* Finally, an Illinois angle on Herman Cain. From the Washington Times comes this contradictory report…

Herman Cain’s campaign is revealing suspicions about who is behind the story regarding the former unidentified employees who accused Mr. Cain of sexual harassment in the late 1990’s.

According to a source who is friends with the Cain campaign, not only is the Rick Perry campaign involved but also the Mayor of Chicago and former Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is likely involved with the sexual harassment accuser attacks. A friend of the Cain campaign believes a National Restaurant Association (NRA) employee out of the Chicago office leaked the story to the Perry campaign via information and influence from Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office.

So, Rick Perry and Rahmbo have teamed up to tube Cain? Really? Wouldn’t Emanuel want somebody with Cain’s baggage to win the Republican nomination? Apparently not if you’re the Cain campaign or the Washington Times.

* Mayor Emanuel’s office responded…

Chris Mather, a spokeswoman for Mr. Emanuel, writes in to offer the following comment on the Washington Times speculation: “This is absurd. It’s completely false and totally absurd.”

As did Emanuel himself…

“Baseless,” the mayor said.

* Even John Kass got in on the act…

Mather even offered to repeat it in several languages, but I believe her. A Cain blow-up doesn’t further Rahm’s agenda. Some Republican opposition research dropped this dime.

The odd thing is that the most stunning thing coming out of the mouth of Cain this week had nothing to do with women. It had to do with China.

“So yes, they’re a military threat,” he said during a recent PBS interview. “They’ve indicated that they’re trying to develop nuclear capability and they want to develop more aircraft carriers like we have. So yes, we have to consider them a military threat.”

Let that one sink in for a moment. Cain is running for president, the establishment lights him up like some cuddly Santa so he can be the conservative standard-bearer, and he thinks China might finally be going nuclear?

China has been a nuclear power for five decades or so now. And Cain doesn’t know?

* I’ve been chuckling to myself about Cain in recent weeks as the Republican candidate soared in every poll. It seemed to me that many Republican voters were making the very same mistake that elements of Illinois’ Republican establishment made here in 2004 when they brought Alan Keyes in to run against Barack Obama for US Senate.

A few weeks ago, Fran Eaton wrote that Cain was definitely not a repeat of Alan Keyes…

Herman Cain is the person many Illinois Republicans hoped Alan Keyes was in 2004 after Republican Jack Ryan felt compelled to leave the U.S. Senate race in the midst of marital issue revelations. It made sense to most involved at the time to remove the race issue against Obama and focus on philosophical differences, something many hoped a Keyes-Obama runoff would do.

The only thing was Alan Keyes is not Herman Cain.

That 2004 candidate Keyes was intense, angry, self-righteous and arrogant. He was more focused on making a point than winning an election. And we all paid a price when he lost. It ended up that that U.S. Senate race was historical and nation-changing, and the mention of that 2004 U.S. Senate race now sets gloom onto the faces of any Republican that was politically active at the time. Justified or not, our bad experience in Illinois with Alan Keyes is likely to cause many to shy away from embracing Herman Cain.

And while we’re not endorsing or promoting any GOP primary candidate at this time, we urge Illinois Republicans to rest assured Herman Cain is not Alan Keyes, and Illinoisans need not fear Herman Cain. Cain is experienced in business, used to working with differing ideas, self-assured, gracious and resilient.

He is not Alan Keyes.

I think that piece could be rewritten today to say Cain is more like Keyes than not. He’s spent a lot of time promoting his new book instead of putting together a real campaign, and it shows in his disjointed and often bizarre responses to this latest blowup. Keyes was more about promoting his personal brand than actually running for office. And Cain hasn’t been “intense, angry, self-righteous and arrogant” since this scandal broke?

Some folks just never learn.

*** UPDATE *** From comments…

The allegations against Cain are not a threat to his electoral chances, they are a threat to his future as a cable TV talk show host and his future book deals.

Cain isn’t running to be nominated, he’s following the Sarah Palin model of running to win celebrity status, which he can then use to make some real money.

I agree, but that model was pretty much invented by Alan Keyes. And Keyes really blew it by running for US Senate here and exposing his many weaknesses. People barely pay attention to him now. He’s washed up. I think Cain was probably trying to fill that void, and now he’s hurt himself, unless he somehow manages to win the nomination (and, considering GOP primary voters, he’s still not out of it).