DC Trawler

Karen Kraushaar, star witness in The People vs. Herman Cain, filed a formal complaint about ‘women are like computers’ jokes. Seriously.

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Or: CAINGATE SHOCKER! Second named accuser likes to complain!

The trouble with facts is that they can be checked. That’s the increasingly apparent problem with the case of The People vs. Herman Cain.

Associated Press:

A woman who settled a sexual harassment complaint against GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain in 1999 complained three years later at her next job about unfair treatment…

Karen Kraushaar, 55, filed the complaint while working as a spokeswoman at the Immigration and Naturalization Service in the Justice Department in late 2002 or early 2003, with the assistance of her lawyer, Joel Bennett, who also handled her earlier sexual harassment complaint against Cain in 1999. Three former supervisors familiar with Kraushaar’s complaint, which did not include a claim of sexual harassment, described it for the AP under condition of anonymity because the matter was handled internally by the agency and was not public.

To settle the complaint at the immigration service, Kraushaar initially demanded thousands of dollars in payment, a reinstatement of leave she used after the accident earlier in 2002, promotion on the federal pay scale and a one-year fellowship to Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, according to a former supervisor familiar with the complaint. The promotion itself would have increased her annual salary between $12,000 and $16,000, according to salary tables in 2002 from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management…

Kraushaar’s complaint was based on supervisors denying her request to work full time from home after a serious car accident in 2002, three former supervisors said. Two of them said Kraushaar also was denied previous requests to work from home before the car accident.

Well, that seems like a reasonable enough request. (Believe me, I know.) Nothing too outrageous there, I’d s–

Oh.

Wait.

What’s this?

The complaint also cited as objectionable an email that a manager had circulated comparing computers to women and men, a former supervisor said. The complaint claimed that the email, based on humor widely circulated on the Internet, was sexually explicit, according to the supervisor, who did not have a copy of the email. The joke circulated online lists reasons men and women were like computers, including that men were like computers because “in order to get their attention, you have to turn them on.” Women were like computers because “even your smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for later retrieval.”

A-ha!! Can Herman Cain prove he’s never made a “hard drive” joke? If not, why not? Huh? Huh???

“Do you really want a man in the White House who may or may not have made an untoward joke using a company e-mail account? I’m Barack Obama, and I approved this message.”

Of course, this doesn’t prove Kraushaar’s complaint against Cain isn’t true or relevant. Now we just need to find out what her complaint was.

So let’s tally it up: We’ve got Anonymous #1, Anonymous #2, Stiffler’s mom, and now Angela from The Office in about 20 years. Anybody else?

P.S. Cain’s accusers are putting their heads together right now, trying to get their story straight.

P.P.S. And another piece of the puzzle falls into place.

P.P.P.S. And another.

Tags : treacher
Jim Treacher