btw...he's now polling in single digits, 4th place behind Newt. And he has only himself to blame.
Posted on 11/03/2011 8:28:07 PM PDT by smoothsailing
Justin Sink
November 3, 2011
Herman Cain said Forbes Magazine - and not his campaign - was responsible for the concluding that Rick Perry's campaign leaked the story of sexual harassment allegations during Cain's tenure as the president of the National Restaurant Association.
"A reporter did this research and came up with these facts, we didn't," Cain said Thursday on Sean Hannity's radio show. "That was the reporter that wrote the report for Forbes."
But despite adamant denials from the Perry camp, Cain said he still doesn't "see any other way this could have come out."
The Forbes article, headlined "Cain Says Perry Camp Behind Sex Harassment Leak," quoted the candidate as saying that he told former staffer Curt Anderson, now a consultant for the Perry campaign, about the allegations. But Cain is not quoted specifically accusing Anderson of being the leak.
The Cain campaign quickly seized on the article Wednesday night, seemingly validating Forbes' reporting that Cain was laying blame at Perry's feet.
"Rick Perry needs to apologize to Herman Cain, his family, and America for this despicable story," Cain's chief of staff Mark Block said Wednesday on Fox News.
Anderson has denied the accusations, saying in a statement: "I have great respect for Herman and his character and I would never speak ill of him, on the record or off the record."
He also told Fox News that any reporters he had ever spoken to about the Cain allegations were free to openly attribute those comments to him. In doing so, he opened up the door for Politico, who originally reported the allegations, to confirm him as the source. Politico has not done so, effectively eliminating Anderson as the source of the story.
Block said earlier Thursday that he would "accept" the claim by Anderson that he was not behind the story.
"Until we get all the facts, I'm just going to say that we accept what Mr. Anderson has said, and we want to move on with the campaign," Block said on Fox News.
But Cain seemed unconvinced, telling Hannity "there aren't enough breadcrumbs that leads us to any other place."
"I believe a lot of people are connecting the dots for themselves," Cain said. "I don't see any other way this could have come out."
Cain also said he's "almost certain" he told Anderson about the allegations.
"I am almost certain that I did. … This is why we want to get off this merry-go-round," Cain said.
I hope not. I like to think that FReepers are people of integrity for the most part.
...and that’s how I like my candidates to act, too. I just
wish they’d talk about issues and how they plan to beat the
hell out of zero next November! :)
This Block character though, that's something more recent.
Top Iowa supporter for Herman Cain blames Mark Block for fumbled response
I’m certainly not saying that Wilson was a good witness. I’m saying that Wilson only came forward as a witness AFTER the story broke, and there is no evidence offered by anyone to show he WAS the source.
I still have no interest in the actual allegations. I doubt there was anything there, and if Cain had handled this right, we’d never really have been talking about the details. I’ll be shocked if anything comes out that rises to the level of a serious charge. I’m even of the opinion that the women were paid off simply because it’s easier to do that than to deal with them complaining.
Wilson struck me as someone trying to get a little fame off the story. I guess being a pollster you have to be looking for a little publicity all the time.
On the other hand, the “witness” refuting him really just says he doesn’t remember anything bad happening. Which unfortunately, isn’t the same as saying that he knows Wilson is wrong.
This is what happened to George Allen in 2006. He stupidly claimed he never said the n-word. Because of that, the media decided to cover every person who ever claimed they heard Allen say the n-word. And Allen would find someone at the same event saying the didn’t hear it. And then the media would question whether Allen’s witness was there at the precise moment when Allen was “alleged” to have said the word.
The whole campaign turned into a discussion of times when Allen may or may not have said the N-word, and then Allen essentially found someone and dragged them before the reporters to say that Webb had driven through town yelling the N-word. And nobody cared, because Webb had never made a blanket assertion that he never said it. And Allen’s campaign was directly tied to the guy they brought forward, while the people against Allen were “random people coming forward”
The Allen Campaign in 2006 was a textbook case study of what NOT to do when you get hit by a series of absurd charges (Macaca, Deer head put in a black person’s mailbox, the n-word). Cain isn’t doing much better. He was likely correct about the harrassment charges, and all he needed to do was say he never intentionally harassed anyone or did anything he thought would be considered harassment, and that he was sorry that his actions were misinterpreted that way.
He doesn’t want this BS. It is a hit piece to elevate Romney. The MSM is completely in the tank as Brent Bozell pointed out with his montage.
Why John specifically, is there something you are trying to say?
“He’s NOT stupid...much as some would love to paint him that way because he is a Texan.”
No. He’s just ruthless.
It really is his first test, and he’s handled it horribly.
Since the man has never held office or never been vetted, nobody knew how he would handle trouble.
Now we do.
Just needing a little inspiration.
“To most reasonable people it looks more and more that Perry had nothing to do with this. You want to witness dirty politics just look towards Romney.”
Birds of a feather.
Have you seen a direct quote from Wilson saying that he was a witness? I haven't seen one.
WIlson did an interview AFTER the story came out.
Cain has been saying for WEEKS that things were going to come out against him now that he was in the lead.
I was saying that now that Cain was in the lead, the media was going to go after him.
We all knew it was coming. That doesn’t mean we were responsible for it.
But you keep saying things with no evidence, charging people with “wrongdoing” without presenting any facts, you are no better than those you claim to fight for smearing Cain with no evidence.
And since Cain himself contradicts you and blames Anderson, and you can’t give up your own accusation, so you try to put the two together in a bizarre story that has no basis in reality.
So, where are these links about Perry’s “people” saying something was in the works?
Or are you just going to point a third time to a post-”scandal” interview and pretend it has something to do with the politico story?
Until someone presents actual evidence, I’m going to treat your innuendo the same way I treat the women’s charges — ignore them as unfounded, and a smear against a good conservative candidate.
I think you’re wrong.
I think most people were on board with Cain when this initially came out. I know I was.
But every day, he gets more and more weird and pathetic in his handling of this.
And why is he so intent on blaming it on Perry? It doesn’t make sense.
If he has proof of that, use it, man. If he’s just making a random accusation, he’s no better than Politco that he said he was going to sue.
Of course, that’s today. Who knows who he will sue tomorrow.
As you are the only one who replied to my post, does that mean you are a lefty? I wouldn’t have guessed.
Cain may really have a great deal of the qualities we need, but the gimmicks and stumbles aren't reassuring. Hope he can recover and learn from this.
If there were accusations of sexual harrassment against Cain and the NRA did pay out to settle, he should have anticipated that it would come out at some point and had a plan to handle it. If this is Cain’s plan for dealing with a fairly predictable event then I would hate to see Cain “shoot from the hip” on a wholly unexpected event. I hope that everybody’s happy with Romney as the nominee because I don’t think that after this display of political acumen it will be Cain. Based on the lack of simple contingency planning on the part of the Cain people, that may not be a bad thing. Maybe, if we are really lucky, it will be a Romney-Newt ticket that the beltway establishment Republicans can fully support. I can’t wait for that. /s
Yes, he can be ruthless. But this is an utterly stupid thing to do and
he DOES know that something like that would ruin his chances of
ever being taken seriously. If someone in his “camp” spread
this gossip, then they did it without his approval, IMO.
I’m sure. After 27,000 or so posts you would have thought my true thoughts would have been ciphered by now. Whew!
btw...he's now polling in single digits, 4th place behind Newt. And he has only himself to blame.
Well, I do like this one. It also makes me reflect about principles we as conservatives should all should be aspiring to.
John 9:4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
Rick Perry was on with Hannity last night and he was great, but I sensed quite a lot of coldness from Hannity.
As warm and outgoing as Perry was and with all the great ideas he presented, Hannity just kind of sat there with an odd expression on his face.
He asked Perry who would he consider for his cabinet, etc. and he mentioned John Bolton for secretary of state and a couple of other excellent people but I can’t remember who.
I think there’s kind of a conspiracy for Cain in talk radio right now and Hannity was afraid to break the code.
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