Ex-boyfriend of Cain accuser steps forward

Sharon Bialek's former boyfriend said yesterday the then-couple spent an evening with Herman Cain in the 1990s. That countered the GOP presidential candidate's earlier statements that he never met the woman who has accused him of inappropriate sexual behavior more than a decade ago.

"Sharon indeed did meet and spend time with Mr. Cain," Victor Jay Zuckerman said.

In turn, Cain repeated his assertion that he had never met his accuser.

"I'm standing by what I have said," Cain said in Green Bay, Wis.

Hours after Zuckerman stepped forward to give his account, Gloria Cain defended her husband in a television interview as turmoil over allegations of sexual impropriety while he led the National Restaurant Association stretched into a third week.

"I know the person that he is, and I know that the person that they were talking about, I don't know who that person is. We've been married for 43 years," Mrs. Cain told Fox News. "If I haven't seen parts of that person in 43 years, I don't think that I'm that simple that I'd miss something that significant."

During her interview, she acknowledged "troubles" in their marriage but also said would not be "the little woman at home" who blindly stood by her husband.

"I will not be one of those people who will stand up on stage with a smile and knowing that you were wrong. You know not to do anything because you'll be there by yourself," she said.

Cain, trying to get back to a business-as-usual campaign schedule, gave an interview to the editorial board of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel but stumbled through a question on Libya. The video ricocheted around the internet.

After saying he did not agree with President Obama's handing of the revolt against longtime Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, Cain said he would have taken similar steps. But he hesitated before answering.

"I got to go back, see, got all this stuff twirling around in my head," Cain said, shifting in his chair and crossing his legs during a 10-second silence.

Asked later about the moment, Cain dismissed it and told reporters: "I paused so I could gather my thoughts." An aide later said Cain hadn't had enough sleep.

It was another distraction for the candidate just as he was looking to get beyond questions about his behavior while he led the restaurant association more than a decade ago. The allegations have dogged his campaign for the GOP nomination and sent his poll numbers slipping seven weeks before the leadoff caucuses in Iowa.

Cain has denied wrongdoing and vowed to stay in the presidential race.

Even so, he has been unable to put the controversy behind him.

Zuckerman, a Louisiana pediatrician, corroborated some of Bialek's story - with attorney Gloria Allred at his side - just as the firestorm around Cain seemed to be subsiding since the first disclosures on Oct. 30 rocked Cain's campaign. There hadn't been any new information disclosed in the past week about Cain or the accusations, and plans for a joint news conference by his accusers seemed increasingly unlikely.

A week ago, Cain said he didn't remember Bialek and had never seen her until she went public with allegations that Cain groped her when she sought his help getting a job after the trade group he led had fired her.

"I saw Ms. Allred and her client yesterday in that news conference for the very first time," Cain said after that event. "My first response in my mind and reaction was, I don't even know who this woman is. Secondly, I didn't recognize the name at all."