Cain's Accuser Won't Come Forward, Uninterested In Becoming Another Anita Hill

By Erin Gloria Ryan | November 3, 2011 | 6:40pm

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The woman who accused Herman Cain of sexual harassment while he was President of the National Restaurant Association (the more delicious NRA) has said, through her attorney, that she doesn’t want to publicly reveal her identity or discuss details of the alleged inappropriate actions because she doesn’t want to be publicly tarred and feathered for her statements. See, folks? Intimidation works!

The Times reports that while the Cain campaign’s been shooting its mouth off about the late 1990’s case (a gag order was issued, but whatevs), the woman behind the allegations says she wants to counter some of the Cain campaign’s allegations; namely, the ones that insist she’s off her rocker. However, she doesn’t plan to make a public statement about the case herself, nor does she want to go into too much detail. She’s an employee of the federal government now, and is concerned that if she comes forward, she’ll be scrutinized and made out to be a liar and that her career might be ruined. You know, like Anita Hill’s.

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To further drive the Herman Cain’s accuser=Anita Hill point home, conservative (and surprisingly crappy) blog The Daily Caller had Tea Party Drunk Dialer Ginni Thomas interview Cain this week. Subtle!

The accuser isn’t totally off base in being concerned about her career. After Oklahoma State University law professor Hill testified that then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had made her work environment pretty pubey and Long Dong intolerable when she worked for him, conservative lawmakers launched a crusade against the law professor. Supporters of Hill attempted to endow a professorship in Hill’s honor at Oklahoma State Law School, but Oklahoma lawmakers responded by telling Hill she should resign. They then attempted to pass legislation disallowing out-of-state donations to the law school, and when that failed, they tried to close down the entire law school. Hill eventually resigned. She’s been able to work elsewhere and is currently a member of the faculty at Brandeis.

Meanwhile, yet another woman who worked with Cain at the National Restaurant Association has reported that the candidate was slinging inappropriately spicy pizzas at work. According to the Associated Press, Cain invited her to his corporate apartment and acted generally lecherously toward her. The woman said she would have filed a complaint, but was having less contact with Cain as time went by. Plus, she found out that one of her female coworkers had already done so. Another former employee of Cain corroborated the “he’s a creep” narrative by saying Cain’s reputation and behavior were well known among employees.

Herman Cain responded to the allegations by laughing uncomfortably, getting angry, and then removing a napkin from his pocket and spending the next 10 minutes using it to dab sweat from his head while quietly repeating “Nine, nine, nine” under his breath.

Woman who accused Cain won’t go public, says lawyer [NYT]