In a cryptic comment made at National Journal’s Election 2012 Preview event Tuesday, Mark Block, Herman Cain’s campaign manager, made reference to an incident involving Cain and a receptionist for a radio talk show host.
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Asked by panel moderator Beth Reinhard whether he could guarantee that there’s not more information forthcoming about his past, Block began his answer with a blanket denial, followed by what seemed to be a description of an unreported recent incident involving Cain.
“Mr. Cain has never sexually harassed anybody. Period. End of story,” he said. “As the hours go by, it’s interesting that we even hear from a radio talk show host of Iowa that a receptionist thought that Mr. Cain’s comments were inappropriate.”
POLITICO has learned that the incident involved a staffer for Steve Deace, an influential conservative talk radio host who hosts a nationally syndicated show in Des Moines. And Deace says he did take offense.
Deace, who penned an opinion piece critical of Cain earlier this month, told POLITICO in an email that Cain said "awkward" and "inappropriate" things to the staff at his station.
"Like awkward/inappropriate things he's said to two females on my staff, that the fact the guy's wife is never around...that's almost always a warning flag to me," Deace wrote. "But I chose to leave that stuff out [of the opinion piece] and make it about his record and not the personal stuff."
Pressed about what exactly Cain said to the employees of his show, Deace responded by describing how he himself treats his staff.
"Many a man has been done in by the inability to control his urges,” Deace wrote. “I am no different and just as vulnerable as any other man, which is why I put safeguards around me and hold myself accountable to my wife and other men in my life. Especially since I have very talented employees that happen to be women. I go out of my way to treat them like my sisters. For example, I wouldn't tell them or any other woman I am not married to nor related to how pretty she is."
Asked how Block would know that the women at the station were uneasy about Cain’s behavior, Deace said he didn’t know.
“No idea, to the best of my knowledge neither me nor anyone on my staff has ever spoken to Block,” said the talk show host.
Deace said he and his staff had no other comment on Block’s remark.
Before the National Journal panel began, POLITICO had asked Cain's campaign for a comment on Deace's charges, but the campaign did not respond.
Formerly with the venerable WHO radio station in Des Moines, Deace played a pivotal role in Mike Huckabee’s 2008 Iowa caucus victory. Huckabee ran up huge margins in central Iowa, then Deace’s market, on his way to a nine-point caucus win. Deace, a conservative Christian, has been something of a thorn in the side of establishment Republicans, using his perch to needle GOP politicians from Mitt Romney to Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad.
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