Herman Cain blames Perry camp for feuling sexual harassment allegations

Herman Cain’s campaign faced more uncomfortable questions about the businessman’s past with women as a third woman who had worked for the National Restaurant Association claimed to have been harassed. As Karen Tumulty and Krissah Thompson reported:

Former restaurant executive Herman Cain faced a new set of sexual harassment allegations Wednesday, with a report that a third former employee had described unwanted, sexually aggressive behavior from him and a Republican pollster saying he had witnessed at least two such incidents.

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The GOP’s new ‘it man’: Presidential candidate Herman Cain was at ease in the spotlight as dozens of reporters and hundreds of supporters squeezed in amid the oversized shopping carts and towering shelves to catch a glimpse of the GOP's new “it man.” He cracked jokes with reporters, grasped the hands of well-wishers and posed for pictures with babies. "Herman, we want you to go all the way!" one man called out. "With your help, I can do it!" he replied. He then departed to speak at the Values Voters Summit in Washington. — Washington Post photographer Melina Mara

Cain continued to deny the charges. Speaking to the Northern Virginia Technology Council, he ascribed the reports to “factions that are trying to destroy me personally as well as destroy this campaign.” And he indicated he believes that the rival campaign of Texas Gov. Rick Perry is fueling them — an accusation that a Perry spokesman denied.

Just about the only thing that was becoming clearer as the controversy headed into its fourth day was that it is not going to go away anytime soon.

The third accuser is an unidentified woman who told the Associated Press that she had considered filing a workplace complaint against Cain for what the news service described as “sexually suggestive remarks or gestures” when she was working at the National Restaurant Association and he was the head of the group.

The alleged misbehavior occurred about the same time that two co-workers settled separate harassment complaints against Cain, each reportedly for five figures.

Meanwhile, pollster Chris Wilson — who said he polled for the National Restaurant Association during Cain’s tenure, and whose firm has more recently done work for an outside super PAC supporting Perry — told Oklahoma radio station KTOK that he had witnessed harassment by Cain toward a very low-level staffer who was maybe two years out of college.

“I was around a couple of times when this happened, and anyone who was involved with the NRA at the time knew that this was going to come up,” Wilson told interviewer Reid Mullins.

The restaurant association has not commented on the specifics of the allegations, citing confidentiality agreements that it had signed with the two original accusers.

As Dana Milbank wrote, Herman Cain has gone from the rising star of the GOP presidential primary to embattled candidate in a few short days:

The Hermanator is now the hunted.

Herman Cain, the long-shot Republican presidential candidate turned frontrunner, has done just about everything wrong since news broke Sunday night that his former employer had paid two women to settle sexual harassment complaints against him.

Cain denied it. He said the women didn’t understand his humor. He said his accusers fabricated the charges. He said he couldn’t remember the details, then suddenly he could. He said he had no knowledge of the settlement, then suddenly recalled some details, which turned out to be vastly understated. He publicly predicted more allegations would surface. He blamed his opponents, he howled about racism, and he accused the media and the entire city of Washington of trying to do him in.