"You Want A Job, Right?"

Nov 7th, 2011

"You want a job, right?"

These are the words Herman Cain uttered when his sexual advances were rebuffed by Sharon Bialek according to allegations made public this afternoon.



This is the most damning evidence in the Cain saga so far. If true, and there is no reason to doubt Ms. Bialek, this represents a quid pro quo. It meets the standard for true abuse of power.

Since the story broke, Cain and his defenders have not only attempted to portray his accusers as liars, they have also sought to ridicule the very existence of sexual harassment allegations in our culture. Conservative pundits, Fox News and Rush Limbaugh in particular, have been truly vicious. Some have even gleefully trotted out "race" as a factor in their defense of the current GOP front-runner. Cain himself employed this tactic in an attempt to raise money off the charges. Apparently, using the race card is different when "conservatives" do it.

There are examples of all this apologism and pandering HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE. In fact, just after the press conference today, Limbaugh resorted to mockery of the accuser's name. This derision was, of course, sexual in nature. "Buy a lick," he said. Get it? He then made a slurping sound and repeated his joke, "Buy a lick."

Dahlia Lithwick wrote about this astounding phenomenon last week, before we had a face and a name for one of the accusers:

"Sexual harassment is now nothing. Welcome to the era of gender harassment denialism. The harassment skeptics claim that harassment, like racism, used to exist but is now over. Twenty years ago, when charges were leveled at Clarence Thomas, supporters of the accused refused to take the accuser seriously. Now supporters of the accused refuse to take the accusation itself seriously. We have gone from not knowing what sexual harassment is to not believing it still happens. All in less than 20 years.

Remember, we don’t know what happened, beyond the fact that several employees came forward with complaints and received cash settlements. That’s not a lot of information. Cain defenders could have stopped there. Instead, great swaths of them have opted to assert that there could never be a valid sex discrimination claim because the whole thing is just a racket. And they went even further: The same folks criticizing the National Restaurant Association employees who came forward with claims that they were uncomfortable in their workplace are willing to deploy the most archaic and gender-freighted stereotypes to get there. Sexual harassment can’t be “real” because the women who claim it are money-grubbing, hysterical, attention-seeking tramps."

Limbaugh suggested last week that "sexual harassment is a political tool of the left to get rid of people or to score money gains."

Really? Meet Sharon Bialek; She is a registered Republican. She is also a Tea Party supporter.

Andrew Sullivan made note of this while liveblogging the presser:

"Cain has countered with a statement denying any sexual harassment of anyone. So these four women are, according to him, lying. Including the latest who was, at one point, a fervent Cain fan and subsequently attended a recent Tea Party event. It will be hard to turn Bialek into a liberal tool."

At last, some social conservatives are demanding the Cain take the charges a little more seriously. That hasn't stopped guys like Hannity from responding with a resounding "so what."

Howard Kurtz noted this afternoon that many Republicans seem to share Hannity's sentiment:

"The news conference followed the first sign that the controversy is beginning to chip away at Cain’s standing in the polls. A Reuters/Ipsos survey found his favorability rating among Republicans slipping from 66 percent a week earlier to 57 percent. And a majority, 53 percent, believe the harassment allegations are true.

In an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll out Monday, negative impressions of Cain among Republicans doubled, from 18 to 35 percent. At the same time, 54 percent of those responding said they aren’t concerned about voting for Cain despite the allegations." EMPHASES MINE

This what the GOP base has become. They no longer care about fundamental questions of character or decency within their own ranks. The same party which made a spectacle of Paula Jones for years in an attempt to undermine President Clinton, now believes an almost identical allegation is no big deal.

As long as they win, they seem willing and poised to elect almost anyone.