October 31, 2011

Herman Cain accused of sexual harassment

In 1991, a black conservative, Clarence Thomas, was accused of flirting with a black woman. This was the biggest news in the history of the world for about a week. (If you are too young to remember this, it's hard to explain just how big a deal this was supposed to be.) In response, Presidential candidate Bill Clinton announced that in The Year of the Woman, he would scourge sexism. This struck me as a little imprudent of him, since I was traveling down to Wal-Mart at the time on business and was hearing from Arkansawyers that their governor was a man like any man, only more so. In 1992, I wrote an article predicting that Bill Clinton would eventually get in trouble under the current definition of sexual harassment (making an unwanted sexual advance), which he did in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case, in which he perjured himself (losing his law license) over Monica Lewinsky. But I couldn't find anybody to publish it. You can read it here.

This is another one of those connections that disappeared down the memory hole: that Clinton's impeachment was an outgrowth of the Anita Hill brouhaha, which Clinton had initially benefited from.

By the way, has Anita Hill ever gotten married? It probably would have been simpler for all concerned if Clarence had just married Anita instead of that blonde. A woman scorned, and all that ...

54 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whiskey, please comment on this.

Anonymous said...

From what I've read, it seems like all he was doing was flirting with women who weren't attracted to him.

The way it's being reported liberal and feminist websites, you'd think he was a paroled serial rapist.

Anonymous said...

Btw, I don't get why liberal feminists melt when Don Draper does this on Mad Men but go ballistic when it happens in real life.

Anonymous said...

Seems like very convenient timing. I think the DC GOP must have been worried that Romney's coronation wasn't going to go as planned.

I'll repeat myself again, Southern Evangelical Christians are not going to vote for a Mormon. Are the Repubs trying to throw the race or something?

Just end it all said...

In response, Presidential candidate Bill Clinton announced that in The Year of the Woman, he would scourge sexism.

I love Democrat logic. Two guys (Clarence, Cain) flirting with women is outrageous, but the Prez giving chubby interns facials in the Oval Office is 'overblown' (no pun intended).

Get Off My Lawn! said...

From CNN.com:

POLITICO described the alleged harassment as including "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. There were also descriptions of physical gestures that were not overtly sexual but that made women who experienced or witnessed them uncomfortable and that they regarded as improper in a professional relationship."

Oh my God, that BEAST! That ... that ANIMAL! Innuendo? Personal questions? And gestures, my God, gestures! All I can say is, the women who survived this ghastly ordeal, this unspeakable horror, are true heroes of feminism. Five-figure settlements are a pittance and can never make up for their suffering, but if Cain is at last exposed as the near-rapist that he obviously is, then their sacrifice will not have been for naught.

Anonymous said...

The difference between Cain and Clarence Thomas is that the former is relying on the votes of the public. Thomas, in contrast, was relying on the votes of a ensconced group of Washington insiders. I imagine Cain is going to take an even bigger hit in the polls than Rick Perry, aka Ricardo Perez did over his 'heartless' comment about immigration.

I can't see how he can recover from this.

We ain't Italy.

Anonymous said...

Bob Packwood hounded out of office, but Bill Clinton, who was credibly accused of rape remains a hero with the left. Their towering hypocrisy never ceases to amaze me.

Anonymous said...

"I think the DC GOP must have been worried that Romney's coronation wasn't going to go as planned."

I have no idea who leaked it, but Perry has much to gain from this, not Romney. He's the one who shares voters of a like mind.

Anonymous said...

I have no idea who leaked it, but Perry has much to gain from this, not Romney. He's the one who shares voters of a like mind.

Ah, yes. I forgot that Ricardo Perez is still in the race.

Either way, only Romney benefits if Perry and Cain destroy each other.

Whiskey said...

Women give a pass to any Alpha. That's the whole point, women excuse things like say, holding a knife to your wife's throat on Christmas Day (Charlie Sheen), or raping a 13 year old, then sodomizing her (Roman Polanski) as long as the guy is Alpha. Alphas can do almost anything, since women judge men on their sex appeal which is a function of power, status, dominance, and social approval.

Herman Cain lacks that, the approval of Hollywood celebrities, media people, and so on. Its why Zuckerberg and Gates had no women throwing themselves at them, and George Clooney has to fend them off. Its why Cain is probably toast, and Ashton Kutcher only got more popular cheating on aging Demi Moore.

Wasn't Cain in cancer treatment at the time? That would presumably limit the libido, though two women look bad. [As far as Romney goes, the Establishment seems to hate hate hate him -- they've pushed T-Paw, Beta Male Mitch Daniels, Fat guy Chris Christie, Perry, among others to stop him. Probably because he's a Mormon. Romney should be the establishment candidate, but his Mormonism probably makes him a bridge too far for the Establishment. Hence all those guys pushed.]

Anonymous said...

Cain, the phony: HERE.

europeasant said...

Please some one explain to me how in the world a man makes a wanted sexual advance?
The rules are not written anywhere as far as I know!

Marlowe said...

Really, America? So soon after the Dominique Strauss Kahn affair? This is the best you can do?

Anthony said...

Strange how the left never complains about the demonization and stereotyping of black male sexuality when it's a Republican black man.

(What would happen if a white working-class girl claimed that a mostly-black basketball team had hired her as a stripper, and that some of them had raped her?)

Anonymous said...

Whiskey, some good points there. If a woman finds a man sexually appealing, he can get away with a lot....... If he's not so appealing, then he's toast.

Which is why it pays to be born handsome.

Anonymous said...

"Women give a pass to any Alpha."

Except Cain, who clearly is an alpha.

But, ok. The goalposts move yet again.

Whiskey still hasn't explained why betas have all the kids.

Anonymous said...

(What would happen if a white working-class girl claimed that a mostly-black basketball team had hired her as a stripper, and that some of them had raped her?)

Ask Kobe Bryant.

Luckily for him, that girl went on to have another round of consexual sex that evening, completely undermining her case.

It's dangerous to be a high-value man in modern America. So many mercenary sluts looking for a piece of the action.

Anonymous said...

@Whiskey

The Establishment hates Romney? GIVE ME A BREAK.

Romney IS the Establishment. This guy has so many under-the-table business connections it's a joke.

When it comes to the People vs Big Business, try and guess whose side he'll take. Open borders here we come.

Spunky Brewster said...

@ Get Off My Lawn!

Perfect satire, thanks for making me laugh.

Anonymous said...

"Strange how the left never complains about the demonization and stereotyping of black male sexuality when it's a Republican black man."

Uh, the last thing the left is going to do is get behind a Herman Cain lynch mob.

The dream scenario for Democrats is that Republicans somehow nominate him.

Dennis Dale said...

It was always a mistake to dispute the facts of the Clarence Thomas case as if his boorish behavior constituted harassment anyway, rather than attacking the presumption that Thomas had to answer.

Capitulating to a national referendum redefining sexual harassment entirely from the point of view of female politicians--Republicans, what f-ing good are they?

Anita Hill resurfaced somewhere a couple of months ago, maybe in a feature in the Post.
Dull as ever--she'd have to have very little on the ball not to have taken more advantage out of her sudden celebrity.

Anonymous said...

@Whiskey polanski gets away with stuff because he's "alpha" ..you're funny.

What would happen if a white working-class girl claimed that a mostly-black basketball team had hired her as a stripper, and that some of them had raped her
white fanbois would rush to the teams defence as happened with Kobie Bryant.

Bob Loblaw said...

Capitulating to a national referendum redefining sexual harassment entirely from the point of view of female politicians--Republicans, what f-ing good are they?

That's the way the courts have defined it, and without any kind of referendum. We may as well all be on the same page.

anony-mouse said...

"Whiskey still hasn't explained why betas have all the kids"

Betas raise all the kids. That's the point.

Spunky Brewster said...

Anthony said...

"What would happen if a white working-class girl claimed that a mostly-black basketball team had hired her as a stripper, and that some of them had raped her?"

As Steve has been phrasing it lately, that would just be a Who? Whom? question. And we know blacks trump everyone in victim/diversity status, with Jews and gays being the only partial exceptions.

So in that example, the media and liberals would just do what they could to muffle the story by avoiding it entirely, or giving it only the driest and most cursory coverage.

They'd be very quick to highlight any reasons to doubt the woman; very slow to allow that any injustice to the woman might have occured; And if it started to look like the story wasn't going away, the patience of some would snap and they'd bring out the knives to end it themselves. They'd insinuate that the girl is a lying white trash slut (much as James Carville, champion activist of the party of the working class, attacked Paula Jones by noting what dragging a twenty dollar bill through a trailer park could get you).

In their Serious voice they would then ask whether perhaps the real injustice going on is how this professional stripper's racist vendetta is tarnishing the sterling reputations and imperiling the liberty of these outstanding and underprivileged young black men who are surely guilty of nothing more than valiently trying to make their way out of the Amerikan ghetto.

Truth said...

"Herman Cain lacks that, the approval of Hollywood celebrities, media people, and so on. Its why Zuckerberg and Gates had no women throwing themselves at them, and George Clooney has to fend them off. Its why Cain is probably toast, and Ashton Kutcher only got more popular cheating on aging Demi Moore."

Soooooooo; Ashton Kutcher is Alpha, Herman Cain is Beta. OK, you've been explaining this A-B thing for 5 years now and I'm more confused than I was when you started.

Truth said...

""Strange how the left never complains about the demonization and stereotyping of black male sexuality when it's a Republican black man."


Hey, that's a literary palindrome, it works forwards and backwards:

Strange how the left never complains about the demonization and stereotyping of Republican sexuality when it's a black Republican man.

Anonymous said...

Is Cain now Conservatives and HBDers "magical negro"? What about all of that stuff about testosterone levels and number of testosterone receptors leading to increased aggressive behavior in black men. Wasnt everyone saying yesterday hat Cain was the real black not Obama?

Anonymous said...

"Betas raise all the kids. That's the point."

No, they have the kids.

This is the hilarious, obvious flaw of the Roissy worldview - slutty girls who DON'T settle down with their beta boyfriend from high school DO NOT WANT KIDS. By the time they stop being sluts, they're 40 and it's over.

Meanwhile, the nice girls who married betas and settled down have 3 kids.

The evolutionary implications are really obvious, and thus way beyond Roissy's mental capacity.

Anonymous said...

"Betas raise all the kids. That's the point."

An army of betas raises the kids, a tiny amount of alphas makes them.

It's a good thing betas are born via spontaneous generation, or there might be a mathematical problem here!

DCThrowback said...

Thanks for the links, David. Jay Saskin is doing some excellent research.

The symbol of what Cain represents is more important than the veracity of his story or his managerial acumen. I have no doubt he's an intelligent guy, but that in no way qualifies him to be President. Again, we'll ask the same question of him that we asked of Obama - if he were white - would we even be discussing his candidacy?

David Davenport said...

I'll repeat myself again, Southern Evangelical Christians are not going to vote for a Mormon.

What you mean is, to repeat yourself again, you aren't going to vote for Mittens, which probably leaves you with the alternative of voting for the Half Blood Prince.

By the way, where do you live, and what's your church affiliation?


-- David D. agnostic Southern Methodist ( not Bolshie United Methodist )

Anonymous said...

Hill never married: "When asked why she never married, Hill answers with her usual impersonal earnestness. “Statistically, a lot of women aren’t getting married, and a larger number of African-American women aren’t getting married, and I’ve been in that demographic,” she says blandly, as if the natural answer to such a question was a discussion of census data.

In fact, Hill has a longtime partner, although this is not information she volunteers. But her new book is dedicated “To Chuck,” and when questioned, she nods agreeably and acknowledges that she has been involved for 10 years with a man named Chuck Malone, whom she describes as being “in the insurance business.”"

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/10/02/anita-hill-discusses-clarence-thomas-twenty-years-later.html

Anonymous said...

That would presumably limit the libido, though two women look bad. Whiskey said,

"[As far as Romney goes, the Establishment seems to hate hate hate him -- they've pushed T-Paw, Beta Male Mitch Daniels, Fat guy Chris Christie, Perry, among others to stop him. Probably because he's a Mormon. Romney should be the establishment candidate, but his Mormonism probably makes him a bridge too far for the Establishment. Hence all those guys"

I've been puzzles by the establishment's pushing of Huntsman over Romney. Whenever the DC cocktail throwing party elites push someone (like Huntsman), and don't push someone else, it makes me like the someone else.

Yeah, as a Mormon, we know Mitt doesn't drink and par-tay, but I would imagine neither does Huntsman.

Oh, and one last thing--while Michelle likes to spend a lot of money and all, the DC elites have been, I believe, quite disappointed in the supposed elegance and culture the Obamas were to have brought to the WH.

They thought they were getting the Kennedys, although for the life of me I can't understand how the word "culture" and Kennedys can be used in the same sentence.

Anonymous said...

Roman Polanski "alpha"? Nope.

catperson said...

I've concluded that any time a man is accused of sexual misconduct, whether it's Bill Clinton allegedly raping Juanita or John Edwards allegedly cheating on his cancer afflicted wife or Michael Jackson allegedly molesting boys or Arnold allegedly groping women, those accusations are almost always true. It's hard to overstate just how sick and perverted even the most respectable men are behind closed doors. Not that I'm saying Herman Cain is perverted or sick, but he is a man so you have to assume the worst.

I continue to be impressed with Obama for never having a sex scandal or so much as cheating on his wife. This is especially impressive considering Obama is a good looking powerful man and such men tend to be the most promiscuous. It's also impressive because Rushton's r/K theory argues that blacks have the least sexual restraint of the three major racial groups, and yet there's Obama continuing to beat the odds.

Dyn-o-mite said...

I remember the "I Believe Anita Hill" bumper stickers. Today it's become roughly about as arcane as Tastes Great/Less Filling, or "Pardon me, but would you have any Grey Poupon"

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 3: all I can do is recommend the "lost article" by Sailer linked above. Scientists have learned that harassment is, uh, contextual (who'd have thunk it?)

In time every obscure Oklahoman law professor gets her 15 minutes but Hill is basically set for life now. Just as the Internet has sites to confirm Abe Vigoda is still alive, there are "I Believe" Memorial Assn's as well: AnitaHillParty.com (it's in S. Carolina of all places)

Marlowe said...

As a woman once said: Roman Polanski is the original five foot pole one wouldn't want to be touched by.

Kylie said...

"I continue to be impressed with Obama for never having a sex scandal or so much as cheating on his wife."

Logic is not your strong suit, is it? While it's true that no sex scandal involving Obama has been reported, it's also true that there has been a media black-out regarding whole years of his life--post-adolescent years when he could be presumed to have been sexually actice.

As for cheating on his wife, you have no way of knowing if he has or he hasn't.

"This is especially impressive considering Obama is a good looking powerful man and such men tend to be the most promiscuous."

Sorry but a man who bears more than a faint resemblance to Alfred E. Neuman is not good-looking. Furthermore, good-looking powerful men tend to have equally attractive wives. Michelle Obama is not good-looking, despite all the left-wing gushing over her well-toned arms.

"It's also impressive because Rushton's r/K theory argues that blacks have the least sexual restraint of the three major racial groups, and yet there's Obama continuing to beat the odds."

Yes, and he's articulate and clean, too! Obama is not black, he had a white mother and was raised in either mixed or white households. Saying a thing is so does not make it so.

Anonymous said...

You're welcome, DC. Btw, it's "Raskin," not "Saskin."

ELVISNIXON.com said...

I wonder if there will be a single mention of Anita Hill's famous association with Oral Roberts.

If I am correct, the answer will be a decided silence on the matter.

Down the memory hole with all their other lies .

http://tinyurl.com/3lnr8ev

not a hacker said...

When I was 35 I was sexually harassed by our 21-year old receptionist, a real hottie, kind of a young Dyan Cannon. She pinched my ass. I didn't try to get her fired.

Anonymous said...

I'll repeat myself again, Southern Evangelical Christians are not going to vote for a Mormon.

Aaaaand you still sound like a moron. Yes, southern evangelical Christians will vote for Romney over Obama. No, there aren't any red states that'll turn purple or blue over Romney's religion.

There might be some purple states that'll go blue, but who knows? You refuse to defend your own argument.

catperson said...

Logic is not your strong suit, is it?

Well I have so many strong suits that it's hard to pick just one. :-)

While it's true that no sex scandal involving Obama has been reported, it's also true that there has been a media black-out regarding whole years of his life--

I don't buy the media bias argument even though I hear about every day on Fox news. But the fact that the #1 news network in America is so devoted to bashing Obama is evidence that the media might not be anywhere near as pro-Obama as you would have us believe.

Choosie said...

I'm more interested in whether or not Cain's political holocaust will discredit the Republican party in the long run. Is he doing this on purpose? The sexual harassment suit should've been readily available to his handlers.

Otis McWrong said...

@ Catperson: "I continue to be impressed with Obama for never having a sex scandal or so much as cheating on his wife. This is especially impressive considering Obama is a good looking powerful man"

Not all men are driven by sex. Some prefer power, others prefer money - though some subset of the latter group prefer money and power because it leads to sex with higher status women! Looking at BHO (effete dork), I'm guessing he is very low testosterone, almost to the point of asexuality. People with low testosterone levels have weaker and thus more controllable sexual urges.

You indicate being impressed with him because he's a powerful male who can control himself sexually. I would point out that the power he has is conferred (due to his magic negro/messiah status) and not something he acquired via alpha male tactics.

Or it could be that he's other powerful males and just has more willpower than Clinton or JFK or countless others. I'd bet on the asexual dork theory though.

Dennis Dale said...

Roman Polanski "alpha"? Nope.

What? Does this alpha/beta dichotomy have any validity at all at this point? Or are these just terms of subjective derision or approval, like fascist or socialist?

Because if this guy doesn't qualify simply because his tastes are depraved then there really isn't much utility in the phrase "alpha". Or is this an example of the "no true Scotsman" fallacy?

Anonymous said...

Btw, I don't get why liberal feminists melt when Don Draper does this on Mad Men but go ballistic when it happens in real life.

Or, when Superman does it in their hateful misandrist romance novels vs. when Clark Kent tries it in real life.

Anonymous said...

An army of betas raises the kids, a tiny amount of alphas makes them.

That's how marmosets do it.

Anonymous said...

Dyn-o-mite said...

I remember the "I Believe Anita Hill" bumper stickers. Today it's become roughly about as arcane as Tastes Great/Less Filling, or "Pardon me, but would you have any Grey Poupon"

Where's the beef?

Anonymous said...

"That's how marmosets do it."

Nah, but keep trying, Roissy.

Anonymous said...

By the way, what exactly is a "symbolic crack pipe" anyway?