A sign on Ron Paul's desk: Amen, brother

A commenter on one of Capitol Hill Blue’s recent stories noted that GOP presidential contender Ron Paul has more “class” than another challenger — the constantly whiny Michelle Bachmann.

That’s true — and if class had any bearing in presidential elections, Paul would be a frontrunner instead of a second tier contender who has no chance at winning the nomination, much less the presidency.

Sadly, class has nothing to do in determining who becomes a party’s nominee or eventually president of this nation.

Neither, unfortunately, does competence, honesty, ability or morality.

If ability were a determining factor, we would not be suffering under the failed leadership of Barack Obama.

If competence or honesty were a criteria, George W. Bush would not have been in a position to put this nation through eight years of trauma.

If class, morality or honesty determined our presidents, Bill Clinton would still be a cornpone politicians in Arkansas.

We can go back many years, many decades and find sad examples of humanity who made it to the highest office in the land.  Some were honest but incompetent. Others were corrupt, immoral and dishonest.  Some might say Ronald Reagan had class — at least in public — but those who worked with him know that behind the scenes he was an immoral, obscene, back-stabbing son-of-a-bitch.

Nice guys, the old cliche says, finish last. That is not only true in politics but in other walks of life. Steve Jobs, hailed as a technological genius, was a ruthless man who ran roughshod over friends, employees and competitors.  Mark Zuckerberg stole the concept for Facebook from Harvard classmates and betrayed his best friend but is hailed as the father of social networking.

Tiger Woods dominated professional golf and became the world’s most admired athlete while cheating constantly on his wife.  Only after his “sex addiction” became public did he fall from grace with the public.  His golf game went into the crapper as well.

Penn State legend Joe Paterno?  That story is still playing out and it ain’t pretty.

Because we must choose our leaders and heroes from the human race, we cannot achieve or expect perfection but isn’t it sad that we must accept so many flaws in those we elect to office or put on pedestals?

Does our obsession with celebrities, sports heroes and flawed leaders say more about us as a nation than those we idolize?

Instead of cheering the overpaid, steroid-doped athlete who opts for multi-million contracts instead of finishing his education, should we not be honoring the teacher who works at a salaary barely above minimum wage yet finds a way to awaken a desire to learn in our children?

Should we not save our love and respect for those first responders — many of them volunteers — who save our lives in a car wreck or risk their own to pull us from a burning building?

Why haven’t any of them ever shown up on a list of “most admired Americans?”

With so many millions to choose from, why can’t we find one good, honest, competent, moral man or woman to run this nation?

Someone with “class.”

Maybe we can’t because we don’t have the class ourselves…or the honesty…or the integrity…or anything else.

She’s pissed at CBS News because the network — sponsors of Saturday night’s debate in Spartanburg, South Carolina — didn’t feel she was important enough to give extra air time.

Alice Stewart, a staffer for Bachmann, who is hovering near the bottom of the polls, offered up her candidate for a post-debate interview.  When the offer reached CBS political director John Dickerson, he wasn’t all that interested.

“Okay let’s keep it loose though since she’s not going to get many questions and she’s nearly off the charts in the hopes that we can get someone else,” Dickerson said in a reply to an email from a CBS staff member.  Dickerson sent the reply to all, which included Bachmann staffer Stewart.

That sent the Bachmann camp into an old-fashioned hissy-fit.

That brought a red-faced Bachmann honcho Keith Nahigian storming into the “spin room” after the debate with a demand that the network can Dickerson.

“He’s a piece of shit. He is a fraud, and he should be fired,” Nahigan screamed to anyone who would listen.

Most didn’t.

Most of the reporting crew sought out interviews with those candidates that mattered. Bachmann, whose poll numbers are mired down around four percent, wasn’t one of them.

Bachmann, of course, was miffed.  She found anyone who would listened and whined:

“I think it’s only respectful to allow the candidates to be able to speak and not intentionally ahead of time make a decision to limit candidates’ opportunity to speak to the American people. Clearly this was an example of media bias.”

More clearly, it was a case of political reality.  Frontrunners matter. Backbenchers like Michelle Bachmann don’t.

Newt Ginrich: Back from the political dead?

The topsy-turvy GOP presidential sweepstakes took another turn towards the bizarre Friday with a new CBS News poll that shows a three-way race between former Massachusetts Mitt Romney, former businessman Herman Cain…and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.

Newt Gingrich?

That’s right. In a campaign season that has seen GOP frontrunners come and go like smoke rings, Gingrich is — for the first time — in double digits among potential Republican voters one of the three current frontrunners in a volatile race for the right to challenge President Barack Obama in 2012.

Gingrich, rising from the ashes after a campaign ripped apart by staff defections and scandals over lavish lines of credit at Tiffany’s, is suddenly a contender.

Gingrich and Romney are tied at 15 percent with Cain leading at 18 percent.  Cain’s fortunes, however, are headed south, particularly with women voters.  The polls shows support from female Republican voters dropping 13 percent since accusations surfaced of past incidents of sexual harassment of female employees during his tenure as president of the National Restaurant Association.

But Cain’s support remains strong with tea party Republicans where 71 percent say they don’t care if the former Godfathers Pizza CEO abuses women or not.

“Cain’s support among tea party types just shows how they really don’t give a damn about the qualifications, ethics or character of their candidates as long as those candidates spout the correct right-wing message,” one GOP operative, who asked not to be identified, tells Capitol Hill Blue.  “He may be scum but he’s their scum and that’s all that matters.”

Political watchers say Gingrich’s sudden rise into the upper tear is one sign that the right wing is looking for someone to replace Cain as the conservative alternative to Romney now that Texas Governor Rick Perry’s campaign is crashing around him and Michelle Bachmann becomes an unpleasant aftertaste of Campaign 2012.

“Newt has his own problems, particularly where women are concerned, but he hasn’t been accused of harassment, at least not yet, and he may be there when Cain finally implodes,” says the GOP operative.

Gingrich, in the meantime, is pressing ahead, opening new campaign offices in Iowa, where the nation’s first caucus comes in just two months.

Locust Grove Supervisor Lauren Yoder and wife Chelsa check returns

In the end, an election that some felt would restructure Floyd County’s school board and redefine county government turned into an endorsement of the status quo.

Every incumbent on the general election ballot Tuesday won, including three sitting members of the school board and county sheriff Shannon Zeman, who trounced challenger Laura Sparks — a former deputy — 2-1.

After years of having at least one Democrat on the county board, the supervisors who take office January 1 will be 100 percent Republican.  The party of the elephant — running unopposed in board and constitutional offices — walked in without trouble.  Only independent Stephanie Shortt — returning unchallenged for a second term as commonwealth’s attorney — spoiled the GOP sweep.

A last minute write-in challenge by incumbent board of supervisors chairman David Ingram — who lost to challenger Lauren Yoder in the GOP caucus earlier this year — fell way short as Yoder cruised to victory along with unopposed incumbent Virgel Allen and newcomer Joe Turman, who also ran unopposed after Demoratic incumbent Bill Gardiner decided at the last minute to not seek re-election.

In the race for Floyd Town Council, challenger Dennis Wagner came close to unseating incumbent Mike Patton but — as in other races throughout the county — status quo ruled.

The three-way battle for sheriff became the county’s most-watched race with challenger Sparks waging a spirited campaign against popular incumbent Zeman and “God told me to run” challenger Paul Hill.  But the final result wasn’t even close: Zeman pulled in 2,760 votes to 1,292 for Sparks while Hills came in a distant third with 422.

While Republicans celebrated their sweep at an election watch at the library and Zeman hosted his deputies and supporters at his house, a hoped-for celebration by Sparks at Ray’s restaurant turned into a wake.

“It doesn’t look good,” Sparks texted to supporters as the early returns came in and she trailed from the start.

Yoder, openly surprised and disappointed with the last-minute write-in challenge from Ingram sweated out the evening until the Locust Grove returns came in last, giving him 599 votes to some 200 write-ins.

“I had to beat him twice,” Yoder said.

Melissa Keith won her unopposed race for treasurer along with Lisa Baker for Commissioner of Revenue.

After controversy over now-retired school superintendent Terry W. Arbogast’s budgetary sleight-of-hand with his escalating salary and perks, some expected at least some of the incumbents to lose but challenges against sitting board members Clay Link and David Sulzen fell short and Margaret Hubbard ran for re-election unopposed.  Link survived a three-way race in Locust Grove District while Sulzen beat former county administrator Henry McDaniel.

The big losers Tuesday?  Floyd County’s invisible Democratic party, which didn’t field a single candidate on the ballot and the always vocal but impotent tea party which failed to land a single victory and had no impact on any race.

Karen Kraushaar: Another victim of Herman Cain

A second former employee of the National Restaurant Association went public today, confirming sexual harassment by GOP presidential contender Herman Cain when he served as head of the trade association in the 1990s.

Karen Kraushaar, now a spokeswoman for the Treasury Department, worked in the communications department and said she was a victim of Cain’s sexual harassment.

“When you are being sexually harassed in the workplace, your are extremely vulnerable,” Kraushaar said in an interview with The New York Times.  You do whatever you can to quickly get yourself into a job some place safe and that is what I thought I had achieved when I left.”

But her name leaked out this week and she says she will outline just what Cain did to her at the NRA.

Kraushaar’s revelations came as Cain denied ever sexually harassing anyone, even though mounting evidence suggests he has abused women in more workplaces than just the NRA.

“There’s not just a smoking gun here,” a GOP operative told Capitol Hill Blue.  “It’s a huge minefield.”

Kraushaar joins Sharon Bialek, who worked for the association and said Cain groped her and tried to force her into oral sex in a car following dinner in Washington when she came to him for help in getting another job.

Cain, Bialek said, made it clear that he wanted sex in exchange for helping her find a new job.

No so, claims Cain.

“I have never acted inappropriately with anyone, period,” he claimed at a new conference in Arizona Tuesday.  “I will not be deterred by false, anonymous, incorrect accusations.”

With both Bailek and Kraushaar now going public, the charges are no longer anonymous and Kraushaar suggested she and others harassed by Cain may hold a joint press conference to expose the now scandal-plagued presidential candidate as a sexual predator.

Related articles

• ‘Herman Cain reached for my genitals’ (capitolhillblue.com)
• Cain attempts to smear reputation of accuser (capitolhillblue.com)

Cain: Stil stonewalling

GOP Presidential contender Herman Cain, his campaign stalled by mounting allegations of sexual harassment, turned to an old political ploy Tuesday — attacking his accuser with smears and charges that she is a chronic lawsuit filer with a history of financial problems.

“The fact is that Ms. Bialek has had a long and troubled history, from the courts to personal finances – which may help explain why she has come forward 14 years after an alleged incident with Mr. Cain, powered by celebrity attorney and long term Democrat donor Gloria Allred,” the Cain campaign said today in an email to supporters.

Cain is expected to repeat the charges in a press conference scheduled for later Tuesday in Phoenix.

The tone of the email suggests Cain has no plans to admit any wrongdoing in the face of increasing revelations of his penchant for aggressive sexual behavior towards women.

Sharon Bialek, a former employee of the National Restaurant Association, said Monday that Cain reached under her dress and tried to touch her genitals in a car after dinner in Washington in 1999 and also tried to force her head into his crotch.

The Cain campaign denies the allegations but Capitol Hill Blue has learned that Cain did file an expense report showing a dinner with Bailek at a posh Washington restaurant not long after she was laid off by the association.

Other revelations about Cain’s behavior towards women are expected to surface as polls show support for the former GOP contender slipping.

Related articles

• ‘Herman Cain reached for my genitals’ (capitolhillblue.com)

Sharon Bialek (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

A fourth former employee of the National Restaurant Association has come forward — this time publicly — to offer details of GOP presidential contender Herman Cain‘s pattern of sexual harassment during his tenure as head of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s.

Sharon Bialek says Cain wanted sex in exchange for helping her find a new job after she was laid off from the association, groped her, reached for her crotch and tried to force her head into his crotch.

“I was surprised and shocked and I said, what are you doing? You know I have a boyfriend. This is not what I came here for,” Bialek told a press conference Monday.

Cain’s response: “You want a job, right?”

Bialek said the unwanted advances came at dinner after she came to Washington from Chicago to ask Cain’s help in finding a new job.

The revelations are just the latest in a growing list of accusations of sexually-aggressive behavior by Cain towards women — not only at the restaurant association but throughout his business career.

Capitol Hill Blue has spoken to more than a dozen women who offer similar accounts of sexual harassment by Cain at NRA, Godfathers Pizza, Burger King and other employment venues.

“He’s a sexual predator,” says one woman, who asked not to be identified. “He’s a monster.”

Cain continues to maintain the allegations are part of a “smear campaign” engineered by his opponents for the GOP presidential nomination.

Bialek, however, says she is a registered Republican with no ax to grind. When she went ot Washington in 1007, Cain upgraded her hotel room to a suite without asking her fist and then began making advances at dinner.

“He suddenly reached over an dput his hand on my leg under my skirt and reached for my genitals,” she said. Then he tried to push her head towards his crotch, an obvious push for oral sex.

Adds Bailek:

I was very very surprised and very shocked, I want you, Mr. Cain, to come clean. Just admit what you did. Admit you were inappropriate to people. I implore you. Make this right.

The Cain campaign Monday issued its standard denial, saying “All allegations of harassment against Mr. Cain are completely false. Mr. Cain has never harassed anyone.”

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain speaks after meeting with doctors attending the Docs4PatientCare conference in Alexandria, Va., Wednesday.. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

A sexual harassment tsunami is threatening to swamp the Herman Cain campaign ship as a third worker at the National Restaurant Association is claiming the GOP presidential contender displayed aggressive and inappropriate behavior towards her while Cain served as president of the trade association.

The employee contacted The Associated Press Wednesday with her story and follows Capitol Hill Blue’s disclosure Tuesday that Cain has a long and sordid history of sexually harassing female employees not only at the restaurant trade group but also at other companies he ran.

The new complaint comes from a woman who said she did not file a formal complaint because she knew of the charges filed by two other female employees and felt she did not need to file.  If the other complaints had not been filed she would have done so, the woman told the AP.

Cain, she said, invited her to join him for a drink at his corporate apartment after work.

The Cain campaign is denying the new charges and claiming the story was a plant by GOP rival Rick Perry.  Perry says it wasn’t him and suggested it might have been Mitt Romney’s campaign that planted the story.

Cain’s frequently shifting story about the sexual harassment charges have plunged his campaign in defense mode and is helping fuel a sex scandal that is growing daily.

Related articles

• Cain has long history of sexual harassment (capitolhillblue.com)

Herman Cain: Who, me?

GOP Presidential contender Herman Cain has a long and sordid history of sexually-harassing women — a record that began well before his tenure as president of the National Restaurant Association and one that continued long after he left.

“He’s a lecherous man who sees women as sexual objects,” one former staff member of the restaurant trade group tells Capitol Hill Blue.  “He preys on women.”

Cain, under fire after Politico uncovered sexual harassment complaints against Cain, backtracked Monday and admitted that he “recalled” at least one financial settlement with a female employee of the restaurant association during his tenure as president in the 1990s.  Legal records show at least two such settlements while Cain served as president of the trade association.

“He was always making suggestive comments or brushing up against women,” says the former employee, who asked not to be identified.  “He’s a dirty old man.”

Capitol Hill Blue has also talked with former former employees of Godfathers Pizza, Cain’s food chain where he served as CEO, who said he “came on to women all the time.”

“You did not want to be alone in a room with him,” says one former female employee.

Faced with the accusations, Cain has shifted from stonewalling to denial to admission.  On Sunday, he refused to answer a question from a reporter on whether or not he had ever been charged with sexual harassment by firing back: “Have you ever been charged with sexual harassment?”  Then he said he didn’t “remember” any settlement with female employees.

Then the story shifted again.  On PBS Monday, Cain said:

I was aware that an agreement was reached. The word ‘settlement’ versus the word ‘agreement’ you know, I’m not sure what they called it. I know that there was some sort of agreement, but because it ended up being minimal, they didn’t have to bring it to me. My general counsel and the head of human resources had the authority to resolve this thing.

Later, on Fox News, he claimed the “agreement” was part of a “termination” of an employee of the group.

Settlement, agreement or whatever, Cain’s behavior around women has long been questionable but the businessman has had the resources and legal talent around him to keep his actions quiet.

A number of female employees left Godfathers Pizza with large “severance packages” after they signed non-disclosure agreements to not discuss his behavior and female employees have come and gone from the Cain campaign after encounters with the candidate.

“He’s a sexual predator,” says one former campaign staffer. “Herman Cain is a dangerous man.”

Related articles

• Cain avoids direct denial of sexual harassment reports (capitolhillblue.com)
• Cain: Many Voters Won’t Be ‘Turned Off’ by Sexual Harassment Claims (crooksandliars.com)
• Cain confirms reports of sexual harassment claims – USA Today (news.google.com)
• Herman Cain offers conflicting responses to sexual harassment allegations (csmonitor.com)
• Herman Cain sexual harassment update (americablog.com)
• For Herman Cain, It’s All A Bit Hazy (huffingtonpost.com)

Herman Cain

Republican presidential insiders continue to watch former Godfathers Pizza CEO Herman Cain while waiting and hoping he will self-destruct like other flash-in-the-pan GOP presidential contenders.

How, the wonder, can a man with limited political experience, an ethically-challenged campaign chairman and constantly shifting positions even be in contention for the nomination.

But it has been that kind of political season and the GOP political pros tell Capitol Hill Blue that they are worried.

“Herman Cain is a symbol for where this party is headed,” says one veteran GOP political consultant, who asked not to be identified.  “He represents the kind of chaos that has gripped the nation and the Republican party.”

Another is furious.

“We have a shot at Obama,” he says. “But Herman Cain is not the man to do it.”

In normal political times, a novice with as many skeletons as Cain would be dismissed quickly by the pundits and the voters.

These, however, are far from normal political times.  The same political environment has propelled flakes like Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann into campaign celebrities along with firebrand Rick Perry, whose came and went as a frontrunner in the blink of an eye.

Yet all the hoopla surrounding earlier frontrunners and now Cain overlooks one simple fact: Not one vote has yet been case in a single primary.  The voters have not spoken and voters are a fickle bunch.

At this point in earlier GOP campaign seasons, lawyer-turned-actor-turned Senator-turned actor Fred Thompson led many polls as the Republican pretender to the Presidential throne.

Fred who?

Exactly.

At this point in earlier campaign seasons, Rudy Guiliani was the man to beat.

Rudi who?

The prosecution rests.

Republicans are so desperate for a candidate to beat Barack Obama that they are willing to consider anyone — literally anyone — as a candidate.

Perhaps they think it will take a black candidate to defeat a black president — even a black multimillionaire with strong ties to the right-wing cabal run by the billionaire Koch brothers.

Like the tea party, Cain is not what he seems and that fact alone should be enough to scare most voters who tried the unknown with Obama in 2008 and now suffer buyers’ remorse.

Republicans not only want an alternative to Obama they appear to want one to former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the presumed front-runner to many.

Romney may win the nomination but let’s remember that the voters have the final say and they have not yet spoken.

Until they do, all this speculation, fret and worry is little more than hyperbole.

Related articles

• Is Herman Cain ready for the big leagues? (capitolhillblue.com)
• Obama’s nightmare: Romney as the GOP nominee (capitolhillblue.com)
• Who’s the GOP frontrunner? That depends (capitolhillblue.com)