Shots in the Dark

I had dinner last night with a friend who is Republican, and as one does, we got to talking about Herman Cain. I’ve alternately been amused, outraged and depressed about the sexual harassment scandal surrounding Cain. My offense comes not just from the incidents themselves; mostly, we don’t even know what they are yet. (With the exception of yesterday’s disclosures.)

It’s more a result of the various reactions: blaming the media (what, the press shouldn’t report that a guy who’s running for president on the basis of being a successful executive has four women claiming they sexually harassed him?).

Blaming Democrats, who don’t seem to have had a thing to do with this and have generally been steering clear of saying word one about it.

Blaming other Republicans, as Cain did, without even mentioning that just hours before he was blaming the Democrats. (And then, hours later, retracting that allegation.)

Blaming anonymous sources when you have the power to say, “Forget your non-disclosure agreement, come on out and identify yourself.”

Blaming Democratic racism—never mind the man in the Oval Office.

Yesterday Cain responded to Sharon Bialek’s accusations by saying, “All of this is totally fabricated.”

It’s such an obvious lie—what, four different women all decided to come up with the same story? Because it’s such a life-enhancing joy to accuse a presidential candidate of sexual harassment?—that it makes me believe the converse: It’s all true, and probably worse than we think. Cain is either in denial, or he’s betting that it’s a she said-he said situation, despite the fact that Bialek told two other people about the incident at the time.

So, as I said to my friend at dinner, why are so many Republicans doubling-down on Herman Cain, rushing to his defense rather than taking a wait-and-see attitude? My sense is it’s another extension of the us-vs.-them mentality that’s defined the party in recent years. Anything you’re for, we’re against.

Which means that, when Herman Cain implodes—women who’ve been sexually harassed don’t like being called liars—it’s going to hurt the GOP far more than it needed to. And that will probably lead to an angrier, uglier campaign next fall.

Underneath all this, of course, is a larger question: Why on earth is Herman Cain leading in the polls? The man ran a pizza business and a regressive lobbying group. How does this make him remotely qualified to run for president? He doesn’t know a thing about foreign policy, his tax plan is a joke, and he has absolutely no record of public service. The stature gap between him and Barack Obama is immeasurable.

There are plenty of legitimate criticisms that an opposition party could make of Barack Obama. But what America is watching now is a party that has defined dysfunctionality as opposition, and now blames everyone but itself.

Anyway, might as well find a little humor in all this.