Iowa radio host calls Herman Cain’s behavior ‘awkward if not inappropriate’
Now that Herman Cain’s chief of staff is drawing attention to them, observations by Iowa conservative radio host Steve Deace about the presidential candidate’s behavior are getting national exposure.
On Monday, Deace posted a message on his Facebook page that Cain had “said things to both of my female staffers that at best are professionally awkward if not inappropriate over the last several months.”
Deace has been critical of how Cain behaved while the Georgia Republican was in Iowa doing interviews. But Deace has tried to keep his public comments strictly on Cain’s record, saying Cain has done back-tracking and flip-flopping on key issues in recent weeks.
On Monday, Deace told The Des Moines Register he didn’t want to talk publicly about what Cain did that made the women present at his radio interviews uncomfortable.
“I have instructed our employees not to address the situation specifically,” Deace said Monday. “At this point I see no need in dragging them into this individually.”
But on Tuesday, Cain’s chief of staff Mark Block, while insisting Cain has never sexually harassed anyone, made a passing comment that seemed to refer to Deace’s staff, as Politico noted in an article this afternoon.
“As the hours go by, it’s interesting that we even hear from a radio talk show host of Iowa that a receptionist thought that Mr. Cain’s comments were inappropriate,” Block said a National Journal event, according to Politico.
Deace told Politico today that when he has written about Cain, he has tried to “make it about his record and not the personal stuff.”
During his Oct. 3 broadcast in Iowa, Deace mentioned that Cain made a comment to a woman who was there to report on the radio interview for another news agency.
“Cain said, ‘Darling, do you mind doctoring my tea for me?’” Deace said.
Deace told the Register last month that he believes Cain was talking about adding honey and lemon, but that it was an awkward moment.
Cain’s behavior on the campaign trail and in his distant past have been under intense scrutiny since Politico on Sunday reported that two women who worked for Cain at the National Restaurant Association complained of sexually suggestive behavior by Cain, accepted money to leave their jobs, and signed confidentiality agreements. Cain was CEO from 1996 to 1999.
Cain on Monday said he has never sexually harassed anyone. He called the allegations part of a “witch hunt.”
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Wild Thing’s comment……
The Herman Cain soap opera, news at eleven.
This is becoming almost embarrasing. Cain’s campaign is blowing up. The media attention and attacks will become unrelentless. It will be interesting to see how Cain handles it.
That is just the thing if they ever delivered the news it would all be over. So they deliver what Rush is calling anonymous news with no details and no real story. What we are getting right now is an infinite tease, not news at eleven because that would end it at eleven but banner headlines of “There is news.” How Herman Cain them for the MSM to be reduced to doing this!
I have heard a political professional say that if Herman Cain gets the nomination win or lose it will shatter the two hundred year lock on the black vote that LBJ had hoped for the Democrats. Because so many of the Democrat redistricting efforts have assumed a Democrat lock on black voters a thirty percent Republican inroad would end the democrats as a serious force in the house and most legislatures. They would be left with pockets of high immigrant population and poorly run Indian tribes as their only base. Newt Gingrich has fine political mind, could this be what is behind the Cain/Gingrich debates which are starting Saturday?
Tom, I am shocked at how this election is going. I thought the attacks would come from the left. But so far they are all within the Republican party itself.
When they started attacking Perry it shocked me and now with Cain it is totally wrong.
I trust Perry and believe he nor his camp had anything to do with the attacks on Cain. But the Cain people will not believe that and that is sad and an outrage how they want to hate and destroy and do the work of the left. sooo very sad and upsetting.
Avitar, interesting and well said.
Newt is very smart and would be fine as the candidate with just a few things that none of us want but no one is going to be 100%.
Cain is not the candidate to win imo for many reasons and he is showing how much he is not the one how he handles his backtracking each week, his sick hate for Perry and now how he is handling the newest situtation he is in. sad but that is how see it happening.
I just want to make sure we know all about each candidate so we can make the final decision in our hearts feeling we made the right choice.
I love Perry but we will see how the furture months pan out for him and all of them.
The Daily Caller:
On his Friday radio program, radio talker Rush Limbaugh proposed using the website Politico’s rules against the news outlet by finding a “Republican Larry Flynt” to offer a bounty to anyone who can document sexual harassment among members of the media — specifically at Politico.
Turnabout is fair play, so they say. Limbaugh said that after Politico reported a story last week about allegations of sexual harassment against Herman Cain by two women, and then continued on to report and even promote the report with 90 stories in just five days, the notion of “innocent until proven guilty” has been effectively voided.
Flynt is the liberal publisher of Hustler magazine who offers money for proof of sexual misconduct by Republicans,
“If we had a Republican Larry Flynt — this guy, I would urge him to wave around $50,000 for proof of sexual harassment at Politico,” Limbaugh said. “I mean, that’s what Larry Flynt does. He waves around $100,000, $50,000 for proof of sex with a Republican. So if we had a Republican Larry Flynt — you want strategy Mr. Gregory? I got one. We have our Larry Flynt offer $50,000 for any news, any proof, quote, unquote ‘proof’ of sexual harassment at the Politco office. And we can win it because the rules have been established by Politico. The truth is whatever the accuser says.
Tribal Politics: America Today
Does the truth really matter anymore in our republic? Is the search for truth just another martyr on the battlefield of the today’s polarized political discourse? The latest news about the allegations of sexual harassment against Herman Cain is very telling. Not in its impact on the presidential campaign, but on the question of what our political culture has become. Have we devolved into a tribal society?
I also found a statement by Condoleezza Rice on sexual harassment very interesting ”Ouote” It’s not the person trying to do the unwanted actions Fault, it is the person
It was directed towards for allowing it to happen in the first place. I was gung-ho
On Perry at the start and to say the least have cooled to around -25 below zero. The last
Straw being his Michael Dukakis moment in New Hampshire. Just a little over the top.