Are they really printing this?

I opened CNN's website today to see what might be the worst political column ever from Ruben Navarette.  Admittedly, I don't know much about the Herman Cain sexual harassment allegations-- but what this story suggests is that it's "time to stop accusing black conservatives of sexual harassment" and that Cain and Clarence Thomas (in the context of the Anita Hill allegations during his confirmation to the Supreme Court) came under attack for was... daring to "think outside the box" and "be black conservatives."  I think these two paragraphs sum it up.


Many Americans look back at Thomas' confirmation hearings and think they were mainly about accusations that Thomas directed sexually blunt language at Hill. But for me, what they were really about wasn't dirty talk as much as dirty politics. Black conservatives ask us to think outside the box, and so -- as some people see it -- they're asking for trouble.


The hearings were also about freedom -- the freedom to indulge in independent thought, even if it means biting the hands of liberal benefactors. You heard that criticism leveled at Thomas, who opposes affirmative action even though -- according to his critics -- he benefited from it. And the public humiliation that Thomas suffered remains a prime example of the liberal establishment trying to put someone in his place.


Really...? The reason Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment was his race and his political party...? Shouldn't the first question be, you know, whether Clarence Thomas and Herman Cain actually sexually abused anyone?? Is that a radical idea? Now, if both of these men were demonstrably falsely accused, we might be on to something.  But that's hardly the case.  In Cain's case, he paid a settlement, and in Thomas's case, while the truth hasn't necessarily been discovered, Hill passed a polygraph test while Thomas refused to take one.

And sexual harassment allegations, just in case they forgot, are hardly unique to black conservatives.  Anyone remember Bill Clinton? He spent years publicly fighting Paula Jones's sexual harassment allegation (one which had no more basis than it appears the one against Cain, and less than the one against Thomas), and was ultimately, you know, impeached (though not for that).  No one's suggesting that Bill Clinton was a great husband, or a model of good behavior.  It's well known that he was (and probably still is) a notorious skirt chaser who regularly cheated on his wife.  But, at the end of the day, the only thing he probably did that was illegal was lie to a grand jury about a consensual sexual relationship... and he almost got booted from office for that one.

The first thing we need to be looking at isn't whether people are accusing black conservatives like Herman Cain and Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment because they're black conservatives... we need to be looking at whether those accusations are, you know, true or false.  If they're false, that's one thing.  If they're true, well, the author seems to suggest that it's somehow OK because, um, the accused are black and conservative?