Cain’s lawyer: 13-yr affair should be off-limits
By Josh Richman
Monday, November 28th, 2011 at 4:02 pm in 2012 presidential election.
Atlanta’s Fox 5 News today broke the story of a Georgia woman who claims she had a 13-year extramarital affair with Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain. The station reported that Cain’s attorney, Len Wood, sent the following statement:
“Mr. Cain has been informed today that your television station plans to broadcast a story this evening in which a female will make an accusation that she engaged in a 13-year long physical relationship with Mr. Cain. This is not an accusation of harassment in the workplace – this is not an accusation of an assault – which are subject matters of legitimate inquiry to a political candidate.
“Rather, this appears to be an accusation of private, alleged consensual conduct between adults – a subject matter which is not a proper subject of inquiry by the media or the public. No individual, whether a private citizen, a candidate for public office or a public official, should be questioned about his or her private sexual life. The public’s right to know and the media’s right to report has boundaries and most certainly those boundaries end outside of one’s bedroom door.”
“Mr. Cain has alerted his wife to this new accusation and discussed it with her. He has no obligation to discuss these types of accusations publicly with the media and he will not do so even if his principled position is viewed unfavorably by members of the media.”
Really? “Not a proper subject of inquiry by the media or the public? Nobody, including those in public life, “should be questioned about his or her private sexual life?” I guess Wood and Cain weren’t reading the news around the time that this alleged affair began 13 years ago.
And I’m sure the names Larry Craig, Anthony Weiner, Chris Lee, John Ensign and David Wu don’t mean anything to them, either.
Well, I guess at least ascendant GOP candidate Newt Gingrich welcomes news of Cain’s extramarital affair… oh, wait, never mind.
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November 28th, 2011 at 4:43 pm
Billy Jeff was impeached for perjury and obstructing justice.
This applies to Cain how?
November 28th, 2011 at 5:00 pm
By Cain’s logic, Clinton never should’ve been questioned in the first place about Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky; I doubt that most in his party agree.
November 28th, 2011 at 5:11 pm
Let’s not forget Gary Hart, either!
November 28th, 2011 at 5:12 pm
Lisa, I was just keeping it to the last 13 years; if we go back further, this post would’ve gone on and on and on…
November 28th, 2011 at 5:14 pm
@ Josh
Yes, but Billy Jeff WAS asked and he lied.
He was impeached for lying, not playing hide the weenie with Monica Lewinsky.
November 28th, 2011 at 5:18 pm
I guess I have dated myself!
November 28th, 2011 at 5:27 pm
I frankly don’t give a flyin’ craperoo about the sex lives of the candidates. I am not voting for Devoted Spouse of the Year. FDR and LBJ were adulterers; Hayes and Carter were not. Which leaders achieved more?
November 28th, 2011 at 6:33 pm
Herm is not-ready-for-prime-time, he’s got a sloppy personal life, his candidacy is fading in the west, the east, the north, and the south. And we haven’t even got into his skimpy knowledge of international affairs. Finally, the company he was CEO of makes terrible Pizza – for this alone voters should reject his goofball candidacy.
November 28th, 2011 at 7:56 pm
Cain and his attorney need to get their messages coordinated. The attorney all but acknowledges the affair but says it’s nobody’s business. Cain flat out denies it. I prefer the days of JFK, when the press didn’t bother with this stuff. However, if a married politician is foolin’ around, he ought to lay off on the sanctimonious “sanctimony of marriage” crap.
November 28th, 2011 at 9:03 pm
John W: What do you mean? Isn’t a marriage between a man and a woman and his mistresses?