Zombie Allegation Against Herman Cain Hopes Gloria Allred Can Give It Brains

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by Smitty

Via Drudge, Radar Online reports that Gloria Allred will lend her considerable legal credibility to the search for the first substantial allegation against Herman Cain:

A new woman alleging sexual harassment by presidential hopeful Herman Cain will break her silence at a news conference with her powerhouse attorney Gloria Allred Monday afternoon in New York City, RadarOnline.com is exclusively reporting.
The embattled GOP nominee has admitted that several women who worked at the National Restaurant Association during his tenure as president of the organization received settlements. Politico has reported that the settlements were given because of sexual harassment allegations.

It would nearly be a relief if something other than rent seeking went on and the National Restaurant Association. Unfortunately, it appears to have been rent seeking then, and rent seeking now, with a political twist.

Helen Thomas could not be reached for comment. One hopes that does not mean she is the accuser.

Expect that this story will absorb a few more rounds from the ol’ pump action before it stays down.

Update: Now a Memeorandum thread. Michelle Malkin has more, asking:

Exit question: Is the addition of ambulance-chaser Allred more boon than bane to Cain?

Well, it’s a bane in the sense that the media will re-inflate the flatus fable bubble. However, it’s a boon in the sense that, the longer the factual vacuum goes on, the more it appears that the women who brought allegations forward at NRA were rent seekers.

It would also be cool if we could find a way to strike a blow against the Bogus Lawsuit Industry. We must pursue justice and try to minimize the market for frivolous allegations, which these certainly appear to be.

Update II: Hot Air offers some background on the all-wet Allred. Peanut salesmen at the press conference will rejoice at the fine circus.

Update III: Linked by Don Surber and Daily Pundit.

31 comments

  2. Well, ya gotta admit, if Cain had just came right out and said…yes, there were a couple of allegations of sexual harassment, but they were proven baseless, instead of hemming and hawing around it, he probably wouldn’t be having to answer these questions anymore.

    In other words, he has hurt his credibility. 

  5. Smitty, are you alleging that it’s only “rent seeking [goes] on at the NRA?”  Sorry, I’m having trouble putting that paragraph into this post.  Do you mean that the women are / were rent seeking, or that the NRA is rent seeking?

    I mean, I assume that there’s always a certain amount of that at a lobbying association.  I’m not familiar enough with the NRA to know, but I know I’ve heard Cain talk about wanting to do stuff like aggregate restaurants for health plans.  But if the main purpose really is rent seeking, wouldn’t that be a negative for Cain’s primary campaign?

  6. scarymatt,

    Good question. I did a run-through of various public sources on the NRA when this whole Cain story started to break, and I didn’t see a lot of facial evidence of rent-seeking. The NRA seems to be more along the lines of a lobby against government impositions on restaurateurs. Of course, I’m prepared to be proven wrong on that, and either way, yes, it is something to consider when evaluating Cain.

    I was wondering when that waah-mbulance chaser Allred would show up to milk this thing.

  7. Gloria Allred is the perfect symbol of everything that’s wrong with the women’s rights movement. As a lawyer she is both its staunchest advocate, and its greatest beneficiary.

  13. Smitty:  If these allegations remain vague, sensationalized, and partisan he is not hurt by them (here are two stories on that topic).   http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/6/curl-politico-and-the-cain-story-that-wasnt/

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyharnden/100115731/american-way-a-funny-thing-happened-on-the-way-to-the-herman-cain-lynching/

    And given Cain is up in Iowa by 15 after this story broke…that seems to be the case.  Cain, at least so far, is not hurt by this story. 

     I will predict this:   If it comes off that he is lying about them and the women are credible, then he will be hurt by it.  Certainly Cain has lost Dan Riehl. 

    Right now the accusations have been of the former (not credible).  And that this latest accusation is being marched out by Gloria All-Red is not making me think differently. 

  14. Does she even litigate cases?  How does she get paid for doing press conferences?  Or is this some sort of free publicity/loss leader for her legal practice? 

  15. How does she make money off stale accusations such as Herman Cain is facing?  She can’t sue.    I am assuming she takes on whatever crazy ass issue is out there, gets free publicity, and then gets a bunch of lower level cases that she settles for nuisance value (with the rather overt threat of breaking out one of her red dresses and calling a press conference)

  16. Herman Cain sexually harassed me years ago.  I mean, I was paid for it and all, and time has gone by and I now have a chance to make some 15-minutes of fame notoriety, but he did sexually harass me, nonetheless.  No, I can’t really PROVE it, per se, but he did it.  I prefer to remain anonymous, if you don’t mind.  Just remember that Herman Cain is a sexually harassing kind of guy, and that’s all you need to know.  Haven’t you been keeping up with Politico?  They have all the facts.

    Brought to you by the official “Herman Cain is a Sexual Harasser Coalition of America”.

  17. I think cases like this she takes on contingent, then if she can arrange a book deal or some kind of payment from a magazine she gets so much out of it, and of course more if there’s any potential lawsuit. My guess is she’s looking more at the possibility of suing the NRA than she is Cain, and in the meantime there’s probably nothing she’d like better than to destroy Cain in the process.

  22. She does litigate cases, but I suspect that some of this higher-profile stuff that isn’t likely to produce either litigation or a settlement is her equivalent of renting billboards. It gets her on TV and in the papers, making her the national go-to lawyer for “women’s issues.”

  27. Credible women don’t hire Goria Allred, she actually said on TV that Tiger Woods owed one of the trollops an apology because Tiger had broken her heart.

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