Like sands through the hour glass, these are the Cains of our lives.
The slow drip of allegations continues, folks. It’s turning into a soap opera.
A fifth woman, former USAID worker Donna Donella, has come forward and claimed that after Herman Cain gave a speech in Egypt in 2002, Cain asked her to ask some other woman (an audience member) to have dinner with him. (Presumably, he did not ask Donella to pass a note to the audience member, asking “Do you like me? Check the box — ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ No ‘maybe so’!”)
When Donella declined to play matchmaker, Cain asked Donella out to dinner. (If at first you don’t succeed, try again, eh Hermy?) When Donella declined, two other women jumped in and defused the situation by suggesting they all have dinner with Cain… together. In response, Cain probably flashed his creepy grin, thrilled that he was going to tap all those asses at once. Sadly for Cain, no asses were tapped that night (that we know of).
From Politico:
The worker – 40-year-old Donna Donella, of Arlington – told the paper that the moment came after Cain gave a paid speech in Egypt that year. A woman in the crowd posed a query to Cain during the speech, the Examiner said.
Donella told them “And after the seminar was over, Cain came over to me and a colleague and said, ‘Could you put me in touch with that lovely young lady who asked the question, so I can give her a more thorough answer over dinner?’”
She was “suspicious of Cain’s motives and declined to set up the date,” the Examiner reporter wrote.
That prompted Cain to reply, “Then you and I can have dinner.” Instead, some of Donella’s co-workers suggested a group outing.
Donella, who no longer works for USAID, said they were suspicious of Cain’s motives and declined to set up the date. Cain responded, “Then you and I can have dinner.” That’s when two female colleagues intervened and suggested they all go to dinner together, Donella said.
Donna Donella (if that isn’t a name fit for a soap opera character, then I don’t know what is) also said that she didn’t witness any inappropriate sexual behavior from Cain at dinner, but that Cain ordered two $400 bottles of wine and then stiffed the group when the bill came.
Really? Herman. Dude. Naw. How are you going to score all these extramarital chicks if you’re not going to at least pay your tab?
Not cool, bro.
Not cool.
[via Politico]
[cross-posted at ABLC]
Joey Maloney
1. At least it wasn’t Donatella Moss.
2. I think the word you want in the third graf is “defused”. Only loosers use the other one.
Hunter Gathers
Cain must think that he’s starring in his own version of Def Jam’s How To Be A Player
eric
I did think he had a sleazy smile in his commercial and you have tied it perfectly to his misconduct.
The Dangerman
He had better hope that the final number of accusers is 8 or less or 10 or more.
Shade Tail
@Joey Maloney:
“Loosers”? Purposeful ironic misspelling?
handy
@The Dangerman:
But not 27.
ABL
@Joey Maloney: hahaha. “loosers.” thank you and fix’d.
Villago Delenda Est
OK, this thing is getting totally out of control.
Is Herman going for “I’m the Tiger Woods of Presidential politics” or something?
The hits just keep on coming. How much longer (stupid question…they can keep this up FOREVER!) will the wingtards rally around this doofus?
He’s one of “our blacks”, after all…
Calouste
I think it’s going to be more damaging to Cain’s standing with the teabaggers that he was given a presentation to Muslims, paid for by the government in the context of international aid. About the only bogeyman he missed out on there were the gheys.
Suffern ACE
@Calouste: I guess. But this one doesn’t even get my hackles up. Well, nothing happened at dinner and the Egyptian woman didn’t even know about it, although he didn’t pay for the wine…doesn’t do much for me.
Maybe Herman Cain – expensive tastes when he’s traveling on the government dime. He doesn’t know those per diem rules!
Jenny
The Teatards are starting to defect. The blonde white woman was just too much to take.
http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/11/07/fresh-allegations-are-tipping-point-for-herman-cain-iowa-conservatives-say/
patroclus
Maybe it’s just me, but I’m beginning to believe that Herman Cain has a fairly lengthy history of boorish sexual behavior towards women that he isn’t married to.
Urza
Ok, as a not so rich white guy, how does one even pretend they’ll get laid if they don’t pay for dinner? I totally need to change my social circles if thats even possible.
MikeJ
Will intrade open a market on how many women the total runs to?
(Home now, Dad overnighting at the hospital. Out of scotch, only canadian whisky here, no anchovies for my pasta. Bah. Otherwise doc says health news is good for dear old, he can go back to climbing Little Si anytime after Saturday.)
Joseph Nobles
@Urza: That wasn’t Cain trying to get laid, that was Cain screwing those women for cockblocking him.
dead existentialist
Speaking of dead black pugilists . . . RIP Smokin’ Joe.
Epic battles ‘twixt good and evil between him and Ali. Fun part was never knowing what role either played. Huh, guess they were both just boxers in the long haul.
amk
How long before Ms Gloria meets up with Ms Gloria ?
Suffern ACE
@Urza: Just to hazzard a guess…when you figure out they’re not going to sleep with you after the first bottle, you order the second. If the second doesn’t work, well who cares what they think of you, and why waste your money? He’s not looking for a long term commitment.
sfinny
This is reminding me more and more of many business conferences that I’ve attended over the years. There were always a handful of guys that thought hitting on you was the highest form of flattery. Trying to come up with polite refusals, repeatedly, was so tiring. Thankfully, none reached the physical nature described in the press conference. But I can’t tell you how many married executives thought it completely appropriate to engage a much younger employee with obscene and offensive approaches.
Villago Delenda Est
@sfinny:
When the cat’s away, the mice will play.
I guess.
Ok, now I’ve had married women come on to me under these circumstances…but really…
sfinny
Oh it works both ways at those conferences. And that works into the whole problem that people get their behavior validated. If it works, then it must be acceptable.
Citizen_X
@The Dangerman:
I don’t know, but if he opens his next appearance with “99 Problems” blaring out of the speakers, you know he’s doubling down.
Amir Khalid
This business happened in Egypt. Which makes it more than probable that the (presumably attractive) local woman Herman Cain wanted to have dinner with was Muslim, and devout even if she didn’t have her head covered. So, was The Hermanator, while representing the US in a Muslim country, about to ply a Muslim woman with wine in a clumsy attempt at seduction? Not very clever. If those USAID ladies hadn’t headed him off, the US diplomats in Cairo would likely have been left with a diplomatic mess to clean up.
Jenny
@Amir Khalid: Herman wanted to see her pyramids.
amk
So they have started digging for dirt on the fourth woman from Chicago.
sfinny
If only it were 999 Red Balloons.
Kane
Being that all of Herman Cain’s actions of sexual harassment happened in and around the workplace, it’s all the more likely that Mrs Cain was unaware of these details. Sure, she may have had her suspicions, but how could she have known? Each accusation must be like a dagger to the heart.
Steve
@Jenny: As I was riding from my hotel to the Kyrgyzstan airport earlier today, my cab driver confessed that Cain is losing his luster and he is thinking of giving either Gingrich or Perry a second look.
Joel
Forgive me. Washington Examiner, not Moonie Times.
And here I was hoping for a conservative civil war.
Amir Khalid
Something tells me this presidential campaign is going to end in 9,999,999 tears.
Ruckus
@Urza:
To get laid using that approach one has to be very, very, very good. Good looking, good talking, and reek of sex at the very least. Might just be me but Herm seems to fail on all counts. So I’m going with Joesph Nobles, that wasn’t his play that evening.
The Dangerman
What a day. Verdict in case of Michael Jackson, best known for Thriller. Smokin’ Joe passes, best known for Thrilla in Manilla. Herman Cain, becoming best known for being a Manzilla.
Hmmm, needs work (I hate time changes; brain fried)…
Jamie
Of course the right will go after Politico and the “liberal” media on this fifth woman and totally fail to acknowledge the fact that the original story was posted by a conservative publication. Same thing happened last week with the PJ Media story that made it sound like Cain almost raped a woman before the changed everything with an update.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Steve: Ha! Your name isn’t actually Tom, is it?
Calouste
@amk:
Makes one wonder why newspapers don’t publish research to that level of detail on Presidential candidates. I’d think there might be a chance of some odd details in the records of Bain Capital for example.
hamletta
@sfinny: I think the balloons should have been green.
Jenny
NY Times has sexually harassed woman #4 on the front page, above the fold.
http://www.nytimes.com/images/2011/11/08/nytfrontpage/scan.jpg
Chum baby, chum.
cthulhu
This report seems a bit, well, meh. In itself, just reinforces the seeming fact that Cain’s a bit of a weird dude lacking awareness of how creepy his behavior is at times. The other stuff is way worse and disqualifying. Well, for a sane party, which the GOP hasn’t been for a long time.
One thing I have sort of been expecting, but have yet to hear, is some comparison by Cain’s defenders of what Clarence Thomas went through. And how this is what the left does to tear down successful black conservatives. Anybody heard any such commentary? Because, after all, we are the real racists!
amk
@Calouste: oh, they do that kinda oppo research on dem candidates. Remember geraldine ferraro, bill clinton, barack obama … ? Rethugs are their pals, so why would the newsies bother ?
sfinny
@hamletta: You made me laugh.
Yutsano
@Amir Khalid: OT: Just because I was randomly cruising the Internet tonight, I found out that McDonald’s in Malaysia serves bubur ayam and I thought it looked…intriguing. Is it as crappy as the rest of the fare there?
Bill E Pilgrim
@cthulhu: Almost immediately.
They have Clarence Thomas and Bork! comparisons queued up and ready to go at a moment’s notice usually, depending on which race they need at the moment.
Martin
@Urza: I had a friend in college. He was from Austria. Very charming guy. I repeatedly watched him walk up to girls (not drunk) for the first time, say something not far removed from “I would very much like to have sex with you now” and walk off with her. Among a group of 17 year olds, it was like hanging out with Jesus – except that Jesus could score in the middle of the cafeteria during lunch.
What I eventually learned is that it had relatively little to do with him, or what he said, or how he said it. But he always knew who to say it to. That was the whole formula – being able to read people really well, at least toward that solitary objective. That’s not helpful other than to remove some of the mystique of how other guys can seem to get away with something that otherwise seems impossible, or at least ought to seem impossible if you have any kind of moral center.
Martin
@Yutsano: Actually, my dad and I took a north-east excursion with a primary goal of eating nothing that didn’t include lobster in every meal for a 10 day period. We did well, but one day when we nearly failed we settled for a McDonalds lobster roll. It was surprisingly decent.
So we posit that local variants may be exempt from the ‘everything sucks’ McD’s rule.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Martin:
That’s why they didn’t invite women to the last supper, otherwise they knew they’d never get through the damn thing.
Before the cock crows, you will have (bleep)ed me three times.
cthulhu
@Bill E Pilgrim: Well, there you go. And by cracker-supreme Haley Barbour no less. That somehow seems a two-fer.
Amir Khalid
@Yutsano:
It’s rice porridge with bits of chicken. Nothing like proper Chinese or Malay rice porridge. Mickey D rice porridge is pale and watery, and the shredded chicken bits don’t taste like much at all. Barely edible, and very bland unless you put in lots of pepper. It’s somewhat below the Mickey D standard for taste, if that’s possible, but it is the cheapest thing on the menu.
You’ll have noticed that McDonald’s here is all-halal. So no McRib, but they do have a seasonal item that looks vaguely like it — long bun, rectangular patty — the Prosperity Burger, available in chicken or beef and slathered with onion and black pepper sauce. It’s usually available in the few months either side of Chinese New Year. Should be here pretty soon.
cthulhu
@Bill E Pilgrim: And yet the optics of this are interesting: Barbour, establishment insider, coming to Cain’s defense? Perhaps the line that Mittens is the GOP Elite’s choice isn’t so iron-clad…
Bill E Pilgrim
@cthulhu: I think whatever may have been true yesterday is inoperable now, in White House press secretary-speak. Not that any of this is a surprise, or not to me anyway.
It’s just a few days since John doubled down on “this won’t even matter!” to Cain’s chances. I gave it a week, at the time. Might not even last that long it seems now. “The campaign has become a distraction to my ability to get laid, er, that is to say, by that I meant “family”, and has reached the point where I have grifted everything I can grift from it…”
I’m going to miss him actually, most entertaining candidate since Ross Perot.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Amir Khalid: Disappointed there’s no McSatay on the menu. Maybe you have to go to Indonesia for that.
Joseph Nobles
@Jamie: Oh, yeah, that reminds me. The odious Fred Thompson sent this funny line out on Twitter today:
Ha ha ha.
Amir Khalid
Herman Cain’s attempts to cheat on Mrs Cain — the ones we’ve heard of, at any rate — are notable for getting no joy. So he could say he has been a faithful husband, even if it’s only because he stinks at philandering.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Joseph Nobles: Doesn’t he have some reverse mortgages to promote?
Amir Khalid
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
McSatay would be too far out of concept for McDonald’s. Satay is bite-sized chunks of meat on a stick. If you put the meat inside a bun, it would be just another burger.
Joseph Nobles
@The prophet Nostradumbass: He tweets out a few of these homespun gems every weekday, so I’m guessing these are the writers for that show.
Also, I remember back in 2006, going to a McDonald’s in Africa (not sure which stop, I was working on a cruise ship) and getting a McArabia. It was a pressed-meat grilled chicken product with some lettuce, tomatoes, and sauce on a piece of flatbread. At least we get real chicken breast on the grilled sandwiches here in the States.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Joseph Nobles: I love the way Politico is their target now, as an example of an evil lefty Web site.
The whole right wing thing is like watching a dog chase its tail.
Redshift
Headed out to work the polls in VA. Everyone be sure to get all right-thinking people you know here to come out and vote!
xian
@Hunter Gathers: cue the “Big Daddy Cain” jokes…
WereBear
Still not seeing any “conservative” downside…
boss bitch
So clearly this guy is a slut and has probably had multiple affairs. Someone has probably started looking for illegitimate children.
WereBear
@boss bitch: We don’t have any proof his crude tactics have actually worked so far.
harlana
No fucking way. GET OUT!! What a slimebag. I’m guessing that was revenge for the subsequent lack of ass.
Provider_UNE
@Urza: That wasn’t Cain trying to get laid, that was Cain screwing those women for cockblocking him.
This. Brevity is the soul of wit.
I spend quite a bit of time profiling the wingnut id, working on a unified field theory of wingnuttery. So far I think the primary ingredients are projection, projection as a form of inocculation, avarice,authoritarianism and a bedshitting fear of the perception of a loss of privilege. And I know I am missing something dammit! Oh right! A complete lack of understanding of the concept of consent. Season with a lack of empathy. Let me know if I am missing anything. (Remember that this Goldburg is not getting paid to not do his due diligence and of course TIA!)
That said the hardest thing for me to wrap my head around is the misogyny coated with an aura of entitlement regarding access to and ownership of the lady parts, but I do recognize the perfect distillation when I see it.
/Doffs cap in Mr Nobles direction.
And speaking of consent, the lack of understanding, and the embrace of entitlement regarding ladyparts…
A thousand word essay would be required to examine, in detail, the amount of fail in this gag. A book could be written…Jeebus H.
.
WereBear
@Provider_UNE: I salute your distillation of the Wingnut Id.
Though really, Early Freud nailed down a huuuuuuuuge percentage of it. As one Daily Kos commenter said a few years back, “I never believed in Freud… until now.”
scav
@boss bitch: You mean HC may have fathered a little not authentically black baby?
Provider_UNE
I salute your distillation of the Wingnut Id.
Thanks WereBear, but it remains a work in progress. Freud, some dude in the forties, Hofstedder, Altemayer, and numerous brilliant folks on the internet have served as inspiration.
As math has generally been my downfall and essentially made sure that I would not be able to lead my dream as a proper scientist, I have given what talents I posess unto the study of wingnuttery. If we are gonna discuss the possibility of peak wingnut I think it might be helpful if we could find the holy grail…A unified field theory.
One thing I have discovered is that one can not have enough cynicism when plowing these fetid fields.
I thank you for your kindness.
:)
.
JGabriel
ABL:
Donna Donella from a Tele-Novella pretty much trips off the tongue, doesn’t it?
The CEO of Godfather’s stiff people on expensive wine? If I were a Mafia Godfather, I’d put a hit out on this guy for giving us a bad name.
Classy, Herman, real classy. I guess that’s another stiffy that gets you off.
.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
are we still expressing shock and outrage at each allegation or can i take a bow for saying the republicans would do cain before their primary voters had to have an uncomfortable moment?
also, too.
tiger woods. #thinkaboutit
AxelFoley
LOL, this reads just like a letter to Penthouse. And that pic with his creepy smile makes it all the more better.
Ben Cisco
He needs a bumper sticker.
Samara Morgan
ABL…..do you think this helps Romney?
Erik Eriksson says a Romney candidacy will kill conservatism, besides which he will lose to Obama.
Mitt as the Nominee: Barack Obama Wins.
rikryah
number five?
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
this is so funny, and it just cracks me up.
what a creepy asshole
harlana
Very late coming back to this but Stephanie Miller said on her show last week that she has a friend, who wishes to remain anonymous, who was propositioned by Cain at a conference back in the 90’s. Predictably, as we have discovered, he invited her back to his hotel room. She declined but did tell her boss about it who responded that she should stay away from him, that Cain was trouble and everyone knew he was a womanizing snake.
Miller also, jokingly, predicted that Gloria Allred was going to end up representing one of the ladies Cain harassed. At that time, victim #4 had not even surfaced yet.
harlana
@cthulhu:
This must be snark because it started last week, after they decided they were letting the Perry campaign off the hook. Have you seen the “liberals are doing it again” ad, featuring Clarence Thomas and the whole “high tech lynching” comment. It came out last week.
Why anyone would seriously believe Dems would not want Cain as the nominee needs to have their head examined and probably be put on heavy meds.
blondie
@patroclus: You know, you might be on to something.
Villago Delenda Est
@harlana:
The wingnuts don’t think ANYTHING through.
There’s no benefit to the Dems for sabotaging Cain’s campaign, such as it is, at this point.
However, this does benefit every other Rethug in the Presidential race.
Wingtards are just stupid about these things. Never think things through, at all, it’s always first gut reaction to everything.
RossInDetroit
I have to wonder how long the Cain Failathon will run. A candidate with any ethics would already be gone by now. I guess we have to find out just how crass and shameless this guy is.
Wish we didn’t.
Villago Delenda Est
@RossInDetroit:
The irony here as the longer this goes on, the more bankable Cain is as a Faux Nooze “commentator”.
The incentive system in this society is totally fucked up.
Waynski
@MikeJ: I’m guessing 999 will be a winner on INtrade. Glad to hear your Dad’s doing better.
NickM
Cain is increasingly looking like The Strikeout Kid. Kind of a pathetic thing to be.
RossInDetroit
@Villago Delenda Est:
He’s a martyr now, which is a bonus. If I thought he was that smart I’d have to say it’s all going exactly as planned.
Waynski
@harlana: I have a friend who had dealings with him when he was at NRA and while I don’t know whether she was propositioned, she described him as a pig. I think the word’s been out on this guy in the Village for a looong time — small company town that we all know it is. Bringing up settled allegations in the media about a powerful lobbyist in the Village is probably journo suicide. If said lecherous lobbyist is dumb enough to run for President, well, that’s different. It’s pretty apparent in Cain’s interactions with the Village press that he doesn’t realize the game has changed. They’re mostly not afraid of him anymore, especially since the wounds are so obviously self-inflicted, were predictably going to surface, and handled so amateurishly.
Nied
Cain has some epic trollface going in that picture. ABL might as well have captioned it “Problem?”
Nemesis
I am not seeing the problem here.
Yes Cain appears lascivious-a brazen cockhound-but asking a female employee to invite a female questioner to dinner fails to reach the level of damn-that-dude-is-outta-control-butt-sniffin’. Sorry.