Irony is not dead.
Herman Cain is “reassessing” his presidential campaign. Woman trouble. One, two, three, four women have accused him of improper and unwanted advances in the workplace — sexual harassment, in the coin of the age.
The allegations and the news coverage of same sent the candidate’s once booming poll numbers hard south; women voters, the surveys indicated, were leaving him in droves, notwithstanding his insistence that the charges were politically-motivated smears, untrue, baseless. Conservative men, some of them, were more inclined to give Cain the benefit of the doubt, else they were so intrigued by “9-9-9” tax plan, loopy though it be, or so energized by his boastful ignorance of foreign policy that they were willing to overlook the sort of recklessness they had found politically and personally reprehensible, even constitutionally disqualifying, less 20 years earlier. Only weeks ago Cain wowed ‘em at a sell-out Arkansas GOP dinner at Springdale.
Now comes Woman Number 5, however, and she comes with the number 13 — the years she claims to have engaged in an long running extra-marital relationship with Cain, who flatly denies it. She has a name, actually: Ginger White — three fewer syllables than Gennifer Flowers, but the alleged affair one year longer than the even dozen claimed by Flowers; and 11 years, 11 months and 364 days shorter than eventually admitted to under oath by her purported paramour. The issue, though, is the same.
Ironic to the extreme is that the primary beneficiary thus far of Cain’s discomfit is Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker, twice divorced and thrice married, his present wife being the woman, then a congressional staff member, with whom he was engaged in a long-running dalliance while still married to Spouse Number Two and as he was spiritedly pressing the impeachment case against President Clinton.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The latest polls from Iowa, where religious conservatives tend to dominate the first major presidential nominating contest, show Gingrich in the top spot once occupied by Cain, who has been in free-fall there, as across the country, in the weeks since the accusations gained momentum. In Iowa Gingrich leads Mitt Romney, now in second place, by double digits. In firewall South Carolina Gingrich has become a fireball, surging into the top spot, his support quadrupling since October. Romney wasn’t expected to do especially well in the Palmetto State, where Tea Party rhetoric plays well — but now Gingrich is picking up steam in New Hampshire, Romney’s backyard and a state into which he may have to pour additional resources.
Republican primary voters are a red-meat bunch. Not only do they love to hear Washington bashed (and who doesn’t?) but they want a list of departments, agencies, bureaus, rules and regulations that a candidate would abolish on Day One, and never mind that Congress might have second thoughts. They want taxes sharply reduced if not eliminated, and government spending slashed through the jugular, all the way to the neckbone. They want to hear that America’s energy future lies in “Drill, baby, drill,” albeit with another, fresher slogan. They want all sorts of constitutional amendments involving abortion, gay rights, religious observances in public places and the other cultural hot buttons. And they want it in pungent, ten-words-or-less snaps. They also enjoy hearing candidates tongue-lash reporters. Gingrich provides all of that.
And something else: confession (sort of), a plea for forgiveness (producing Sunday school videos) and a full-throated promise (his campaign against “elites” and Sharia law) to demonstrate redemption. Yes, he told a cable television pastor, he had sinned, but his marital indiscretions were “partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked too hard.”
Okay. Assuming Gingrich promises to love his — country — a bit less passionately and takes more time off, that may set things right for the religious right. At the moment Gingrich is taking fire from fellow conservatives more for his quite moderate approach to the immigration issue than for any personal transgressions. Other issues will be revived, naturally, including his tumultuous tenure as Speaker (the government shutdown in his losing battle of wits with Clinton and an ethics reprimand) and his subsequent incarnation as a non-lobbying multi-millionaire dispenser of “advice.”
If irony survives, the Cain campaign will not; it was destined never to prosper, even without Women 1-5. Likewise, the campaigns of Michelle Bachman, the Two Ricks — Perry and Santorum — and Ron Paul are similarly terminal though it is unclear if the candidates themselves understand as much. Jon Huntsman is headed nowhere and knows it, so give him credit for that.
The Republican debates have been great entertainment, and will continue to be, minus Cain, who had the best sense of humor — but he was funny even when he wasn’t trying to be. That is not irony.
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Steve Barnes is host of Arkansas Week on AETN.