1.) Caindemned? — It only took a week of plate-spinning by the press, but we finally have a Cain accuser with a face and an actual accusation. Yesterday, highly respected litigator Gloria Allred worked out some material for her next HBO special — the joke about “Herman Cain’s idea of a stimulus package” was pretty good — before introducing a woman who claimed Cain sexually assaulted her in 1997. TheDC’s Caroline May reports: “Sharon Bialek is the first woman to give her name and speak publicly about what she is alleging the GOP front-runner did to her while he was head of the National Restaurant Association… Bialek explained that while working in the National Restaurant Association Education Foundation, she sat next to Cain during four dinners at the National Restaurant Association convention where they spent a good deal of time speaking and becoming acquainted. She was fired from the association a month later. At the urging of her then-boyfriend, she reached out to Cain for help finding a new job in mid-July of 1997… When she arrived in D.C. she was surprised to find that Cain had ‘upgraded’ the room her boyfriend had gotten for her at the Capitol Hilton to a ‘palatial suite.’ She met Cain in the lobby for drinks. The pair then dined at an Italian restaurant where Bialek explained to Cain why she was there: She needed help finding a new job. Bialek said that in the car after dinner, Cain made a pass at her while he was supposed to be showing her the National Restaurant Association headquarters. She said that instead of going inside the National Restaurant Association building, Cain reached up her skirt and tried to pull her head toward his crotch. When she refused, Cain allegedly replied, ‘You want a job, right?'” Okay, so: Bialek was fired by the NRA in 1997 after working there for six whole months. Then she requested a face-to-face meeting with the president of the organization that had just fired her, to ask about finding a new job. A phone call wouldn’t have done it, apparently. And she didn’t tell Cain she was there about a job until dinner. And the whole thing wasn’t her idea in the first place, but her boyfriend’s. And then Cain groped her and told her it was part of the job interview. And she’s coming forward almost 15 years later, after a week of non-stop coverage of unspecified accusations by anonymous accusers, on behalf of women everywhere. After Gloria Allred gets her face time, of course. Hm. Well, sure, could be. The important thing is that an accuser’s story about wrongdoing by a presidential candidate must be taken at face value, with no questions asked. Isn’t that right, Larry Sinclair? P.S. The Chicago Tribune: “Cain accuser has history of financial troubles, legal squabbles.” Weird, huh? And the Chicago Sun-Times: “Witness: Cain accuser hugged him during Tea Party meeting a month ago.” And posed for a picture. With the guy who attacked her. Okay.
2.) Allred not alright with conservatives — Bialek’s accusation is damning evidence to liberals and much of the media (pardon the redundancy), but what about people who would ever, ever, ever vote for a Republican? Caroline May and Alex Pappas report: “Influential conservatives are treading lightly around the latest allegations of sexual harassment lodged against Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, but admit they are still skeptical because accuser Sharon Bialek chose to retain celebrity lawyer and liberal activist Gloria Allred as her attorney. But they certainly aren’t ignoring the allegations altogether. Many of these conservatives say Cain, the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, must be more forthcoming in his denial of the accusations. ‘We know nothing about this woman except that 12 years ago something happened that she did not feel compelled to tell anybody about,’ Erick Erickson, the influential editor of the website RedState, told TheDC. ‘But 12 years later, when Herman Cain decided run for president, she decided to go on TV and tell the world. Maybe there is something there, but if this is it, it just seems opportunistic. My general rule of thumb is that when Gloria Allred crawls out from under her rock, the 15 minutes of fame for the story is up…’ Penny Nance, who leads the group Concerned Women For America, said Monday that seeing Allred, known for taking high-profile cases against celebrities, ‘insert herself into another national scandal … was disturbing…’ On his show Monday, radio host Rush Limbaugh did not defend Cain. But he also said he did not take the news conference with Allred very seriously, recalling that Allred herself once joked that she liked being groped by the TSA.” Yeah, but that was funny groping! This is not funny groping. Allred isn’t making jokes about this one, except when she is.
3.) Eric Holder says you shouldn’t have guns because you keep giving them to Mexican drug cartels — Well, not you personally. Your government. You see, when Holder was asked by Congress what he knew about Fast and Furious and when he knew it, his answer was, well, maybe kinda sorta not entirely true. So now he’s going all in on the gun-grabbing. TheDC’s Matthew Boyle reports: “An advance copy of Attorney General Eric Holder’s Tuesday testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, obtained by The Daily Caller, shows that he will not preemptively address several significant issues raised during the ongoing Operation Fast and Furious scandal. Holder’s prepared testimony does not discuss his May 3 testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, an appearance during which investigators say he either lied, intentionally misled Congress or exhibited outright incompetence when answering questions about when he first learned about the failed gun-walking program… Holder continues to claim Operation Fast and Furious was a ‘local’ program run out of Phoenix, Ariz., despite mounting evidence to the contrary… In his testimony, Holder also advocates for new gun-control laws that he says would have halted, or at least prevented, Operation Fast and Furious.” So he’s going to call for the same result as he would have if he hadn’t screwed it all up. Remember: If the government is underhanded and incompetent, that means the government must exert more control over your life.
4.) The Daley Show cancelled — But otherwise everything’s fine in the Obama administration, right? Wellllll… TheDC’s Will Rahn reports: “Bill Daley, the former Clinton aide brought on ten months ago to help the Obama administration find its footing, has been demoted from his position as White House Chief of Staff, the Wall Street Journal reports. Longtime Obama aide Pete Rouse will replace Daley in his day-to-day management responsibilities. White House aides tell the Journal that while Daley’s new role is not yet fully defined, he will be expected to concentrate more on reaching out to outside power brokers. It is, the paper notes, unusual for a Chief of Staff to relinquish responsibilities.” Unusual? They mean historic! Oh, and: “Administration officials have denied that the change in Daley’s role is a demotion.” Well, of course not. Just because he’s being relegated to a less important position doesn’t mean he’s being demoted. We’ll just change the English language as it suits your whims, guys. That’s been working out fine for the last three years.
5.) How is Occupy Wall Street like a bowl of chocolate-chip ice cream? — TheDC’s Michelle Fields answers that riddle: “New survey data show that Occupy Wall Street protesters and supporters — as measured through visits to the movement’s principal website — are overwhelmingly white. Harrison Schultz, who helped develop occupywallst.org, and Professor Hector R. Cordero-Guzman from the School of Public Affairs at Baruch College have been surveying visitors of the Occupy Wall Street website to get a sense of who makes up the movement. The two shared their data with Fast Company magazine. The verdict? Occupy Wall Street is a predominantly white movement. Website visitors identified themselves as 81.2 percent white, 6.8 percent Hispanic, 2.8 percent Asian, and 1.6 percent black. Another 7.6 percent chose ‘other.'” This is what homogeneity looks like!
6.) Today’s words of wisdom from the Twitter feed of Adam Baldwin (no relation) — “Hi, GOP. If @THEHermanCain gets chased from the primaries, you will be saddled with believable media accusations of racism for the duration.”
VIDEO: Herman Cain undergoes his greatest trial yet: sitting next to Jimmy Kimmel
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