Woman accuses Cain of bold sexual advance

Leaving little to the imagination, a Chicago-area woman on Monday accused Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain of making a crude sexual advance more than a decade ago when she was seeking his help finding a job.

"Come clean," Sharon Bialek challenged Cain at a news conference in New York at which she described herself as "a face and a voice" to support other accusers who have so far remained anonymous.

Cain pointedly denied her charges late Monday and said he would fight the claims head-on at a news conference Tuesday afternoon in Phoenix.

"There is not an ounce of truth to all these allegations," he said on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" I'm going to set the record straight.

He said he got angry and disgusted as he watched the account he said was "totally fabricated." Bialek's nationally broadcast appearance on cable television marked a new and -- for Cain -- dangerous turn in a controversy that he has struggled for more than a week to shed. An upstart in the presidential race, Cain shot to the top of public opinion polls in recent weeks and emerged, however temporarily, as the main conservative challenger to Mitt Romney.

Accompanied by her prominent lawyer, Gloria Allred, Bialek accused Cain of making a sexual advance one night in mid-July 1997, when she had traveled to Washington to have dinner with him in hopes he could help her find work.

She said the two had finished dinner and were in a car for what she thought was a ride to an office building.

"Instead of going into the offices he suddenly reached over and he put his hand on my leg, under my skirt toward my genitals," she said.

"He also pushed my head toward his crotch," she added.

Bialek said she told her boyfriend, an unidentified pediatrician, as well as a longtime male friend about the episode.

None of Cain's other accusers has provided details as graphic as Bialek's account. But Joel Bennett, an attorney who represents one of them, said her details were "similar in nature" to what his client encountered.

Allred, a prominent sex discrimination attorney with Democratic ties, moved preemptively to blunt any attacks on Bialek's motives. She described her client as a registered Republican, a single mother and a woman with a long and successful career.

She also said Bialek "could have attempted to sell her story but chose not to do so," and knew that by stepping forward, she would receive scrutiny.

Court records indicate Bialek had financial difficulties a decade ago when she filed for bankruptcy protection and reported $4,500 in unpaid rent and $13,000 in outstanding credit card bills.

Current property records show she owns a house on an acre of land in a Chicago suburb.Some of Cain's allies immediately made a target of Allred, a Democratic campaign donor, rather than focusing any anger on Cain's accuser.

Georgia state Sen. Joshua McKoon, who has endorsed Cain, accused Allred of "carnival theatrics" fueled by a partisan agenda.

"Her involvement makes it clear that it's a political smear job orchestrated by those on the left because there is nothing more terrifying than Herman Cain as the Republican nominee," the Republican lawmaker said.

But Doug Heye, a political consultant who is unaligned in the GOP race, said Bialek's allegations "are different because they involve a name and specific details."

He said Allred's involvement "is going to make some people disbelieve the charges out of hand because of the sideshow she creates. But Herman Cain has to be clear and convincing in his response."

Even before Bialek stepped forward, presidential rival Jon Huntsman and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour had publicly urged Cain to address the sexual harassment allegations in greater detail.

After spending much of last week denying accusations, he told reporters who sought to question him Saturday night, "don't even go there."

According to lawyer and client, Bialek was employed for parts of 1996 and 1997 at the Educational Foundation of the National Restaurant Association, an industry trade group that Cain headed at the time. She said she first met him at an organization convention, interacting with him several times over the course of a few days.

After she was fired from her job about a month later, she said her boyfriend told her, "Herman seems to think highly of you. Why don't you contact him?"

That led to a trip to Washington about a month later, where she recalled that Cain upgraded her hotel room to a suite and made his unwanted sexual advance in the car.

She said she asked Cain what he was doing and recalled he replied, "You said you want a job, right?"

Given her experience and those of other accusers, "I want you, Mr. Cain, to come clean," she said. "Just admit what you did. Admit you were inappropriate to people."

She added: "Mr. Cain, I implore you: Make this right so that you and the country can move forward and focus on the real issues at hand."

The denial from Cain's campaign was swift and as unequivocal as the allegation.

"Just as the country finally begins to refocus on our crippling $15 trillion national debt and the unacceptably high unemployment rate, now activist celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred is bringing forth more false accusations against the character of Republican front-runner Herman Cain," it said.

"Mr. Cain has never harassed anyone."

Bialek, in an interview later Monday on CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight, said she had hoped Cain would announce a press conference after her statement to apologize to her. But instead she learned he issued the stern denial.

"I know what happened, and he knows what happened," Bialek said. "One of my whole objectives was to give him the opportunity to come forward, to redeem himself, say, `Hey, I'm sorry. I did this. It happened. And let's move forward. And it is unfortunate. I'm very disappointed that he didn't take the lead in this."

She said in the interview that she was prepared for an expected media onslaught, but more concerned about how it would affect her teenage son. She said she wants him to know she "did something for women" by speaking publicly.

When asked if Cain should be president, Bialek said: "I don't think we can have anyone in the White House who is unable to tell the truth."

Before Bialek first stepped to the microphone, the allegations involved two women who had worked at the National Restaurant Association, both of whom filed sexual harassment complaints.

A third woman told The Associated Press last week that she considered filing a workplace complaint against Cain over what she deemed sexually suggestive remarks and gestures that included a private invitation to his corporate apartment.

A former pollster for the restaurant association has said he witnessed yet another episode involving a fourth woman.

Allred has represented several high-profile clients, including Amber Frey, a witness against convicted California killer Scott Peterson. Allred also represented a woman whom news reports accused of having an affair with golfer Tiger Woods.

"I consider sexual harassment the No. 1 problem in the workplace," she told the AP in an interview last week. "It denies equal opportunity in the workforce. If (women) don't protest it, they'll have to continue to suffer."

Wisconsin union curbs head for final vote amid protests

The Senate bill severely restricts collective bargaining for tends of thousands of the state's public worker unions and increases their health care and pension contributions.

The measure has prompted massive demonstrations in the state capital by the bill's opponents and triggered a wave of recall campaigns targeting both the governor's supporters and opponents in the legislature.
On Wednesday night in the Capitol, the ground floor and first floor appeared nearly as full as they were during the first days of the demonstrations more than three weeks ago, and protesters stayed in the Capitol overnight, defiantly chanting "recall" and "Whose house? Our house!"
Outside the Assembly chamber, Barca allowed protesters to fill out forms listing themselves as witnesses to a violation of the state's open meetings laws, stemming from the Republicans' earlier conference committee meeting.
The AFL-CIO union said Senate Republicans and Walker had exercised "the nuclear option to ram through their bill attacking Wisconsin's working families in the dark of night" and called for rallies today in Madison and around the state.
If the plan is approved as expected in Wisconsin, a number of other states where Republicans swept to victory in the 2010 elections could follow. Legislatures including those in Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Idaho, Tennessee, and Kansas have already been working on union curbs of their own.
The stakes are high for labor because more than a third of U.S. public employees such as teachers, police and civil service workers belong to unions while only 6.9 percent of private sector workers are unionized. Unions are the biggest single source of funding for the Democratic party.

Wisconsin's Walker accuses Senate Democrats of blocking negotiations

A chance to end the legislative standoff that has paralyzed the Wisconsin government for weeks seemed to slip away Monday after Gov. Scott Walker (R) accused the leader of the state Senate Democrats of blocking negotiations to end the impasse.

After some of the 14 Senate Democrats who fled the state to block a vote on the governor's proposal to sharply curtail collective-bargaining rights for government workers in Wisconsin signaled their possible willingness to return, Walker called a news conference at which he accused the legislators of being the biggest impediments to ending the stalemate.

The governor said members of his staff seemed to be making progress in negotiations with some of the absent Democrats, only to have Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller stand in the way. He also accused Miller of being in the pocket of organized labor, whose leaders Walker blames for escalating the conflict into a national drama.

"Senator Miller is misleading the public, just like he misled us," Walker said, adding that Miller was also "misleading his own caucus."

The governor's comments came after at least one Democrat said Monday morning that he and his colleagues were on the verge of returning to the state because they were sure that voters would consider the passage of Walker's "budget repair" measure an overreach that would quickly weaken Republicans' hold on power in Wisconsin.

But the governor's comments later in the day seemed only to deepen the Democrats' resolve to stay away until he gives in on his demand to end collective bargaining for public employees.

"The bottom line is the governor is still intent on breaking the backs of workers' unions and assaulting the middle class," state Sen. Robert Jauch said after Walker's comments to reporters. "You don't go to peace talks with a grenade. And that's what he threw at his press conference."

In a statement, Miller said: "I would hope as we move forward the Governor and Republican leaders will spend less time at press conferences and more time on the phone or at meetings pursuing a resolution to our differences."

The fight over Walker's bill has drawn national attention as labor leaders and many independent analysts say it would have the effect of killing public employee unions in the state. Similar proposals have surfaced in other states, including Indiana and Ohio.

In Wisconsin, the measure has ignited a firestorm of protests, and tens of thousands of pro-union demonstrators have descended on the capitol in Madison over the past few weeks to oppose it.

If the exiled Democrats return, Republicans - who hold a majority in the Senate - are expected to pass the measure. Walker has said the would give him and local leaders the power to cut the pay of public employees and allow the state to close its budget deficit without raising taxes.

On Friday, the governor began the process of laying off 1,500 state employees, notifying unions that pink slips will go out in 15 days. He also said that layoffs would occur in a month if the bill is not passed.

In the past, Walker has said that his measure to do away with most collective-bargaining rights is non-negotiable - a posture that apparently has hurt him in public opinion surveys. In a series of polls, voters in Wisconsin and nationwide say they oppose the governor's attack on collective bargaining, even as people agree that public employees should sacrifice some of their pay to help cash-strapped states balance their budgets. State employees in Wisconsin have offered to make significant pay concessions.

In his news conference, Walker reiterated his stance that the measure is not open to compromise, but he added that his staff had been in discussion with Democrats about how the "mechanics" of the measure would work, to perhaps make it more acceptable. Although those talks have at times been promising, he said, they have been frustrated by Democratic leadership.

Jauch said the bill should eventually receive a vote but he did not guess when the Democrats would return to allow it.

"It was an almost spontaneous event when we left Wisconsin," he said. "We always planned to come back. Never in our wildest dreams could we imagine this historical outpouring of support from the public."