While Cain’s bizarre and shifting responses to the sexual harassment charges are interesting, I think the weirdest thing about this whole incident is what provoked it. Who fed this to the Politico, because we know for a fact they weren’t doing due diligence on Cain and just stumbled across it. They don’t do journalism, they do rumor and innuendo and fluff pieces, mixed in with planted trial balloons and horse race analysis and he said she said crap from anonymous sources and unnamed officials.
So who fed them this? Rove? The Romney team?
xian
yes
jsfox
I’m going with Rove. He has hitched his wagon to Romney, he can’t stand Perry, and will do just about anything to insure his nomination.
MattF
… and who is this aimed at, exactly? Even wingers must realize that this isn’t the work of the librul media, and that realization will only aggravate their resentment towards ‘Establishment Republicans’ (like, heaven help us, Karl Rove).
Emma
@MattF: Even wingers must realize that this isn’t the work of the librul media. I hate to say it but wrong-o. I have already been informed by my favorite wingnuts that this is an example of the media tearing down anyone that would harm the soshulist in the White House because they share his agenda.
Never assume intent when stupidity would do.
kjazz
Perry.
It doesn’t make sense for Mittens to leak this. If I were him, I’d be relishing for a one-on-one race versus Cain. His biggest threat is Perry.
TheMightyTrowel
If it were rove, wouldn’t some of financial stuff have emerged on Fox (the better to be believed by the adult diaper set)?
Brandon
It has to be Perry. Wasn’t too long ago that I recall reading a post on here about how Perry is a down and dirty campaigner who goes negative early and often. Cain supporters are those who don’t like Romney and therefore are more likely to go to Perry.
Lol
Focusing on “who leaked this” instead of the allegations themselves is the sort of tabloid/horse race discussion you’re decrying.
SST
I got Perry. All out war, Tixas style.
bleh
For all we know, it was discussed and approved at the weekly — or whatever it is — meeting of the Dread Coven of the Rightists, where they all carefully coordinate their campaigns that are not coordinated with any one candidate and hence are perfectly legal.
But it does clearly show that they take the Teatards completely for granted. This is a torpedo intended to sink the Teatard flagship and clear the way for the SS Romney.
Could be they also fed the financial story to all those various agencies who seem to have stumbled on it more or less simultaneously.
And I agree with Emma: the Teatards will blame this on the libruls. It just shows who the REAL racists are, yeah!
cleek
could’ve been the women he allegedly assaulted. could’ve been a vengeful former business partner. could’ve been any of the attorneys involved in the complaints. it certainly could’ve been Politico.
since we don’t know, making up stories starring our favorite bogeymen is just rumor-mongering. and i thought that was what made Politico so bad.
(also, what @Lol said)
cervantes
In TV interviews Politico spokesmodels have allowed the suggestion to stand that somebody fed them the story, but go on to say they checked it out thoroughly yadda yadda and nobody needs to know who tipped them off. I would guess that Romney likes having Cain in the mix, and so do the Obama people, but on the other hand are Perry’s people really enough on the ball to dig this up? Certainly he’s the one who stands to gain the most.
ant
Nate Silver’s blog post that he put up yesterday still has zero comments.
The New York Times have ruined his blog.
Stoic
Don’t leave out Cain himself. Sexual harassment charges didn’t hurt Clarence Thomas, it made him a martyr in the eyes of the conservatives.
Jamey: Bike Commuter of the Gods
Yes We Cain.
That is all.
MattF
@Emma: Well, all right… But I’m still unclear about who is supposed to be swayed by this. If you saw a bumper sticker saying ‘Herman Cain is not a serious candidate’, would that be anti- or pro-?
JGabriel
Honestly, it could have been leaked by anyone who stands to gain from it, or believes they can gain from it. That means Perry, Bachmann, Rove & Friends, Santorum, Huntsman, or Romney.
Bachmann and Santorum probably lack the resources for investigations to find this, though it’s possible one of them has a fan at the Nat’l Restauran Assoc. who tipped them off. Not likely, but possible.
@kjazz:
Sure it does. Cain’s lead in most polls is, from the POV of Very Serious People, hurting the Republican brand. It doesn’t do Romney any good to paint himself as a moderate conservative if independents think he represents a party that’s bonkers.
So, at this point, I’d have to give equal odds to Romney, Perry, Huntsman, and Rove & Friends.
.
bin Lurkin'
@ant:
Mission Accomplished, no?
Tom Levenson
@TheMightyTrowel: Don’t think the GOPers care about the financial stuff.
I’d guess Rove, (remember McCain’s illegitimate black child in SC?)…but I doubt we’ll ever find fingerprints.
gocart mozart
My money is on someone who worked with Cain when he was at the Rest. Ass. and is looking at the polls and thinking “I can’t believe that fucking asshole has a chance. I have interesting dirt on him, why not leak it to the press.”
jon
The National Restaurant Association: based in DC.
Politico: based in DC.
The shortest distance between two places is a straight line.
Many staffers knew of the payments. Two staffers got paid then. One may be taking a payment now.
JGabriel
@ant:
That just means Nate, or whoever is assigned comment filter duty, hasn’t read through and approved them yet. Krugman says he or someone from the Times filters the comments on his blog. Possibly Nate doesn’t have anyone else to do filtering, given that he’s not a big-name op-ed columnist like K-thug.
.
gocart mozart
jon, great minds and all that.
Marcus
Follow Rush Limbo in the coming days….there could be a good cop bad cop being played here…this attact was cordinated
rikryah
I couldn’t stop thinking of Cain breaking out in song.
the word that I wanted to call him was on the tip of my tongue, but couldn’t think of it until last night.
he looked like a MINSTREL.
A MINSTREL
numfar
My guess? It’s the same person that broke up that poor Kardasian girl’s marriage.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Lol: Yes, but isn’t focusing on the allegations this early, before someone has stepped forward, also kind of tabloidish? From a political point of view, how this got out is interesting. Who’s so low as to release something like this, after it was settled? The timing is rather interesting. Is some powerful group protecting Romney, or maybe Perry?
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Lol: Yes, but isn’t focusing on the allegations this early, before someone has stepped forward, also kind of tabloidish? From a political point of view, how this got out is interesting. Who’s so low as to release something like this, after it was settled? The timing is rather interesting. Is some powerful group protecting Romney, or maybe Perry?
Linda Featheringill
This is a fun game. We on the left think that somebody on the right outed Cain and those on the right think that somebody on the left is at fault.
Makes me feel so young, like I was in Junior High again. :-)
amk
my bet is on rover, the turdblossom.
JGabriel
@gocart mozart:
Could be, but why not go to WaPo then? Politico doesn’t seem like it would be the first choice for random disgruntled Restaurant Assoc. worker to contact.
Politico is, however, the first choice for Republican strategists.
.
amk
@ant: heh, nate must have made a bundle selling out his soul. So there is that.
xian
@ant: but surely not his bank account
cmorenc
@jsfox:
I second that Rove is the most likely possibility, and contrary to @The Mighty Trowel:
…Rove’s m.o. is to devise indirect means of planting damaging stories on opponents such that he leaves no fingerprints, aside from perpetually being on the list of potential suspects due to his well-known history of being a Machiavellian political ratfucker. The benefit of letting Politico be the origin of the story is that Fox News can then pick it up and disseminate and discuss it widely in its role as “news” reporter for the conservative audience, and play it for best advantage according to how it seems to be affecting the political winds at the grassroots. Karl Rove and Mitt Romney benefit the most (and risk the least in potential adverse blowback) from this if they’re the least part of the story itself (or at least no one can pin any proof on them that they’re part of the story). CLASSIC Rove tactics.
ellenelle
you’ve spoken precisely my line of questioning, john; this is an inside job, as they say – inside the party, that is.
what’s interesting is the fact that most republican voters don’t care about sexual harassment and its implications, consistent with their utter disregard for women in general. this is showing up in an iowa poll, so it may backfire, cain may win the nomination, or at least get the VP slot, and we’ll then have a repeat of 08 with mccain/palin.
imho, rumors of the republicans’ revival from the dead were grossly exaggerated; they’ve merely been in the last desperate gasp zombie stage. good riddance.
g
it’s possible one of them has a fan at the Nat’l Restauran Assoc. who tipped them off.
Heard some radio commentary yesterday that Cain’s the first candidate the NRestaurantA has enthusiastically and financially supported. Seems odd that the leak would come from there. Unless it’s an insider who disagrees with the majority.
qwerty42
I kinda think Perry was behind this. He has the $$ and it seems his style. He has to knock Cain off quickly so he can be the one to face Romney.
– however –
The “Republican Establishment” (whatever that really is these days) would probably like him out of the race too, and soon. So Rove could be the actor here.
cokane
brilliant succinct analysis cole. So funny all the rage on the right is about how liberals are trying to destroy cain. But I think you are right, the person who leaked this and wants to destroy him is likely a conservative.
JGabriel
@g:
That would appear to be a given.
.
chopper
@kjazz:
exactly. this is perry all the way. perry is like W mark II. he’s an idiot, he’s not quick on his feet, he’s half drunk and half stupid. he did well in texas by refusing to debate anyone (sound familiar?), and his campaigns are all managed appearances, ads and ratfucking behind the scenes, just like with W.
and cain and romney have a lot of rats that perry’s campaign is going to just go to fuckin town on.
but to make the race between him and mittens again he has to push cain aside.
JPL
Do we know that the story was not shopped to other papers or sites? After the NYTimes got burned with the McCain affair, I doubt they wanted to touch it.
If it is Rove, I hope he releases info about Perry’s sex life. Inquiring minds want to know, not that it matters…lol
Paul (@princejvstin)
Cui bono?
Governor Perry, certainly. Diminish Cain’s rising star and try to make it a two-person race with Romney again.
So him, or Karl Rove, who is just trying to tamp down the teabaggers and clear the Road for Romney
Tonybrown74
@rikryah:
+1
Hoodie
I would bet on Rove, but it could be anyone in the Republican establishment. Perry looks to be imploding on his own, so I wonder if his camp would have the time or energy to be conducting an oppo ratfuck on Cain. Romney’s people, or people who support Romney, like Rove, may like to see Cain out of the way so they can tamp down the type of litmus testing in the primary run that puts Romney on the spot. Candidates like Cain and Bachmann have the tendency to highlight the hot button issues, like abortion, healthcare and taxes, on which Romney has liabilities with the base. Getting these folks out of the way early allows Romney to more easily tack to the center, which the PTB knows he would have to do to beat Obama. They may be thinking that this election is not a get out the base election, because they see gains to be made with independents due to the bad economy. A whackjob candidate — or a non whackjob that is pushed into taking extreme positions — is the one thing that could fuck up that plan.
RossInDetroit
So far most of the talk has been about the cover-up, but what about the crime? It’s plausible that nuisance complaints were made and the NRA decided to pay the women off to shut them up and end the thing. If that’s the case, then Cain’s getting pissed at people is justified. We can’t know one way or another, but if the charges really were baseless that would go a ways toward explaining why Cain was caught completely flat footed and reacted in anger.
I’m not saying that charges of sexual harassment are trivial or fabricated. It happens and it should be punished. But sometimes companies decide to settle rather than fight.
chopper
@cmorenc:
rove’s MO is to attack a candidate’s strengths. not to say that anyone would pass up a sexual harassment scandal, but i’d figure rove is more likely to go after cain over the money side of business management shit.
i think perry hired his own wannabe rove team and this is their first big break out.
ericblair
@JGabriel:
Exactly. Even if some outsider giftwrapped a story for them and dropped it in their laps, there’s no way they’d commit an act of journalism without gooper insiders giving them the nod. We’re trying to figure out which gooper insiders it was.
I remember when Politico started up. It was fucking creepy. I never heard any announcement of a new organization or anything: just the usual talking heads began referencing Politico as if it had always been there. Yup, we’ve always been at war with Eastasia.
xian
@amk: great (cynical) minds?
soonergrunt
I’m going with a Romney supporter on the board of the National Restaurant Association–you gotta look at the triad of motive, means, and opportunity.
Somebody on the board would have known about it, (and remembered, if they’d been there long enough), and had access to the paperwork that Politico now has. Such a person would have the motive because a scandal there could conceivably have affected his/her own business directly, particularly if the victims were related to that business. Also too the motive of helping Romney, the guy who seems more the style of the big business types anyway.
Not that it matters of course.
Certified Mutant Enemy
So has a prominent wingnut blamed Obama for leaking this information? If not, it’s only a matter of time…
Nevgu
“So who fed them this? Rove? The Romney team?”
I think you are on to something Sherlock Cole. Something that never occurred to anyone. What was your first clue?
In other news, who bit the man? Was it a dog?
Also we have a breaking story, something is rising at dawn. Could it be the Sun? We report you decide.
hueyplong
As long as Rove is alive, he’s the first suspect whenever the subject is ratf*cking.
As for Rove’s penchant for attacking a person’s strength, I’ve yet to discern just what Cain’s strength is.
curiousleo
If I thought the people running Cain’s campaign were that smart, I’d have to say they put it out there themselves. It is a great distraction from the illegal money. And Cain’s base doesn’t care about sexual harassment & in fact this prolly makes certain factions like him even more.
Ken
Maybe it was Cain who went to Rove and said, “Torpedo my campaign, but in a way that polishes my credibility with my future Fox audience.” And Rove said, “One Clarence Thomas, coming up.”
(I posted this in another thread last night, but the thread was a couple of days old.)
reflectionephemeral
@cleek:
I see what you’re getting at here, but I disagree.
It’s Bad for America when Politico engages in rumor-mongering in lieu of (or more accurately in recasting) policy-related journalism.
Trying to figure out where Politico got one of the rumors it printed? That’s fine, IMHO.
Linda Featheringill
Hey, why pick on Perry? He’s already being persecuted because he’s a Christian.
:-)
JGabriel
@hueyplong:
Well, Cain does have an okay singing voice.
Cain’s perceived conservatism and religious background are probably his strengths among the Tea Party. Making him look like a horndog, arguably, could undermine both of those perceptions.
.
Elizabelle
@curiousleo:
Interesting.
It’s mighty convenient to have the focus on sexual allegations against a candidate, which are juicy, rather than potentially criminal behavior by a campaign’s financial backers.
Taking this a little further: is this a double-play to help keep the Koch funding stream out of the sunlight?
curiousleo
@reflectionephemeral:
The report on the settlements for sexual harassment aren’t rumors. They’re facts. I don’t read Politico so maybe their reporting was more of the “which women & what sort of charges” but still. Reporting on the settlements is not rumor-mongering, imo, because that is reporting on actual facts. He/They really did settle/pay up.
soonergrunt
@JGabriel: It would only if he were screwing around with white women or the wives of white men.
Sexual Harrassment is just keeping the x-chromasome help in their place, else it’s just trying to get extra services for the same pay, and therefore nothing wrong with that from their line of thinking.
RossInDetroit
TPM‘s got more details from fresh news stories on the harassment issue.
More information, less clarity.
curiousleo
@Elizabelle: I know, right. Who is doing actual reporting on the illegal money when “people” can talk about the meme that women make false allegations all the time and poor old misunderstood company men have to pay them off.
Trinity
@rikryah: THIS. I shared this very sentiment with my sister yesterday.
Cain deeply embarrasses me. He’s a modern day political Stepin Fetchit.
sixers
The weirdest thing about this whole deal is that Herman Cain is even a factor. He’s so out of his league running for president its scary. This will all seem like a tony soprano coma dream in 2 years when we think back at how fucked up the right was to even take this clown seriously.
DougJ
They do do journalism, it’s just that their “star reporters” — Allen, Harris, etc. — don’t. Their beat reporters are often good, though also often assholes.
I still suspect this was fed to them, that said, but I wouldn’t be shocked if it wasn’t.
Suffern ACE
@curiousleo:
JPL
@Elizabelle: Most of Cain supporters don’t care about campaign financing. They just want their candidate to win. In fact most Americans eyes roll when you talk about illegal campaign financing. I agree that his campaign financing irregularities should be investigated but I’m not sure he released the harassment info to hide the irregularities.
BTW, Cain was to speak at a GOP event in GA tonight and he canceled.
Hawes
Probably Rove on behalf of Romney.
But my dark horse ratfucker is Gingrich. Wait until after the filing deadline and then pick-off all the non-Romneys. Become the only acceptable non-cultist.
Stoic
@JGabriel: Who says they didn’t go to the Washington Post and the WaPo just sat on it.
Zach
Probably Perry. Cain helps Romney; no other campaign has the money or organization to pull it off so smoothly without having their fingerprints on it. There’s an outside chance that Huntsman’s responsible; his campaign’s smart enough to do it and his only chance at winning is if the campaign rapidly evolves and other candidates drop out. If it comes down to Romney v. Huntsman v. Bachmann/Gingrich/Santorum/Paul, Huntsman could very quickly become the establishment pick.
I would not be surprised to see someone else enter the race in the first half of November; too late to file for some primaries but plenty early to win. Having said they wouldn’t run and then running doesn’t hurt folks like Giuliani, Daniels who haven’t endorsed anyone yet. Pawlenty and Christie are out, though.
Barring any unknown skeletons in his closet, Rubio would clean up if he announced today.
RossinDetroit
I give Cain credit for not using the Gingrich Defense: “I loved the National Restaurant Association so much that it made me come on to those women.”
pablo
My bet is on this guy!
sherparick
@jsfox: I agree that the speculation about Rove being the source is probably correct, although at this point, where interests are concern, I don’t think there is much difference between Karl Rove and being in the Romney team. The book “Bush’s Brain” is full of accounts of dark research on opponents.
I hate Cain’s positions, he is most certainly a champion of the .1%, but the sexual harassment allegations are just really about being slimed. He could have done it, he may have done it, but no hearing or court found he had done it. This is area is my specialty of practice and management negotiates settlements all the time in cases where it has not done any wrong. The whole system has a bias toward “resolution” and “settlement” if the costs are less than the litigation expenses.
Calouste
@RossInDetroit:
Politico said they gave Cain ten days to react. Looks like Cain’s feet are flatter than Kansas. If you can’t come up with at least a coherent response within 10 days, your campaign is shite. Unless of course, you are running a book tour instead of a presidential campaign, in which case any publicity is good publicity.
Samara Morgan
@amk:
hes still making a bundle.
hes just another pari-mutual handicapper in the horse race.
the STATISTICAL truth is, the GOP doesnt have a horse that can win.
But we are a year away.
Nate has to pay his mortgage too.
HyperIon
@cleek:
i haven’t heard about assault.
instead, sexual harassment.
which is something different, no?
replicnt6
@Nevgu: Hey, dude, why don’t you go back to crowing about the Dow? Oh, wait…
Peter
Think you all Romney an apology. We Texans knew from the outset it was probably our Governor–a true CINO. How do you think he won all his other campaigns?? Texas style- or some call it dirty fighting.