video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo playerPosted on 10/31/2011 2:47:44 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
File that under “Headlines I never thought I’d write.”
Is this really it?
Cain told van Susteren that he remembered one woman who was a writer in the Association’s communications department. “I can’t even remember her name, but I do remember the formal allegation she made in terms of sexual harassment,” Cain said. “I turned it over to my general counsel and one of the ladies that worked for me, the woman in charge of human resources. They did investigate…and it was found to be baseless.”
Van Susteren asked Cain how often he saw the woman. “I might see her in the office because her office was on the same floor as my office,” Cain said. Van Susteren asked whether the woman traveled with Cain, who spent a lot of time on the road speaking to restaurant associations around the country. “No, never,” Cain said…
Van Susteren asked what Cain did that led to the accusation. There were reportedly more than one accusations in the complaint, but Cain said he recalled just one incident. “She was in my office one day, and I made a gesture saying — and I was standing close to her — and I made a gesture saying you are the same height as my wife. And I brought my hand up to my chin saying, ‘My wife comes up to my chin.’” At that point, Cain gestured with his flattened palm near his chin. “And that was put in there [the complaint] as something that made her uncomfortable,” Cain said, “something that was in the sexual harassment charge.”
So that was part of it — an exceedingly lame part of it, if Cain’s memory is accurate — but maybe not all of it. The detail about “the woman in charge of human resources” is interesting too: Politico spoke to her last week and she denied ever having heard of a complaint by a woman employee against Cain. After Cain himself acknowledged today that the complaints had happened, Politico called her back — and she no longer wanted to talk. Very curious.
Ed and Tina have been all over this today but I still have two questions. One: Like Kevin Williamson, I don’t understand how Cain didn’t know at the time if a settlement had been reached or not. I understand why he didn’t have to consent to the settlement — it was the National Restaurant Association that presumably would have been sued, not Cain personally — but if my employer was inclined to pay five figures to someone who’d accused me baselessly of sexual harassment, I’d surely want to know it. Especially if I was thinking about running for office someday, when the settlement would surface and become a rolling clusterfark for the campaign. Two: Why hasn’t anyone revealed the amounts of the settlements yet? Politico said it saw “documentation” describing the allegations and asserted vaguely that the payouts were in “the five-figure range,” but that won’t cut it. The actual numbers matter. The smaller the payouts, the more likely it is that the claims were weak and that the NRA felt comfortable driving a hard bargain. Someone somewhere knows the numbers, whether inside Cain’s campaign, at the NRA, or in Politico’s newsroom. Let’s have ‘em. The man’s credibility is at stake and that’ll be a useful data point.
Here’s a new clip showcasing his best moment at the National Press Club this afternoon, goofing on the Karen Finneys of the world who claim the right’s interest in him is chiefly as an aegis against racism charges. Exit quotation: “This many white people can’t pretend that they like me.”
video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo playerUpdate: Byron York updated the piece I linked above with this key detail:
Cain also offered new information about the settlement of the case. Politico, which broke the sexual harassment allegation story, said that the woman received a money settlement “in the five-figure range.” When van Susteren asked about that, Cain said, “My general counsel said this started out where she and her lawyer were demanding a huge financial settlement…I don’t remember a number…But then he said because there was no basis for this, we ended up settling for what would have been a termination settlement.” When van Susteren asked how much money was involved, Cain said. “Maybe three months’ salary. I don’t remember. It might have been two months. I do remember my general counsel saying we didn’t pay all of the money they demanded.”
“I do remember my general counsel saying we didn’t pay all of the money they demanded” — and yet, this morning he claimed that he “wasn’t even aware” of a settlement. Maybe his campaign staff researched it and briefed him sometime between this morning and the interview with Greta? Or maybe, as a Twitter pal suggests, Cain was playing coy earlier because his lawyers had to double check on what he was legally able to disclose?
He also claims that he’s only aware of one formal complaint even though Politico claims there were two separate accusers. Stay tuned.
Update: An excellent point from Philip Klein. Politico was in touch with his staff for 10 days about this story. If Cain did get briefed this morning about the details of the settlements, why did it take the campaign 10 days to do that? They weren’t blindsided here.
Update: The Times asked a lawyer who specializes in sexual harassment claims whether it’d be unusual for the accused not to know about the settlement. The answer: It wouldn’t be unusual for him not to participate in the settlement, but knowing about it is a whole other matter.
“A prudent general counsel, will say, ‘Look–I want you out of the mix. You should not be involved in this.’” she said. The matter would not have to be taken up with the full board of an organization, and depending on its rules, could be handled by individual board members and officers.
But Mr. Cain’s further contention that he learned nothing more of the matter, she said, “completely defies credulity.” If the organization had, in fact, conducted a “thorough investigation,” as Mr. Cain said, he would have probably picked up a great deal of information from the questions that would have been put to him.
For most executives in this position, she said, it is only natural to inquire after the fact as to the outcome — even if it’s just to say, “Hey, what happened with that, and why are these ladies no longer here?”
Maybe he knew at the time but doesn’t remember now. Or he may have some vague memories of it. Either way SO WHAT? Not of all us remember every bit of minutiae we experience. Quit playing the gotcha game with the media.
RE: Of course everyone realizes that the National Restaurant Association is just a monstrous lobbying group.
__________________________
According to Wikipedia:
The National Restaurant Association is a restaurant industry business association in the United States, representing more than 380,000 restaurant locations.
Monstrous is right.
You’re kidding, right? Even Politico (*barf*) said the gesture wasn’t sexual, according to the complainant herself.
You’d trust them more if they forgot they were sued and the accusations were true? Nice logic.
Why do you think getting sued for sexual harassment is so big a deal you should not forget it? How many times do you think high powered execs and their companies get sued? It is frequent and it would be much lot higher if just about every firing didn’t pay bribes (known as severance packages).
Zzzzzzzzz...I don’t give a rat’s ass about any of this...much ado about nothing.
Give me a break. This is a transparent slander by the Left. It is clear evidence that the socialists regard Herman as a deadly threat. As such, it is a badge of honor. It places him in the same category as the great Clarence Thomas, our best ally in the SCOTUS.
Utter can mean "write something" or "speak something" or provide scale to something. Verbal has to do with the "message", not the method. Hieroglyphics, and the throatcutting thing is pretty much an hieroglyphic, are verbal!
The left? Have you ruled out Romney?
You seem to want us to believe that it happens so often to C level men that it becomes so meaningless as to be forgotten.
How many times have you been falsely accused of sexual harassment?
Doesn't matter, debate will most likely rage on here between his supporters and most vociferously from his detractors........time to ditch Cain and start focusing on how to eliminate the rest of the GOP contenders.
FR, doing the work that the Democrap party would likely do if not for us..........
well romney kind of is on the left
Not sure because I forgot. I owned a small business so my business was sued because that is were the money was at. And I cannot remember how many times we were sued. I didn’t elevate sexual harassment above any other type of lawsuit. You seem to think that sexual harassment is worth remembering above all others. It is not. And it is forgettable especially if it is not true and settled cheaply.
“FR, doing the work that the Democrap party would likely do if not for us..........”
No kidding. They probably have buckets of popcorn over at DU right now.
Bzzzzzzzzzztt. Wrong
I once was notified that a certain Ethnic female employee in my Department had filed an EEOC Complaint of Discrimination, and I was interviewed by a Corporate EEOC Complaint Lawyer.
She happened to be the same Ethnicity of said Complainant.
I had interviewed the female, and 12 other employees, regarding an upcoming promotion. I did not choose her, as she was EASILY non-qualified and in the middle of the pack as far as consideration goes. She then filed the Complaint.
In discussions with said Attorney, I was told that it is sometimes cheaper to settle, and avoid the bad publicity, than to fight it. I said "We need to fight this all the way because it's baseless, and it's nearly Extrotion"....
She told me it was not MY decision, and the Company would handle it. They never told me what the settlement was, but years later I heard that they DID pay her off, minimally, right about the time she was FIRED from another location assignment for incompetence.
The Company looks to the bottom line, and the process is rigged such that ALL deep-pockets Employers are targeted with Harassment, Discrimination, etc. complaints, SIMPLY BECAUSE LAWYERS KNOW THEY CAN GET SETTLEMENTS EVEN WHEN CASES HAVE NO MERIT....IT'S A SCHEME AND A SHAM. That's the way the Legal System works.....remember Anita Hill, and she was a phoney and to this day, people who hate Conservatives say that Clarence Thomas got away with something.
“This is a transparent slander by the Left.
The left? Have you ruled out Romney? “
Romney is part of the left...
Don’t get out much? Never worked in a large organization? Never ran a large organization? Never worked in a metropolitan area? Frankly, YOUR take is awfully naive.
And the translation as heard by a liberal ear:
"You're a woman and therefore smaller than me. Know your place."
I can easily imagine a situation like you describe being what happened with Cain. Mark Levin has been making the same points this afternoon. At this point I’m pretty convinced that this is much ado about nothing. The only story is that Cain has fumbled the response somewhat.
You guys are ridiculous hypocrites. If this were obama or clinton or romney or perry you’d be screaming for the facts to be revealed. You know it. We know it.
It also has been reported that Cain warned his staff about the possibilty of this story getting out a few months ago. (Since when can you trust a campaign staff to keep a secret?)
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