"Here we go again."
That's what Herman Cain said his wife, Gloria, uttered in response to the latest accusation of sexual wrongdoing aimed at him: that he carried on a "long-term" romantic affair with a woman. "It is someone that I know, who is an acquaintance, that I thought was a friend," he told CNN on Monday, pre-empting the woman's own revelations on TV. Cain denies the affair.
The cable network's website had more details:
An Atlanta businesswoman accused GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain of having had an affair with her that lasted 13 years, an Atlanta television station reported Monday.
"I was aware that he was married, and I was also aware that I was involved in a very inappropriate situation relationship," the woman — identified by the station as Ginger White — told WAGA.
The candidate upstaged his accuser's announcement, telling CNN a few minutes beforehand that her assertion was coming and was false. "This individual is going to accuse me of an affair for an extended period of time," Cain said on CNN's "Situation Room."
Wouldn't it be a crazy turn of events if allegations of a consensual affair end up doing what far more troubling accusations of sexual harassment haven't: end Herman Cain's candidacy once and for all?
Sheryl Huggins Salomon is senior editor-at-large of The Root and a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based editorial consultant. Follow her on Twitter.