Here We Go: One of Herman Cain's Accusers Wants to Come Forward (Updated)

I put this over in Scuttlebutt initially, but it deserves its own post. Politico may get the makings for that second punch it failed to throw today.

One of the women who accused GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain of sexual harassment wants to tell her side of the story but is barred by a confidentiality agreement, her attorney in Washington said Tuesday.

Lawyer Joel P. Bennett called on the National Restaurant Association, where the woman and Cain worked in the late 1990s, to release the woman from her written promise not to talk about the allegations or disparage the trade group.

“It is just frustrating that Herman Cain is going around bad-mouthing the two complainants, and my client is blocked by a confidentiality agreement,” Bennett said. “The National Restaurant Association ought to release them and allow them to respond.”

The NRA now has a dilemma, and the purpose of signing NDAs seems to have disappeared. It’s evident that the woman has already talked with media, she just hasn’t put her name on the record yet. She appears to have disclosed already.

Bennett represents one of the two women, who attended an Ivy League school and now works for the federal government.

Nice biographical tease, that. Message: She is not a crank! But she might be one of those government union workers who are pensioning our way to bankruptcy.

She has avoided the limelight since the allegations were aired, and she is staying with relatives while the media stakes out her home in suburban Maryland, Bennett said.

Linda Tripp was afforded no such space.

If she is released from the confidentiality ban, “then it is whole new ballgame,” Bennett said.

“If we didn’t have a written settlement agreement that says confidential and no disparagement, I think she’d be very comfortable coming forward,” the attorney told The Post on Tuesday. “Not because she would be so hellbent on doing something to Herman Cain — I don’t know that.”

Well, if you don’t know that, Mr. Bennett, you’re the only one who doesn’t.

Meanwhile, Cain has had his best fundraising day yet.

Update: Cain is on Fox Special Report, and in the first segment he said that as the CEO of his campaign, he made a conscious decision not to come up with a response to Politico’s story until it came out because he didn’t want to “chase anonymous sources.” Hopefully he understands now just how poor an executive decision that was. When you’re a Republican and the MSM is circling around you or your organization with a negative story, making a conscious decision not to respond until the story comes out hands the MSM the initiative. Why do that? He says he has learned from all this. For his own sake, he better have.

Plus, it’s not very plausible that Cain didn’t remember the original allegation at all. It just isn’t.

I wanted to see Cain come out of this with a win over Politico. Instead, he’s looking like Tony Romo vs the Lions, in a strong position to win but making serious and self-destructive mistakes.