The Other McCain

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‘Mysterious’ Attack on Herman Cain?

Posted on | October 23, 2011 | 18 Comments

Yeah, it’s really mysterious, IYKWIMAITYD:

Herman Cain was the target of a mysterious attack Saturday night when leaflets targeting the Republican presidential frontrunner were left on car windows outside the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition’s fall banquet in Des Moines.
The leaflets, one of which was left on the car of a reporter, accuse Cain of being “pro-choice” and question his opposition to abortion.
“Herman Cain threw the babies under the bus,” blares the flier, which features a headshot of Cain next to a picture of a tiny aborted fetus. . . .
Two groups named at the bottom of the flier take credit for the attack: “Iowans for Some Semblance of Christian Decency” and “Iowans For Truth and Honest Government.”
A message to an email address listed for Iowans for Truth and Honest Government was not returned, but both groups have surfaced in recent election cycles to wage shadowy smear campaigns.
Iowans for Some Semblance of Christian Decency targeted former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee with leaflets during his 2008 presidential bid, questioning his Christian faith and calling attention to his effort to help parole a convicted murderer who went on to commit another homicide.
Similar leaflets attacking Huckabee appeared in the primary state of South Carolina at the time.
Iowans For Truth and Honest Government took credit for fliers attacking Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad in 2009 during the early days of his Republican primary fight against conservative Bob Vander Plaats.

Knowing nothing at all about these two “groups” — which do not exist as such, but are merely names at the bottom of flyers — I did a quick Google search and found that, when “Iowans for Truth and Honest Government” attacked Brandstad in 2009, suspicion fell on the Iowa-based consulting group Victory Enterprises.

That doesn’t prove anything, of course, since anyone could use the name of a non-existent group — pseudonyms can’t file lawsuits — and nobody ever figured out with any certainty who was behind the anti-Brandstad fliers.

There is no shortage of suspects. Every other campaign has a motive to attack Herman Cain, since he has surged to the lead in the past month. But every time I see this kind of stuff happening from now on, I’ll be reminding you: The prime directive of the Rick Perry campaign is “Destroy Herman Cain.”

UPDATE: Now a Memeorandum thread.


Category: Election 2012, Herman Cain, Iowa

Comments

18 Responses to “‘Mysterious’ Attack on Herman Cain?”

  1. Joe
    October 23rd, 2011 @ 8:26 pm

    Perry is the most likely suspect.  My guess is the candidate has plausable deniability, but some of this staffers made this happen.   Similar to what happened to your cousin John in South Carolina in 2000. 

    I would also suspect Bachmann and Santorum’s staff, except for the fact they are so small, and tracable, that I doubt they would do something like this. 

    As for Romney, this is an issue that is kryptonite to him. 

  2. caincan2012
    October 23rd, 2011 @ 8:37 pm

    Cain is Pro-Choice !!!
    Cain is going to criminalize abortion !!!

    Cain is going to unfairly target the poor !!!
    Cain is giving unfair breaks to the poor !!!

    Cain doesn’t have enough money to compete !!!
    Cain has big money ties !!!

    Can you SMEL-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L
    the desperation of the establishment?

  3. Anonymous
    October 23rd, 2011 @ 8:45 pm

    Using deductive reasoning…
    Romney? His gang can’t keep a secret for so we’ll know by tomorrow.
    Paul? No F’n way. Not his style in all these years.
    Gingrich? Nothing to gain for him. So… no.
    Perry? Lives by the political muddy sword. His method in every election.
    Bachmann? Angles for a post in a Romney administration. Is THAT stupid.
    Santorum? Too busy dreaming of conquest and world empire.
    Huntsman? No way. Too busy getting a tan. (George Hamilton syndrome)

  4. Mike
    October 23rd, 2011 @ 8:57 pm

    Well, it looks like politics as usual has finally fought it’s way to the front of the GOP race for the nomination. Why can’t these dipshits come together for a common cause…getting rid of Obama.

  5. MrPaulRevere
    October 23rd, 2011 @ 9:00 pm

    One name came to mind when I saw this: Roger Stone.

  6. dippitydoodaramalamadingdong
    October 23rd, 2011 @ 9:03 pm

    @Beto_Ochoa  ROFL wow

  7. Anonymous
    October 23rd, 2011 @ 9:59 pm

    The Perry Bots (I don’t like the term, but in this case it seems to apply) seem to be good at disparagement.  They are selling the “unclear” BS on Cain’s abortion statements, and claiming he’s “unfit” and or “stupid.”

    I can see arguing politics, but the personal crap is more like Bill Mahhhhr than it is like Sarah Palin.

    In other news: the SCOAMFOTUS has another problem. HFSCMTTEIW.

    His
    Failed
    Stimulus
    Cost
    More
    Than
    The
    Entire
    Iraq
    War

    (H/T gatewaypundit)

  8. Anonymous
    October 23rd, 2011 @ 10:09 pm

    I don’t see any way this isn’t a plausibly deniable Romney thing.

    Like you said, this same group went after Huckabee in 2008.

    They went after both Huckabee and Cain on issues that Romney couldn’t really attack directly on without it being a pot/kettle/black thing … but they’ve never gone after Romney on those same issues.

    Not that there’s anything wrong with it, mind you. Cain either can’t make up his mind on the issues, or else he thinks he can get away with saying one thing one day in one place, and its opposite the next day somewhere else. He makes Romney look like a pillar of issues conviction, and that’s saying a lot.

  9. Anonymous
    October 23rd, 2011 @ 10:23 pm

    You wrote at hotair: “So it would be unfair to jump to the conclusion that Team Perry was responsible for that item, however … ”

    You are going to go ahead and do it anyway.

    Very classy, very kewl. How much did you get paid by Obama to say that?

  10. Denverwindowwashing
    October 23rd, 2011 @ 10:38 pm

    The name is Cain.

    Spelled C A I N.

    Thank you.

  11. Denverwindowwashing
    October 23rd, 2011 @ 10:39 pm

    Just to clarify;

    C A I N

    Cain.

    Thank you.

  12. Joe
    October 23rd, 2011 @ 11:23 pm

    Romney better hope he is not caught if he is doing this…but it has a Perry stinkk to it. 

  13. Anonymous
    October 23rd, 2011 @ 11:49 pm

    That’s just it — it doesn’t have a Perry stink to it at all.

    In 2008, this group worked against Huckabee.

    In 2012, this group is working against Cain.

    In both 2008 and 2012, it was working not only against a candidate, but FOR a candidate.

    Rick Perry wasn’t running in 2008.

    Mitt Romney and Ron Paul were, though.

    I disagree that this “isn’t like” Paul, but Romney does seem the likelier suspect.

  14. Anonymous
    October 24th, 2011 @ 12:49 am

    Seems a desperate gamble for Perry, he must think he’s in real trouble: the mud is unlikely to stick (on this issue, anyway), and Rick Perry’s making it real, real hard for principled people to vote for him… if it becomes common knowledge he’s trying to destroy Cain like this he’s finished for 2012

  15. Adjoran
    October 24th, 2011 @ 1:04 am

    And the same group when after Branstad, too.  What would Romney have against him, when he was facing a conservative challenger in the primary?

  16. Adjoran
    October 24th, 2011 @ 1:21 am

    I think it’s a tremendous leap to assume these attacks are associated with any campaign.  The black-baby-daddy push poll smear against John McCain in South Carolina came not from the Bush people, but was the invention of a single independent pastor in the upstate with the help of his wife and daughter-in-law.  They weren’t even Republicans.

    Perry has called Cain out publicly on the issue, his cards are on the table, it would be stupid to conduct a simultaneous anonymous campaign that would hurt him if discovered.  And would Perry’s people have been associated with the other smear campaigns with the same groups years ago?

    It seems to me that some suspect him, and believe that is evidence enough.  Ya got BUTKIS on Perry.  NOTHING except fevered imaginings of paranoids.

    The anti-Romney case is even more preposterous.  Definitely not his style – if he wanted to put something out on a back-channel he would use “party strategists” or media to spread the word.  And Cain is Romney’s best friend right now.

    Cain’s rise has taken down Perry to the point of threatening his viability (and yes, the biggest part of it was Perry’s self-inflicted wounds after the ridiculous hype before his entry).  Perry’s got money and has to take Cain out before he can establish himself as the “not Romney” guy.  Romney wants nothing better than Perry to use his $15 million or so on hand against Cain, forcing Cain on the defensive while Romney continues to slowly strengthen his organization in the later states and raise money. 

    The great probability is this not an out of state operation, but the same group or individual who put out the previous smears under the same name over the years, who may not even be Republicans.  The candidates would have too much to lose to risk getting caught.

  17. Anonymous
    October 24th, 2011 @ 1:33 am

    Just because they’re working for Romney on the presidential level, that doesn’t mean they were working for him on the gubernatorial level.

    But when a group is working across presidential election cycles, there’s a good chance they’re working for the same candidate in one instance as in the other.

    And based on whom they’re working against, it makes sense that if they weren’t a Romney plant group, they’d be hitting Romney, too — which they’ve done in neither cycle.

    I could make a case for it being Paul — he wants the social conservative vote, but doesn’t want to lose his grip on the more libertarian-leaning voters, so a socon front group taking his rivals for that voting bloc down a notch without his fingerprints on it makes sense.

    But it just feels more like Romney than Paul to me, and not at all like Perry. I’d even think Bachmann or Santorum in a Hail Mary before I’d get down the list to Perry.

  18. Zilla of the Resistance
    October 24th, 2011 @ 7:25 am

    One thing is abundantly clear about perry: he insists that islam is a religion of peace, which in a sane country would automatically disqualify him right there. Too bad nobody will address the issue without suffering brutal trolling from the stupid Perryists who are just like Obamazombies.