RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events Not all women enjoy riding the "Cain train"

NBC confirms one Cain accuser received cash settlementBy NBC's Chuck Todd, Lisa Myers, and Domenico Montanaro
NBC News has confirmed that one woman received a settlement from the National Restaurant Association after complaining about inappropriate sexual conduct by Herman Cain.

NBC News is not disclosing the name of the woman nor characterizing who she is.

Cain denied the allegations, saying on FOX this morning he was "falsely accused." "I have never sexually harassed anyone, anyone," he said, "and absolutely, these are false accusations."

Despite being the chief executive officer of the National Restaurant Association, he said he was unaware of any settlement with the accusers, though he didn't deny it.

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In an interview with Greta Van Susteren scheduled to air on Fox News Monday night, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain for the first time revealed details of what he says are part of the sexual harassment claims leveled against him while he was CEO of the National Restaurant Association

"I can't even remember her name, but I do remember the formal allegation she made in terms of sexual harassment," Cain said of one of his accusers, who he recalled was a writer in the association's communications department. "She was in my office one day, and I made a gesture saying, and I was standing close to her, and I made a gesture saying, ‘You are the same height as my wife.' And I brought my hand up to my chin saying my wife comes up to my chin."

Cain says the incident was investigated by National Restaurant Association's general counsel and human resources department. "It was found to be baseless," he insisted.

The GOP hopeful also offered insight into the settlement of the case saying, "My general counsel said this started out where she and her lawyer were demanding a huge financial settlement, I don't remember a number, but then he said because there was no basis for this, we ended up settling for what would have been a termination settlement."

That's a different story from what Cain told a packed audience at the National Press Club Monday afternoon when he said he was unaware of any cash settlements made to his accusers. "I hope it wasn't for much, because I didn't do anything."

The sexual harassment allegations stem from a Politico report that two women, who were subordinate to Cain at the time, accused him of inappropriate behavior and reportedly received five-figure payouts after signing an agreement with the trade association. The agreement also barred them from discussing the matter. The report quotes anonymous sources and describes how the two women felt "angry and uncomfortable" with Cain's behavior, which they said included sexually suggestive conversations.

On Greta's show, Cain also said he was unaware a second woman, described by Politico as working in the restaurant association's government affairs department, had accused him of an unwanted sexual advance during a trip to Chicago. "If I had a private conversation with her, I don't recall it," Cain said.

The campaign is now aggressively pushing back against the allegations, with Cain himself characterizing them Monday at the National Press Club as "a witch hunt."

He added, "in all of my over forty years of business experience, running businesses and corporations, I have never sexually harassed anyone."

Cain has shot to the top of both national and early state polls, but earlier Monday during an interview on Fox's "Happening Now," Cain admitted the allegations have become a distraction."Some people are gonna be turned off by this cloud that someone wanted to put over my campaign," he said. "We'll just have to wait and see what happens."

Read more: http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2011/1...s#ixzz1cQVOR0bG

50 - 40 percent over Cain, who was not included in a matchup last month;

Herman Cain's campaign is revealing suspicions about who is behind the story regarding the former unidentified employees who accused Mr. Cain of sexual harassment in the late 1990's.

According to a source who is friends with the Cain campaign, not only is the Rick Perry campaign involved but also the Mayor of Chicago and former Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is likely involved with the sexual harassment accuser attacks. A friend of the Cain campaign believes a National Restaurant Association (NRA) employee out of the Chicago office leaked the story to the Perry campaign via information and influence from Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office.

According to Politico's Jonathan Martin, Curt Anderson, the Perry advisor who the Cain campaign is accusing of leaking the damaging information, is denying the charges:

"I’ve known Herman Cain for about 7 years. I was one of several consultants on his Senate race in 2004 and was proud to help him. I'd never heard any of these allegations until I read them in Politico, nor does anything I read in the press change my opinion that Herman is an upstanding man and a gentleman. I have great respect for Herman and his character and I would never speak ill of him, on the record or off the record. That's true today and it's not going to change."

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain denied a former employee’s allegation that he groped her after she sought his help in finding a job in 1997.

Sharon Bialek, a single mother from Chicago, is the latest woman to accuse Cain of inappropriate sexual behavior while he was head of the National Restaurant Association in the late 1990s.

Bialek, age 50 according to voter-registration records in Chicago, said at a news conference in New York today that Cain groped her after the restaurant association’s educational foundation had let her go and she sought his aid in finding a new job.

Cain, she told reporters, reached under the skirt of her suit for her genitals and pushed her head toward his crotch, after a dinner meeting to discuss her job search.

“You want a job, right?” Bialek said Cain told her when she questioned his behavior.

Cain, 65, has been dealing for the last week with fallout from sexual harassment allegations made against him in the 1990s when he headed the lobbying group. Bialek is the fourth woman to accuse the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO of sexually inappropriate behavior and the first to identify herself publicly.

“Come clean,” she urged Cain today, asking him to confess to any inappropriate conduct. “Admit what you did.”

As Bialek addressed reporters, the Cain campaign issued a denial dismissing the allegations as “completely false.”

“Mr. Cain has never harassed anyone,” said the statement.

Two other women who had worked at the restaurant association filed formal sexual harassment complaints against Cain and were paid settlements for their claims. Both women signed confidentiality agreements prohibiting them from discussing the details of the incidents.

Joel Bennett, a lawyer representing one of the women, said in a Nov. 5 statement to reporters that she complained about a “series of inappropriate behaviors” and “unwanted advances.”

A third woman told the Associated Press on Nov. 3 that she considered filing a complaint against Cain for what she considered aggressive behavior, including inviting her to his corporate apartment.
First Meeting

Bialek, identified as a Republican by her lawyer, Gloria Allred, said she first met Cain when she attended a restaurant association convention in 1997. After she was let go about a month later, she sought Cain out for help finding a new position.

She said the two met for dinner in Washington in 1997 and that Cain offered to drive her to the group’s offices for a tour of the national headquarters.

“Instead of going into the offices, he suddenly reached over and he put his hand on my leg, under my skirt and reached for my genitals,” she said.

“He also grabbed my head and brought it towards his crotch,” she said, voice shaking.

Bialek said she asked Cain to stop and that he did. She said she didn’t file a sexual harassment complaint because she was no longer employed by the association.

She said that when she checked into a Washington hotel that day she had been given a “palatial suite,” and that Cain told her, “I upgraded you” at the hotel.

“I’m coming forward to give a face and voice to those women who cannot or for whatever reason do not wish to come forward,” she said.

I'm lying my big fat ass off because he's famous right now and I think I can get some attention and a book deal or two out of this.

A second woman — Karen Kraushaar, a communications official at the Treasury Department – has come forward to identify herself as a woman who says she was sexually harassed by Herman Cain.

Kraushaar was one of the two women originally mentioned in a POLITICO story that appeared Oct. 30. Kraushaar and another employee of the National Restaurant Association had complained about Cain’s behavior to colleagues and senior officials at the NRA, and both women left the trade group with a cash settlement. Kraushaar received about $45,000.

POLITICO initially had shielded Kraushaar’s identity to protect her privacy, but on Tuesday, Kraushaar agreed that her identity could be revealed.

Kraushaar, 55, said in an interview with POLITICO that she would like to band together with the other three women accusing Cain of harassment.

“That would be my preference, that we all go together in a joint press conference,” she said, noting that she’s turned down interview requests from a number of TV news shows.

Kraushaar said she had not talked to the other women about such an idea and that such a plan would be executed by their attorneys.

Now the spokesperson for IRS’s Inspector General, Kraushaar has worked as a career federal government official for different agencies in Washington. A Brown graduate, Kraushaar received a master’s degree from the University of Michigan and began her career as a print journalist.

On the details of Cain’s allegedly inappropriate behavior with the two women, POLITICO had a half-dozen sources shedding light on different aspects of the complaints.

The sources — including the recollections of close associates and other documentation — describe episodes that left the women upset and offended. Those incidents included conversations allegedly filled with innuendo or personal questions of a sexually suggestive nature, taking place at hotels during conferences, at other officially sanctioned restaurant association events and at the association’s offices.

Cain has denied any inappropriate behavior.

He explicitly denied any inappropriate behavior with Sharon Bialek, a former employee of the NRA’s educational foundation who accused him on Monday of making a sexual advance. Cain said he didn’t remember the Illinois woman.

“I can categorically say I have never acted inappropriately with anyone. Period,” he said during an ABC/Yahoo News interview. “And as far as this latest charges, I don’t even remember. I reject all of those charges. How can I defend charges when I don’t remember this person by name, I don’t remember that she did work at the education foundation and when I first saw her, I didn’t recollect, I didn’t even recognize her. But the big point is I have never acted inappropriately with anyone.”

LIBERAL CONSPIRACY! SOROS!

Pro needs his Doctor.

You keep saying that, but no one's laughing...

Because it's not funny. Just a sad is all.

You're...not making sense any more. Stop posting.

You're...not making sense any more. Stop posting.

@Wonder Boy. Thing is that the new woman to come out, Karen Kruashaar, will likely cause the unsealing of the documents held by the NRA about their internal investigation into the matter and the payout. I think that will be a lot harder for Cain to shrug off than the allegations that Bialek (sp?) put forth with Allred at the Friar's Club yesterday.

Still, even if this is to all blow over, I think there is still enough out there to really call into question whether or not this man is fit to be president. I've already touched on his handling of this manner. But, I think the foreign policy gaffes are also really troubling. To say that China wants "the bomb" and it being a "gotcha question" to ask who the president of Uzbekistan is disturbs me to no end. The Uzbekistan thing should really be disturbing to any, supposed, "foreign policy hawks" because it has been demonstrably proven that--since 2000--the country has become a hot spot for the rise of radical Sunni Islamism and a home for the persecution of Jews and--at least--Protestant Christianity. But, apparently, it is fine for him to dismiss it as a gotcha and purposefully mock the country's name as if it didn't matter.

I never thought Herman Cain had a real chance of becoming the nominee, because while he has economic experience as a businessman, I don't think he understands Washington politics well enough, and his foreign policy knowledge is self-admittedly non-existent.

But I like the guy, and have enjoyed his rise in the polls, however long it lasts.

Pending further evidence, I don't buy the sexual allegations.

Further, as touched on in another thread, there is the Journal Sentinal article that points to not just the misuse of campaign funds, but the FELONY misuse of such funds. It is one thing to claim such things happen to everybody. It is another to recognize that the use of such funds, though not being used as hush money, is similar to the use that got Edwards indicted. This is the big story. This is the one that should be getting more play. But, I understand that the media doesn't like boring stories about felony misuse of funds when they can talk lurid harassment.

Unlike a lot of people I've talked to, I'm not just taking these things separately. I'm looking at the larger picture. And, the larger picture is a man that should be polling about the same as Huntsman. Unfortunately, it seems that most people are commenting on how it feels like the Cain Train is riding on air to notice that it has actually hopped off the tracks.