Does character still matter to the Republican Party? We are about to find out. Today, a woman named Sharon Bialek fundamentally altered the race for the Republican nomination in 2012. The Herman Cain sex scandal is not going away, and either Herman Cain is lying or all of these women that are accusing Cain of sexual misconduct are lying. Normally, I would not write about unproven sex scandal rumors. And it is very important to note that the charges against Herman Cain have not been proven yet. But Bialek now represents the fourth alleged incident of sexual misconduct by Herman Cain. What makes things a lot worse is the Cain was married when all of these alleged incidents took place. At this point, Cain is denying that any sexual harassment ever took place. Cain says that he is perfectly innocent. So will we find out the truth? More importantly, will Republican voters demand the truth or will they just allow this whole thing to be brushed under the rug? Back during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Republicans insisted over and over that “character still matters” when it comes to selecting our leaders. Well, now that a candidate that millions of Republicans have fallen in love with has been accused of sexual misconduct we will see what Republicans actually do believe about character.
Of course we already know that character means very little to Democrats. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are clear evidence of that.
But now millions of Republicans have been put in a position where they will clearly be tremendous hypocrites if they continue to support Cain if these charges are proven true.
Let me be perfectly clear.
Multiple episodes of sexual harassment (if proven) should disqualify anyone from being president of the United States.
Multiple attempts to cheat on your wife (if proven) should disqualify anyone from being president of the United States.
Lying to the American people about incidents of sexual misconduct (if proven) should disqualify anyone from being president of the United States.
There are many that would disagree with those statements, but character still matters to me.
So did Herman Cain actually do these things?
Let’s take a look at the evidence that has emerged so far.
At this point we know that the National Restaurant Association paid money to two women to settle sexual harassment claims back in the 1990s.
One woman received a financial settlement of $35,000 and another received a financial settlement of $45,000.
Would the National Restaurant Association have paid out money to these women if their claims were totally baseless?
That is a legitimate question.
In addition, last week a third woman reported to the Associated Press that she also thought about filing a sexual harassment complaint against Herman Cain.
But none of those first three women have come forward publicly yet.
Bialek is the fourth woman to allege that Herman Cain is guilty of sexual misconduct, and she changed everything when she came forward publicly with her charges.
According to Bialek, after she lost her job with the NRA in Chicago she traveled to Washington D.C. in the summer of 1997 to meet with Cain about potential job prospects. Cain had previously met her and her boyfriend and since Cain was the head of the National Restaurant Association, she thought that he could help her get a new job.
When Bialek arrived in Washington, she discovered that her hotel room had been upgraded to a suite. Bialek says that Cain admitted to her that he was the one that upgraded her room.
After they had dinner, Bialek says that Cain offered to drive her over and show her the NRA headquarters. It was when Cain pulled over to park that the alleged sexual misconduct took place.
The following is what Sharon Bialek says happened in that car….
“I thought that we were going into the offices so that he could show me around. I was wearing a black pleated skirt, a blouse and a suit jacket. He had on a suit jacket without a tie. Instead of going in he suddenly reached over and 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 surprised and shocked and I said, “What are you doing? You know I have a boyfriend. This is not 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.”
You can see video of the Bialek news conference right here.
Some have even speculated that what Cain allegedly did could have been more than just sexual harassment.
For example, check out what Washington D.C. attorney Debra Katz told Business Insider….
“She [Sharon Bialek] has described an assault and battery”
So can anyone else attest to what Bialek is claiming?
Well, at the press conference sworn testimonies from two individuals that Bialek told about the misconduct by Cain at the time were read. One of the statements was from her boyfriend back at that time and another was from a friend that she had told about the incident.
So is Bialek lying?
At this point, Herman Cain is denying everything.
The following is a statement that was issued by the Cain campaign….
“All allegations of harassment against Mr. Cain are completely false. Mr. Cain has never harassed anyone. Fortunately the American people will not allow Mr. Cain’s bold “9-9-9 Plan”, clear foreign policy vision and plans for energy independence to be overshadowed by these bogus attacks.”
Hmmm…..someone is obviously not telling the truth.
So is it the four women that have charged him with sexual misconduct or is it Herman Cain?
More importantly, will the Republican Party even care?
According to a recent Gallup poll, just 53 percent of all Republicans say that they would rule out voting for a candidate if sexual harassment charges against that candidate were proven.
That is a very frightening number.
Look, if you use your power to try to force women to have sex with you, that should automatically disqualify you to be president.
Anyone that believes otherwise is not a real conservative.
So what are the polls saying? Is Cain losing support?
A Washington Post/ABC News poll released a few days ago had Cain in second place, just two points behind Mitt Romney in the race for the Republican nomination.
But another recent poll suggests some voters may be abandoning him. According to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, the number of Republicans that view Cain favorably is declining….
The poll showed the percentage of Republicans who view Cain favorably dropped 9 percentage points, to 57 percent from 66 percent a week ago.
Among all registered voters, Cain’s favorability declined 5 percentage points, to 32 percent from 37 percent.
Sadly, the Herman Cain sex scandal is taking the focus off the real issues that the American people should be focusing on.
Even if Herman Cain is completely and totally innocent of these charges, there is still no way that the Republican Party should nominate him.
As I wrote about the other day, the Federal Reserve is at the very heart of our economic problems and has greatly contributed to the financial bubbles that we have seen in recent years. We need to take the power to issue our currency away from the Federal Reserve and return it to the federal government, which is what the U.S. Constitution requires.
But Herman Cain would not do that. Herman Cain was once the chairman of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Board, and he sees no problems with the Federal Reserve at all.
The following is what Herman Cain once had to say about the need for an audit of the Federal Reserve….
Some people say that we ought to audit the Fed. Here’s what I do know. The Federal Reserve already has so many internal audits it’s ridiculous. I don’t know why people think we’re gonna learn this great amount of information by auditing the Federal Reserve.
I think a lot of people are calling for this audit of the Federal Reserve because they don’t know enough about it. There’s no hidden secrets going on in the Federal Reserve to my knowledge.
Another big problem with Herman Cain is that the 999 plan would raise taxes on most Americans.
Personally, my taxes would go way up if Herman Cain’s plan is implemented. There is no way that I want to see the Republican Party nominate him.
In addition, Herman Cain has been making ridiculous statement after ridiculous statement recently. All candidates get “tripped up” from time to time, but some of the things that Cain has been saying recently absolutely boggle the mind.
For example, Cain recently claimed that China is “trying to develop nuclear capability.
Yes, he actually said that.
Most Republicans just let this slide, but many of us were absolutely appalled when Cain made the following statement about China….
“They’ve indicated that they’re trying to develop nuclear capability, and they want to develop more aircraft carriers like we have. So yes, we have to consider them a military threat.”
What in the world?
China first tested a nuclear weapon back in 1964.
China is loaded with nuclear weapons.
But apparently Cain did not know that.
So why are so many Republicans giving Cain a “free pass” when it comes to things like this?
Yes, as I have written about previously, no American should ever vote for Mitt Romney or Rick Perry.
But if you are a real conservative, there is no way that you should ever vote for Herman Cain either.
Look, America is falling apart and we are running out of time.
We cannot afford four more years of Barack Obama.
We cannot afford four years of Romney, Perry or Cain either.
An article in The Independent by Rupert Cornwell tells of a joke that has been going around since Steve Jobs died….
‘Ten years ago we had Johnny Cash, Bob Hope and Steve Jobs,” runs a sour joke that has been doing the rounds since Silicon Valley lost its most famous son. “Now there’s no cash, no hope and no jobs.”
Sadly, there is so much truth in that joke.
America is drowning in debt, it is full of hopelessness and unemployment is rampant.
This country desperately needs to change course.
Please vote wisely in 2012.