Last night on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 show Cooper spoke with the Joel Bennett, the attorney who represents one of the two women claiming Herman Cain sexually harassed them. According to Bennett, it was a member of the board of the National Restaurant Association (NRA) who leaked the story about the allegations to POLITICO, although when pressed, Bennett could not recall how he learned about that.
If true, it’s a remarkable development that exonerates a rival Republican candidate or the folks on the other side of the aisle from starting a smear campaign. If it is confirmed that they leaked the story, it’s a reprehensible act.
In addition, the New York Times is reporting that the woman represented by Bennett is considering asking the National Restaurant Association to release her from the confidentiality agreement she signed to settle her accusations. Motivated by her claims that Cain has lied about what he did, she wants to air her account of what happened. She is, however, mulling it over, according to Bennett. On one the one hand she wants to get her story into the public record. On the other hand, she’s assessing the painful fallout from the ensuing press circus in which she’d become embroiled.
On October 31, 2011, during a long, tough but fair interview with Fox News analyst Greta VanSusteren, host of On the Record, Cain appeared confident and truthful when he told VanSusteren that, as he recalled—and he admitted that his memory of the resolution of the accusations was fuzzy after twelve years—that one of the women, the one believed to be represented by Bennett, had received a three-month severance package when she voluntarily left the association for another job. She did not leave because of the harassment charges.
However, the New York Times report contends that she received a one-year settlement, not a severance package. That said, it needs to be pointed out that sexual harassment settlements and the signing of confidentiality agreements are not necessarily an admission of wrongdoing by the accused. It is somewhat common practice to settle rather than to incur the court costs of defending against the allegations.
While most campaigns have an “Emergency Response Team” that troubleshoots such unexpected negative news, Cain told VanSusteren that he had an emergency response advisor, not a team. That his campaign dropped the ball on how the response was handled is without doubt, and is indicative of the dangers of being a political rookie.
In fact, what has fueled the fire is the way the campaign has handled the revelation. POLITICO gave Cain’s campaign ten days’ notice before they released the story. According to David Gergen, a communications advisor to two presidents who appeared on Anderson’s show, Cain should have been well prepared when the story did break. Unfortunately, he wasn’t. At first, the campaign denied the allegations, later admitted them, and then Cain gave his account of what happened. That doesn’t help on the credibility scale, especially since the accounts of the story have changed. But given that it is alleged to have happened twelve years ago, it's not easy to remember details.
Despite the negative press, on November 1, Cain raised over $300,000, the largest single-day haul in his campaign so far. He’d be wise to invest it in someone like Gergen, a seasoned campaign crisis advisor who could help him get this resolved and behind him. The best way to do that is to hold a press conference under the condition that he will answer all questions, but after that, he won’t address it. That worked well for Geraldine Ferraro, who faced some tax issues that bubbled to the top of her campaign.
If the NRA waives the confidentiality agreement we’ll be witness to a he said/she said debate. Bennett admits that his client has no corroborating evidence to back up her story. Nonetheless, this is not a helpful distraction to the Cain juggernaut, which has finally achieved the polling top spot. That, more than anything else, put a bull’s eye on his back.
This is all highly reminiscent of what Clarence Thomas endured when Anita Hill came forward with sexual harassment allegations during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Thomas survived her recitation of what the Judiciary Committee obviously thought was much ado about little. The question now is will Cain’s candidacy survive the allegations against him?
Two factors are in his favor. Over his 43-year career, it wasn’t until his last position as CEO of the NRA that such allegations were levied—as far as we know. As he points out, were he harassing people before his tenure at the NRA there might be some smoke, but no such accusations have been lodged as of now.
Second, given the PC breadth and width of sexual harassment cases, this could well be a non-issue for Cain. As a male (or female) just telling a co-worker, “You look nice today,” can get someone in trouble. There are no clearly defined boundaries about what constitutes sexual harassment. The trigger appears to be “discomfort.” If the accuser “feels uncomfortable” with the compliment, it’s harassment. That’s just absurd, arbitrary and capricious.
In fact, the case law on sexual harassment has spiraled way out of control. Herman Cain is a nice, affable and naturally gregarious person, and it’s entirely likely he said something meant as a compliment, but it was taken the wrong way. Seeing his performance to date and the lack of any prior complaints, it appears as if Cain is suffering from a grudge held by a member or members of the NRA’s board, and the person(s) leaking the story have decided to try and derail him.
If Cain’s body language and forthrightness during his interview with Greta VanSusteren are any indication, he’s telling the truth as he honestly remembers it. In the final analysis, when the exchange of accounts ends (if it even begins), it will be the court of public opinion that will decide who’s being truthful. The left-wing mainstream media is having a field day with this, accusing Caine of changing his story and being deceitful, something they haven't proven. As usual, it's smear by innuendo.
Meanwhile, instead of discussing his 9-9-9 plan and moving forward, Cain now finds himself backpedaling and saying, “Nein-nein-nein." Welcome to the blood sport known as presidential politics.
