Will Herman Cain survive the scandal?

“I think he’s getting bad advice, probably because they didn’t know what was coming their way,” said a top Iowa supporter, Pottawattamie County Republican Chairman Jeff Jorgensen. “They’re behind the eight ball, and maybe not as organized as they should be.”

But Jorgensen allowed that what looks like a disaster to political veterans such as himself could prove to be an affirmation of why so many Republicans liked Cain in the first place.

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Herman Cain defended himself anew and, without evidence, blamed presidential rival Rick Perry's campaign of being behind the disclosure of years-old sexual harassment allegations against him.

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A third former employee says she considered filing a workplace complaint over what she considered aggressive and unwanted behavior by Republican candidate Herman Cain when she worked for the presidential candidate in the 1990s.

“Herman is new to this game, is not a polished politician, which really is what draws a lot of people to his campaign,” he said. “If you had a polished response and had your Ps and Qs and ducks lined up in a row and deniability and all of that — a lot of politicians follow that routine.”

The political climate may have altered the old rules as well.

“People expect presidential politics to be rough-and-tumble, but times are different, and so are the circumstances of this campaign,” former senator Fred D. Thompson (R-Tenn.) wrote in the conservative National Review Online. “Republicans are looking for someone to believe in. They won’t all vote for Herman Cain, but right now, he symbolizes something they want to protect. Try to take him down at your peril.”

Indeed, so intense is the backdraft from the revelations that no one wants to be caught with fire-starter on his hands. After Cain accused operatives of his rival Rick Perry of leaking the story, the Texas governor’s campaign denied any connection — and pointed to possible links between the National Restaurant Association and the presidential campaign of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. That campaign also insisted it had nothing to do with it.

Some of Cain’s more seasoned supporters are urging him to stay clear of the superheated Beltway and start making more appearances nationwide, perhaps at tea party rallies, to stoke his supporters.

But — typically, they are learning — Cain is insisting on doing things, including managing his schedule, his own way.

On Thursday, he met privately in New York with former secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger. But on Friday, he is scheduled to be back in Washington, appearing at the Defending the American Dream Summit, sponsored by the conservative organization Americans for Prosperity. And on Monday, Cain is planning to appear on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

Cain’s campaign is also pondering a counterattack on the news organization that broke the story. “This is likely not over with Politico from a legal perspective,” an official said.

In one nod to conventionality, Cain has hired a lawyer to advise him on crisis management; the campaign, however, declined to identify who that is.