Three Women? Herman Cain is Toast

Who does Herman Cain think he is — Bill Clinton? Sorry dude, but you can't sexually harass scores of women and expect to get away with it. You're no longer in the frat house, where your buddies will swear up and down that you were at church or baking cookies for the homeless shelter when the incidents occurred. No, sir. You're on the hook for this one...and your career in politics is finished. It seems like just yesterday that Herman Cain was on top of the world. He was ahead of Mitt Romney in some of the national polls, and he was creeping up on Romney in three of the four early voting states (the fourth, New Hampshire, has been Romney territory since he started running). It looked like this crazy old guy just might pull it off, and win the Republican nomination. But then reports came out that said Herman Cain, when he was head of the National Restaurant Association, sexually harassed two women who worked there. Well, that's not such a big deal, right? People get accused of sexual harassment all the time. It's sometimes true and it's sometimes false. Considering these charges were over ten years old, and they hadn't emerged until now, it could be easy to dismiss them as false. Then came news that the NRA had reached a settlement with at least one of the women. In exchange for the settlement, she had to sign a non-disclosure agreement. This agreement is why there had been no word on the accusations: she was compelled by the agreement not to talk about it. Naturally, Herman Cain pressed for the woman to come forward. He figured, well, she can't talk about it, so I may as well ask her to talk about it. Well, gee, isn't that clever, Herman? Attack the person who can't fight back, insinuate that she's a money-grubbing whore who is lying to destroy your reputation, and then sit back and hope America doesn't notice. Unfortunately for Cain, the rest of us are smart enough to see through his ploy. Oh, and there are other witnesses who CAN talk, such as Oklahoma political consultant Chris Wilson. He alleges that he saw Herman Cain sexually harass a number of women, and that if the women were allowed to talk, Cain's campaign would be over. Finished. Destroyed. Finito. Jerry Bohnen at KTOK in Oklahoma reported today that Wilson was a witness to the incident that led to the settlement between the NRA and Cain's accuser. "I was the pollster at the National Restaurant Association when Herman Cain was head of it and I was around a couple of times when this happened and anyone who was involved with the NRA at the time, knew that this was gonna come up," Wilson said. Bohnen reports that "Wilson described the woman as a low level staffer who was maybe two years out of college." "This occurred at a restaurant in Crystal City (Virginia) and everybody was aware of it," he (Wilson) continued. "It was only a matter of time because so many people were aware of what took place, so many people were aware of her situation, the fact she left — everybody knew with the campaign that this would eventually come up." Now the Associated Press is reporting that a third woman has come forward to say that she, too, was sexually harassed by Herman Cain. This woman claims that Herman Cain made "aggressive and unwanted behavior" toward her, including inviting her up to his corporate apartment one evening. According to the AP report, "The woman said he made sexually suggestive remarks or gestures about the same time that two co-workers had settled separate harassment complaints against Cain, who was then the head of the National Restaurant Association." For his part, Herman Cain is sticking to his story that he did nothing wrong. Of course, he could clear this up really quickly by calling on the National Restaurant Association, which handled the matter for him, to release the women from their confidentiality agreements. This would let the media and independent observers to weigh the facts and make some sort of judgment. Cain has so far stone-walled on calling on the NRA to do this. "What are the facts?" asked Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour on MSNBC. "If you have a confidentiality agreement that keeps the public from finding out something that the public is interested in knowing the facts, you ought to go on and get the facts out." It's pretty clear what the facts are. And for now, those facts point to one conclusion: whether he drops out now or carries on for a while, Herman Cain is finished as a presidential candidate. Like my stories? You can subscribe for my free newsletter here. To comment on this (or any of my columns), visit my user page at Benzinga. You can also reach me by email john@benzinga.com or on twitter @johndthorpe.