Dear Commons Community,

Herman Cain, the leader in the Republican nomination for the presidency, acknowledged Monday that he was accused of sexual harassment while chief of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s, but he denied any wrongdoing.

The allegations against Mr. Cain were reported on Sunday night by Politico, which detailed separate incidents between Mr. Cain and two women on the Association staff.  The incidents, it said, included “conversations allegedly filled with innuendo or personal questions of a sexually suggestive nature.”

The NY Times reported inconsistencies in Cain’s responses to the allegations as follows:

“Mr. Cain’s shifting explanations and the gaps in the story made it hard to determine the impact of the revelations on his long-term prospects in states like Iowa, whose crucial caucuses are just two months away.

In the early afternoon, Mr. Cain told a gathering at the National Press Club in Washington that “I am unaware of any sort of settlement” related to harassment accusations, which he called “a witch hunt.” But in an interview with Greta Van Susteren of the Fox News Channel shown Monday night, he acknowledged that in at least one case “there was some sort of settlement or termination,” worth “maybe three months’ salary.”

It sounds like the Republicans are having a “Houston We Have a Problem” moment.

Tony