[Posted by Karl]
Breaking AP exclusive:
A third former employee says she considered filing a workplace complaint over what she considered aggressive and unwanted behavior by Herman Cain when she worked for the presidential candidate in the 1990s. She says the behavior included a private invitation to his corporate apartment.
“Considered” sounds weak, but the number of the counting shall be three.
Update: Ace (not a Cain guy):
This is still all Eye of the Beholder stuff. The stuff alleged, so far, isn’t definite come-ons. It’s stuff someone could take as a come-on, but that doesn’t mean Cain intended it as a come-on.
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Unless the behavior is provable and definitely more than merely being uncomfortable, or unless a whole string of women offer up similar complaints, I suppose he can survive.
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She considered filing a sexual harassment claim — but did not. So in her own mind this was not at that threshold of seriousness.
The problem here is that I just don’t consider all awkward moments a cause of action, but I know that some feminists do, and so does the media, at least when the alleged cause of the awkwardness has an R after his name.
If you’re a Democrat, you can chat up sixteen year old girls on Twitter, no problem.
I’m beginning to wonder if there’s any there there. At some point this is going to have to get more serious or I’m going to need it to go away.
I have suspected this would become serious. I still sort of do. But if it’s going to be this kind of a thing, these minor bits of social discomfort, well.
RTWT for bonus profanity.
Update 2: Although former National Restaurant Association pollster Chris Wilson said he witnessed incidents involving Cain and they were serious, Tony Fabrizio, who was Wilson’s boss at the time of the alleged incidents (and was hired by the Perry campaign in October) says he did not know about the accusations.
Update 3: Cain blames Curt Anderson, a recent Perry hire who worked on Cain’s losing 2004 U.S. Senate campaign, for leaking the story. (My Twitter pal Nathan Wurtzel notes that accusation is again inconsistent with Cain’s initial claim of not recalling the details.) Anderson — and Perry spokesman Ray Sullivan — deny involvement.
Update 4: Iowa Radio talk show host Steve Deace claims Cain made similar comments to two of his female staffers. Of course, Deace was not on the Cain Train, and it’s an easy claim to make now.
Update 5: Bush-Cheney/RNC vet Patrick Ruffini tweets, “If most reporters had more than a cycle’s worth of experience they’d know that the GOP’s master of oppo is running the Romney campaign.”
Update 6: According to a source who is friends with the Cain campaign, not only is the Rick Perry campaign involved but also the Mayor of Chicago and former Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is likely involved with the sexual harassment accuser attacks. I guess if you’re jumping the shark, you may as well bring in a good shark.
–Karl
