Herman Cain told Forbes that he believes Curt Anderson, who worked on his 2004 senate campaign and whose firm is now employed by the Perry campaign, is responsible for the leaks about the sexual harassment allegations. From Forbes:
“I told my wife about this in 1999 and I’ve got nothing to hide,” Cain told me Wednesday. “When I sat down with my general campaign consultant Curt Anderson in a private room in our campaign offices in 2003 we discussed opposition research on me. It was a typical campaign conversation. I told him that there was only one case, one set of charges, one woman while I was at the National Restaurant Association. Those charges were baseless, but I thought he needed to know about them. I don’t recall anyone else being in the room when I told him.”
Curt Anderson phoned me to say “I never heard about this story until I read about it in Politico. I have nothing but good things to say about Herman Cain. I’m not going to bad-mouth Herman Cain to anyone, on or off the record. I think he is a guy of great leadership and integrity.”
I have to give this a little thought as to how, exactly, but I'm sure this is the left-wing msm at its evil worst yet again.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRomneyCare - Oops this is an Establishment blog.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOh man, now it's on.
I knew when Cain offered that less than gracious commentary in the immediate aftermath of Rick Perry's (ridiculous) rock controversy, that there would be payback.
I knew this was gonna' get nasty, but I'm surprised we're here even before Thanksgiving.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRick Perry answered in the debate that his ideal VP would be a mashup of Cain and Gingrich. Perry was gracious and complimentary. Shortly threafter, when was asked if he would consider being VP to the other candidates, Cain's response was he would, for all of them EXCEPT Rick Perry. He specifically signalled Perry out as being unacceptable - even worse than Romney or Hunstman.
I don't think Perry's team had anything to do with this story. I think what we are seeing is Herman Cain's paranoid tendencies and willingness to jump to insane conclusions with little to no evidence.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf true it just killed Perry's candidacy. Who could be so stupid as to parley the painted rock into an actual smear against the only black candidate in the field?
Cain may believe that to be so, but I still find it hard to believe Perry could be so dumb. Perhaps this guy completely freelanced it if so.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCain is blindfolded and under attack. He is naturally going to be suspicious and wracking his brain to figure out where the attacks are coming from. It does mean he even knows the person who sourced the Politico story.
I think if there was a poll taken right now among Republican voters, that even Congress' numbers would look good next to media trust numbers.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf we keep playing this like a blood sport then we are going to richly deserve the pathetic leadership that is left standing unbloodied.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt seems like this ought to be verifiable; if this guy is lying, and he did pass the story to the Politico, then their reporters can say so. If not, then Mr. Cain owes this guy an apology. It would have been better for him to leave this kind of statement to his campaign manager and/or spokesman.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI feel like Cain should try not to make accusations against the other campaigns unless he's 100% sure on it. I understand that he's trying to figure out where it's coming from though.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSounds like the Perry camp leaves no stone unturned.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhatever you say, Herm. Don't you have some foreign policy positions to be developing?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm amazed people thought it was any other campaign besides Rick Perry's. You can usually just figure these things out by motive. Perry would have the most to gain from a Cain implosion, and Romney would have the most to lose.
Add this new revelation, and you have the proverbial smoking gun. You're going to see an incredible backlash towards Perry's campaign from the very grassroot voters he's trying to court.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLet me guess, Mr. Stack: No one paid you for that fatuous outburst.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"You can usually just figure these things out by motive."
You must be a trial lawyer.
Quite the opposite---Perry has the most to lose since he barely survived the allegations of racism thanks to the painted rock nonsense. Attacking the only black candidate in the GOP field helps him how?
Romney on the other hand has the most to gain since Cain is not only beating him outside the MOE in recent polling but has far more positive intensity behind him in the Gallup polls, meaning Cain is the candidate most likely to see conservatives coalesce behind him.
Romney's done when conservatives rally behind one candidate.
This prevents that from happening.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI am not in the least surprised to see that the same Herman Cain apologists who claimed to be so outraged that their man had been the object of "false" and "anonymous" charges immediately accepts his totally unsubstantiated claim that the Perry campaign was behind the leak. It has as much weight as his previous assertion that the story was racially motivated; which is to say, in Cain's no words, no evidence at all.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseUnlike Herman Cain, who has been talking out of both sides of his mouth since this story erupted, the individual he has accused has forthrightly denied the charge and flatly rejected Cain's claim that he was the source of the story. I doubt he would do so if he had any concern Politico would dispute him.
No matter what kind of confidentiality agreement a company strikes, it is not going to keep husbands, brothers, other relatives, friends and co-workers from coming forward when they look at their television screens and see Cain being talked about as a leading Presidential candidate. That is why you make a clean breast of things before you run for political office and why you critically assess what you have in your background that could come back to bite you.
We know this much. Whether the charges lodged against Cain had merit or not, the charges themselves happened. They were dealt with administratively and cash changed hands. Formal complaints were filed not by one woman, but by two, and a third woman has spoken out today after being contacted by reporters. Cain has made a number of statements since this story broke. Some of them conflicted. Some of them lay down a very bright line. He has yet to call on the NRA to release the women from their confidentiality statements so that the claims he is publicly making can be compared to his.
We also know that he has now accused a rival campaign of bringing to light these charges -- charges which were bound to arise under any circumstances -- even though he does not have a shred of evidence to back the charge. Cain needs to put up or shut up, and both his supporters and detractors should call on him to produce any evidence he possesses to substantiate his claims.
As I write this, Mr. Brock is on Fox making the same inflammatory, unsubstantiated accusations, and is still not offering one iota of actual evidence. I will hazard a guess right now and predict that a lot of Cain's supporters are going to be very disappointed and feel very betrayed by the time this miserable business is done.
In her never ending campaign to promote Romney, this one gives Trinko a twofer. She can make both Cain and Perry look bad. Perhaps she works for the DNC.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDo any of the commenters who were clumsily assuming that this came from the left wish to square "Perry campaign" with "liberal media?" It was a faulty premise to begin with, considering that such an attack would have been reserved for the general election.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseUnfortunately this is presidential politics - it is a bloodsport.
The important thing for all of this to come up in the primaries where, stunning as this may sound, most of America is paying little to no attention.
Yes it will all be reused by then but the survivor will have their response battle tested and ready to go.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDid nobody tell the Perry campaign that you're supposed to wear gloves when you make a bomb so you don't leave fingerprints on the fragments?
To mix a metaphor, Perry's dive bomb attack on Cain is turning into a kamikazee...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThere was a legal settlement between the NR(estaurant)A and the anonymous woman. At least a hundred people would have been involved (my guess). For Mr. Cain to choose to accuse one person, without citing a scintilla of evidence, borders on slander.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe Forbes column which is linked and quoted is a wild hit-piece. Its evidence is that the Politico article appeared only one week after Anderson signed on with Gov. Perry. And the author got that from the Cain campaign.
Politico claims their source was a former NRA board member. Nobody pays any attention to that.
Below this post in today's The Corner are several posts (mostly by Ms. Trinko, I think) telling us that there are other people, not hindered by any confidentiality agreement, who seem willing (eager?) to accuse Cain.
All very sad.