Jon Stewart opened tonight's Daily Show with a recap of the latest developments in Herman Cain's sexual harassment scandal, including the news that a fourth accuser had come forward to tell her story. Cain, of course, stuck to his "Blame the media" narrative." But as Stewart then explained, it's hard to make a point when the truth—unlike Fox News—isn't on your side.
Now that we've gotten Howard Kurtz out of the way, it's time to check in on America's other top arbiter of all things important, Rush Limbaugh, to see how he responded to Sharon Bialek's accusations of unwanted sexual advances (or assault) from Herman Cain. Limbaugh chose to focus on the pronunciation of her name: "Gloria Allred says her name is 'BI-uh-lick,' as in [SLURP SLURP] 'Buy-a-lick.'" Clear your schedules, everyone! It's going to be a fun week.
Joel Bennett, the attorney for one of the woman who accused Herman Cain of sexual harassment while he was CEO of the National Restaurant Association, says that a second woman contacted him to explore the possibility of suing Cain on similar grounds before deciding against it.
Americans for Prosperity, the conservative group f(o)unded by that cartoonish industrial tycoon tandem known as the Koch brothers, is having a little conference in Washington this weekend called "Defending the American Dream." Herman Cain, whose campaign is essentially a wing of Americans for Prosperity, gave a big speech there today! Did he try to play down his Koch ties? Not exactly. "'I am the Koch brothers' brother from another mother!" he blared out, twice. American Dream = Defended.
It's a frustrating day for pundits! The political world just wants to see Herman Cain's rapid, painful demise, right now, so we can get on with the business of a "Gingrich surge," which can then be brought to its own rapid, painful demise, leading us to the eventual acceptance of Mitt Romney.
In a brand-new blockbuster ad—titled "High Tech Lynching," in a nod to legendary American victim-of-libruls Clarence Thomas—supporters of Ann Coulter Academy of Superior Blackness graduate Herman Cain rail against all the imaginary sexual harassment allegations their man has been facing in the wake of lying litigant-to-be(?) Politico's lie-filled reports.
On tonight's Report, Stephen Colbert sifted through the latest developments in Herman Cain's sexual harassment scandal, including claims by Rush Limbaugh that the whole thing is nothing more than a racist attack on Cain perpetrated by bigoted liberals. Because Limbaugh would never say anything racist! Except that he would, and—as Colbert then demonstrated—has.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg addressed an international economic forum at Columbia University on Thursday, during which he sounded off against certain, nameless, intellectually substandard presidential candidates who claim not to believe in things like the theory of evolution and global warming.
For the past week, American's finest news institutions—those self-identified defenders of journalistic propriety against the teeming online hordes—have been tripping over themselves to publish vague, contextless, detail-free, anonymous accusations about the sex life of presidential candidate. Hey, that's our job!
When Jon Stewart covered Herman Cain's sexual harassment scandal on Monday's Daily Show, the story was in its infancy. As media coverage of the allegations spread, so did the number of inconsistencies in Cain's story, and tonight Stewart took a look at the GOP presidential candidate's ever-evolving statements on the scandal.
Who leaked the Herman Cain sexual harassment allegations? isn't just Encyclopedia Brown's worst book—it's also a question that incredibly annoying people are asking, right now! Cain's living-comedy-skit campaign manager Mark Block was just on Fox News accusing the Perry campaign, in his characteristic "intense neighbor reads demands to police while keeping family hostage" way. (See above video.) Yet the Perry campaign denies Block's accusations, and suggests that the Romney campaign is the true culprit. A shocking twist! Cut to commercial! But, okay, who's the real culprit? Why not Herman Cain himself? After all, the allegations launched the guy into his biggest 24-hour fundraising stretch. So, him or Bugs Meany. [Fox News, CBS]
A third woman has accused Herman Cain of "what she considered aggressive and unwanted behavior by Herman Cain" when she worked at the Herman Cain-led National Restaurant Association in the 1990s.
It didn't take long for many writers who veer towards the "right wing" of the political spectrum to formulate their consensus response to Herman Cain's still-vague history of alleged sexual harassment, and sexual harassment claims in general: Lighten up, sweetheart! But few have had the guts to put it in such brazen terms as crabby old paleocon John Derbyshire, of the National Review. Let us celebrate "Derb" on his momentous day of social commentary.
The morning muppets on today's episode of Fox News' illiterate dementia variety hour, Fox & Friends, had much to discuss. Well, really only Herman Cain.
Over the weekend, we learned that Herman Cain faced accusations of sexual harassment while heading the National Restaurant Association in the '90s. We also saw video of a possibly inebriated (and pretty fey) Rick Perry delivering a bizarre speech in New Hampshire. On tonight's Daily Show, Jon Stewart poked fun at both Cain and Perry as he weighed what effect these mishaps will have on their presidential aspirations. And while it's still too early to know for sure, there was one thing of which Stewart was certain: "Mitt Romney is the luckiest Motherfudger on Earth."
