The tipping point for Herman Cain

GOP voters can no longer simply brush off the sexual harassment allegations against Cain. It's time for them to decide if he's really worth their loyalty

Edward Morrissey

By the end of this past weekend, Herman Cain seemed poised to survive a tough week that started with Politico's report on vague, anonymous allegations of sexual harassment from Cain's time at the helm of the National Restaurant Association (NRA) in the 1990s. The response from the campaign of the GOP presidential frontrunner had been widely panned, as Cain and his team made several revisions to Cain's recollections and accused Rick Perry's campaign of leaking the story to Politico (only to later withdraw the accusation). But when neither of the two women who filed complaints, nor a third who came forward anonymously later in the week with another ambiguous claim, agreed to come forward and tell their stories publicly, and with polling showing little damage among Republican primary voters, the Cain campaign confidently asserted that it would no longer answer questions on this particular topic.

Unfortunately for Cain, the story got a lot less vague and much more substantial on Monday. News broke in the morning that Gloria Allred had called a press conference in New York for a new client from Chicago who would personally attest to sexual harassment from Cain in 1997. Sharon Bialek, who worked at the NRA's education foundation for six months, told the media that she asked Cain for some assistance in finding a new job after the foundation eliminated her position in June 1997. When they met in D.C., Bialek says Cain groped under her skirt and pulled her head toward his lap, asking her, "You want a job, right?"

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Edward Morrissey

Edward Morrissey has been writing about politics since 2003 in his blog, Captain's Quarters, and now writes for HotAir.com. His columns have appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Post, The New York Sun, the Washington Times, and other newspapers. Morrissey has a daily Internet talk show on politics and culture at Hot Air. Since 2004, Morrissey has had a weekend talk radio show in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and often fills in as a guest on Salem Radio Network's nationally-syndicated shows. He lives in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota with his wife, son and daughter-in-law, and his two granddaughters. Morrissey's new book, GOING RED, will be published by Crown Forum on April 5, 2016.