Posted on 11/01/2011 1:56:59 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) says the sexual harassment accusations made against Herman Cain are unfair because of their anonymity. And he speaks from experience.
In my election, I had an anonymous girl from college who I still dont know make accusations against me, he tells National Review Online. I dont think you should print stuff like that. To libel someones character and not put your name on it, I think is inappropriate and shouldnt be printed.
Paul adds that fear of sexual harassment suits damages workplace relations.
There are people now who hesitate to tell a joke to a woman in the workplace, any kind of joke, because it could be interpreted incorrectly, he says. I dont. Im very cautious.
UPDATE: Sen. Mike Lee (R., Utah) tells National Review Online that the Cain controversy may encourage Republicans to rally to the candidates side.
With members of Congress and with voters generally, if this turns out to be another racially-motivated attack on an African American conservative that is unfounded, unfair, uncorroborated, and in this instance, based on anonymous sources, I think thats going to rally people around him, in Congress and elsewhere, Lee says.
Lee, a former Supreme Court clerk, adds that similarities between Cains situation and Anita Hills accusations towards Clarence Thomas are relevant.
There are some parallels here, and to the extent that they played a role in this, its very, very offensive, and its going to backfire severely, he predicts.
This was very smart of Paul, and the others better jump on this soon too while they still can, anyone who tries to take advantage of this will be destroyed by it, mark my words.
If Politico is so high and mighty, then let’s peek at what sexual harassment charges have been filed against Politico! Somebody on FR must know how to reach their HR people.
Rand Paul’s good sense must come from his mama’s side of the family.
And I guess he is speaking for his Dad, too. Both —if I read them right—are men of integrity.
“Rand Pauls good sense must come from his mamas side of the family”
LOL! I like him in spite of a few quirks. Can’t wait ‘til Rand becomes of age. His good sense will be legendary.
Well, OK, except she isn’t really “anonymous” because Cain knows exactly who she is, and has specifically spoken about incidents with her.
And the fact that there was a complaint, and that it was settled, and that money changed hands, are not conjecture, or sourced anonymously anymore, as Cain himself has stated.
Cain could have, at ANY time in his presidential run, put out a press release noting that during his time as head of the NRA, he was once formally accused of sexual harassment, that it was investigated, that it was baseless, and that there was an agreement reached with a small settlement.
Cain says this is the ONLY time he was ever accused of sexual harrassment, so it’s not like he had to worry about doing this again and again. And he clearly wasn’t covered by an NDA, since this is what he said on Monday. HE clearly didn’t need Politico to run the piece in order for him to give out information he already knew.
And if he didn’t want to put this out on his own, he could have at least had a press release ready to go if it did leak out. But if I was clearly innocent, but had this hanging over my head, I’d want to get out in front of it, not bumble through it like his campaign did.
No, this isn’t an anonymous hit piece — it’s a story about an actual event, acknowledged by Cain himself, and he knew exactly what the story was, and didn’t think it was important to tell until Politico found it.
And I don’t care who the candidate is — if a reporter discovers a settlement of a harassment complaint, it IS NEWS. They researched it, verified that the settlement was real, and asked Cain for his story.
Cain’s team decided the best thing to do what to not cooperate, and were happy that three people were quoted in the article saying he was a great guy. But then they had to deny everything, and that denial could have been part of the story, if they had simply offered it.
But apparently, they were worried that they did NOT know everything about what Politico was reporting. Their statement suggests that they didn’t want to admit to this one case Cain new about, in case the story was about a different case.
Why do I feel like this was a whimpy statement by Paul? As I read it and imagined his voice speaking those less-than-forceful words, I could almost see him twisting his lace-trimmed hankie around his fingers as he spoke.
Rand Paul will be President one day.
Then, why hasn’t Ron said anything yet? Or has he?
Apparently, you don’t know the meaning of baseless. And it’s pretty obvious they knew THAT too but printed the BASELESS accusation anyway. So that people like YOU could say what you just said.
And APPARENTLY, the\ Cain campaign did NOT know what politico was capable of because they did print a supposed accusation from someone else who DIDN’t bring a formal complaint OR receive compensation, and they could have added several more if they wanted to and who would have been the wiser?
Well, I hope he will. He and Cain seem to get along.
Santorum’s lackey tried it already but I am proud of Rand Paul for making the statement. Good on him.
More prudent than his Dad.
Good for Rand Paul. A real gentleman. Perhaps Santorum should have behaved the same.
RE: Perhaps Santorum should have behaved the same.
I must have missed it, exactly what did Santorum say regarding this matter?
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