Rick Perry Advisor Responsible For Herman Cain Sexual Harrassment Leak?

smear tactics from Rick Perry's campaign?

As Herman Cain becomes more and more irritated and flustered with the three sexual harrassment charges dogging his presidential campaign, Herman Cain’s campaign is calling out rival Rick Perry’s camp as the responsible party for leaking sexual harrassment news to website, Politico.

Could news of Herman Cain’s past as the recipient of sexual harrassment charges have been leaked by Rick Perry as part of a smear campaign against Cain, who up until this week, was considered the GOP frontrunner? It disturbes me that GOP presidential candidates who are lacking in groundbreaking ideas to help improve our country, are resorting to schoolyard rumor mongering to gain traction in the 2012 presidential race. Smear campaigns and mudslinging are a turnoff to the American public and they just make all politicians look bad.

Herman Cain has stated that he believes it was GOP rival, Texas Governor Rick Perry, who is responsible for leaking Cain’s sexual harrassment charges that are a decade old, to the media. Politico.com was the media outlet first responsible for breaking the Herman Cain sexual harrassment story, but did Politico harm a viable presidential candidate just to score a journalism coup for its media outlet? And was this news leak the desperate act of a candidate (Perry) who has nothing legitimate to offer?

According to Huffington Post, “The former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza signaled his belief to Forbes that Curt Anderson, who worked on Cain’s unsuccessful bid for U.S. Senate in 2004 and now serves as an adviser for Perry’s political operation, was behind the allegations in question resurfacing.”

Forbes Magazine reports that a one-time Cain ally has turned against him, saying, “In the summer of 2003, Cain recalls briefing Anderson, his general campaign consultant at the time, that sexual harassment claims were brought against him while he was chairman of the National Restaurant Association from 1996 to 1999.”

It stands to reason that Herman Cain would suspect Curt Anderson of leaking the years old sexual harrassment news to Politico, since Anderson was in the know.

For Curt Anderson’s part Anderson, however, “[he] contends he first learned of the accusations Cain faced when they resurfaced in a story published earlier this week by Politico.” (HuffPost)

Curt Anderson states, “I have nothing but good things to say about Herman Cain. I’m not going to bad-mouth Herman Cain to anyone, on or off the record. I think he is a guy of great leadership and integrity.”