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In an interview with The Daily Caller, former National Restaurant Association board chairman Joseph Fassler offered a firm defense of GOP presidential front-runner Herman Cain, along with an explanation for how Washington’s best kept secret — the identities of Cain’s sexual-harassment accusers — was also kept from the association’s board. “The accusations? It’s a hatchet job, in my opinion,” Fassler told TheDC from his Phoenix, Ariz. office. “My gut tells me it’s a hatchet job. He gets a lead, he gets some traction, and the next thing you know, here come these allegations. It’s sad.”

(Reuters) - A woman who accused Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain of sexual harassment on Thursday offered a statement telling her side of the story, in a move that could further undermine his 2012 campaign. Cain has been accused by at least three women of sexual harassment when he was head of the National Restaurant Association in the mid-1990s. The issue is dominating the race to decide a Republican challenger to face Democratic President Barack Obama in the November 2012 election.One of the women said earlier this week that she wanted to talk publicly about accusations that Cain had sexually...

A Republican source who was at the dinner in which pollster Chris Wilson says Herman Cain sexually harassed a young staffer is contradicting the account, telling CBS News he never saw Cain sexually harass anyone that night, although he does remember Cain drinking. "I did not see a lech," the source said. Wilson, who was doing polling for the Restaurant Association during Cain's tenure, told an Oklahoma radio station yesterday: "This all occurred at a restaurant in Crystal City [Virginia] and everybody was very aware of it. And so it is, it was only a matter of time because so...

Cain must give straight answers, and fast David Gergen, CNN November 2, 2011 (CNN) -- Herman Cain may very well bounce back and remain a popular contender for the GOP presidential nomination, but the normal rules of politics would say that he has about 48 hours to get his campaign under control. As he struggles with the allegations swirling around him, it is worth remembering that so far, there is no hard evidence that he has done anything wrong. It is also worth recalling that in sexual harassment cases, perceptions of men and women can differ and lines can be...

Herman Cain told a meeting of Georgia House Republicans Wednesday that a report was coming out that would vindicate him of the sexual harassment charges that have engulfed his campaign, POLITICO has learned. In a meeting at the Capitol Hill Club, Cain said he and his campaign had found out who was purportedly leaking word of his behavior toward female employees at the National Restaurant Association and that a report was coming out that would disprove the charges, according to the chief of staff to one of the Georgia members. Continue Reading Cain boasted about how one must stand firm...

Joel P. Bennett, the lawyer for one of the women who has made accusations against Mr. Cain, said that his client had decided not to go public or to make a public statement herself in an effort to shield herself from the media frenzy swirling around the situation. “She’s not going to affirmatively make any public statements or public appearances about the case, everything will be through me,” Mr. Bennett said. “She has a life to live and a career, and she doesn’t want to become another Anita Hill.”

I don't know if there is more than one source or not, but, according to Politico, Chris Wilson, a Governor Perry supporter and pollster for the super PAC that supports Governor Perry, worked at the National Restaurant Association and is the (a?) source for the Cain/sexual harassment story. He said the episode of harassment occurred in a public restaurant in the 1990's and that many people knew about it. What is WEIRD about the Politico story and Chris Wilson, is that Chris Wilson would not or did not say what happened. The only reason that omission catches my attention is...

A spokesman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign is adamantly denying that members of the GOP presidential candidate's staff leaked a story has swamped Herman Cain's campaign this week. Instead, the Perry camp is pointing a finger at the campaign of another rival Republican, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, as a possible source of the report about the sexual-harassment charges levelled a decade ago against Cain by female subordinates at the National Restaurant Association.

Herman Cain accused a former consultant to his unsuccessful 2004 Senate campaign, Curt Anderson, of leaking damaging information about past sexual harassment allegations against Cain. Anderson, who is now an adviser to Rick Perry, denied the charge in an email to POLITICO's Jonathan Martin: "I’ve known Herman Cain for about 7 years. I was one of several consultants on his Senate race in 2004 and was proud to help him. I'd never heard any of these allegations until I read them in Politico, nor does anything I read in the press change my opinion that Herman is an upstanding man...

In a cryptic comment made at National Journal’s Election 2012 Preview event Tuesday, Mark Block, Herman Cain’s campaign manager, made reference to an incident involving Cain and a receptionist for a radio talk show host. Continue Reading Asked by panel moderator Beth Reinhard whether he could guarantee that there’s not more information forthcoming about his past, Block began his answer with a blanket denial, followed by what seemed to be a description of an unreported recent incident involving Cain. “Mr. Cain has never sexually harassed anybody. Period. End of story,” he said. “As the hours go by, it’s interesting that...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Despite her lawyer's claims, a woman who accused Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain of sexual harassment in the 1990s is reluctant to talk about the episode in public. A person close to the situation said Wednesday that no decision has been made about asking the National Restaurant Association to release the woman from a confidentiality agreement that was part of her settlement. Cain led the trade group while the woman worked there. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the accusations and says the fact that the incident has become public is...

On Wednesday's Early Show, CBS's Betty Nguyen incorrectly reported that Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain had been accused of "sexual assault" by two women. Nguyen later accurately reported that the women actually leveled sexual harassment allegations against Cain. The fill-in news anchor used the erroneous term during a 14-second news brief 37 minutes into the 7 am Eastern hour: "One of two women who accuse Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain of sexual assault wants to speak out. The woman's lawyer say she wants to be released from a confidentiality agreement, so that she can publically respond to Cain's recent claims...

Oklahoma political consultant Chris Wilson says if the woman behind the reported sexual harassment complaint against GOP Presidential hopeful Herman Cain is allowed to speak publicly, it'll be the end of Cain's run for the White House. Interviewed today on KTOK's Mullins in the Morning, Wilson, of Wilson-Perkins-Allen Opinion Research headquartered in Washington, D.C. explained he was a witness to the incident. "I was the pollster at the National Restaurant Association when Herman Cain was head of it and I was around a couple of times when this happened and anyone who was involved with the NRA at the time,...

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain got testy with a group of reporters chasing him throughout a hotel in the suburbs of Washington on Wednesday, refusing to discuss the story about harassment allegations lodged at him back in the 1990s. “Let me say one thing,” Cain told the scrum of reporters. “I’m here with these doctors and that’s what I’m going to talk about. So don’t even bother asking me all of these other questions that you all are curious about. Don’t even bother.” When reporters began asking him about the allegations — that Cain has repeatedly denied this week —...

Is there another shoe? If so, how big? And how hard might it come down on Herman Cain, who so far, has managed to deflect — albeit awkwardly — the allegations of sexual harassment swirling around him this week? “She’s been very upset about this since the story broke last Sunday because Mr. Cain has been giving the impression she came out and made false allegations,” Joel Bennett, the lawyer for one of Cain’s accusers said in an interview on CNN last night. “That’s certainly not true and she’s still deciding once we hear from the Restaurant Association what she’ll...

The National Restaurant Association gave $35,000 — a year’s salary — in severance pay to a female staff member in the late 1990s after an encounter with Herman Cain, its chief executive at the time, made her uncomfortable working there, three people with direct knowledge of the payment said on Tuesday.

(CNN) – A woman who accused Herman Cain of sexual harassment believes the presidential hopeful is lying, her attorney said Tuesday night. "She's been very upset about this since the story broke last Sunday, because Mr. Cain has been giving the impression she came out and made false allegations," lawyer Joel Bennett said on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360." He also maintained that the case was resolved in a sexual harassment settlement, not a termination agreement, as Cain has described in the last two days when talking about one of the cases. She wants to go public with her side of...

Let's face it, Donald Trump feuding with someone is hardly shocking. But that doesn't stop the Republican supporter from pointing the finger at somebody when duty calls. So who's the entrepreneur yellin' at now? Jon Stewart is facing the real estate mogul's wrath after making what Trump calls a "racist rant" about Herman Cain on The Daily Show. The comedian commented on the Republican presidential candidate's confusing reply to reports that he faced sexual harassment charges during the 1990s, joking that it was like responding to the question, "Have you ever kidnapped a baby?" with the response, "No. Well, other...

National Enquirer, Where Are You On The Cain Story? By Erik Wemple Every time some tabloid news outlet pays for an interview or a document or whatever, the media establisment waves a disapproving finger. Not ethical, say media critics such as myself. Well, right now the National Enquirers of the world have an opportunity to engage in the most ethical pay-for-play journalism ever conducted. Here’s the situation: Politico yesterday reported on the sexual harassment complaints of two women who formerly worked for Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain as he headed the National Restaurant Association. It couldn’t identify the women because...

Cain campaign launches internal investigation Daniel Bice November 1, 2011 For GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain, the questions far outnumber the answers.Mark Block, chief of staff for the Cain campaign, announced the campaign was hiring an investigator to check out claims that a private Wisconsin-based firm owned and run by Block and his No. 2 picked up the tab for as much as $40,000 in campaign expenses for the Cain campaign earlier this year."We've retained independent counsel to look at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story and report back to us," Block said Tuesday at a Washington, D.C., media event.A reporter...