Kevin Tracy

I haven’t written about the Herman Cain sex scandal beyond saying that it’s sad that one of the only guys with a shot at beating Mitt Romney has more experience with allegations of sexual harassment than in government. Snide comments aside, let’s get down to business and decide whether or not Cain should be trusted when he denies these allegations.

The first thing that we all remember was how the Cain camp trashed Perry’s camp for putting the “false” story in Politico (who broke the news). As it turns out, however, the story wasn’t entirely false. There were allegations of sexual harassment that resulted in a settlement and the signing of non-disclosure letters by all parties involved. That last part is what actually made me suspicious of Politico. How in the world did they even get this story and, without witnesses or victims stepping forward to them because of the confidentiality agreement in the settlement, why was it even taken seriously by Politico? Well, I have to believe that’s the GOP establishment working. There ARE certain elements and groups in the GOP that don’t want Cain to be the nominee. I suspect they were more than willing to have the story printed, true or false, to discredit Cain at some level.

I think we all had some doubts about the legitimacy of the story, and I think that comes from our distrust of the media and establishment politics in Washington.

However, as I mentioned above, the story wasn’t as false as many of us guessed. So, Cain has changed gears from arguing it’s all false to arguing it’s just a handful of misunderstandings mixed with lies being manufactured by the Democrats’ political war machine.

Let’s deal with the Democrats first. Quite frankly, as I likable as Mitt Romney is, President Obama would much rather go against Cain than Romney for the simple fact that the GOP candidate would lack the funds necessary to mount a serious campaign. It also gives Barack Obama. Ore experience than the GOP candidate at all functions of government, one of his weaknesses. It could even have benefits as Democrats prepare to win congressional, state, and local elections.

Do you remember the term “October Surprise?” The October Surprise is supposed to come out in the October before the General Election, not the October before the year of the General Election. If Democrats were really worried about Cain, they would wait another year before adding fuel to the sexy firestorm.

People may try to discredit this logic by saying one of the accusers works for the Obama administration. That’s not entirely honest, though. While she does work for the executive branch of the Federal Government, she’s hardly anybody of enormous importance in the function of the branch or her department.

Besides that, one of the accusers is a TEA Party conservative who likes his politics. That hardly fits Cain’s narrative.

The Democrats aren’t responsible for Cain’s problems. Yet, despite not being a politician, Cain is doing everything a politician does when confronted with something scandalous, like sexual harassment: He denies it and blames everyone else.

So, where does that leave his claims of a misunderstanding? Well, I do believe there are “misunderstandings” that can lead to the perception of sexual harassment. For example, am I writing a blog post on your iPhone or staring at the crotch of the lady sitting across from me on the train?

I do know a couple people who have had such misunderstandings because of differences in how they use the English language. They were both resolved on the spot. Shockingly, considering all the crude humor we shared in the Air Force, there wasn’t any misunderstanding coming from a joke that touched a sensitive area for somebody. It can come from there, too, though.

Usually a person straightens up a bit after their first incident like this. Largely because employers will either fire someone or make them and the rest of their employees sit through mindless and horrible hours of harassment training.

Cain has three accusers at my last count. That’s two more than a misunderstanding. One of the accusers is alleging Cain put his hand up her skirt in a car and tried to make her “go down on” him during a job interview. It’s hard to come up with an explanation for how that may have been a misunderstanding.

My mom actually argued that it didn’t make sense that an interviewee would be in the same car as the interviewer. However, my second interview out of the Air Force put me in that exact position in 2005. I flew into Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia from Chicago O’Hare; and my to-be boss picked me up at the airport, drove me to the headquarters of the contractor he represented and then to the National Counterterrorism Center for the interview with the government client, then to lunch, and finally back to the airport. If this interviewee came in from out-of-town, it’s not unreasonable that she’d be in his car.

Now, it’s necessary to point out the fact that there’s no evidence of anything Cain is currently denying. Thus, it creates a sort of he-said, she-said situation… Or I guess it would be more of a he-said, she-said, she-said, she-said situation.

However, the fact that Cain has already back-peddled from his original statements and that he left a legal trail suggests a pattern of behavior indicates the three shes may be easier to believe.