We already know Herman Cain is not telling the truth about one thing: “I have never acted inappropriately with anyone. Period.” Cain would be the first human male of whom this was true.
Cain may not actually be lying. “Inappropriate” is judgment call, after all, and Cain has his own definition. But even if Cain has never sexually harassed or assaulted a single woman, his obviously overnarrow definition of “inappropriate” raises a red flag in the light of accusations involving five women. The central question at this point is one that bears directly on his ability to lead: How prudent is Herman Cain?
Even if there were no gropes, no propositions and no explicit talk, serious questions have been raised about Cain’s behavior that he has neither confirmed nor denied: Did he go into hotel rooms at night alone with women? Did he have female subordinates spend the night at his corporate apartment? Did he regularly wine and dine with female subordinates late into the night in Washington, where he had a corporate apartment? Did he ask young women to dinner, just the two of them?
A married man could conceivably engage in all these behaviors without bad intentions and never actually being unfaithful. But if Cain regularly put himself in these circumstances, he has shown a striking lack of prudence.
Everybody behaves inappropriately at some point. More worrisome is the guy who doesn’t understand he’s being inappropriate.
The most enlightening story about Cain might be the one that’s getting the least attention. A woman who once organized a speech by Cain told Washington Examiner Congressional Correspondent Susan Ferrechio that Cain had “asked her to help arrange a dinner date for him with a female audience member following a speech he delivered nine years ago.”
The woman says that when she deflected this request, Cain asked her to dine with him instead.
Neither of these actions would be considered harassment in a legal sense. Neither the woman who spoke to The Examiner nor the audience member were subordinates of Cain, so he didn’t violate any workplace ethics. But did Cain think about how this request would sound to the audience member? Did he worry about the appearance of impropriety? Did he worry about the risk of temptation when alone with a woman, late at night, after a couple bottles of wine?
Reporters aren’t asking Cain these questions. I suspect one reason is that prudence is among the most outdated of the virtues. Erecting safeguards against temptations is seen as old-fashioned, and is an affront to the modern notion of humans as masters of themselves. Kant and Descartes, after all, taught us that mature, responsible adults need only one dictum: Do what is right.
Cain, a conservative, should know better. Maybe if he were a “career politician” he would have gained some lessons in prudence from his colleagues’ shortcomings.
Cain’s rival and fellow Georgian, Newt Gingrich, illustrates the risks of imprudent behavior. A 1995 Vanity Fair profile of then-Speaker Gingrich discussed his marital travails. At the time, Gingrich was married to his second wife, Marianne.
Writer Gail Sheehy noted: “Since Newt became a national celebrity, he has no shortage of female admirers [including] Callista Bisek, a former aide in Congressman Steve Gunderson’s office who has been a favorite breakfast companion.” Four years later, Gingrich divorced Marianne. Today Newt is married to Callista, who admitted that she began sleeping with Newt during his marriage to Marianne — and while Gingrich was spearheading the impeachment of Bill Clinton for lying about his Oval Office affair with a woman half his age.
Cain could also learn something from the faith Gingrich now professes. After Confession, in order to obtain absolution, a Catholic must truly desire to avoid sinning again in the future, but he also must resolve “to avoid the near occasion of sin.”
In secular terms: Putting yourself in a position of temptation is sometimes as bad as succumbing to temptation.
Prudence is not merely a strategy to stay out of trouble. It is a virtue in itself. And it’s one we particularly need in our leaders because they inevitably face moments of anger, despair, impatience and temptation. To make good decisions, a leader needs to guard against these pitfalls.
Herman Cain denies he is guilty of harassment. But the details he hasn’t denied yet have given us plenty of reason to doubt he has sufficient prudence.
Timothy P.Carney, The Examiner’s senior political columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears Monday and Thursday, and his stories and blog posts appear on ExaminerPolitics.com.
