The situation with Herman Cain seems a classic example of sexual harassment as a pattern: multiple accusers. I would like to mention that I’ve always been skeptical of Anita Hill’s accusation against Clarence Thomas; one reason is that during Thomas’ confirmation hearings, 9 women testified in his behalf. They were 9 liberal women, who all said that they disagreed with his political views (as I do), but who said they worked for him and thought he was a real nice person. Anyway, what’s striking to me about Herman Cain, 20 years later, is how very different this story is from the Clarence Thomas hearings. In Cain’s case, there are multiple accusers, who apparently don’t even know one another, and have nothing in common except for being women.

“Innocent until proven guilty” is a great idea for criminal trials. There’s only so much “presumption of innocence” that Herman Cain is entitled to. He needs to “come clean” (pardon me) in public (oops I did it again) real soon.