It’s been a rough for weeks for Herman Cain. Sure he is leading in the polls, but his life as of late seems more fit for the tabloids than the Times.
Thankfully the GOP hopeful offered up a soundbyte this afternoon in Washington to deter the press away from his amounting sex scandals and instead focus on his bizarre relationship with Charles and David Koch.
From a stage in Washington DC this afternoon, former pizzaman Herman Cain addressed the audience of the Defending the American Dream Summit with what he called a “breaking news announcement.”
The candidate didn’t acknowledge the sexual harassment charges which have ballooned like dough in an aged brick oven this month; Cain didn’t discuss his outburst in suburban Virginia from earlier in the week either, in which he erupted on the media with a scornful attack; nor did Cain touch on his recent quip where he said America should stop China from obtaining nuclear weapons–something they have had for half a century.
The candidate has been cautious to keep his wife out of politics during his campaign, with Gloria Cain even cancelling an appearance on Fox News’ On the Record program originally scheduled for this evening.
Now, however, Cain is ready to talk family.
Following a New York Times story suggesting that Cain is in bed with the conservative billionaire Koch Brothers, the candidate announced at today’s conference held by Americans for Prosperity, “I am the Koch brothers’ brother from another mother.”
To the conservative crowd in the nation’s capitol, the words resonated with more of a message than a 999 rant nine times over. The audience erupted in applause. David Koch was in attendance in the first row.
Pausing for a break in the audience’s rowdy response, Cain reiterated the late-breaking, stop-the-presses story he had just announced. The connection could be viewed like the opening of a Pandora’s pizzabox of troubles, but Cain waged on.
“Yes, I’m their brother from another mother. And proud of it!”
Cain didn’t discuss yesterday’s Times article about how the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity had allegedly jump-started Cain’s campaign with illegal contributions. He was mere feet from David Koch himself and other AFP execs. By acknowledging the ties between the two parties, Cain could be digging himself deeper into a hole that has been dug by sex scandals and flip-flopping in recent weeks.
That doesn’t matter to Cain, however. “The reason that I’m running for president, folks, is that I want to unite the United States of America, not divide the United States of America,” he said
DC-based watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission over just how exactly Cain is creating that union, hoping that the group with launch a probe into Cain’s campaign contributions. As a nonprofit, Americans for Prosperity is prohibited from participating in political activity. David Koch had co-founded the organization though and had on its payroll at one time Mr. David Block, the cigarette smoking aid to Cain that famously appeared in a recent campaign ad.
According to Scot Ross, the executive director of One Wisconsin News, the ties are obvious to show that the Koch brother and Cain are in cahoots.
“It’s pretty clear his political messaging was developed in the Americans for Prosperity laboratory,” Ross told The New York Times yesterday of Cain’s agenda.
Last week Cain had acknowledged that he did have a lot in common with the goals of Americans for Prosperity. “I already had the same mission — free-market principles,” he told the Times. From Washington this afternoon, Cain touched on the connection that he says the media has blown out of proportion.
“They make it sound like that we had time to go fishing together; hunting together; skiing together; golfing together,” said Cain in Washington.
It’s really not all that weird if its family, right? For Cain’s sake, let’s hope there is a FEC loophole that allows contributions from siblings. Otherwise today’s remark could bring his campaign, stained with scandal as of late, to a crushing halt.