Is Cain Scrutiny a 'high-tech lynching'?

November 11, 2011

By Ron HartVoters seem to be giving Herman Cain the benefit of the doubt about recently surfaced claims that he sexually harassed female workers while heading the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s.

He once told Mrs. Winners he liked her biscuits. If he had offended Aunt Jemima, it would have been easier to bring a racial discrimination suit. Either way, this is the fourth accusation Cain has punched on his card. Under Godfather's Pizza company policy, the fifth one is free.

The latest claimant is represented by the reprehensible Gloria Allred. If any lawyer can further tarnish the reputations of lawyers, she can. Nothing says you are "not in it for the money and fame" like having the odious Allred stage your operation. Yet, this accuser sounds credible.

Maybe this is not bad for Cain. The country longs fo (Enlarge) File: Sharon Bialek, a Chicago-area woman, reacts during a news conference at the Friars Club, Monday, Nov. 7, 2011, in New York. Bialek accused Republican presidential contender Herman Cain of making an unwanted sexual advance against her in 1997. She says she wants to provide "a face and a voice" to support other accusers who have so far remained anonymous.

AP Photo/Richard Drew r a man with the economic views of Ronald Reagan and the social values of Bill Clinton (i.e., a Libertarian). Under both those presidents we had low unemployment and good economies. I am told Cain's "9-9-9 Plan" was developed when he was in Europe and got turned down by three German women in a row.

Bill Clinton disappointed more chubby women than Jenny Craig. Until Bubba's presidency, a half-ton pickup was a truck. Yet, we miss him.

True sexual harassment is bad. It is extortion. But sexual harassment, which originally meant "If you do not sleep with me, you do not get that promotion/job," has morphed into the plaintiffs' bar interpretation of "If I can say you offended me in any way, my word against yours, then I can shake you and the company down for $30,000."

Anyone mad at his or her boss can make such a claim, and corporations usually pay up. It costs $250,000 to publicly defend and win a sexual harassment suit, but only $30,000 to settle. As a result, they just pay and make it go away, but so do jobs - from this country to countries less litigious.

Imagine a woman making such a claim under Sharia Law. She would be beheaded. We incentivize women to make these claims by paying them to go away and sometimes rewarding them with fame. Reality resides in the middle.

The irony is that Herman is campaigning to rid corporate America of frivolous litigation, which continues to dampen job creation. If you think for one moment corporations do not consider the out-of-control litigation costs of doing business in the United States, versus India or Taiwan, when they calculate their labor costs, then join the Occupy Wall Streeters.

Like many men these days, I hardly even make eye contact with women at work. My sister-in-law is my only female employee. I don't go to office outings for fear that, if I am nice to a woman, she might think I am hitting on her. If I do not speak to women, they conclude I am a jerk. Neither outcome is good, so I do not associate with co-workers after work.

Most women are not that way, but we men do not know which ones are which. As a result, a smart executive does not take that career-ending chance. Peyton Manning will not get on an elevator with a woman alone. A person's reputation is everything. It is easy to accuse someone if you have an agenda.

If a company hires a woman with a hyphenated last name, it might as well hire an attorney right then to defend the inevitable lawsuit.

Liberals spend their entire lives offended. It is their "go-to" emotion. They have helped wussify America, and we need to toughen up.

I hate this for my two daughters, who will be coming into the workforce soon. The best thing you can do for your kids is not shelter them so much that they can't walk past a construction site and endure catcalls. That is life. Men can be, well, men.

You women's libbers who pushed for these laws may want to rethink them. The net result is that men in the workforce are now afraid to include women in meetings, dinners, drinks, travel, golf, etc. where business gets done, for fear of career-ending accusations.

Information is power, and the hyper-sensitive few who sue are installing bullet-proof glass ceilings for their fellow women.