I
I would like to welcome
Mr. 9-9-9 to the world of big time politics.
It seems that my man forgot one thing while he was jigging and joking his way into the hearts of white conservatives across A-merry-ca: Your skeletons will always come back to haunt you. We all have them. But we don't all try to get elected as the leader of the free world, or, for that matter, to become a member of the most powerful "democratic"
judicial body on earth.
And so here we go again; yet another black conservative is the victim of a
"high tech lynching". The last one survived the metaphoric rope around his neck and ultimately found himself in a position where he can influence whether a rope is put around the neck of others.
Apparently when
Mr. 9-9-9 was at the
National Restaurant Association he wasn't just making sure that all of us had somewhere nice to eat. He was
allegedly making sure that he had somewhere nice to.....ahh never mind.
(I hate these types of stories.)Of course, like most politricksters,
Mr 9-9-9 (and the GOP) first denied that he sexually
harassed anyone. But then....
"Herman Cain is now saying he does recall some details of a financial settlement with one of his female co-workers who accused him of sexual harassment during his tenure at the National Restaurant Association.Cain's quotes are being reported by Byron York of The Washington Examiner, based on the GOP presidential candidate's interview with Fox News to be broadcast at 10 p.m. ET Monday night.Cain spent the day trying to beat back a Politico story that said he was accused twice of "sexually suggestive behavior." Amid his explanations that he had been "falsely accused," Cain twice said he knew nothing about a financial settlement with his accusers." [Source]Yes, that pesky "financial settlement". Bad news Herman: It exists. Good news Herman: The folks who got the payoff are probably prohibited from divulging the details of the settlement to the rest of us.
But I take no pleasure in watching yet another high profile brotha go down. I don't care how much he jigged for his wingnuts friends and hated and demonized his
own people. It's always sad to watch a tragedy such as this play itself out for all the world to see and hear.
"Come on Field, it's not only republicans who do this type of thing. What about Bill Clinton? He was getting pleasured in the people's house for crying out loud and you people defended him!" And I would defend
Mr. 9-9-9 if whatever he was
allegedly doing was between two consenting adults. Sadly, for conservatives, it never seems to be that way. If it was, there would be no charge of sexual harassment.
But the show must go on, and conservatives will now start the spinning:
"In summary: there is a real story here. It's possible thatPolitico got the story wrong, in which case they will be exposed. It's also possible that the story is totally accurate, and yet Cain is innocent of any wrongdoing. There are plenty of reasons, after all, why a businessman would settle a harassment suit even if he were blameless. The final possibility, of course, is that Cain did behave inappropriately toward women he worked with. Let's hope that's not the case. A few final points: the accusation that Politico is unfairly liberal (made by Jeff Lord, among others) is itself unfair.Politico undoubtedly employs reporters from liberal media backgrounds, including at least one of the reporters who contributed to the Cain story, Ken Vogel. On the other hand, they also feature writers hired from conservative outlets. It's worth noting they have published pieces by a number of Spectatorwriters, myself included. " [Source]Those few paragraphs alone had more twists and turns than a Jamaican country road. But I understand the difficulties that conservatives must be having with this story. It must be sad for them to watch Herman go down. Where else are they going to find a a straight talking black man who is willing to take on uncomfortable subjects and speak of certain things that they are too afraid to utter publicly?
Still, they need to take heart, because, the truth is, Herman Cain was
never going to become president, and this story might just make him irrelevant sooner rather than later. Which, in the end, might be a good thing for them.
Happy Halloween everybody, and please make sure that those
scary skeletons stay
inside the closet.
Sunday, 16th March 1986 
Lineker was a finisher rather than a creator of goals, as was borne out by his World Cup performance that summer. He finished the tournament as leading scorer with six, all of them finished from within ten yards taking a maximum of two touches. Indeed, he owed a large debt of gratitude to the likes of Kevin Sheedy, Trevor Steven, Peter Reid and particularly his striking partner Graeme Sharp. The between them were responsible for making the vast majority of his goals for Everton with precise crosses, incisive through-balls taking advantage of his searing pace, or in Sharp's case by flick-ons or lay-offs. Despite Everton's painful failure to win any silver, Lineker was rewarded for his contribution by both his fellow professionals and the Football Writers with Player of the Year awards. He stunned the Everton fans that summer by leaving in a £2.75M transfer to Barcelona, where he kept up his prolific scoring record and won the Spanish League and the Cup-Winners' Cup, before following the man who took him there, Terry Venables, to Tottenham. From there he moved in 1992 to Nagoya Grampus Eight in the embryonic J-League in Japan, but a persistent toe injury prevented him from making any significant impact and he retired from playing to concentrate on a broadcasting career. The sad thing about Lineker, the thing that most grates now with Everton fans, is his dismissive attitude to the club that set him on his way as the highest-profile English player of the late 1980's. To listen to him now, spouting his fawning platitudes of Spurs, you'd think he never wore the Royal Blue of Everton. 
