Herman Cain’s Lawyer and Ginger White’s Phone Records Sealed the Deal—Cain Should Withdraw

Most or even all of the sexual harassment claims against Herman Cain were, in the view of many voters, completely contrived, or brazenly embellished by Democrat operatives, and published by their allies in the media. This perceived effort served both to discredit the candidate and to hog-tie Cain’s campaign into consuming campaign time and effort to address the claims.

The clear goal was to destroy a Republican Presidential contender who just happened to be black, conservative, successful and popular—a combination that the alliance of the legacy media, liberals and Democrats simply cannot bear.

Herman Cain did not deserve the “guilty because accused” verdict the liberal media attached to him, and voters could smell a conspiracy to take him out of the race. Increased donations to his campaign signaled that voters around the country viewed the onslaught as a political maneuver. They were not willing to be maneuvered away from supporting Mr. Cain.

But Ginger White’s story is different.

When Fox News contacted Herman Cain’s campaign for a comment in response to the accusation made by Ginger White of her claimed 13-year romantic relationship with him, Cain’s lawyer nearly confessed for him. His statement to Fox was:

"…. This is not an accusation of harassment in the workplace – this is not an accusation of an assault - which are subject matters of legitimate inquiry to a political candidate.

Rather, this appears to be an accusation of private, alleged consensual conduct between adults - a subject matter which is not a proper subject of inquiry by the media or the public. No individual, whether a private citizen, a candidate for public office or a public official, should be questioned about his or her private sexual life.

The public's right to know and the media's right to report has boundaries and most certainly those boundaries end outside of one's bedroom door. 

 Mr. Cain …. has no obligation to discuss these types of accusations publicly with the media and he will not do so even if his principled position is viewed unfavorably by members of the media."

Translation: Ginger White just might be telling the truth, but it is none of the media’s or the public’s business.

And then there are Ginger White’s phone records. Again, from Fox:

“When we asked for any corroborating evidence, she pointed us to her cell phone contacts. One name: Herman Cain.

She showed us some of her cell phone bills that included 61 phone calls or text messages to or from a number starting with 678. She says it is Herman Cain's private cell phone….

We texted the number and Herman Cain called us back. He told us he "knew Ginger White" but said these are "more false allegations." He said she had his number because he was "trying to help her financially.”

It is hard to think of an innocent explanation for 61 phone calls and texts over four months from a married man to a woman who did not work for him, was not related to him and had no ongoing projects or professional associations with him. If there’s a plausible explanation, Herman Cain’s campaign needs to share it very shortly.

If the story of an illicit romance is true, the next question is whether the revelations will destroy Mr. Cain’s campaign.

The Republican Party is the one that actually admits that traditional marriage matters; we embrace the institution as an anchor for societal stability. Marital fidelity or infidelity may be a private matter so far as the law is concerned, but for many, it is still a measure of character.

Voters will forgive or discount improprieties from years long past, and reject unsubstantiated allegations of such improprieties, but this is fresh and recent, and already accompanied by his lawyer’s almost-admission, and by phone records that do not lie.

Voters and donors rallied around Cain after the harassment claims emerged, not because they think genuine harassment is acceptable, but because they rejected the legitimacy of those claims. If this allegation of a long-standing, recent consensual affair is seen as true, Republican voters will not likely dismiss it as they did the harassment claims.

Conservative voters will be inclined to jump off Cain’s ship, especially because the primaries have not started, the dye is not cast, and for conservatives who just cannot warm to Mitt Romney, the field still includes Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum.

Republicans recognize that the aforementioned legacy media/liberal/Democrat alliance that is salivating over Ginger White’s story will attack any strong conservative candidate, so we must be willing to stand with our candidate once he or she is chosen. We cannot back down the moment attacks arrive.

Cain supporters will argue that even if Ginger’s story is true, justice demands comparing his marital infidelity to the wrongs of the office holder he seeks to remove who is guilty of downright socialist conduct such as the national takeover of the healthcare system and his nationalization of auto companies, to name only a few of his destructive policies. But the question is not whether Obama should be removed, but rather who best should replace him. And in culling through our Republican slate, many will rightfully rate long-term marital infidelity as a character flaw that bears consideration.

Many conservatives, myself included, admire and respect Herman Cain. His non-political background, his faith in the free enterprise system, his open condemnation of our current President as a socialist, and the fact that he is living proof of the greatness of a country and an economic system that does in fact reward hard work and is open to all who strive to achieve—all of these are inspiring. He brings a genuine love of America and “American-ness” paradigm to his assessment of the issues.

But Mr. Cain’s most refreshing quality of political naiveté may also be his undoing. If the Ginger White story is true, only the most naïve of political contenders would have calculated that it could be kept secret, or that the public would either not believe it or else not care. These appear to be egregious miscalculations, and likely spell the end of his campaign for the Republican nomination.