Will the GOP hold accused sexual assaulter Herman Cain to the "Clinton Standard"?

As John points out, you can never quite tell if Republicans are going to let a scandal sink one of their own.

But the GOP treatment of Herman Cain needs to be judged according to their treatment of Bill Clinton, who they impeached over a consensual affair. Neither Monica Lewinsky nor Hilary Clinton ever made a public complaint about the sex, so why was it ever anyone else's business?

If Sharon Bialek's claims are true, she is doing her party a big favor by stepping forward now (she's a Republican). One of the reasons that the GOP suffered such devastating losses in the 2006 midterms was the Mark Foley scandal that broke only days before the election. Then- GOP Speaker Dennis Hastert's attempts to achieve a cover-up compounded the disgust the public already felt for the failed Bush administration and the war in Iraq. Better to have bad news come out now than a week before the election.

Until today, the only indication of the seriousness of the allegations against Cain came from the fact that the National Restaurant Association had paid a significant sum in at least one settlement. But did that really mean that the harassment was serious, or even real? (After all, settlements are sometimes paid simply because they're cheaper than litigation, even if you're innocent.) If Sharon Bialek's claims are true, the complaints were quite obviously about much more than some mildly inappropriate banter. It was not so much an allegation of sexual harassment as sexual assault.  And that makes these allegations far more serious than anything of which Bill Clinton was accused.

Another angle on the scandal that does not seem to have been considered is the fact that Cain is an associate minister at a Baptist church, and has made his faith a significant part of his campaign. I have no objection to consensual adultery: If it improves his presidential job performance, let him recruit a harem via Craig's List, for all I care. Hypocrisy is another matter entirely. If a politician is preaching family values by day and philandering by night then throw him to the wolves. In this case, Cain is a minister and he is quite literally preaching family values, both in church and on the campaign trail.