Updated 6:25 PM
The emergence of detailed — and shocking — accusations of sexual abuse by Herman Cain from Sharon Bialek represents uncharted new territory for his scandal. Up to this point few details existed at all on the events that led to two sexual harassment settlements. In their absence, many conservative commentators had written off any wrongdoing from Cain by taking the candidate’s word that whatever happened must have been a simple misunderstanding or some kind of PC overreaction.
The latter half of this video has some pretty representative views from FOX News, where these “humorless women in the workplace” arguments were endemic across numerous shows:
But now Cain can’t hide behind vague, anonymous accusations — there’s a face, a name, and a very detailed and far worse than anticipated story to handle. Conservative thought leaders are taking some time to re-evaluate how they want to play this. Michelle Malkin, for example, sounded a skeptical note as to whether Bialek was looking to profit from the scandal, but said that she was reserving judgement as to whether or not her story was true.
So Bialek is single with a teenage child, with no discernible means of income, and employing a top Democrat hit woman celebrity attorney and her employment law partner.
Hm.
Twittersphere is lighting up with diverse reaction from conservatives. Some find Bialek “very credible.” More obituaries being written for Cain.
I need to know more.
Nonetheless Bialek is likely in for some brutal treatment from conservative media this week. Rush Limbaugh went right into shock-jock mode, joking that BIalek’s name was pronounced “Buy a lick” and then making slurping noises. Fellow radio host Laura Ingraham said on Twitter that there were “racial overtones” to Bialek attorney Gloria Allred’s statement and challenged Bialek to answer questions from the press.
Sean Hannity offered up one of the most aggressive attacks on Bialek’s credibility on his radio show on Monday, blaming the entire story on liberals looking to undermine GOP efforts to reach out to black voters.
“There’s nothing here,” he said of the Bialek story. “The lady didn’t even work for the company.”
It wasn’t immediately clear why that would make a difference, but that was his line.
Still, other outlets at least took her story enough to look into some of the details and confirm them. Big Government, Andrew Breitbart’s conservative blog, said they talked to a source who backed up Bialek’s claim that she was a registered Republican who had attended a Tea Party conference were Cain was a speaker just this year.
