you shout it from the rooftops.” But he added, cautiously, “We need to get the facts.” Earlier in the show, he said: “There could be less than meets the eye. Or there could be trouble.”
Byron added: “The fact of a paid settlement is not dispositive truth that something actually happened. It’s proof there was an accusation.”
Obviously, there will be more on this today. Herman Cain has a Washington-heavy schedule today, for better or worse for his campaign.
Hey, he should just light up another cigarette, blow smoke at the camera, and Just say the broads are lyin' b*****s.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAh, so Slide endorces the President Clinton defense.
"the broads are lyin' b*****s" Wow, by Slide's own standards, he's showing he has a problem with women.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGeraldo became a full tilt jackal last night with Herman Cain's representative. All Geraldo did was jack up the appearance of wrong doing.
The media has a completely different agenda with these candidates than processing of who we like for the Republican presidential nominee. You guys can call it "vetting" the candidates, but it is a lot more vicious than that. Pretty clearly, liberal leaning Politico threw chum in the waters and the shark fest ensued.
I was reading Patterson's Balance of Power novel last week and this speech from a Senator character jumped out at me:
“The current Hobbesian state of nature that pervades our political life – the survival not of the fittest, but of the most vicious; the use of scandal through the media by groups or individuals bent on destroying their ideological opponents – threatens to drive the higher decencies from public life. It has, and will, cost us the services of good men and women of exemplary public character. And it causes, like the slow dripping of water on a stone, the erosion of all forgiveness, all ability to value others for the whole of who they are.”
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOne name: Senator Edward Kennedy.
He made sure we could freely discount sexual morality as a criterion of fitness for office.
Other officeholders, such as certain past presidents, come to mind as well. It's a shame, of course...but policies and the principles they are based on have to trump, in my mind.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnyone who has been in business has had to pay out 5 figure settlements for harassment. The Civil Rights Act, while lofty in principle, serves as an extortion racket, in practice. A smart businessman will not allow his money to get mad, as he recognizes that defending himself or his company is much more expensive and time consuming than just settling. This decision is reached irrespective of the facts of the case. A single plaintiff's accusation of harassment, even a baseless one, will cost more than $100K to defend, plus the opportunity cost of the litigation, which runs into the hundreds of hours. Most settlements require that the terms of settlement not be disclosed, which would easily explain Cain's reticence to respond to the allegation.
My company was sued for religious harassment when an employee alleged that a supervisor offered him a piece of pepperoni pizza. His religion forbids the consumption of pork, you see. That is life in modern America. These types of stories require a healthy dose of perspective from readers. Hope mine helps.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAs someone who has been accused in a sexual harassment complaint (as an 18 year-old girl, no less), this whole story is one big nothing-burger to me.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFrom what I've read, there isn't much to this story. If there was anything to it, I would think it would've blown up long before now given Cain's profile as a very successful CEO.
A settlement just means that someone complained and it was, for whatever reason, cheaper and easier just to settle that have a protracted negotiation and or litigation.
I have friends who are Human Resources professional in corporate America and I have often heard them say that companies usually settle with a complainant even if they are convinced nothing happened. The sheer cost of litigation, the waste of resources, and the damage to brand and reputation that results from a lawsuit, even if you win, cost more than settling before you get to that point. They investigate and manage to end most of the extortion plays that come there way. In other cases when things may not be so clear cut, they negotiate hard. They don't just role over. In addition, where there is real wrong doing, the HR folks are also aggressive in removing the manager or executive from his/her position as yet another means of limiting the damage to the company and to get the toxic mgr out before other problems develop. HR leaders don't look kindly on those that will get the company into legal trouble....regardless of what the grievance industry claims.
In my years, I have known people to make up complaints and to make baseless accusations. Some do it out of spite or anger, others do it in hopes of a pay-day. Is there any question why people may look at such complaints with a jaundiced eye?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI was once accused. It was astonishing. At the hearing, it became completely clear that she had aggressively approached me and that this was payback for my lack of interest. Even so, the company settled for $1,500. When I argued about the evidence being so compelling and substantiated, they said the preparations for the hearing cost much more than that...so getting the accuser to go away for $1,500 was the cheapest way to get rid of a nuisance they had ever seen. The only satisfaction I took was when I was told they would have gone up to $5,000 - but the accuser had seen how the wind was blowing at the hearing, too. A lot of this is just legalized extortion.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMr. Cain is absolutely right that this is simply a smear campaign from individuals and organizations that couldn't care less about the "sexual" allegations, but are simply out to damage him politically. In other words, plain old-fashioned moral posturing. What, you didn't know this was coming?
Cain could take this opportunity, for example, to remind folks of Bill Clinton's record. With Bubba's "popularity" these days, perhaps all these allegations simply underscore Cain's excellent qualifications? Or maybe just tell them he didn't inhale & let them go back to peddling their papers.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMr. Cain needs to lay out the fact that a settlement occurred, if it did. The issue is going to keep hanging fire unless he deals with it now.
A Ted Kennedy comparison or Clintonesqe response is not appropriate for an R candidate whose whole public persona is based on the image of himself as a straight talking, clean living, problem solver. Plus, the entire conservative orthodoxy is balanced on a tenuous point of "holier than thou" when it comes to comparisons with other people's pecadillos and scandals. If Cain does not quash this, then all his R supporters have is 'Yeah, well, they do it too!"
Those of us who have never seen Mr. Cain as POTUS material are really enjoying the schadenfreude this morning. Perhaps this will hasten his departure and allow for some clarity in designing the coming Romney campaign for November 2012.
On the upside, at least Mr. Cain's alleged accusers in the 1990's were women.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm sure this little circus show is compliments of the Romney-loving, Perry-loving, Huntsman-loving GOP elitte establishment.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNot for one minute do I believe Cain has ever come close to cheating on his wife.
On the other hand, I don't see him as subscribing to the rule that you never make an off-color remark. Cain is precisely the type of guy who would say things like, "Well, I wouldn't sign this right now if it hadn't been brought into me for signature by such a lovely, buxom little lass as yourself," which is the type of stuff you learn in seminars never, ever to say.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis story broke SUNDAY EVENING and already on SUNDAY NIGHT Byron York and his former colleagues at NRO are jumping on the, "They botched the messaging" line.
Give me a break. That's what you do when you know there is no "there" there, and you want the story to go on. That these decades old accusations came out of nowhere on a Sunday night, and the Cain camp didn't immediately have all their legal t's crossed means nothing. Had this been the Romney camp, people like York and NR would be calling for patience, not joining the feeding frenzy.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFive figures is chump change in litigation. When the issue is purely credibility ("he said - she said"), there's no way out of litigation short of trial or a settlement (i.e., no legal issues to decide the case on a point of law). A full-blown trial will cost you six figures, easy. A five figure settlement (which could be as low as $10K) is what you offer a nuisance suit in the business world, because it will cost you more than that to litigate, anyway. As Danny DeVito said in Ruthless People, "Just write the check and let's get out of here."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe big question: were they white women? Then we can start talking about dog whistles and other silly things.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFrom intellectual lack of qualifications to sexual harassment. Cain defenders have more and more to work with. I would note that there were two settlements, not one. I very much doubt if two crazy or vindictive women just happened to work at the trade association and decided to file false charges against Herman Cain for five figure settlements,which of course they got. FWIW, I have worked in various enterprises over the years and none of them would have paid one cent in settlements for charges they considered completely false or extortionary. Doing that would encourage false charges. What probably happened here is that they investigated the charges and concluded, for whatever reason, that they very much did not want to deal with EEOC charge or possible federal trial. Rush Limbaugh and others can believe as they like but no experienced employment lawyer recommends settling cases unless he or she concludes that there is plenty of smoke and at least possible fire. It is perhaps unfair that Cain has to answer for this. But I very much doubt if anyone is going to come forward with similar charges against Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum. I assume New Gingrich will maintain a discreet silence.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCain has more problems than this incident. He has serious campaign organizational issues. For this voter, it poses a question of how carefully a President Cain would vet any cabinet members and appointments, and the competency of his appointments.
Mark Block (the smoker), Cain's campaign treasurer, serves several roles. He is the campaign treasurer (the position with the most responsibility in any major campaign) and he also serves as Cain's chief of staff. As treasurer, Block has at least two possible breaches of FEC campaign finance laws--(1) using campaign donor funds to purchase $100,000 worth of Cain's book and (2) using funds of a private Wisconsin-based corporation to fund the bill for tens of thousands of dollars in expenses for such items as iPads, chartered flights and travel to Iowa and Las Vegas.
As noted in this article and in comments, Cain's campaign spokesman Gordon bumbled answers to Geraldo last night.
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