Posted on 11/07/2011 11:50:36 AM PST by SeekAndFind
A week after Politico published vague, second-hand accounts of possible sexual harassment by Herman Cain during his tenure at the National Restaurant Association, one woman has gone on the record with specific allegations from fourteen years ago. Sharon Bialek, described by her representative Gloria Allred as a single mom, says that Cain groped her — but backed off after she told him to stop:
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A fourth woman said Monday that presidential candidate Herman Cain engaged in sexually inappropriate behavior with her more than decade ago, though Cain was not her supervisor at the time.
Sharon Bialek, the first woman to publicly accuse Cain of inappropriate behavior, said Cain was “sexually inappropriate” with her in 1997, saying he put his hand under her skirt and pushed her head toward his crotch after a dinner together. She said he backed away after she asked him to stop.
“I want you to come clean, Mr. Cain,” she said in a New York City press conference at the Friars Club with her attorney, Gloria Allred at her side. Allred is known for her media savvy and for representing women who have had legal issues with the rich and powerful.
Three other women have reportedly accused Cain of inappropriate behavior while he was running the National Restaurant Association, but none has made public charges against him.
Mediate has the video of her statement and a transcript of the specific allegation:
At that time I had on a black pleated skirt, a suit jacket and a blouse. He had on a suit with his shirt open. But instead of going into the offices, he suddenly reached over and he put his hand on my leg under my skirt and reached for my genitals. He also grabbed my head and brought it towards his crotch. I was very, very surprised and very shocked. I said, What are you doing? You know I have a boyfriend. This isnt what I came here for.
Mr. Cain said, You want a job, right? I asked him to stop, and he did. I asked him to take me back to my hotel, which he did right away.
Cain immediately issued a statement regarding the charges:
Just as the country finally begins to refocus on our crippling $15 trillion national debt and the unacceptably high unemployment rate, now activist celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred is bringing forth more false accusations against the character of Republican front-runner Herman Cain.
All allegations of harassment against Mr. Cain are completely false. Mr. Cain has never harassed anyone. Fortunately the American people will not allow Mr. Cains bold 9-9-9 Plan, clear foreign policy vision and plans for energy independence to be overshadowed by these bogus attacks.
I’d call that a complete denial, but having someone go on the record will make it more difficult for Cain to ignore the story, as he had planned to do with last week’s allegations. Despite Allred’s stupid comment about calling the incident Cain’s “idea of a stimulus package,” the fact that someone is willing to go on record and give specifics on a charge will make this seem a lot more credible than last week’s vague reporting from Politico. Making that more difficult is the statement from Bialek and Allred that the purported victim is a Tea Party Republican, which might indicate less of a credibility issue than otherwise.
The way around this is to never, and I mean never, be along with a women unless there is at least one witness. Many corporations have such rules at the middle management level.
Do you seriously believe, that if Newt/Bachmann/Paul were to gain the lead, that they wouldn't try this again? We've already had the Palin affair with the basketball player thing. Who do you think Michelle Bachmann's had an affair with? We already know Gingrich has a lot of baggage - will you let THOSE skeletons help the left choose OUR candidate??
Its not one person - but now 4. cain is being Palinized unfairly, i agree.
But if he is damaged goods, he needs to cut bait and let someone rise who can beat maobama.
Those affidavits better have “no details” in them because that’s what the woman said she told these people: “no details.”
You are actually counting the number of false accusations and giving them credibility because there are a lot of them? The theory that if you repeat a lie enough it becomes the truth seems to actually work. I’ve just never seen it happen until now.
“damaged goods”????
What in the world makes you think the left won’t try to make the next GOP leader into “damaged goods”? WHY ARE YOU LETTING THEM PICK OUR CANDIDATE?
He may well have drunk himself silly at that time, and reacted shamefully to her come-on, but it most definitely wouldn’t have been a supervisor-subordinate situation. The shyest shyster would tell her to go away, she had no case.
Any half-reasonable conservative, because he threatens to overthrow a whole phalanx of Rat applecarts, is going to be dogged with the most amazing things from his background, like the time he pulled that puppy’s tail, or when he dipped that schoolgirl’s hair in the inkwell. We might as well accept that this comes with the territory, not cede an inch, and let the Rats know in no uncertain terms that they are being colossal hypocrites.
He is damaged goods because he simply does not know enough about many issues and is completely gaffe prone on a lot of issues.
I am not married to any of these candidates. I want to get obama rid of first and foremost. That is all I seek. Get rid of that communist wretch. if Cain gets bogged down in this personal sludge, it wont work.
Err, Cain is married. You think trying to “get a little” from someone other than his wife is normal behavior for a married man?
Yes, I think it is relatively normal and human it might not be common in some circles but others it surly is, just look at how many in the clergy has fallen, seems like most of the bigshot teleevangelists fall minto this group not to mention captains of industry and lots of polititico are in this group, the point is he stopped when asked and he drove her right home when asked, to try to get a little is surly normal
The kind that stands next to Gloria Allred and lies about a decent man.
I’d prefer someone who doesn’t know everything, but knows what expert(s) to ask, to someone like Newt who knows close to everything but often does the wrong thing in spite of it. There is hope for the inadvertently ignorant. There isn’t any (short of repentance) for the willfully ignorant.
“I guess this woman (Sharon Bialek) just set up her Facebook Account today... not fishy at all.”
Yeah, you can see the progression on her wall...
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003185971759&sk=wall
The whole story doesn’t seem coherent. If he had drunk himself to the point of the silliness she accuses him of, he probably wouldn’t have been able to “drive her home” (though he could have paid for her cab). She might be a compulsive liar for all we know, a liar that makes up things that don’t even try to make sense, and even when the truth would have served her better.
An investigation is certainly warranted.
You’r right, perhaps it is just kikking up a lot of dust and to see what sticks, we all know that most people just read headlines or watch a little of the news on MSM I guess the undecided are those that don’t bother to get themselfs informed, but hear a few accusations here and there and bases their vote on that, and the undesided will likely vote on the latest rumor, we got work to do
Glock, I agree. The voters should know everything, including the names of the accusers and the specifics of the allegations. I also agree that it is better to hear these claims now than next September. Better yet would have been to hear them when they allegedly occurred.
I am more convinced now this whole thing is from Obama. He knows he can’t run on his record so he is doing scorched earth from now.
Herman Cain was married when this supposedly happened.
It makes a difference. Cain gave up the choice to “get some from a chick” other than his wife when the rings went on their fingers.
Granted, I can imagine situations where I would support admitted and confessed adulterers (Newt Gingrich, for example) if the other options are worse. But if we can't trust a guy not to cheat on his wife, what **CAN** we trust him to do?
It took a long time for the Republicans to become the party of family values. We can't become the party of Bill Clinton-lite. I'm not saying Cain did this, but what I **AM** saying is that we need to deal with the accusations differently from how the Democrats handled Clinton.
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