Karen Kraushaar, Serial Victim
Posted on | November 9, 2011 | 90 Comments
One of Herman Cain’s accusers, who left the National Restaurant Association with $45,000 in “go away” money, then got a government job, where she filed a complaint demanding money and a promotion:
Karen Kraushaar, 55, filed the complaint while working as a spokeswoman at the Immigration and Naturalization Service in the Justice Department in late 2002 or early 2003, with the assistance of her lawyer, Joel Bennett, who also handled her earlier sexual harassment complaint against Cain in 1999. . . .
To settle the complaint at the immigration service, Kraushaar initially demanded thousands of dollars in payment, a reinstatement of leave she used after the accident earlier in 2002, promotion on the federal pay scale and a one-year fellowship to Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, according to a former supervisor familiar with the complaint. The promotion itself would have increased her annual salary between $12,000 and $16,000, according to salary tables in 2002 from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. . . .
Kraushaar’s complaint was based on supervisors denying her request to work full time from home after a serious car accident in 2002, three former supervisors said. Two of them said Kraushaar also was denied previous requests to work from home before the car accident.
The complaint also cited as objectionable an email that a manager had circulated comparing computers to women and men, a former supervisor said. The complaint claimed that the email, based on humor widely circulated on the Internet, was sexually explicit, according to the supervisor, who did not have a copy of the email. The joke circulated online lists reasons men and women were like computers, including that men were like computers because “in order to get their attention, you have to turn them on.” Women were like computers because “even your smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for later retrieval.”
Kraushaar is very unlucky: Everywhere she goes, bad things happen to her, necessitating the services of attorney Joel Bennett.
Comments
90 Responses to “Karen Kraushaar, Serial Victim”
November 9th, 2011 @ 1:28 pm
And Herman guarantees that prices will magically go lower:
9% National Sales Tax.
Unlike a state sales tax,
which is an add-on tax that increases the price of goods and services,
this is a replacement tax. It replaces taxes that are already embedded
in selling prices. By replacing higher marginal rates in the production
process with lower marginal rates, marginal production costs actually
decline, which will lead to prices being the same or lower, not higher.
November 9th, 2011 @ 1:40 pm
Dan Riehl says Herman Cain sleeps with the fishes…
November 9th, 2011 @ 1:45 pm
as a curiousity, are you assuming ALL the witnesses are to be believed, or do you have a favorite?
a modest timeline of my own rxn-
the low point came with the politico story. two people, payout, legal record…
i left the window cracked, with the theory that it was go away money, or, that the victims had a history of sexual harrassment claims.
the first two were the strongest, because there was evidence of a complaint, contemporary to the alleged incidents.
the latest two, (or three, if a psychic us aid worker is a tenable witness) have greatly diminished the narrative.
now we are back to number one, who was motivated to come forth because of the treatment of bialek?
even worse for her, while the kitchen sink strategy of a lawsuit might prove a good legal strategy, the effects are rather opposite in the ‘court of public opinion’-making one look desperate.
if i were in her shoes, and my claims were legit, i would not want to be lumped into a presser where the veracity of my story could be weakened by someone so obviously full of sh*t.
if i felt my claims were less than believable, i would seek out others to corroborate the story, reagrdless of how truthful they were.
cain’s theory of a lynching didn’t work. he needed a surrogate, other than bloch to make the argument. in making it himself, he looked weak. best move he has made in handling this is getting a lawyer, who now can rattle off numerous ‘facts’ that diminish the crediblity of his accusers.
those facts were not available in the first few days, and the campaign sufferred for trying to create them.
combine the push back from a lawyer AND limbaugh, and this campaign is actually going to look nimble, after limping miserably for the first week.
November 9th, 2011 @ 2:26 pm
while some may argue the use of the word “serial”, i did catch an rcp article, today, where carl cannon, of fox, refers to herman cain as a “serial groper”.
who’s the other one(s) aside from bialek?
irony abounds in that cannon’s article was in defense of his journalistic ethics.
November 9th, 2011 @ 2:31 pm
[…] McCain isn’t impressed: Karen Kraushaar, Serial Victim : The Other McCain FeminazisPermalink ← Fair Is […]
November 9th, 2011 @ 2:36 pm
Your post clearly shows the motivation of why Herman Cain is being attacked. It has nothing to do with the 14 year case. It has EVERYTHING TO DO with his proposals on how to get the economy going.
Either debate Cain’s positions or the allegations.
November 9th, 2011 @ 2:37 pm
Frankly I don’t like anonymous sources period. You can’t trust them. You don’t know if what they are saying is true, you can’t judge the value of their words and you never know anything about their motivations.
So in that we are in agreement.
Let’s bring everything out and lay it all on the table and see what is what. And if that means Cain has personal issues then that is up to the voters to decide if he should continue. If it is all bullshit, then that should be a consideration too.
November 9th, 2011 @ 2:38 pm
Many good points, Stacy, but, I think Ace and Dan have gone a bit over-the-top with their anti-Cain Hysteria.
November 9th, 2011 @ 2:47 pm
I find their lack of faith in us… disturbing. *clench*
November 9th, 2011 @ 2:48 pm
Well, I did hear he groped a baby seal at the Sea World petting zoo once…
November 9th, 2011 @ 2:58 pm
it is a ‘too-sophisticated’ plan…
at best, one in 50 americans understand the ideas put forth, and it seems to have lukewarm reception among those i deem capable of understanding it…
among those who appear to have actually examined it in detail, it is a winner, but you couldn’t match a wnba crowd with their actual numbers.
wise for cain to have backed off of it.
November 9th, 2011 @ 3:05 pm
Take your medicine and lie down in a dark room, dude.
November 9th, 2011 @ 3:06 pm
Ooooh. Someone calls you on your facts, and you accuse him of being–GASP!–gay!
I thought you leftists were all tolerant and stuff?
November 9th, 2011 @ 3:07 pm
Then shut up and go home. If all you do is whine about the problem and don’t offer a solution, you’re part of the problem.
Then you’ll announced that none of them are good enough for you, and by gosh–might as well vote for the Democrat. Since it’s always best to be in the winners’ circle. Or you’ll just stay home, which amounts to the same thing.
November 9th, 2011 @ 3:18 pm
Your mind is in the gutter.
November 9th, 2011 @ 3:19 pm
You’ve achieved ignore status with me. Go away.
November 9th, 2011 @ 3:37 pm
rather than edit, let me correct the fact that the carl cannon, lauding his own expertise, does NOT work for fox. he is rcp’s washington editor.
my apologies, but i am not a compensated writer.
November 9th, 2011 @ 4:02 pm
In a country so poisoned by political correctness when accusers and the media can, without being laughed out of the venue say “These allegations can be considered together as a body of evidence.”, that presser would probably get Cain the Death Penalty.
This country has gone insane and Ace has joined the celebration.
November 9th, 2011 @ 4:03 pm
Which one of the five was that?
November 9th, 2011 @ 4:46 pm
There is a fundamental distinction between the charges against Cain and those against his accusers. The anonymous charges against Cain at least from first two accusers can not be “proven” either theoretically or actually or those allegations would have been proven at the time they occurred. The anonymous source’s charges or some of them can at least in theory be substantiated at some point. The allegations against Cain from the first two women were evidently so flimsy that their attorneys didn’t think filing them with EEOC would be useful as a cudgel in negotiating with the HR department. The third womyn was so upset she couldn’t speak for 15 years? This entire episode is based solely on old unsubstantiated allegations the only evidence of their truth is that they were made in the first place.
“you can’t make up in volume what you lack in truth”
November 9th, 2011 @ 5:34 pm
Karen Kraushaar and Joel Bennett have kind of a Cosmo Kramer- Jackie Chiles thing going on.
November 9th, 2011 @ 5:47 pm
[…] is not the same as saying that anyone who disagrees with me is a bad person. So I felt the need to clarify in a comment:Look, I’m not hating on Ace. I love Ace. I just think he’s as objective about Herman […]
November 9th, 2011 @ 6:06 pm
[…] -Former anonymous accuser Karen Kraushaar, it seems, has a penchant for suing her bosses and making outrageous demands. Stacy McCain has the details here. […]
November 9th, 2011 @ 7:01 pm
“You’ve achieved ignore status with me.”
Clearly, I haven’t.
November 9th, 2011 @ 7:28 pm
Stacy, I could treat it as a game if the end result wasn’t to screw over me, my family, my friends,and my country. That’s not on the free list.
November 10th, 2011 @ 1:41 am
So, hang Perry on mere suspicion, without so much as an anonymous source. Because that’s different, right?
November 10th, 2011 @ 1:43 am
You left out the Bildebergers and the Illuminati.
Just because people are smart enough not to leave fingerprints doesn’t mean they weren’t there, right? It could have been anybody! Wombat’s been quiet around here lately, you don’t suppose . . . ?
November 10th, 2011 @ 1:45 am
Maybe Perry initiated a secret CIA Black Op.
Get it? “Black Op.”
Just because it’s r*cist doesn’t mean it ain’t funny, right?
November 10th, 2011 @ 1:48 am
Know who you just don’t see around very much anymore? Liz Cheney. She used to be everywhere. But now it’s her daughter, then Dick with his book tour, but where is Liz?
I’d demand proof she isn’t behind this. She could be one of many who have it in for Cain over past pizzas.
November 10th, 2011 @ 1:49 am
Is that the story based on an anonymous source? I thought that was very bad? Or is it only bad when anonymous sources say something against Cain?
November 10th, 2011 @ 1:51 am
I told him it would be easier if he just drank the Black Walnut-flavored Kool Aid, but he said it doesn’t mix well.
November 10th, 2011 @ 1:52 am
So the Perry dude is now a leftist? For responding to a barb?
I expect Pat Buchanan to show up at any moment.
November 10th, 2011 @ 1:59 am
Just because you jumped the gun and picked a sure loser doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t sit back and see what develops. We’ll be voting soon enough, really too soon to have a full chance to evaluate the field or for others to enter – no thanks to Florida.
My state votes in January now, I reserve the right to make up my mind that day if not before. Because taking your time to make an important judgement when there is no rush to make it is only sensible and prudent.
But you are doing a GREAT job winning over converts to your guy.
November 10th, 2011 @ 2:01 am
And you know this because anything you haven’t seen anonymously sourced by the Associated Press didn’t happen?
November 10th, 2011 @ 2:02 am
Are you offering a bet because you have the pictures, or just conjectures?
How much do you wish to wager, and how long before we agree there are no pictures to come out?
November 10th, 2011 @ 2:10 am
Well, his lies the first few days justify the “lying” part – unless you believe that, with ten days notice of the coming report, he was still so shocked, bewildered, and flustered that he gave continually conflicting statements almost hour by hour, in which case he must just be a bumbling idiot, right? One phone call and his memory is refreshed, right? Or he couldn’t find any old colleagues from NRA in ten days?
The “horn-dog” comes from the several tales of propositioning women at different times and different places, including overseas, women who we have no evidence knew each other or had any contact or even much in common.
You see, my judgement wasn’t a snap one. I defended him vigorously the first day or so – until he started talking and giving several unbelievable stories which changed continually. At that point, he is lying. It no longer matters what this woman or that woman said. He is LYING. Of this there is NO doubt. The only question is whether he is hiding the facts or is just an idiot. Either way, he lost me with his response.
November 10th, 2011 @ 2:12 am
So how about these statements from Cain, which I copied from my comments on previous posts?:
No skeletons in my closet
Had no idea what story was about, couldn’t prepare
Accusations baseless
No settlement that I know of
Only incident I recall is height of wife story
Were settlements, but insignificant
Said no settlements because I thought they were “agreements” (Bill Clinton loves this one)
Settlements were normal severance pay, two-three months salary
High tech lynching
Briefed Curt Anderson on scandals when he worked for me in 2004, he works for Perry and leaked it
Maybe didn’t brief him
Perry still did it, maybe Anderson still did it
All are false, and I believe he knew they were false when he said them. Your mileage may vary. That’s your business.
I reserve the right to point out Clintonian defense tactics and other hypocrisies where I see them.
November 10th, 2011 @ 2:13 am
You made all this up out of thin air, of course.
November 10th, 2011 @ 2:30 am
Clearly you share an understanding of economics with those advocating consumption taxes. All assume the other reduced costs will virtually immediately be passed along the chain at every level, right to the consumer to compensate for the new tax.
100% baloney.
Reducing costs aren’t passed along that way in the real world. There is an overriding economic principle which trumps the theory of the Boortzians. The common appellation is “Rockets and Feathers,” and it is easily observed in your own area by watching the price of oil and the street price of gasoline.
The nature of the market for gasoline translates cost shifts of oil almost instantly because it is a replacement-cost business. The station isn’t worried so much about what they make on the gas in their tanks as how much it will cost to replace. That controls the pricing, for the most part. But even with instant price sensitivity, prices don’t change that way.
When wholesale costs rise, they are quickly passed along by everyone, because there is no reason to lose money when everyone has to go up. So prices rise as a Rocket. When they decline, though, prices don’t fall that fast. They edge down as each station enjoys its extra profits, cutting the price only enough to stay competitive, so it more resembles the Feather.
Most commodities and products aren’t even as instantly sensitive to changes in costs as oil and gas, so it could take months or years for savings to eventually be passed on. In the meantime, consumers pay more.
November 10th, 2011 @ 2:32 am
“They’re real, and they’re spectacular!”