Herman Cain must truly have a lot of people worried.

Yesterday, high-profile camera-hogging attorney Gloria Allred introduced a 4th contestant in the brand new game show, “Herman Cain Sexually Harassed Me”.

According to Contestant #4, Sharon Bialek, who appeared in a joint Press Conference with Attorney Allred, Herman Cain reached under her skirt and pushed her head toward his lap in 1997, when she went to him, seeking his help in landing a job.

The alleged incident is supposed to have happened in a car as they were on their way to what she thought was an office building.  Cain was still president of the National Restaurant Association at the time.

According to Bialek, when she asked Cain what he was doing, he said:

You want a job, right?

Bailek says that she did not file a workplace complaint at the time because she was unemployed.

Bialek also said:

I want you, Mr Cain, to come clean… just admit what you did, admit you were inappropriate to people.

The Cain Camp replied that he never sexually harassed anyone.

Who is this woman?  Well, besides the fact that she looks like Stifler’s Mom in the American Pie Movies, per ABC’s Chicago affiliate, WLS-TV, Channel 7:

The Chicago-area woman has an extensive corporate and personal history in the area going back to the early 1990s.

It was her hope for a new job that Bialek says brought her to Herman Cain that day in 1997. Bialek’s resume and a trail of public records indicates that changing jobs has been a regular occurrence for the Chicagoan. She has worked for at least nine different employers over the past 17 years and appears to have struggled financially.

The public record on Bialek begins in 1991 when she filed personal bankruptcy for the first time while living in Des Plaines.

Between 1993 and 1996 Bialek worked for four different companies in promotion and marketing positions.

In 1996, and part of 1997, Bialek was at the National Restaurant Association. After being let go from that job in mid-1997, she says that she went to Washington, D.C., to meet with Cain, president of the association, because she needed a job.

In 1999, Bialek’s son Nicholas was born and a paternity lawsuit was filed by the father, a media executive.

In 2001 came Bialek’s second personal bankruptcy, filed after sizable legal bills. That year she was hired by WGN radio where she worked until 2004 when she took a marketing job and then a job at WCKG radio.

Along the way, according to her attorney, Bialek also held positions with Revlon and Easter Seals.

Bialek currently lives in Mundelein with fiance Mark Harwood.

“She’s of the same political persuasion as Herman Cain,” Harwood said. “There was no money on the table to go and have an interview. This is truly about an American girl who’s got a big heart and wants to do the right thing.”

Yeah.  14 years later…

Well…how about Gloria Allred?  I’m sure that this respected member of the legal profession has nothing but the warm glow of altruism guiding her…Yeah, right.

Per answers.com:

She has achieved notoriety and name recognition through staged press conferences and demonstrations publicizing and dramatizing the cause she is championing at the time. She also accepts controversial cases that naturally attract media attention. During her years in practice, she has successfully sued Los Angeles County to stop the practice of shackling and chaining pregnant inmates during labor and delivery; put a halt on the city of El Segundo’s quizzing job applicants about their sexual histories (Thorne v. City of El Segundo, 802 F.2d 1131 [9th Cir. 1986]); represented a client who was turned down for a job as a police officer after a six-hour lie detector exam that included questions about her sex life; and sued a dry cleaning establishment for discrimination because it charged more to launder women’s shirts than men’s. She also successfully sued on behalf of two lesbians who had been denied entrance to the “romance booth” at a Los Angeles restaurant (Rolon v. Kulwitsky, 153 Cal. App. 3d 289, 200 Cal. Rptr. 217 [Cal. App. 2 Dist. 1984]). The owner of the restaurant vowed to close the booth if Allred’s clients won. They did, and he made good on his promise.

Allred relishes confrontation, and her showy tactics have earned her both praise and criticism. Defending what many have called self-promoting publicity stunts, Allred says she is aware of the impression she makes, and contends that it is exactly the effect she wants.

…Asked whether she is an activist or a lawyer, Allred replied that she is an “activist lawyer.”

And she never met a camera she didn’t like.

The remarkable thing about this obviously staged “Bimbo Eruption” against Herman Cain, is that it’s not having the effect that whoever is pulling the strings wanted it to.  Gallup.com announced yesterday that:

Herman Cain now ties Mitt Romney as the leader for the GOP presidential nomination in USA Today/Gallup polling on Republican preferences conducted Nov. 2-6. Each receives 21% support from Republicans nationwide. Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry follow, with 12% and 11% support, respectively.

Additionally…

Fifty-three percent of Republicans are inclined to believe that the charges are not true, with most of these hedging their bets by saying the charges are “probably not true” rather than “definitely not true.” A little more than a third (35%) say the charges are probably or definitely true — again, with most of these in the probable rather than the definite category.

Republicans with an opinion are inclined to say Cain has done a good job (45%) rather than a bad job (36%) of handing the charges, although almost one in five don’t have an opinion.

About half of Republicans are following the news stories about the sexual harassment allegations against Cain very or somewhat closely. This level of attention is lower than the average attention all Americans have paid to news stories Gallup has tracked over the last several decades. The group following the news very or somewhat closely is about as likely to believe the charges against Cain are true as are all Republicans more broadly. At the same time, this group is slightly more likely to be critical of Cain’s response, with 47% saying Cain is doing a good job and 48% a bad job of responding.

Perhaps Americans are smarter than whoever’s behind this thought that we were.