I cringe whenever I see Gloria Allred. She is a disgusting ambulance chaser who never misses an opportunity to pontificate in front of a microphone. She is shameless in her rush to exploit any potential opportunity. She literally makes my skin crawl.
However, I ran a nationwide claim department for many years and one lesson I quickly learned is that the truth is not dependent on whether or not you like someone. I have had people I liked and admired tell me things that turned out to be incorrect. In some cases they even believed what they said, but the facts proved them wrong. I have also had total scumbags who I wouldn’t trust with a spare nickel tell the truth. I learned to look at the facts and evaluate them on their own merit, without regard to my personal opinion about the person, or persons, involved.
I have not personally investigated any of this, but it is clear that Cain has a huge problem. His response has been pathetic with more time angrily dismissing this as a witch hunt with less than satisfactory answers to very specific questions. There is an old saying among lawyers…When you have the facts, pound the facts. When you don’t have the facts, pound the opponent. When you don’t have the facts, and you can’t pound the opponent, just pound. Cain has presented very few facts, but has done a whole lot of pounding.
Ironically, this could have all gone away if he had just given a vague apology and pledged better behavior in the future. But instead, he is trying to prove that all these women are liars. They have morphed from being angry and embarrassed at what happened to furious. How would you respond if the person whom you believe sexually harassed you was now calling you a liar? If the sexual harassment was real, I can’t imagine anything that would make them angrier.
I watched Anderson Cooper tonight, and I was taken aback at how well he handled this story. He let Herman Cain tell his side of the story, without commentary other than to say it was an explicit denial. But then the story took a deadly turn when Gloria Borgia, who is personal friends with one of the women, contacted her by phone and was given some additional information. Gloria obviously has known this woman for several years and is a close friend. She admitted that right from the start. Ultimately, it made her reporting much more credible. To summarize she said that the accuser told her that the charges against Cain were serious and consistent and that she definitely received a cash settlement in exchange for the harassment. Unless I am very wrong, this woman is going to ooze credibility. In addition, she apparently kept copies of her written complaint about Cain and has this well documented. To cap it off, she is also a professional spokesperson. She is now talking about having a joint press conference with the other accusers. I fear that this will be devastating for Cain.
I wish that I could just dismiss this as a smear campaign based on nonsense. Unfortunately, what facts we know are far from helpful for Herman Cain. So far, it is Herman Cain who has demonized people with little facts to support the accusations. So far, it is Herman Cain who has had to change his story. And, so far, it is Herman Cain who has given a version of events that is impossible to listen to with a straight face. When Herman Cain says the only issue is that he pointed out that this woman was the same height as his wife and this resulted in a sexual harassment charge he has less credibility that Obama trying to say William Ayers was just a guy in the neighborhood. Following is the LA Times article about the proposed news conference:
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-cains-accusers-20111108,0,7925369.story
Sean Hannity spent most of his show last night trying to pass this off as a vast liberal left conspiracy. It was a major mistake. It has about the same amount of credibility as when Hillary Clinton tried to dismiss the Monica Lewinsky scandal as a vast right wing conspiracy. It didn’t work when Hillary tried it, and it won’t work when Hannity tries it. Because of the poor handling by the Cain staff, this has turned from a he-said-she-said case, with vague accusations from anonymous accusers, to a he-said-she-said-she said- she said-she-said-and-he-witnessed story. I don’t predict a good result.
TDM