One of my Tweets (@richgalen) as I watched the Herman Cain presser yesterday afternoon:
"I am now officially as over watching pressers re: #thehermancain as I am watching GOP primary debates"
[This is] the fourth one. I mean, the first one you say: "It never happened."The second one you say: "Well, something happened but it was a misunderstanding."
The third one you go: "Well, it happened but not the way you think."
Now you've got the fourth one, all you can say is: "I'm, going to rehab."
Mullfave Alex Castellanos was on CNN yesterday saying that Republicans needed to hold Herman Cain to the same standard they demanded of Bill Clinton. When I e-mailed him to say I thought that was a pretty good point he wrote back:
This is like Mel Brooks in The Producers. Herman never thought he'd get this far. The damned show was supposed to be fun, then fold!Herman Cain will not survive this.
Meanwhile up the road in University Park, Pennsylvania a story has been unfolding which makes all the other violations by every major university in every sport look like they were caught stepping on the line in hopscotch.
The overview is a former assistant Penn State football coach, Jerry Sandusky, was, according to ESPN.com "arrested Saturday on charges of sexually abusing eight boys over 15 years."
Reports are that as many as three times people walked into the men's football locker room and saw Sandusky abusing a boy.
Penn State head coach Joe Paterno was informed of one of those events by a teaching assistant who saw it. Paterno, as required, reported it to university officials, but did nothing else. Nor did the university officials at the time.
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Two of those officials were indicted on charges of perjury for lying to a grand jury. Paterno was not named or charged, but although he did was legally required, he may not have done what was morally required which was to follow up and demand the police be informed.
As we have seen too many times at major universities, "protecting the program" trumps everything else.
Like the women who are popping up like jonquils in the springtime in the Herman Cain case, look for many more young men to report that they, too, have been abused by coaches and others involved with high level athletic programs at major universities across the nation.
Before this is over, the Vatican is going to look like a safe haven.
Joe Paterno will not survive this.
Finally we have the curious case of the open microphone at the G-20 meeting in, as CNN.com reported "the French resort of Cannes."
The G-20 is a meeting of the finance ministers of the world's major economies. Back in 1973 the finance ministers of the U.S., U.K., France, Germany and Japan met in Washington. That became known as the G-5. Canada and Italy were added to make it the G-7. Russia wanted to come so it became the G-8.
At this rate, in a few years the G-20 will simply be known as the General Assembly.
Anyway, it seems that U.S. President Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy were chatting each other up waiting for a joint news conference to begin. As Obama doesn't speak French and Sarkozy is not known as being fluent in English the simultaneous translators were on the job.
In order for the translators to translate, they have to be able to hear what the participants are saying so the microphones were on. What no one realized was, the feed into the press room was also turned on and the reporters could also hear what Obama and Sarkozy were saying.
They, like two schoolgirls at the cool kid's lunch table, were talking about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And, they were talking bad about him.
Sarkozy said, ""I can't stand him. He's a liar."
Obama, not wanting to be tossed out of the Cool Kids Club said, "You're tired of him; what about me? I have to deal with him every day."
Here's the part that bothers me. The American reporters who overheard this exchange decided not to report it as it was a "private conversation." It wasn't until a French website reported the discussion that it made its way back to America.
The press corps will survive this, but it seems to me that those who charge the U.S. media is continuing to protect Obama have a stronger case today than they did last week.
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