11/01/2011
In the wake of a report in the Politico’s report that Herman Cain was accused of sexual harassment and five figure settlements with two of his accusers, the reaction of the conservative movement has been to accuse the mainstream media of racism for daring to make these accusations. Rush Limbaugh accused the Politico of using the “ugliest racial stereotypes” to attack a black conservative, saying the allegations are "unconscionable racially charged attack". He went on to say that they may have well published a cartoon with him with big lips eating watermelon. Limbaugh argues that liberals must destroy “uppity” minority conservatives like him and Marco Rubio through false accusations. Ann Coulter said that “They are terrified of strong, conservative, black men.”
I could go on and on. Despite all these attacks on The Politico, Cain has admitted that there were these lawsuits and that there were cash settlements. The Politico never stated anything more than that.
A good case can be made that the media would not jump on this story if it involved a Democrat, but nonetheless, the idea that factually reporting on allegations made against Cain is somehow racist is beyond me. Reading the Politico article, I don’t see a single mention of Cain’s race nor the race of his accusers. The fact that every single conservative defender of Cain suggests to me that his rise to the top of the GOP field is indeed largely based not only on the idea of proving you’re not racist, but also of being able to accuse the Left of being racist whenever they criticize Cain. Unfortunately, this never works. Regardless of whether or not these allegations pan out, Limbaugh, Coulter, and other Cain boosters who should know better did themselves a disservice by making baseless accusations of racism.
And on a side note, this incident highlights an even more troubling aspect of Cain’s past: the fact that he was CEO of the National Restaurant Association, one of the foremost pro-amnesty cheap labor lobbyists in America, to begin with.
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