Cigarette Smoking Man Mark Block demands that Rick Perry apologize to Herman Cain and his family, and quite frankly to America.

And now … the walk-back!

What a difference 24 hours can make.

After Mr. Anderson flatly denied having leaked the story to Politico — and even denied having discussed the issue back in 2004 — Mr. Block appeared again Thursday on Fox News.

“Until we get all the facts, I’m just going to say that we accept what Mr. Anderson had said. And we want to move on with the campaign,” he said on “America Live.”

Mr. Block added that the Cain campaign was “absolutely thrilled” that Mr. Anderson went on Fox and said that he was not the source of the Politico story.

“Mr. Cain has always had the utmost respect for him,” Mr. Block said. “I’m going to do the same thing that Mr. Anderson has done and move on. Talk about issues and get off of this ‘silliness,’ as he called it, and let’s get on with the campaign.”