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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

A Couple of Problems With Blaming Curt Anderson

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  November 3rd, 2011 at 08:52 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

First, you should know that yesterday, well before the blame game started, a buddy of mine called me and said he was hearing from people close to Cain that they thought Curt Anderson was behind this.

That was preceded and followed by calls from several reporters who’d seen my piece saying it was probably another campaign’s opposition research. The reporters were telling me they are hearing this leak happened from someone within the National Restaurant Association, not from a campaign. There was apparently a meeting of the board, referenced by the Politico, about throwing its support behind Herman. A few days after that meeting, the story got to the Politico — at least that’s the story I’m hearing.

The problem with blaming Anderson is two fold. First, he’s worked for Cain, Mitt Romney, and Rick Perry. He’s a professional campaign consultant. Like him or hate him, he’s not going to directly leak something like this or be the source of it, particularly if he knows Herman Cain knows Anderson knows because Cain told him. When you’re that much of a professional politico, you at least have to have some modicum of decent reputation for the big guys to want to hire you.

But the larger problem comes from our own Moe Lane on twitter. He notes, “Anderson denying TO POLITICO that he leaked *to* Politico *does* clear him. Unless Politico *wants* to self-destruct. If Politico prints a denial that they KNOW is a lie, they’re in deep trouble when that gets out.”Regardless of the editorial standards of the Politico, they most likely would not first make an inquiry to Curt Anderson and then run that inquiry by Curt Anderson as a denial if Curt Anderson were the source.

I realize the Cain camp’s emotions are raw right now and they are angry and they want to beat someone up. But the optics of beating up Perry aren’t good for Cain who, in 2008 endorsed Romney, whose campaign manager has ties to Romney, and who has spent the better part of this campaign making sure everyone knows he’d never support Rick Perry if Rick Perry were the nominee and while everyone else was defending Perry about that magical, mythical rock no one can seem to get a picture of was out beating Perry up about that rock.

In addition to raising additional questions about the inconsistency of his statements, the time he had to have known this was coming out, etc., it makes Cain look as petty and ridiculous as the Politico running something so wholly unsubstantiated. It also keeps the story alive, going in new directions, and does nothing to begin reeling in the story. This is precisely how you do not do damage control.

The problem, of course, is that as this has gone on and the Cain camp has resorted to lashing out at Rick Perry, it is more evident that there is no there there with regards to Curt Anderson, but that there was a there there with the Politico story.

And it additionally does not help Herman Cain that his campaign manager went on Fox News and said the campaign would not agree or support the women involved being released from their non-disclosure agreements. The only way for this story to start going away is to let the women speak and judge on the merits what they claim was harassment.

Mark Block saying, in effect, “no chance,” not only affirms the “victim” status of the women in the mind of the media, it takes the story to a new level and broadens the scope of the media inquiry.

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COMMENTS

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  • gator_hoo

    And his conservative credentials, I had never thought that Cain was not at his heart a good person. Now it is clear that he is just another say anything politician, and that if he is not formally a stalking horse to help Romney take out Perry, he informally sees himself in that role.

    He can’t go away soon enough for me.

  • tnguy

    Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. Frankly, I’m glad for Cain’s attack on Perry over the Rock and accusing him of outing him on his sexual harrassment: I’d hate to think I could’ve been tricked into supporting the guy.

  • bzip

    This whole blame game is stupid.

    Is it more important that we point fingers at who did rather>/a> than Cain take responsibility?

    My goodness, Cain started this mess with his scandal yet he blames everyone else.

    I am tired of it and tired of the unqualified leading the charge.

    If you listen to all the various versions Cain has given us – Cain has clearly lied and I do mean lied!

  • bzip

    This is a legitimate question to the Cain supporters:

    If this issue and scandal was Obama?s and not Cain?s what would be your response and thoughts?

    Just substitute Cain?s name for Obama?s name in this entire mess. Would you be giving Obama a free pass on all the various versions and changes in his story? Would you be giving Obama a free pass for finger pointing? Would you be giving Obama a free pass for out and out lies?

    If not, then why are you giving Cain free pass?

    Do we see a double standard and do we see the double standard in playing the race card?

  • bzip

    If Cain has no prior elected office experience and record to look at don?t you think that this entire issue of the scandal is a legitimate way to see how Cain responds, his decision making and judgment?

    If so, don?t you think by now Cain has shown very poor judgment and decision making?

    Let me ask the Cain supporters another question:
    Who cares who leak the story is my premise:

    Don?t you think it is better that this issues come out prior to the general election rather than have a Oct surprise in 2012?

    Don?t you think Cain has shown was too many gaffes, way too many walking back statements in all corners of the election thus far, i.e GITMO flap, abortion flap, China syndrome flap, blacks are brainwashed flap.

    Is it not a legitimate question to ask anyone if Cain is ready for prime time and to be the next POTUS?

  • NeoKong

    Just imagine. One of the few people privy to supposed bad behavior by Herman Cain just happens to be working for Rick Perry.

    Well Lordy Lordy my stars… it is really such a small world now isn’t it….?

    Like him or hate him, he?s not going to directly leak something like this or be the source of it, particularly if he knows Herman Cain knows Anderson knows because Cain told him.

    Oh is that a fact…or just an opinion…?
    I would think that a lot of people might do things or justify certain things to gain control of the White House.
    It is after all the most powerful position in the world.
    What’s a little shot to the ribs amongst politicians really ?
    It is how the game is played.

    It is just rather interesting to me how all of the witnesses and the “victims” who are now coming forward all seem to be public employees, registered lobbyists, democrats and people working for the Perry campaign.
    Go figure.
    Hmmm….people who would would want Cain out of the race all seeming to want to tell us all about his sexual harassment tendencies all coming out at once.
    What are the odds….?

    I especially like the woman who never filed a complaint but claims she was harassed but is now considering filing a complaint 12 years later to clear her reputation when nobody even knows her name.

    Can anyone imagine what a crazy person you would look like if you went back to some company you worked at 12 years ago and filed a complaint against someone who doesn’t even work there anymore…?

    I once got a bad meal at a Denny’s in Las Vegas back in 1998.
    I never said anything at the time but I am thinking of calling the corporate office and telling them what happened and see if they will send me a coupon for a free dinner.
    The bathroom had no paper towels either.
    What would be wrong with that…?

  • BA Cyclone

    I was an early Cain supporter, but “left” because his message control was awful as Erick has noted previously. He *should* be a great candidate because he has a great story and perspective on job creation. And in this climate, the “non-politician” angle can play better than possibly any other time in the last 50 years.

    I came back because he’s a real conservative and has what I consider some of the best ideas and best perspective towards job creation. His ideas are bold and not afraid of breaking china in Washington, D.C.

    But last night when they opened the line against Perry, I was dumbounded. I sincerely hoped they had what amounted to real evidence of a leak — if there can be such a thing in politics. This is the only way to possibly allow such a ridiculous strategy.

    The story was going to die. Even this alleged “third woman” could have been explained by “some people don’t get my jokes, and it’s been a hard lesson for me to learn in mixed company” or some such.

    INSTEAD they go and do this, and give new life and direction to the one kind of story that can torpedo your campaign. And all the while, it makes them look petty and childish.

    This kind of message control is again fighting for the worst of the field, along with Rick Perry. I want to like Perry, but his campaign has proven to be the polar opposite of thoroghbred material.

    This is fantastically disappointing, to say the least.

  • BA Cyclone

    you are not attracting anyone to Rick Perry.

    You make Mitt Romney attractive.

  • booboola7896

    He is known in Texas as being a down and dirty campaigner so if he did, it wouldn’t be a surprise.

  • retire05

    Yesterday, Block went on Bret Baier show on Fox where Baier interviewed him. With every question Baier asked Block, Block looked down and read from pre-scripted talking points. The guy [Block] was actually reading from a script.

    Now, I don’t think I have ever seen a campaign manager do an interview about his cadidate and their campaign, where the answers to interviewer questions was read from a scipt. And I am not the only one who picked up on this. Letfreedomringblog.com also thought it was dispicable and slammed Block up against the wall and took his lunch money over his terrible performance.

    Block, who is Cain’s lead guy, has done a horrible job of damange control. First, he claims no truth to the story, but the candidate himself did a 180, basically substantiating Politico’s claims by the time the afternoon had rolled around on Monday, when Cain was on Greta’s show. Now, Cain, who originally claimed he knew nothing about the charges, or the settlement, is saying he told Anderson about this in 2004. And since Anderson now works for Perry, Perry had to be the leak. Except, the time line between the Politico story, and Anderson’s hiring by the Perry campaign doesn’t jive,.

    It also doesn’t jive that Anderson, who Cain is now claiming KNEW about the accusations, although Anderson denies that, would tell the Perry campaign about the issue PRIOR to being hired. If Anderson were to give up his best piece of dirt on another candidate prior to being hired, why would Perry hire him when he already had everything Anderson knew? He wouldn’t. There would be no need to hire Anderson at that point. If you have already stolen the milk, there is no reason to buy the cow.

    Later, Block comes out with some convoluted tale about how not only Perry leaked the story, but so did Rahm Emanuel, using a tie between someone who once worked at NRA that now works in the mayor’s office.

    The problem with all of this is that Cain is hoping people will believe him about Team Perry and it will help him dodge the really hard questions, like, when are you going to have the NRA release the records? But anyone who has followed Perry’s various campaigns knows that getting down in the mud is not Perry’s style. Yeah, Perry will go after an opponent on their record, but I have never known him to attack someone on a personal level. Just ask Kinky Freidman.

    I have to point out one other thing; when you’re a political opperative, and your career is based on building campaigns, you go from one candidate to another as elections roll around. You win some, you lose some, but you also build a reputation as a solid campaigner. If you leave one campaign, only to bash that candidate later, your chances of getting hired by another candidate later down the road is slim to none. No one will hire a guy they think will bad mouth them after the campaign is over.

    Cain is now a fish flopping on the beach. His campaign manager is a disaster, his damage control on this scandal has been a case study in how not to conduct a campaign, his flying off the handle yesterday at reporters who are predictibly going to ask about this scandal was amateurish, and shows that Cain is not dealing with it well. And my God, it’s not like Fox has not given Cain enough air time to get the story straight. He’s been on Fox so much in the last two days I keep waiting for the Cain Show.

    Herman Cain has tried every trick in the book from not knowing about the women to not knowing about the settlements to knowing about the women, describing the settlements, to blaming it on the fact that he is black (for which he said he had no proof) and playing the race card to blaming it on Perry, Romney (but not very much) to Rahm Emanuel all the while ignoring that it really doesn’t make one tinker’s damn who leaked the story (could have been David Alexrod, for all I know considering his history of digging up dirt). What matters is: is it true and did he really do the things he was accused of.

    Liz Trotter, who I think basically tried to be level in her reporting, said last night that one woman could be brushed off, two women make you wonder, but three women is just one woman too many. And if Cain is going to take the stance that he will not request a release for these women, he is going to simply look guilty by omission.

  • paulplantowin

    News flash – breaking alert August 10th 2012.
    The Last Republican to be destroyed by well meaning but short sighted conservative bloggers – has announced the final withdrawal from the 2012 Republican Presidential campaign.
    One by one every candidate was destroyed by infighting, unsubstantiated speculation, hyper-partisan advocacy for ‘my’ candidate that did not shrink from destroying other candidates to ‘advance’ their agenda.
    Bachman went first.
    Perry nose dived – sought a comeback but never quite got the mojo back.
    Cain went next for poor handling of a series of anonymous accusations.
    Newt surged on Cain’s demise – Perry supporters furious their guy didn’t get Cain followers – but they had so disparaged all Cain supporters they all but quaranteed Perry would not profit from Cain’s resignation.
    Newt was subsequently destroyed by conservative bloggers for past sins.
    That left Romney – and finally all conservatives united to destroy his chances.
    Ron Paul gained popularity as a possible 3rd party write in but no one thinks he can defeat Obama, who is polling low but profiting from the serial destruction of all his opponents.
    The bloggers didn’t notice though – they were busy re-attacking Palinistas.

  • Vaughn Harold

    n/t/

  • defenseconservative

    but he’s a proponent of deep defense cuts on top of those already administered and ordered. Specifically, he has endorsed Sen. Coburn’s “Back in Black” plan, which would cut defense by $1.006 trillion over a decade (i.e. over $100 bn per year), and include the following budgetary-motivated cuts:

    - cutting the ICBM fleet from 500 to 300 (while Russia is adding delivery systems)
    - cutting the SSBN from from 14 to 11 subs
    - delay plans to develop and deploy a next generation bomber type (which has already been delayed for far too long and was identified as a requirement as early as 2006)
    - cancel the Marine and Navy variants of the F-35 and replace the Marine variant with nothing;
    - drastically cut orders for survivable, combat-proven V-22 rotorcraft;
    - and many other destructive cuts.

    The proof: http://www.youtube.com/user/RickPerryPresident#p/u/4/4iE1L35K2aI (begins at ca. 13:30)

  • defenseconservative

    and he IS currently employed by Perry.

    But don’t worry, Perry makes himself look like a fool every day. Just like when he endorsed massive defense cuts in an interview with Chris Wallace.

    Specifically, he has endorsed Sen. Coburn?s ?Back in Black? plan, which would cut defense by $1.006 trillion over a decade (i.e. over $100 bn per year), and include the following budgetary-motivated cuts:

    - cutting the ICBM fleet from 500 to 300 (while Russia is adding delivery systems)
    - cutting the SSBN from from 14 to 11 subs
    - delay plans to develop and deploy a next generation bomber type (which has already been delayed for far too long and was identified as a requirement as early as 2006)
    - cancel the Marine and Navy variants of the F-35 and replace the Marine variant with nothing;
    - drastically cut orders for survivable, combat-proven V-22 rotorcraft;
    - and many other destructive cuts.

    The proof: http://www.youtube.com/user/RickPerryPresident#p/u/4/4iE1L35K2aI (begins at ca. 13:30)

  • gator_hoo

    Anderson was not hired by the Perry Campaign until October 24th. Politico went to the Cain campaign with the story on October 20th. Even taking account that Perry was probably in talks with Anderson before then, your version of events requires ALL of the following to be true before Perry hired Anderson and owed him one red cent.

    1) Anderson told Perry about the allegations against Cain before he was hired.

    Why it doesn’t make sense:
    A) in Cain’s own account, he only told Anderson about one allegation, why did Politico know about two?
    B) if you are a staffer hoping to get hired by a campaign, the best way NOT TO GET HIRED EVER is to air another campaigns internal dirty laundry. As is evident from Anderson’s history, he works with a lot of different campaigns. If you are telling one campaign about a former client’s dirty laundry, rest assured you will soon be telling of your next employer’s dirty laundry.

    2) Anderson went to Politico on behalf of Perry

    Why it doesn’t make sense: Again this happened BEFORE Perry hired Anderson. You are simply not going to do a campaign’s dirty work, putting your entire career potentially at risk (see point 1) and not have a red cent to show for it.

    3) Politico, knowing that Anderson was the leaker, then went to Anderson and published his denial.

    As Erick pointed out, Politico is absolutely done as any kind of news source if it publishes a denial that it knows is false on the record. Didn’t happen.

    In other words, there is no chance that Anderson is the accuser.

    How does it connect the accusations to Perry to say that the witnesses are democrats, public employees, and lobbyists? There is only one other connection that has been made to Perry at all, and that has been to a PAC, not the campaign. That person has gone public with knowing about the events, which seems like an awful way to fly under the radar.

    Your accusations against Perry are based in absolutely no truth, which is even worse than the allegations against Cain, which is based on the settlement.

  • tnguy

    Obama is probably going to win. Republicans seemed poised to drag Romney across the finish line to the nomination, and conservatives won’t support him come next fall.

    Were I a gambling man, that’s what I would bet on.

  • bk

    It seems like you’ve got 2-3 “legitimate questions to the Cain supporters” that you’ve posted about 47 different times.

  • retire05

    the point is that the story of the women is out there. The point is that that Team Cain was contacted 10 days before the release of the story by Politico to get a response to the story and Cain said yesterday that Team Cain decided to wait until the story broke before they went into damage control mode. No one, and I do mean NO ONE, who is running for office does that. Candidates get out in front of a story to try to force it running its course in just a 24-48 hour period so it will be reduced to the back page quickly. Team Cain did not do that.

    The point is that Cain has, himself, changed his story totally. His campaign should have gone into def mode 10 days before the story broke and had everyone on line as to what would be said in response. Mark Block and Herman Cain not only do not seem to be on the same page, they are not on the same planet. That is a clear example of a campaign in total disarray.

    Now with blaming everyone from Perry to Emauel, an air of desparation has set in and it is obvioius. Cain could have weathered this. He could have come out, said “yes, there were accusations made, there was a settlement instead of a lengthy court hearing and it was over a long time ago. It was a misunderstanding, and I hope the women have gone on to better things.” He didn’t. He denied, and then when he admitted the story was true, bashed one of the women involved. Not a wise move.

    Then, just to top it off, Cain played the race card on the whole issue. That is NOT what conservatives want to hear.

    Blaming another campaign is a diversionary tactic and I don’t think it will work. Questions are still going to be there; did Herman Cain do what he was accused of? The only answer now can be found in the actual documents of the NRA, and from the women involved. If Cain refuses to support the release of those documents, he, not Perry, not Rahm Emanual, not the women, are going to look like he has something to hide.

  • supergirl2911

    What evidence do you have?

  • bzip

    Seems you are having a hard time dealing with reality. can’t answer the question but sure know how to deflect it much like Cain is trying to do.

  • http://slcliberty.blogivists.com randy streu

    They feel the need to repeat it over and over and over again until somebody pats them on the head.

  • bk

    If you actually read anything without posting the same mindless drivel continuously you might have noticed that.

  • paulplantowin

    It has been like watching a shark feeding frenzy.
    How can we survive this kind of behavior?
    Cain isn’t handling this well? OK – I’ll buy that if you experts insist.
    But are the bloggers handling it any better?
    I mean – who ULTIMATELY benefits from all this emotion, speculation, mean spirited attacks, etc.?
    Ya’ll are really discouraging, as a group, though I have noted some who have kept out of the emotionally charged negativity, and I thank them for that.

  • circlegranch

    I’m sure there’s no FOX conspiracy here; simply coincidence that Brett reels off questions and this guy responds with written answers prepared in advance. He should have called the Teleprompter Union guys to come in and do a mobile install on the set. It would have made his job much easier and stupid attack on Perry a tad more believeable. Was glad to see your take on this, retire05; you always bring solid common sense and if there was ever a situation that needs some sense, its this one.

    I agree w/ Liz Trotter. One incident is easily and quickly brushed aside but now w/ 3 that we know of, I go back to the old adage, ‘where there’s smoke there’s fire’. There were lots of other men in this organization at the time. Did these same women also make accusations against them? After the first incident, Cain should have ALWAYS had at least one witness in his office with him anytime he was going to have a conversation with a female. That’s how the game is played these days in the business world, but then again, he’s been out of the loop for 15 years. Following some simple rules of risk management and being acutely aware of what he said from that point forward would have gone a long way toward avoiding more complaints. We’ve seen too many idiotic people continue their bad behavior, whether its just inuendo or something more, simply because they keep getting away with it. Nothing bad happens to them, they enjoy the game so they don’t stop till it hits the news wire and then they deny first, admit next and ultimately blame somebody else. Tiger Woods, Client #9, Anthony Weiner, and of course, Wm Jefferson Clinton.

    I’ve asked some women in varying age groups how they would respond, if while in the office of the CEO, he makes a comment about her being the same height as his wife. All of them said they’d think he was weird at the least and quite possibly going someplace with the conversation they would not want to go. One woman went on to say, “Add that weird smile he uses at the end of the Smoking ad which makes him look like he’s got something on his mind that we really don’t want to know about, and now this, he’s doing nothing to help himself. I wonder how many times he commented on the height of male employees in his office.”

    The other really troublesome bit of news was that Cain apparently made some remarks to females working at the radio station in Iowa as he was walking through. Lots of witnesses in that situation, from reports.

    If only America would just get a sense of humor, such behavior wouldn’t bother anybody, right Herman?

  • NeoKong

    Mark Block was horrible last night.
    I think it would be best if he stayed in the background and worked the pits.
    Cain should have an attractive female spokesperson out there in front defending him.
    Cain needs a cadre of female surrogates to vouch for his integrity and not somebody who comes across like some guy who hands dollar bills to ladies named Cinnamon while they work the pole.

    I think it is entirely plausible that Anderson is behind this.
    For one, why isn’t he working for Cain again…?
    Did something happen ?
    Two: Perry would most certainly hire him especially if it would lock him in to his camp. The personal knowledge he has on Cain is pure gold.
    If that isn’t worth paying for then I don’t know what is.
    It’s not like Perry doesn’t need some help.

    I do not think that Anderson would worry about later campaigns because when is he ever going to have a situation like this where his old client is running against his new client for POTUS ?
    If Perry wins then Anderson becomes a political legend.
    Just my opinion.

    I think in the end we cannot overlook the seedy underside of powerful campaigns and the willingness to throw some kidney punches.
    Cain was a steamroller lately and this has clearly knocked him off his game.

    This is definitely a deliberate hatchet job.

  • mvosteen

    I really wanted Cain to win the Republican nomination and then the presidency. I have been paying attention to him since he announced he was running. I liked him because I though he was honest and not a typical say anything to win politician. He seemed to be a not so polished man that had some outside of the box ideas. I thought he was a good and honest man. Well I was wrong, I am not sure that he is a womanizer, but I am sure that he is a say anything politician, and he has not been honest about this situation. If he can’t be honest about this then he is no different than Bill Clinton. Maybe I live in an utopian world but I expect my president to be a better person. He should have some values, and above all not tell lies. My grandmother made me realize that when you lie to me you are telling me that you do not think much of me and you think I am not bright enough to see the truth.

    Herman it’s time for you to say I am sorry and then drop out of the race. Go back to your family and leave this job for some one else.

  • paulplantowin

    Kinda like McCain – Dole – Ford – etc. Conservatives won’t get as involved for Romney – and Obama will ‘occupy WH’ for 4 more.
    Cain ain’t perfect, Perry ain’t perfect, Newt ain’t perfect, Romney is a RINO
    Conclusion? We lose.

  • earlgrey

    it would be the equivalent of an employee switching jobs to go work at their competitor and using all the confidential informaiton from his former employer to benefit the new company.

    That is an undesirable business practice, and most employers know that if such a person has so few ethics with their old company’s secrets they will likely have the same attitude toward the new company.

    It makes for an employee that can’t be trusted. If this guy makes his business by working on campaigns he would basically be making himself unemployable by leaking the secret.

    That isn’t proof that he didn’t do it, but it does say that it would be an extremely stupid thing for the guy to do.

    One way or another the Perry campaign will end and this guy has to go out and find another job.

  • NeoKong

    You do not know when Anderson signed on with Perry.
    Did he fill out a job application or something.
    Do you have a copy of a canceled check to prove your point about when he started….?

    Also you don’t know all that Anderson knows. How can you claim with certainty how much he knows.
    Are you in the habit of taking everything some political consultant says as fact ?
    Anderson could be a wrecking ball to the Cain campaign with his personal knowledge.
    That is definitely something worth paying for especially if your campaign is on life support.

    Campaign consultants are mercenaries. Not missionaries.
    If I were you I would not be vouching for Anderson’s integrity because those guys are paid to win. Perry didn’t hire him for a lesson in political politeness.

    Do you seriously think he (Perry) wouldn’t stick a shiv in Cain’s ribs to get to the White House….?
    Where have you been for the last hundred years ?

    Anderson has motive. He has knowledge and he had access.
    You can’t overlook that.

  • eddiethegeek

    I cannot wholeheartedly support ANY of this Republican field. I thought I had settled on Cain; now he’s self-destructing. Romney? He makes my stomach turn. Perry? No can do. Bachmann – lost me at 666. Paul? complete wingnut. Santorum? Like him, but he simply cannot win. The guy from Utah? Exactly. Gingrich? I could support him if I could get past his own character defects.

    Bottom line – I can’t find a single GOP candidate that I’d lift a finger to help out, or who I think can really get this nation turned around. And this is perhaps the most critical election in our history – Obama MUST be turned out of office. So woe is me.

    Someone else needs to step up. I think I could support a Daniels candidacy, or even a Jindal candidacy. Despite his Obama-like lack of experience, I would wholeheartedly support a Rubio candidacy. Run, Mario, Run!!

  • supergirl2911

    While I may vote for any republican I will back off not watch the shows and I would disengage. Maybe that would be good for me. I know you would all miss me of course. But last time after McCain rose I supported him as a volunteer to the bitter end. And the ‘day after’ began a period of depression. Although I am writing a little tongue in cheek I think others feel the same way.

  • NeoKong

    How many times do you think Perry will run for the White House….?
    It’s all or nothing here for him.
    His campaign is on life support.
    Is he going to try again in four years or something ?

    Look at all the dirty tricks Obama played to get elected.
    Do you think he regrets them or that David Axelrod has a hard time finding a job ?
    Besides…who can prove it ?

    Sure...he didn’t tell Politico but don’t ask him about what some of his colleagues may have said because he can’t speak for them.

  • uncmike

    I have never been on board the Cain Train because of his 999 plan and his less than professional approach to the whole campaign, but I never expected this. He really needs to leave quietly, not by trying to shift blame he should be shouldering to others. he is indeed just another politician willing to say/do anything to get elected.

  • radicalrighty

    He and his team have taken a page out of the Bill Clinton handbook. Start a blame game, while attempting to discredit the victims. So far Cain’s blamed racism, then the Perry team. More blaming to come, as well as versions #5 and #6 of the events.

    Pastor Cain sure doesn’t pay much attention to the Ten Commandments . . .

  • byebyebama

    Blame game was very popular until the blame went to Perry and now it is “stupid” Why is everyone piling on Herman for blaming Perry? I thought this was a Perry vs Cain race according to Erick. If that is the case, then isn’t this a very smart thing for Cain to do? Why does Cain need to take down Romney if this is about consolidating the tea party vote?

  • mach5

    B/c of his 999 plan (full disclosure, fair tax supporter here), and being someone who donated a negligible sum to his campaign, I’ll say it, stick a fork in him, he’s done.

    Heck, unless the allegations against him had the words grope and children in the same sentence, grope and rape, etc, I doubt they would have had much merit. In fact, I certainly don’t believe the allegations would have even come close to the allegations against Slick Willie, the arrest of Larry “Wide Stance” Craig, etc. Think about it folks, we have a sitting president who admitting using cocaine (of course on the left, these things make you a hero).

    You can judge a lot about a person by the company they keep, and, imho, this is a very important litmus test for HC and he not only failed, he has flamed out.

    Cain has drawn a lot of support and fire, on his 999 plan alone. Does Romney’s 50-something point plan excite you? How about Perry’s 1040 EZ-Est plan? I didn’t think so.

    I’ll say it right now, I don’t believe Perry or Romney would do much to change Washington’s spending habits, or the legacy’s left by the Raw Deal and Rotten Society. (It took only one debate for Perry to shrink away on SS alone.)

    We may have to survive 4 more years of misery, b/c the future of the Stupid Party as Erick likes to say, is in Jersey, Louisiana, Wisconsin and hopefully, their not so stupid governors. Time will tell.

  • mach5

    B/c of his 999 plan (full disclosure, fair tax supporter here), and being someone who donated a negligible sum to his campaign, I’ll say it, stick a fork in him, he’s done.

    Heck, unless the allegations against him had the words grope and children in the same sentence, grope and rape, etc, I doubt they would have had much merit. In fact, I certainly don’t believe the allegations would have even come close to the allegations against Slick Willie, the arrest of Larry “Wide Stance” Craig, etc. Think about it folks, we have a sitting president who admitting using cocaine (of course on the left, these things make you a hero).

    You can judge a lot about a person by the company they keep, and, imho, this is a very important litmus test for HC and he not only failed, he has flamed out.

    Cain has drawn a lot of support and fire, on his 999 plan alone. Does Romney’s 50-something point plan excite you? How about Perry’s 1040 EZ-Est plan? I didn’t think so.

    I’ll say it right now, I don’t believe Perry or Romney would do much to change Washington’s spending habits, or the legacy’s left by the Raw Deal and Rotten Society. (It took only one debate for Perry to shrink away on SS alone.)

    We may have to survive 4 more years of misery, b/c the future of the Stupid Party as Erick likes to say, is in Jersey, Louisiana, Wisconsin and hopefully, their not so stupid governors. Time will tell.

  • byebyebama

    According to Erick, this is race is actually between Cain and Perry. Why wouln’t Cain want to blame Perry and make him look bad? He doen’t need to take Romney down, he needs to consolidate the Tea Party vote. Why does everyone accuse him of being a “stalking horse” for Romney? This site really has become “Rickstate”

  • mach5

    For the accidental double post, and legacy’s instead of the correct legacies.

  • gator_hoo

    The story that Cain told Anderson about only one woman came from Cain, so if there is a liar to be found regarding that, it is Cain himself.

    The date Anderson signed on with Perry came from the Houston Chronicle, but let me guess, they are in the tank for Perry.

    I’m not vouching for Anderson’s integrity, I am vouching for his lack of complete stupidity. As you said, they are mercenaries. Mercenaries don’t go to battle without making arrangements to get paid.

    So, under your story, Cain either lied when he said for certain that he told Anderson of only one woman, or Cain lied when he said he knew for a fact that Perry’s Campaign was behind the attack. Heck, he may have been lying on both counts.

  • paulplantowin

    … probably accounts for some of the Cain popularity. I myself was beginning to get excited FOR a candidate, instead of the usual ‘lesser of 2 bad choices’ we usually get.
    If Cain destructs (though I heard he has hired a new crisis mgmt. team) a lot of enthusiam will go with him.
    Newt may gain from it – or Perry – but neither will generate the same fervor Cain did.
    Anyway – I’m repeating myself now. Done.

  • paulplantowin

    … probably accounts for some of the Cain popularity. I myself was beginning to get excited FOR a candidate, instead of the usual ‘lesser of 2 bad choices’ we usually get.
    If Cain destructs (though I heard he has hired a new crisis mgmt. team) a lot of enthusiam will go with him.
    Newt may gain from it – or Perry – but neither will generate the same fervor Cain did.
    Anyway – I’m repeating myself now. Done.

  • NeoKong

    The date Anderson signed on with Perry came from the Houston Chronicle, but let me guess, they are in the tank for Perry.

    I didn’t realize your sources were so impeachable.
    And where did they get their information Columbo….?

  • tnguy

    Perry’s flat tax plan very much excites me. I think few things would do more to get our economy back in drive.

  • gator_hoo

    When Perry entered the race, he was the only non-Romney who had the money and organization to match Mitt. If Romney could keep Cain in the race, and promote him to eat into Rick Perry’s support, then Romney could beat Cain on organizational strength, as well as a divided conservative vote.

  • lucasblack

    I wasn’t one of Cain’s supporters, but I kind of liked the guy. I still do – I don’t think he was running around grabbing women’s rear ends or anything. But I never seriously considered voting for him; I think the presidency requires a bit of experience in government. The performance of the current occupant certainly bears that out and to beat him, if we run someone with NO experience, we throw away a strong argument.
    But the way Cain has handled this simply shows that he wouldn’t be up to the job. He had plenty of notice that this was coming and should have had a plan to deal with it. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if someone who was in the Rick Perry camp was behind it (with or without Perry knowing) because the timing would seem to be more in his favor than Romney’s. But for Cain to go out there with no proof that this is the case; well, I can’t say I think much of that move.
    I hope that whatever happens to Cain’s campaign he continues to be a big voice in the GOP and would love to see him run for Senate again (or Governor). And I hope that if any of his supporters are looking to find a different candidate, they consider Newt.

  • evilleramsfan

    That is what you and Cain are doing. I liked Cain, but didn’t think he had what it would take to win the nomination. After his attacks on Perry (stating he would not support Perry under any circumstances, accusing Perry about the rock before all the information came out, and now accusing Perry with nothing but one piece of circumstantial evidence which doesn’t even fit the timeline of what occurred), I can now say that I am done with Cain and imo, he can’t disappear soon enough….

  • davidpw

    Some seem to be missing a key point. Curt says he did not know about this Cain story in the first place.

    Why would anyone believe anything Cain said from here on out? He didn’t remember the allegations in the first place now suddenly he remembers telling Anderson?? Fishy.

    Curt Anderson statement:
    I?d never heard any of these allegations until I read them in Politico

  • earlgrey

    this Anderson guy does. Please also note that this case was actually settled so there were probably several people that knew about it.

    I am not saying it didn’t happen, but Cain’s camp is making the accuasaton with only this thin thread of a link is wrong. Just as it may have been wrong for Politico to run the story iin the first place without more information.

    A lot of people gave Cain the benefit of the doubt when these accusations first came out, but Cain is coming out at the Perry camp (for the SECOND time–first being that stupid rock) with very little evidence to support it.

    I can’t say for certain that Perry’s camp didn’t leak it, but I think people are looking ways to tie this to Perry rather than being objective and trying to find out who leaked the story. Big difference.

  • texabama

    but it would seem to me if you don’t like a comment or think it is repetitious then you just ignore it. You don’t have to comment on everything that is written. I really don’t understand why intelligent and moral people feel the need to call others “idiot, useless, drunk, etc.” Seems to me that just degrades the discussion.

  • tyman

    It seemed fishy to me, too, that Cain couldn’t remember anything else, but he remembers telling Curt Anderson.

    I guess Curt would rather draw unemployment than work, huh?

  • septembergurl

    1. We know that Politico was working on a story about the NRA board meeting to discuss endorsing Herb Cain.

    2. We now know that the older members of the Board, ie those who were contemporaries of Cain, were aware of Herb’s “woman problem” and the complaints and settlements and perhaps other incidents that were not formally handled by the Board.

    3. Discussions of whether to endorse Herb involved an explanation to newer members as to why the organization might not want to endorse.

    4. In the course of interviewing board members, one or more let slip the info about Herb to Politico. Like so:

    Politico hack: So you’re not endorsing?
    NRA flack: Uh, no, probably not..
    PH: Why not?
    NRAF: (bursting with self-importance) I wish I could tell you….you wouldn’t believe it….
    PH: Oh, you mean (makes tossing-back-drink gesture)? Yeah we know about that.
    NRAF: Yeah, but not just that…
    PH: The sex thing? We know about that too.
    (In dealing with politicians these are safe guesses).
    NRAF: Wow, You know about the settlements?
    PH: (Thinks: Settlements? Plural? DingDingDingDing): Well, we don’t have all the details like you do…maybe you can confirm a few things we’ve heard…

    No more complicated than that.

  • http://slcliberty.blogivists.com randy streu

    when it’s repeated over, and over, and over. Which, I suppose is the point. He wants attention. He’s getting it.

  • wennejunk

    Because idiots, useless people and drunks don’t generally have the capacity to understand and appreciate the criticism.

    Ah. However, sometimes it is useful to point such folks out for the benefit of the well-intentioned ignorant who could potentially be influenced.

    heh.

  • wennejunk

    All that matters is their guy has been torpedoed.

    They were on the winning team, their guy committed a penalty and they don’t like the Ref’s call, which has their favorite player eliminated.

    Regardless, their team is now losing, but all they care about is their player.

    In this case, team Romney keeps winning against Team Conservative, but they no longer care about that.

    Team Conservative is losing. That saddens me more than whether Cain is/is not a and whether the Dems/Romney/Perry camp leaked the information.