Right now, I assume you've heard about the Politico story about two women who settled sexual harassment claims involving Herman Cain, and got some kind of payment in exchange for not pursuing the matter further and for keeping their mouths shut about the whole thing in the future.
It's causing a lot of controversy.
Here's the thing: first of all, I'm betting we are all going to know the gory details sooner or later, confidentiality agreement or not.
Second, after the facts are known, I am not at all sure that this will mark the end of Herman Cain. Some think it will (or that it should).
Maybe it will if the facts are analogous to the case of Judge Samuel Kent. I don't know that it will if the facts are analogous to those of Justice Clarence Thomas.
Justice Thomas survived those televised hearings with Anita Hill’s testimony about
the Diet Coke, among other things. Sure, some sordid details.
Didn't matter.
However, it was a different story for federal district judge Samuel Kent once all the facts came to light in his case. There was testimony of years of aggressive sexual misconduct on the part of Judge Kent provided by two of his female employees to the House Judiciary Committee as part of his impeachment hearings (there was a criminal proceeding in Texas, too).
Former Judge Kent sits in home confinement right now, after serving all but three months of his 33 month sentence in a federal jail cell -- far far away from where Justice Thomas sits today up in Washington.
Bottom line: IMHO, if
the Cain story is closer to Kent than to Thomas, and that story is
revealed to the public, then I agree, he’s a goner. However, right now,
with just the Politico story … I don’t think Herman Cain’s campaign is
doomed. At all.
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