The Devil Went Down to Georgia

The latest allegations against Herman Cain come from Ginger White, who claims that she and Cain just recently ended a 13 year affair.  Cain came out yesterday on CNN, two hours before the news broke, to defend himself against the charges.  Cain's lawyer, Lin Wood, later issued a ridiculous statement that basically all but admits that something had taken place between Cain and Ms. White.  Here is an excerpt:

Mr. Cain has been informed today that your television station plans to broadcast a story this evening in which a female will make an accusation that she engaged in a 13-year long physical relationship with Mr. Cain. 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 alerted his wife to this new accusation and discussed it with her. He 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.

Cain's attorney must have graduated from the Gloria Allred School of Law.  As Leon Wolf at RedState points out, "Either Mr. Cain and his attorney are basing their views on what is an appropriate subject of media scrutiny for political candidates on the way politics work on another planet (perhaps another galaxy, even), or they are basically trying to telegraph to us that he completely did it."  But all kidding aside, Cain had to approve every word of Lin's statement so that should say something.