It's full-on bedlam in the Republican presidential primary race as Herman Cain flat-out accused Rick Perry of starting a smear campaign against him and fueling the sexual harassment allegations against Cain that have surfaced.
Cain, a Georgia businessman who has surged to the lead in many polls, claims Texas Gov. Perry is orchestrating a covert assault to destroy his presidential candidacy.
He made the accusations personally yesterday.
As he sought to contain the fallout that consumed his campaign for a third day, Cain shifted his blame from the news media to Perry, the one-time frontrunner.
He accused a top political adviser to Perry of leaking details of one allegation, saying the adviser learned of it while working for Cain’s failed 2004 Senate bid.
“We now know and have been able to trace it back to the Perry campaign that stirred this up, in order to discredit me and slow us down,” Cain said last night.
A spokesman for Perry called that suggestion “reckless and false,” and denied that the campaign was the source of the disclosures against Cain this week.
No word on whether Perry was drunk during that campaign speech.
A source close to Mitt Romney's campaign also denied any involvement. What do you think? Is Cain really being smeared, or just trying to deflect attention?