Maybe not for men, but for women harassment charges are serious business, or so I had thought. In last night’s CNBC presidential debate, the GOP crowd booed when the moderator asked a question about the allegations against Cain. And as a woman, I was more than a little troubled to learn of the increase in campaign donations to Cain when the scandal broke. Hadn’t we come a long way, baby? Since this controversy hit the press a week ago, two women have come forward, and still Cain is running second to rival Mitt Romney.

Et tu, GOP woman?

According to a recent article, Republican women have been forgiving, dismissive even, of the controversy surrounding Cain, according to poll released this week by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. The survey, in the field from Nov. 3-6 – before two women made their accusations public – indicates that 24 percent of Republican women believe the allegations against Cain are true, 46 percent said they are false, and 30 percent don’t know. Democratic women had the reverse reaction; 54 percent said the stories are true, 12 said false, and 34 percent said they don’t know.”

Does a Leopard Change it’s Spots?

According to Reuters, “Cain raised some eyebrows in the debate when he described former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as ‘Princess Nancy’, a remark he later said he regretted.”  Would House Speaker John Boehner ever be referred to in such equally sexist tones? 

“Since the 1980 presidential contest, Republicans have experienced a women deficit; a greater proportion of women than men have backed the Democratic candidate, according to data culled by the Center for American Women and Politics, part of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.” If news of this story continues, hopefully women Republicans will start looking for another candidate to back just on this one issue alone. No is no, especially at the workplace. 

“Nit-Picking?”

The news media is not “nit-picking” by bringing this issue forth as Cain protests.  Nor is it a “high tech lynching” because or race. Anyone who runs for president will be vetted by the media for any skeletons in their closet.  If Cain wasn’t prepared for this issue to come forward, as he had to know it would, then what else won’t he be prepared for? This is politics 101. Didn’t anyone learn a think from John Edwards? Or does the narcissism run just that deep in men running for POTUS?

What About the Women?

Let us remember that as much as 70% of women will have experienced some form of sexual harassment on the job.  And the “quid pro quo” type, that one Cain accuser spoke of is not uncommon.  So why does he get a pass?  These are not stupid women.  Karen Kraushaar is spokeswoman for the inspector general’s office in the U.S. Treasury Department. 

Lawyer for Kraushaar, Joel Bennet told the Daily News, “I have read my clients’ written complaint… the incidents were not about how tall she was or that she was wearing a nice dress or anything along those lines. It was sexual harassment, not something innocent or something that could have been misconstrued.” He added that they were not “minor” charges either, “My client is an intelligent, well-educated woman who knows the difference between a compliment and sexual harassment.” Kraushaar’s complaint was settled for $45,000 at the National Restaurant Association. One question to ask yourself is – do big companies or associations settle easily without evidence? Seems to me they don’t even settle easily when there are mountains of evidence.

Sharon Bialek, the first to step forward, possesses affidavits from two of the people she reported the incident to when it happened but she had no recourse because at the time of the alleged incident. She no longer worked at the National Restaurant Association, but was meeting with Cain, then president of the association, to ask for help finding a job.

Here Cain has been caught in a few lies in his story saying he had seen Bialek “for the very first time” when she announced the allegations in a press conference with lawyer Gloria Allred. The only problem is a Chicago radio host, Amy Jacobson, saw them “hugging” and talking a month ago at a Tea Party event. Cain also lied to ABC’s Jonathan Karl saying, “I don’t even know who this lady is.” Karl replied by asking, “You don’t remember having drinks with her back in ’97, you don’t remember giving her a ride in your car?” Cain replied, “Absolutely not.” With Bialek the allegation are physical in nature and unmistakably sexual harassment. 

As the two women who have come forward have their lives scrutinized and denegraded by the GOP and Cain and his lawyers, can you blame the other two women for remaining anonymous? One of them received a five-figure settlement. We may never know the complete truth here, but I think it is interesting that the NRA was so cooperative in allowing the women to be released from their confidentiality agreements. Afterall, they are the ones that paid the cash settlements for Cain’s alleged mistakes. Maybe they have their own ax to grind too.