Cain dodges questions via hotel’s back door

HIS presidential campaign in turmoil, Republican favourite Herman Cain refused to say last night whether he will ask his former employer — the National Restaurant Association — to terminate confidentiality restrictions on women who accused him of sexual harassment in the 1990s while he was head of the trade group.

The White House hopeful, who has been steadily at or remained near the top of national surveys and polls in early nominating states, was supposed to take questions after a speech to healthcare professionals, but ultimately refused and left the hotel through a back door.

“I’m here to visit with these doctors and that’s what I’m going to talk about, so don’t even bother asking me all of these other questions that you all are curious about, okay? Don’t even bother,” a testy Cain told a throng of reporters who were peppering him with questions.

When pressed about the allegations, Cain raised his voice and said “What did I say? Excuse me. Excuse me!” as hotel security led him through a hotel hallway jammed with journalists.

The Politico newspaper said the women complained that Mr Cain had made sexually suggestive comments and gestures, and that one woman suffered what was described by a source close to the association as “an unwanted sexual advance” from Mr Cain at a hotel.

Try as he might to project an image of campaign business as usual, the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO could not escape the questions that have dogged him since the allegations surfaced four days ago — two months before the leadoff Iowa caucuses and just as polls show him at the head of the opposition field, alongside former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

In the latest twist, a lawyer for one of his accusers is asking the National Restaurant Association to free her from a confidentiality agreement so she can talk openly about her allegations and respond to Cain’s claims that the complaints were “totally baseless and totally false”.

“I know her very well,” lawyer Joel P Bennett told CNN, “and I’m sure she would not make a false complaint.”

Cain’s campaign manager, Mark Block, repeatedly refused to say whether the campaign was in discussions with the trade association over letting the woman talk freely. Block said the campaign would address that question “when it’s appropriate”.

A spokeswoman for the restaurant association, Sue Hensley, said that the group had not been contacted by Bennett.

The pressure on Cain only increased yesterday when a pillar of the GOP establishment suggested that the Georgia businessman should ask the association to waive the agreement so that the woman can talk openly about her allegations.

Over the past few days, Cain has admitted he knew of one agreement between the restaurant association and a woman who accused him of sexual harassment. He has said the woman initially asked for a large financial settlement, but ultimately received two to three months’ pay as part of a separation agreement. Cain also acknowledged remembering one of the women’s accusations against him, saying he stepped close to her to make a reference to her height, and told her she was the same height as his wife.

He has said he is not aware of agreements or settlements with any other women, though Politico reported that the trade group had given settlements to at least two female employees who accused him of inappropriate sexual behaviour.

The New York Times reported that the trade group gave a female employee a year’s salary in severance pay, $35,000, after she said an encounter with Cain made her uncomfortable working there. The newspaper cited three people with knowledge of the payment to the woman, who was not Bennett’s client.

For Cain, yesterday was supposed to be the culmination of a three-day attempt at courting official Washington, and the GOP old guard that seems to be tilting ever more toward Romney.