Over the past two weeks, it was revealed that Herman Cain --
One of Cain's accusers (whose complaint, filed while Cain was president of the National Restaurant Association in Washington, D.C.) was paid an entire years' salary by the Association in an out-of-court settlement. Her attorney called a press conference last week to say the woman would not reveal her identity or make any public statement except to affirm that her charges of being sexually harassed by Cain were true. Cain responded by denying a "settlement" had ever taken place, which sounded like a denial of the truth of any harassment charges.
Yesterday, Sharon Bialek, who had also accused Cain while heading the Restaurant Association of "unwanted sexual contact", made public her identity and details about Canin's groping of her.
Today, Cain held a press conference against a backdrop of American flags (see above) and said that her accusations "simply did not happen".
As I sat in my hotel room [Cain said about watching Bialek's press conference] ... my first response in my mind, and reaction was, ‘I don’t even know who this woman is.’ Secondly, I didn’t recognize [her] name at all... I tried to remember if I recognized her, and I didn’t. I tried to remember if I remembered that name, and I didn’t. The charges, and the accusations, I absolutely reject. They simply didn’t happen. They simply did not happen.
Cain then walked back his earlier denial that an accusation of harassment while president of the NRA had led to a settlement, saying it was an "agreement" -- in law, a different outcome than a "settlement".
Finally, Cain blamed "the Democrat machine" for providing information about the sexual harassment cases to the press (disingenuous or not, the media has hinted that campaign staff of Le Gouvernour Placard, Rick Perry of the
Shorter Cain: Charges false. Dirty hippies are behind it -- and even if another twenty women say I touched them, they are big fat liars. Because they are. Move Along; nothing to see.
Cain's stance since the charges were revealed in the press, and have developed since, has been to deny everything. He claims things have not happened. Period. And in one of the cases, rested his denial on a semantical difference between 'settlement' and 'agreement'. He says he does not recognize Sharon Bialek, and that her accusations... simply never happened.
I continue to be astonished when Right-wing Freaks are caught in their lies -- and they do lie; consistently, with terrible consequences ("Lil' Boots" Bush, and the population of Iraq; No?). They lie about the legitimacy of climate change; they lie about their motives in any reduction of America's debt situation. They lie about having affairs, and about their own sexual orientation. They lie about themselves. They have no credibility.
This isn't to suggest that liberals or Democratic politicians haven't lied, or aren't lying right now. But, if you add up all the facts, the Truth, that stands against statements politicians and public figures on the Right have made... it's not only shocking. It's almost unbelievable how huge the lies are.
But, consider: They either do so because they know that they're lying, and believe manipulation of others is acceptable (in fact, it's a show of contempt) -- or they truly live in some place where 'magical thinking' works; where the principal delusion is that with enough repetition, something will simply become true. Remember Fat Karl Rove's 2003 comment to a New York Times journalist that the resurgent Right, in power, "made new realities", by force of will? This is the kind of delusion I'm referring to.
In our new crop of Rightists, that kind of Crazy can be fueled by religion (as with Messr. Le Gouvenour Perry, or Grand TurtleBear Bachmann), or by illogic (Ron Paul), or out of pure cynicism (President Boner).
Herman, like his fellow Crazies, know what he's done. But he believes he can make, by sheer force of his personal will, two and two make five. Just because he really really says so. And if we are good little boys and girls, we should not pay attention to the bad stories and place all our faith in a dime-store Huckster who will eventually have to say he's sorry, kinda, that so many people got sick eating the pizza he passed out -- but that will be the fault of dirty, hippie haters of Teh Freedom™.
And this is why we need to move heaven and earth to ensure he, and no one like him on the Right, or the Left (because there are BlueDog delusions and cynicism, and 'pragmatic' 'centrist' delusions on the Left, too) continue to run the show and rig the game.
I have very low expectations we can make that happen, but...
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