Herman Cain paid to settle sex scandals with employees

31 Oct, 2011 18:17 / Updated 13 years ago

No real politician would be complete without a sex scandal and Herman Cain is no exception. His unconventional campaign clearly made him popular. Otherwise who would care that allegedly he was involved in inappropriate manner with his employees?

The former Godfather’s Pizza CEO and current GOP presidential frontrunner allegedly engaged in a sexually suggestive manner with two former female employees during his occupancy as head of the National Restaurant Association in the late 1990’s.“The women complained of sexually suggestive behavior that made them angry and uncomfortable,” and anonymous source told Politico.Some of the alleged “incidents” included conversations packed with innuendo and personal questions of a sexual nature. The alleged conversations took place in hotels during conferences and at other restaurant association events.Cain is no stranger to physical gestures, as any politician in a debate, and is also accused of displaying sexually physical gestures that made women who experienced or witnessed them uncomfortable.The complaints of the two females were silenced by signed agreements with the restaurant group and gave them a monetary payout in the five-figure range to cut ties with the association.According to Politico the agreement incorporated a sort of gag order verbiage that prohibited the women from speaking out about their severance.Jonathan Martin, of Politico, confronted the GOP presidential hopeful on the campaign trail and Cain refused to comment and went as far as to turn the tables on Martin by asking if Martin had ever been accused of sexual harassment himself.On Sunday night, Herman Cain’s campaign denied reports with an official statement:“Dredging up thinly sourced allegations…political trade press are now casting aspersions on his character and spreading rumors that never stood up the facts. Since Washington establishment critics haven’t had much luck in attacking Mr. Cain’s ideas to fix a bad economy and create jobs, they are trying to attack him in any way they can.”Maggie Haberman, one of the reporters who broke the story, said Cain’s campaign had 10 days to respond to the allegations and they refused to address the specifics of the allegations.Politico went public with the story after a half-dozen sources confirmed different portions of the complaints.His recent increase of popularity has only made the target on his back bigger than before.A recent poll in Iowa showed Mr. Cain had the support of 23 percent of the Republicans and Mitt Romney wasn’t far behind with 22 percent.Back in May, Caintold the Washington Examiner, “They’re going to come after me more viciously than they would a white candidate.”Many believe that these attacks will lead to a tossup for a new GOP frontrunner to emerge, but the Cain camp feels it will not affect his drive to the White House.“Sadly, we’ve seen this movie played out before – a prominent Conservative targeted by liberals simply because they disagree with his politics. Mr. Cain – and all Americans, deserve better”Only time will tell if pizzaman will deliver.