Républicains 2012: le cirque est en ville!

Avez-vous l'impression que les républicains font tout leur possible pour se tirer dans le pied? Le pire de la politique...

"The slugfest between Herman Cain and Rick Perry's presidential campaigns continued into the night Wednesday.

Cain's campaign manager renewed charges that Perry's team leaked a story about allegations of sexual harassment made against Cain in the 1990s.

"The American people deserve better than these underhanded tactics by the Perry campaign. And Rick Perry owes Mr. Cain's family an apology. A desperate candidate is trying to steal the Republican nomination away from Mr. Cain," Cain's chief of staff Mark Block wrote in a memo to reporters.

But Block gave himself a bit of wiggle room by hedging on the claim.

The Perry campaign "almost certainly provided" the original story to Politico, Block wrote.

In a Fox News interview on Wednesday afternoon, Block had said he was "absolutely" accusing Perry's campaign of leaking the story to Politico, and said "the actions of the Perry campaign are despicable."

Cain, the former CEO of Godfather's Pizza and of the National Restaurant Association, himself originally made the charge of leaking the story against Perry adviser Curt Anderson -- who worked on Cain's unsuccessful 2004 Senate campaign and who knew about the allegations then, according to Cain -- in an interview with Forbes Magazine earlier in the day.

The Perry campaign denied the charge immediately Wednesday, as did Anderson in a written statement. Late in the evening the Texas governor's campaign communications director, Ray Sullivan, sent out a new statement to reporters accusing Cain and Block of "reckless and false" behavior.

"For a candidate and campaign claiming to be victims of unfounded and unproven accusations, they are awfully quick to hurl unfounded accusations themselves. Contrary to the Cain campaign's false accusations, there is not one shred of evidence that any member of the Perry campaign had anything to do with the recent stories regarding Herman Cain -- because it isn't true. We first learned of the Cain accusations when we read the story in the news," Sullivan said.

"And while hurling unfounded accusations may serve as a temporary distraction from Mr Cain's mounting troubles, we hope we can all get on with the serious business of selecting the best candidate to defeat Barack Obama," he said.

But the Perry campaign also engaged in finger-pointing of its own. Sullivan told CBS News that Mitt Romney's campaign might have been responsible for the leak.

"I wouldn't put it past them," Sullivan said, adding that the NRA "is a big Romney donor."

"There are much closer connections between the Restaurant Association, Cain and the Romney camp than there are with us," he said.

The Romney campaign denied the charge. And Sullivan's claim flies in the face of the political calculus. As long as Cain remains near the top of the polls, it is hard for Perry to regain lost ground and close on Romney. Cain's success benefits Romney by keeping Perry down."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/02/herman-cain-rick-perry-mark-block_n_1072943.html