At the end of my post this morning, I wondered if the Right would rally around Herman Cain following Politico's allegations of sexual harassment, as if to replay the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings. Via Real Clear Politics, we have our answer. Here is Rush Limbaugh as he defends Cain and attacks the Politico story as an "unconscionable racially charged attack":
The Politico and the mainstream media has launched an unconscionable, racially stereotypical attack on an independent, self-reliant conservative black because for him that behavior is not allowed. […]
Anything goes, as far as they're [liberals] concerned, and they cannot allow a black or an Hispanic to rise to the top of a political establishment that is not Democrat.
This builds on Ann Coulter's claim that liberals are "terrified of strong, conservative, black men," which was echoed by the Washington Times in a column by "Middle Class Guy" Peter Bella, "Herman Cain's detractors are racists …They do not want to see a real, accomplished, and successful Black man in the White House. They are satisfied that we elected a Black, any Black, to the highest office in the land. He's just a symbol to them anyway; slavery is over, racism is over, White guilt is over, let's move on."
In retrospect, I should have expected this reaction. I've said this before, but in addition to eerything else-including an easy path to racial absolution-Cain gives conservatives a chance to rebut accusations of racism, and turn them around. It's liberals that are the real racists, which is why they can't help but attack him. To conservatives, allegations of sexual harassment – no matter how substantiated-are just another tool in the liberal bag of racist tricks.
