More Hijinks in the Cain Mutiny, as Block Makes Another Unsubstantiated Charge (Updated)

One of Herman Cain’s major selling points is his executive experience in the private sector. He has said that, while he doesn’t have any direct foreign policy experience for instance, he would surround himself with experts who would advise him on the right course of action as president. What sort of experts would Cain choose? Well, we can look at the team of experts he has announced, and we can look at the caliber of folks he has running his campaign. Both tell us something about Cain’s eye for talent.

Mark Block, Cain’s campaign manager, keeps making irresponsible, unsubstantiated charges in an effort to refute what he and the candidate describe as unsubstantiated charges.

Herman Cain campaign manager Mark Block, in an appearance with Sean Hannity on Fox News just now, insisted that a relative of the second woman to publicly accuse the candidate of sexual harassment in the 1990s works at POLITICO.

“Her son works at POLITICO,” Block said of Karen Kraushaar, whose name POLITICO printed earlier today after other media outlets made her identity public.

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“I’ve been hearing that all day – you’ve confirmed that now?” Hannity asked.

“We’ve confirmed that he does indeed work at POLITICO and that’s his mother, yes,” said Block.

Block appeared to be referring to former POLITICO reporter Josh Kraushaar, who left for another outlet, National Journal, in 2010.

Josh Kraushaar tweeted earlier in the day, apparently after getting questions, that he’s in fact not related to Karen Kraushaar, and simply has the same last name.

That’s the second innocent man the Cain campaign has accused in this whole thing, the first being Curt Anderson. Well, third, if you count Rick Perry. None of Block’s accusations have held up more than a few minutes.

I know, the Cain campaign is raising tons of money and is still strong in the polls. But operationally it’s an embarrassing mess, and that reflects directly on the executive in charge of it.

Update: It looks like the polls are catching up with the story. Rasmussen:

Most voters now say that the sexual harassment allegations made against Herman Cain may be both serious and true. At the same time, two-thirds believe Cain’s ethics are at least as good as most politicians. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 51% of voters nationwide say it is at least somewhat likely the allegations against Cain are both serious and true.

Update: And while Block was smearing yet another innocent man, it turned out that Karen Kraushaar has a history of filing workplace complaints. And over not a whole heckuva lot.

The complaint also cited as objectionable an email that a manager had circulated comparing computers to women and men, a former supervisor said. The complaint claimed that the email, based on humour widely circulated on the Internet, was sexually explicit, according to the supervisor, who did not have a copy of the email. The joke circulated online lists reasons men and women were like computers, including that men were like computers because “in order to get their attention, you have to turn them on.” Women were like computers because “even your smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for later retrieval.”