I didn’t get to watch the video of the Gloria Allred press conference with the woman who claims that GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain had sexually assaulted her, so I can’t speak to whether I found the woman’s claims to be persuasive. It’s possible Cain’s a lecherous cretin. It’s possible that people are lying in hopes of getting some free publicity and possibly cash payments for telling their “story.”

What I do want to point out are these inconvenient facts:

First, a letter to the editor I got published in The New York Times back in 1998:

Are Feminists Right to Stand by Clinton?; Are Passes O.K. Now?
Published: March 25, 1998

To the Editor:

Gloria Steinem characterizes President Clinton's sexual assault of Kathleen E. Willey as a ''gross, dumb and reckless pass'' that is apparently all right to make until the woman has said ''no'' (Op-Ed, March 22).

I'm sure that men everywhere are glad to hear that although talking about pubic hairs on Coke cans is forbidden, groping a co-worker just once is not.

MATTHEW HOY

Aberdeen, Wash., March 22, 1998

Second, if you’ve hired Gloria Allred to be your lawyer, you’re not allowed to claim that you “really didn’t want to be here today.”

Finally, based upon the Clinton standard, if Herman Cain did in fact do all of these things that have been alleged, isn’t it OK? That’s what the media and feminist establishment (but I repeat myself) told us back in the ’90s when Clinton was alleged to have done all this and worse. Why has the media all of the sudden become so prudish?